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"LI  B  R.AR.Y 

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UN  IVLRSITY 
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LIVE  QUESTIONS 


BY 


JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


COMPRISING    HIS    PAPERS,  SPEECHES  AND  INTERVIEWS;    ALSO  HIS  MESSAGES 

TO    THE    LEGISLATURE    OF    ILLINOIS,    AND    A    STATEMENT    OF    THE 

FACTS  WHICH    INFLUENCED  HIS  COURSE  AS   GOVERNOR 

ON     SEVERAL    FAMOUS     OCCASIONS. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


1899. 

GEO.   S.   BOWEN   &  SON, 

PUBLISHER'S   AGENTS, 

UNITY  BUILDING, 

CHICAGO. 


COPYRIGHT  1899, 

BY 
JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


Composition  and  Kleetrotyping  Presswork  and  Rinding 

By  By 

Brown-Cooper  Typesetting:  Co.  Thomas  Knapp  Printing  &  Binding  Co. 
ChicaK«'-  Chicapt.. 


PREFACE. 


This  book  contains  my  productions,  both  as  an  individuat  and  as. 
Governor  of  Illinois,  and  it  gives  the  facts  determining  my  course 
as  Governor  in  several  important  matters  which  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  country. 

The  questions  discussed  in  this  volume  are  all  of  vital  interest  to 
humanity,  and  upon  the  proper  solution  of  some,  of  them  depends  the 
fate  of  the  republic.  While  some  of  these  papers  and  speeches  have 
been  published  in  one  way  or  another  it  is  believed  that  'by  putting 
them  in  a  more  enduring  form  I  can  assist  the  patriotic  student  and 
thus  render  a  service  to  my  country.  In  discussing  the  tariff,  the 
money  question  and  government  by  injunction  the  same  illustrations 
are  used  in  different  speeches,  which  would  be  objectionable  if  the 
book  were  a  treatise  to  be  read  consecutively,  but  I  have  concluded 
that  in  this  case  it  would  be  best  to  have  each  speech  as  nearly  com- 
plete as  possible.  Consequently  the  short  repetitions  have  been  al- 
lowed to  stand.  Justice  requires  me  to  state  that  in  the  original 
preparation  of  the  matter  in  this  book  I  have  been  greatly  assisted  by 
the  unerring  judgment  and  wise  criticism  of  Mrs.  Altgeld.  Through 
her  influence  some  of  the  articles  were  softened  in  tone  and  others 
were  changed  in  character. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 
Chicago,  January  27th,  1899. 


CONTENTS. 


NOUR  PENAL  MACHINERY  AND  ITS  VICTIMS. 

Arrests,  Number  in  Jails,  Etc 7 

Number  of  Men  Employed — Costs — Results 10 

Crime-Producing  Conditions   12 

Repeaters   17 

Lockups   18 

County  Jails -. 19 

Effects  of  Imprisonment,  Etc 21 

Treatment  in  Higher  Prisons — Cruelty  does  not  Correct 29 

Punishment — Reasons  For — Purpose 32 

Imprisoning  Women   35 

Indiscriminate  Fining 37 

Formality — Inequality  of  Sentences 39 

Remedy 44 

Indeterminate  Sentences   52 

Grand  Juries   62 

v  PRISON    LABOR. 

Prison  Labor . . . .  64 

Remedy 76 

Methods  of  Compensation,  Discipline,  Etc. — Result 78 

Unnecessary  Imprisonment 89 

What  Shall  we  do  with  our  Criminals  ? 99 


ADDRESSES,  MESSAGES,  LETTERS,  ETC. 

^Protection  of  Non-Combatants ;  or.  Arbitration  of  Strikes 1074- 

Pensions  for  Soldiers . .      1 16 


2  CONTENTS. 

Justice  to  the  Deaf  Soldier 129 

\/The  Administration  of  Justice  in  Chicago 131 

Abolition  of  Constables,  Justices  and  Fee  System 139 

Protecting  the  Ballot  Box — Australian  Plan '. 141 

Is  the  World  Worse? — Divorces — Moral  Training 143 

Slave  Girls  of  Chicago 145 

Anonymous  Journalism  and  Its  Effects 151 

The  Immigrants  Answer •. 160 

VThe  Eight  Hour  Movement 1 70 

x/Government  of  Cities 185 

Good  Roads 191 

Should  Judges  Use  Passes? 194 

Should  Judges  Wear  Gowns? 194 

vA  Protest  Against  Police  Brutality 196 

^Origin  of  Trusts 203 

Utilize  the  Lake  Front 205 

Volume  of  Money  in  the  United  States 207 

vThe  Silver  Question  and  the  Sherman  Law 213 

i/Necessity  of  Organization  among  Laborers 214 

Reply  to  Congressman  Hopkins 2'ig 

Protection  and  Pinkertonism 221 

-'Democrats  and  Education 222 

'Lutherans  and  Education — Personal  Liberty 224 

N/Speech  of  Acceptance,   1892 226 

Fourth  of  July  Address  at  La  Salle 230 

Speech  at  Soldiers'  Reunion 238 

Speech  to  Old  Settlers 242 

Elgin  Labor  Day  Speech 248 

Speech  at  Joliet,  Opening  the  Campaign 262 

Speech  at  Battery  D,  Chicago 289 

.Speech  at  Auditorium,  Chicago 299 

-/Inaugural  Address,  1893 308 

Remarks  .at  a  Banquet 319 

Address  at  the  Opening  of  the  Illinois  Building 321 

Speech  at  Unveiling  of  Soldiers'  Monument 324 

Address  to  Graduates  of  the  University  of  Illinois 328 

( iffice-Holders  Moral  Cowards 338 

.Address  to  the  Laboring  Men  of  Chicago 340 

Specimens  of  Newspaper  Comment  on  Labor  Day  Speech 347 

The  Debut  of  Illinois 349 

Address  at  Opening  of  Columbus  Club  House,  Chicago 351 

Address  to  Trustees  of  Charitable  Institutions 354 


CONTENTS.  3 

Speech  at  Unveiling  of  Statue  of  Gen.  Shields 360 

Reasons  for  Pardoning  Fielden,  Neebe  and  Schwab,  the  So-called 

Anarchists — June  26,  1893  365 

Statement  of  the  Case 365 

Was  the  Jury  Packed  ? 367 

Supreme  Court  on  Competency  of  Jurors 380 

Does  the  Proof  Show  Guilt  ? 383 

State's  Attorney  on  Neebe's  Innocence 397 

Prejudice  or  Subserviency  of  Judge 399 

Speech  at  Banquet  to  Director-General  Davis •. . .  400 

Address  at  Laying  of  Corner-Stone  of  Academy  of  Sciences 402 

i/How  I  Would  Spend  a  Million  Dollars  as  a  Philanthropist 404 

Exterior  of  World's  Fair 404 

^Interview  on  Anarchy  in  Illinois 405 

Secret  Prescriptive  Societies 407 

Why  Illinois  Gives  Thanks 408 

Jury  Trial  in  Police  Courts 409 

'.  Second  Address  to  Trustees 412 

Interview  on  Judge  Cooley 418 

Labor   Must   Organize 420 

The  Pullman  Correspondence 420 

••-  The  Pullman  Assessment 425 

v  Speech  at  Mattoon,  on  Political  Issues 428 

Speech  at  Aurora  Turner  Hall,  Chicago,  on  the  Political  Parties. .  444 

Address  to  the  National  Grange 450 

\.  The  Cause  of  Democratic  Defeat  in  November,  1894 454 

On  Change  of  Management  in  State  Institutions 457 

United  States  Supreme  Court  in  Debs  Case 459 

The  Medical  Practice  Act  of  Illinois 462 

;  On  Need  of  Great  State  University 463 

The  Supreme  Court  and  the  Income  Tax 464 

Letter  on  General  Grant •. 466 

Letter  to  Ela  on  Grover  Cleveland 467 

Silver  Convention  of  June,  1895 468 

Suggestions  for  New  Buildings 470 

Suggestions  to  Insert  in  Contracts  with  Contractors  or  Builders. .  471 

Comments  on  the  President's, Letter  on  Silver 471 

Unveiling  Statue  of  Illinois 473 

How  to  Make  a  Million 476 

Speech  at  Galesburg  to  the  American  Railway  Trainmen 476 

Chauncey  M.   Depew ; . .' 482 

>/  Installation  of  Dr.  Draper  as  President  of  the  University  of  Illinois  484 


4  CONTENTS. 

N/Letter  to  Governor  Stone  on  Position  of  Democratic  Party  on 

Money  Question 

Speech  at  Milwaukee,  in  August,  1895 488 

Speech  on  the  Battlefield  of  Chickamauga 49° 

Drift  of  the  Republican  Party 49^ 

Laying  the  Corner-Stone  of  the  New  Normal  University  at  Dc- 

kalb,  Illinois .' 497 

Care  of  Dependent  Children 5O1 

Lincoln  Park  Extension 5°3 

Instructions  Given  to  Coal  Mine  Inspectors 505 

What  Shall  We  Substitute  for  Competition? SDJ 

Achievements  of  the  New  South 511 

Letter  to  Mr.  Giles  on  the  Pardoning  of  McNulta  and  Chapman.   516 

Lack  of  Patriotism  among  Business  Interests 521 

A  Letter  to  the  Christian  Endeavorites 522 

The  Presidential  Bee S2S 

Objections  to  Nominating  a  Republican  at  Chicago  for  President  526 

Olney  for  President  527 

\fi\\  Fortune  of  the  Democratic  Party 528 

Spanish  Barbarities  in  Cuba 530 

Comments  on  Secretary  Carlisle's  Chicago  Speech 531 

)  Spurned  the  Endorsement  of  Gold  Standard  Men 536 

Gold  Democrats  and  the  Primary  Election 537 

Non-Partisan  Speech  on  Money  Question 541 

i  Interview  for  New  York  World 570 

•   Speech  at  Peoria  Democratic  State  Convention 577 

i  Speech  in  the  National  Democratic  Convention  at  Chicago,  1896.   585 

'   Speech  at  Girard,  Illinois,  Opening  the  Campaign 591 

Letter  to  William  S.  Forman,  East  St.  Louis 604 

Laying  of  the  Corner-Stone  of  the  New  Hospital  for  the  Insane, 

at  Rock  Island  608 

Answer  to  Schurz  and  Cochran 612 

/  Speech  at  Cooper  Union,  New  York 647 

The  Election  of  1896 691 

The  Mission  of  a  Minority  Party 693 

Retiring  Speech,  January  1 1,  1897 697 

Reception  Speech  at  Tremont  House 701 

Election  Frauds  of  1896 706 

The  Civil  Service  Law 722 

Speech  at  Brooklyn,  N.  Y 733 

The  New  York  City  Campaign 749 

Speech  at  Philadelphia 750 


CONTENTS.  5 

Problems  that  Confront  Us 774 

Restricting  Freedom  of  Speech  in  Colleges 775  «£ 

Memorial  Address  on  Henry  George 770 

Size  of  Conventions,  Letter  to  St.  Clair  McKelway 781 

Jefferson  and  Cleveland 783 

The  War  and  Expansion 799 

Speech  to  Illinois  Democratic  Convention  on  National  Issues. . . .  809 

Crimes  Against  the  State  and  Nation  Exposed 826 

Reply  to  Professor  Langhlin  on  the  Banking  Bill 851 

Omaha  Speech — The  Situation 870 

APPENDIX. 

Useless  Offices — Message  to  House  of  Representatives 8^3 

The  Courts  of  Chicago — Message  to  House  of  Representatives. .  894 

Veto  of  Bill  to  Enlarge  Asylums . . .  / 896 

General  Message  on  Assembly  of  Legislature,  1895 897 

Special  Message  on  Leasing  School  Property  of  Chicago 938 

\/Veto  of  the  Monopoly  Bills 940 

Veto  of  Bill  Declaring  Policy  of  the  State  as  to  Waterways 943 

Veto  of  Bill  Authorizing  Consolidation  of  Certain  Corporations.  .  945 

Veto  of  Bill  to  Stop  the  Making  of  Cigars  in  Penitentiary 943 

Proclamation  947 

.   Biennial  Message  to  Legislature 950 


OUR  PENAL  MACHINERY 
AND  ITS  VICTIMS. 


FIRST  PUBLISHED  IN  1884. 


PART  FIRST. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ARRESTS.— NUMBER  IN  JAILS.— NUMBER  IN  PENITENTIARIES.— 
DEPENDENTS  AFFECTED. 

According  to  the  report  of  the  superintendent  of  police  of  the  city 
of  Chicago  for  the  year  1882,  there  were  32,800  arrests  made  by  the 
police  of  this  city  during  that  year,  a  number  equal  to  about  five  per 
cent  of  the  population.*  This  does  not  include  the  arrests  made  by 
constables  and  other  State  officers,  nor  those  made  by  the  local  police 
in  the  adjoining  suburbs  of  Chicago ;  neither  does  it  include  the  arrests 
made  by  the  Federal  officers. 

Just  how  many  of  the  above  were  actually  incarcerated  in  prison  it 
is  difficult  to  estimate;  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  majority  were 
actually  locked  up,  even  though  some  of  them  were  bailed  out  soon 
after.  Supposing  that  fifty  per  cent  of  the  above,  which,  as  will  be 
seen,  is  nearly  right,  were  what  are  called  "repeaters" — that  is,  per- 
sons who  had  been  arrested  before — it  would  still  leave  the  number  of 
new  arrests,  that  is,  the  number  of  persons  arrested  for  the  first  time, 
at  16,400.  Then,  assuming  that  the  population  will  remain  the  same, 


*  The  number  of  arrests  by  the  police  of  Chicago  for  the  year  1884  was 
39)433.  of  whom  30,887  were  males,  and  8,547  were  females;  and  the  general 
condition  of  these  as  well  as  the  proportion  of  each  class,  as  it  regards  age, 
prior  arrests,  occupation,  etc.,  etc.,  was  substantially  the  same  as  that  of  those 
arrested  in  1882. 

7 


8  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

and  multiplying  this  number  by  33,  the  number  of  years  of  the  aver- 
age lifetime,  we  find  the  astounding  aggregate  of  541,200  persons 
arrested  during  each  generation  by  the  police  of  Chicago  alone. 

The  number  of  arrests  in  proportion  to  the  population  is  not 
greater  in  Chicago  than  in  the  other  large  cities  of  America;  in  fact, 
it  falls  far  below  that  of  some  cities.  It  is  true  that  many  of  the 
above  did  not  actually  live  in  Chicago,  and  it  is  also  true  that  the 
number  arrested  in  proportion  to  population  in  small  towns  and  in 
the  country  is  much  smaller  than  in  large  cities.  Now,  while  we  have 
no  means  of  ascertaining  the  exact  number  of  arrests  made  each  year 
throughout  the  entire  country,  still,  if  we  add  the  arrests  made  by  con- 
stables, sheriffs,  and  other  officials,  State  and  Federal,  it  will  be  found 
that  the  above  estimate  of  five  per  cent  will,  when  applied  to  the 
whole  country,  be  not  far  out  of  the  way.  Assuming,  then,  that  we 
have  in  the  United  States  50,000,000  population,  it  follows  that  there 
are  in  the  neighborhood  of  2,500,000  arrests  every  year  (some  writers 
estimate  the  number  much  higher);  and  assuming,  further,  that  forty 
per  cent  of  these  were  repeaters  (this  is  sufficiently  large  when  the 
whole  country  is  included,  for  outside  of  cities  their  number  is  much 
smaller),  it  will  still  leave  1,500,000  as  the  number  of  persons  arrested 
each  year  for  the  first  time.  That  is,  one  million  and  a  half  human 
beings  are  annually  broken  into  what  may  be  called  a  criminal  experi- 
ence. 

If  an  average  lifetime  is  thirty-three  years,  and  the  population 
should  not  increase,  there  will  be,  according  to  the  above,  in  each 
generation  about  49,500,000  different  human  beings  in  this  country 
arrested  and  subjected  to  a  criminal  experience. 

NUMBER  IN  JAILS. 

So  much  for  arrests.  It  is  impossible  to  tell  how  many  persons 
are  actually  incarcerated  in  the  police  prisons,  variously  called  station- 
houses,  calabooses,  etc.;  but  aside  from  these,  there  is  a  jail  in  nearly 
every  county  in  the  United  States,  making  in  all  about  2,140.  At 
the  time  of  taking  the  census  of  1880  there  were  actually  confined 
in  these  jails  12,815  prisoners.  The  average  length  of  confinement 
:n  iails  is  generally  from  thirty  to  forty  days;  so  that,  if  the  number 
?.tes  is  to  remain  the  same,  the  above  number  must  be  renewed 

.le  over  ten  times  every  year.  This  would  make  the  total  number 
of  committals  to  the  county  jails  in  that  year  128,150.  Allowing  for  in- 
crease of  population,  it  would  make  the  annual  number  now  (1883-4) 
160,150. 

If  from  the  above  forty  per  cent  be  deducted  for  repeaters,  we  shall 


ti  UMBER   IN  PRISONS.  g 

have  a  result  of  96,090,  representing  the  number  of  persons  that  are 
annually  put  into  jail  for  the  first  time. 

NUMBER  IN  PENITENTIARIES  OR  STATE-PRISONS. 

In  addition  to  the  above,  there  arc  in  the  United  States  upward 
of  fifty  state-prisons  and  work-houses,  generally  called  houses  of 
correction,  in  which  those  actually  convicted  are  confined,  and  in 
which  the  prisoners  are  required  to  work,  as  the  convict-labor  system 
has  been  introduced  into  and  now  prevails  in  all  the  state-prisons 
and  houses  of  correction  in  the  United  States,  except  in  Delaware. 
In  the  last  state-prisoners  do  not  work. 

It  should  be  explained  that  the  so-called  houses  of  correction,  or 
bridewells,  are,  in  fact,  miniature  penitentiaries;  the  chief  difference 
being  that  to  the  former  are  committed  those  that  are  convicted  of  the 
minor  offenses  and  sentenced  for  a  short  term,  as  well  as  those  that 
are  unable  to  pay  a  fine  imposed  by  some  police  magistrate.  These 
houses  are  generally  situated  near  large  cities,  and  frequently  draw 
inmates  from  no  other  source. 

According  to  the  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  of  Illi- 
nois, made  to  the  legislature  of  that  State,  about  50,000  convicts  were 
confined  in  1880  in  the  various  penitentiaries  and  houses  of  correction 
in  the  United  States  in  which  prison  labor  was  performed.  The  aver- 
age length  of  confinement  in  the  penitentiaries  varies  greatly  from 
time  to  time,  but  is  generally  from  two  and  one-half  to  nearly  four 
years,  while  in  the  houses  of  correction  it  is  generally  from  thirty  to 
forty  days.  As  we  do  not  know  the  precise  average  length  of  con- 
finement in  state-prisons,  we  cannot  tell  exactly  how  many  enter  these 
institutions  every  year  for  the  first  time. 

Allowance  must  here  also  be  made  for  repeaters,  who  in  some 
state-prisons  make  up  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  inmates.  But,  after 
making  all  allowance,  it  is  apparent  that  the  number  of  men — and  a 
great  majority  are  young  men — annually  added  to  the  miserable 
throng  is  very  large;  and  if  we  multiply  this  number  by  the  number 
of  years  constituting  the  average  lifetime,  we  can  form  some  idea  of 
the  number  of  victims  which  each  generation  contributes  to  this  altar. 

DEPENDENTS  AFFECTED. 

Pursuing  the  subject  a  little  farther,  we  find  we  have  only  touched 
a  small  part  of  it.  I  will  not  here  discuss  the  moral  effect  of  arrest, 
imprisonment,  etc.,  on  the  prisoner  himself,  but  simply  on  those 
standing  in  close  relationship  to  him,  as  father,  mother,  sister,  brother, 
child,  etc.  The  disgrace,  the  odium,  the  pain,  reach  out  remorselessly 


10  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

to  them,  and  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  they  suffer  on  account  of 
his  fate.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  are,  on  an  average,  at  least  five 
persons  that  stand  in  this  relation  to  every  man  who  is  wearing 
striped  clothing  and  responding  to  a  number  in  a  state-prison — to 
every  one  that  is  breathing  the  corroding  air  of  the  county  jail,  as  well 
as  to  him  who,  for  the  first  time,  feels  the  ignominy  of  having  rough 
hands  laid  on  him  and  of  being  deprived  of  his  liberty. 

Multiply,  now,  the  foregoing  numbers  by  five,  and  then  behold 
the  multitude  who  are  directly  affected — who  feel  the  shock,  the 
quiver  of  every  blow  that  is  struck  by  our  penal  machinery. 

Consider  for  a  moment  that  for  the  50,000  beings  confined  in  the 
penitentiaries  there  are  at  least  250,000  others  that,  are  suffering. 
Leave  out  the  repeaters,  if  you  like,  as  being  past  the  pale  of  sympathy; 
take  the  annual  96,090  new  cases  of  imprisonment  in  the  county  jails, 
and  reflect  that  there  are  480,450  others  that  are  feeling  the  blow. 
Then  take  the  1,500,000  persons  arrested  each  year  for  the  first  time, 
and  remember  that  there  are  annually  7,500,000  different  human  be- 
ings, and  these  of  the  poorer  and  weaker  classes,  who  are  shoved 
downward  instead  of  being  helped  by  our  penal  machinery. 


CHAPTER  II. 
NUMBER  OF  MEN  EMPLOYED.— COST.— RESULTS. 

Again,  look  at  the  number  of  men  employed  by  this  system. 
There  are  the  thousands  of  regular  policemen  in  our  cities,  the  thous- 
ands of  special  policemen,  the  thousands  of  so-called  detectives,  both 
public  and  private.  Then  there  are  in  the  neighborhood  of  50,000 
constables  in  this  country,  and  about  as  many  magistrates.  Then 
there  are  nearly  2,200  sheriffs,  and  perhaps  10,000  deputy-sheriffs. 
Then  come  grand  juries — for  most  of  the  States  still  retain  this  system 
— meeting  on  an  average  three  times  a  year,  and  composed,  usually, 
of  eighteen  men  each ;  then  the  petit  juries  for  about  2,200  counties, 
meeting  as  often  as  the  grand  juries,  and,  including  talesmen,  composed 
of  about  the  same  number  of  men;  then,  lawyers  for  the  State;  next, 
judges  for  the  trial  and  appellate  courts,  clerks  for  these  courts,  keepers 
for  police-stations,  keepers  for  about  2,200  jails,  keepers  for  all  the 
penitentiaries,  to  say  nothing  about  witne?ses  for  the  State  and  de- 
fense. In  all  these  you  behold  a  vast  multitude  of  men,  numbering 
nearly  a  million,  all  forming  a  part  of  this  machinery,  many  giving 
it  all  their  time,  some  getting  salaries,  and  others  relying  on  the  fees 


a* 

MEN  EMPLOYED.— COST.— RESULTS.  il 

they  can  collect  from  those  arrested — actually  getting  their  living,  or. 
trying  to  get  it,  out  of  the  shortcomings  and  the  transgressions  of  their 
fellow-men. 

So  much  for  a  glance  at  the  size  of  this  machinery. 

COST. 

Turning  for  a  moment  from  the  size  to  the  "cost  of  the  thing," 
we  find  that  the  sums  expended  are  more  than  any  man  can  count. 
It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  amount  now  actually  invested  in  prison 
buildings  and  equipments  throughout  the  land.  There  are  nearly 
fifty  large  penitentiaries  supplied  with  workshops,  machinery,  etc. 
Then  there  are  nearly  2,200  jails,  besides  numerous  police  prisons. 
Perhaps  $400,000,000  would  be  a  low  estimate  of  the  cost  of  all  these 
improvements.  This  is  all  dead  capital.  Nobody  thinks  of  getting 
any  return  on  it — even  in  those  prisons  that  are  said  to  be  self-support- 
ing, nobody  thinks  of  paying  interest  on  the  investment.  Placed  at 
five  per  cent  the  interest  on  this  sum  alone  would  be  $20,000,000  per 
annum. 

The  above  sinks  into  insignificance  when  compared  with  the  yearly 
expenses.  While  a  few  of  the  penitentiaries  have,  for  short  intervals, 
been  "self-supporting,"  the  most  of  them  must  apply  annually  to  the 
legislature  for  large  appropriations.  Then  the  expense  of  keeping 
up  the  jails,  the  smaller  prisons,  and  the  police  force  may  be  called 
a  dead  loss. 

In  1880  the  average  cost  in  Illinois  of  every  prisoner  in  jail,  includ- 
ing expense  of  arrest,  etc.,  was  about  $27.  Assuming  this  to  be  a  fair 
average,  it  would  make,  on  the  present  basis  of  population,  a  total 
yearly  expense  of  $4,087,800  for  jail  prisoners. 

For  the  year  1882  the  expense  of  the  police  department  of  Chicago 
was  a  little  over  $800,000,  making  an  average  of  about  $24  for  each 
of  the  32,800  arrests.  As  the  police  department  of  Chicago  is  run  as 
economically  and  the  force  is  as  effective  and  well-managed  as  any  in 
the  land,  this  is  a  low  average,  and  yet  if  this  sum  were  multipied  by 
the  total  arrests  throughout  the  land,  it  would  make  $36,000,000  as 
the  amount  paid  annually  by  the  government  simply  for  arrests;  and  to 
this  amount  most  of  the  jail  expenses — the  costs  of  prosecution  and 
of  confinement  in  the  larger  prisons — must  yet  be  added. 

These  sums  are  large;  and  yet  they  represent  only  a  part  of  the 
expense.  They  approximate  only  the  amounts  paid  directly  in  the 
shape  of  taxes;  they  do  not  include  the  large  sums  paid  as  costs  by 
those  convicted,  nor  do  they  include  the  large  sums  expended  in 
various  other  ways  in  connection  with  our  criminal  procedure. 


12  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

RESULTS. 

Such  is  the  size  and  the  cost  which  a  mere  glance  at  our  penal 
machinery  reveals.  It  is  immense,  it  is  costly,  and  its  victims  are 
counted  by  millions.  Surely  one  would  suppose  that  in  this  country 
crime  were  repressed,  that  life  and  property  were  protected;  and  as 
the  terrors  of  the  law  are  scattered  so  profusely  in  the  shape  of 
numerous  arrests,  one  would  suppose  that  the  hardened  criminal  were 
perfectly  restrained,  and  the  young  deterred  from  the  paths  of  crime. 

But,  strange  to  say,  quite  the  opposite  seems  to  be  the  case.  The 
young  are  not  deterred,  nor  are  the  vicious  repressed.  Revolting 
crimes  are  of  most  frequent  occurrence  in  all  parts  of  the  land,  and  the 
feeling  is  spreading  that  from  some  cause  our  penal  system  does  not 
protect  society.  In  short,  it  does  not  seem  to  be  a  success. 

It  does  not  deter  the  young  offender,  and  it  seems  not  to  reform 
nor  to  restrain  the  old  offender. 

This  being  so,  one  is  naturally  led  to  ask  whether  there  is  not 
something  wrong  with  the  system ;  whether  it  is  not  based  on  a  mis- 
taken principle;  whether  it  is  not  a  great  mill  which,  in  one  way  or 
another,  supplies  its  own  grist,  a  maelstrom  which  draws  from  the 
outside,  and  then  keeps  its  victims  moving  in  a  circle  until  swallowed 
in  the  vortex. 

For  it  seems,  first,  to  make  criminals  out  of  many  that  are  uat 
naturally  so;  and,  second,  to  render  it  difficult  for  those  once  convicted 
ever  to  be  anything  else  than  criminals;  and,  third,  to  fail  to  repress 
those  that  do  not  want  to  be  anything  but  criminals. 


CHAPTER  III. 
CRIME-PRODUCING  CONDITIONS. 

WHO  ARE  THOSE  ARRESTED.— OCCUPATIONS  OF  MALES.— 
OCCUPATIONS  OF  FEMALES.— AGE.— PARENTAGE.— HOME 
INFLUENCES.— SCHOOL  PRIVILEGES.— HABITS,  ETC. 

Let  us  first  see  whence  comes  this  multitude — from  what  strata 
of  society  is  it  drawn?  Is  it  composed  of  the  strong,  the  well- 
raised,  well-trained,  well-housed,  and  well-fed  class,  and  must  it  there- 
fore be  regarded  as  willfully  criminal?  or  is  it  largely  made  up  of  the 
poor,  the  unfortunate,  the  squalid,  and  those  that  are  the  victims  of 
their  environment?  We  need  not  go  far  for  an  answer.  Taking  the 
report  of  the  superintendent  of  the  house  of  correction  (bridewell) 
of  Chicago,  we  find  that  of  7,566  persons  imprisoned  in  that  institution 


CRIME-PRODUCING  CONDITIONS.  13 

during  the  year  1882,  all  but  190  were  incarcerated  for  non-payment 
of  fines.  That  is,  7,376  had  been  fined  for  some  small  offense,  and, 
being  unable  to  pay  the  fine,  had  been  sent  to  the  house  of  correction 
to  work  it  out.  This  shows  that  nearly  all  those  there  confined  were 
of  the  very  poor  classes. 

OCCUPATIONS  OF  MALES. 

Glancing  at  the  reports  of  their  occupations,  we  find  that  306  re- 
ported no  occupations,  1,460  claimed  to  be  common  laborers,  214 
sailors,  327  teamsters,  190  hostlers,  167  railroad  employes,  96  waiters, 
99  printers,  64  peddlers,  176  painters  and  glaziers,  in  shoemakers, 
99  puddlers,  no  cooks,  77  firemen,  109  packers,  64  machinists,  80 
apprentices,  87  barbers,  61  blacksmiths,  150  carpenters,  149  butchers, 
43  chair-makers,  44  cigarmakers,  157  clerks,  48  bricklayers,  36  bar- 
tenders, 65  bootblacks,  23  boilermakers,  59  farmhands,  82  molders. 

OCCUPATIONS  OF  FEMALES. 

Of  the  1,809  females  committed  to  the  same  institution  during  the 
year  mentioned,  359  were  reported  prostitutes,  871  servants,  121  wash- 
women, 52  seamstresses,  26  scrubbers,  99  cooks,  24  dressmakers,  114 
laundresses,  etc.,  showing  that  the  women  likewise  were  of  the  poorer 
classes,  almost  one-half  being  servants. 

AGE. 

Looking  at  their  ages,  we  find  they  ran  as  follows:  Eight  years 
old,  i ;  nine  years  old,  5;  ten  years,  14;  eleven  years,  25;  twelve  years, 
47;  thirteen  years,  68;  fourteen  years,  103;  fifteen  years,  95;  sixteen 
years,  150;  seventeen  years,  185;  eighteen  years,  285;  nineteen  years, 
231;  twenty  years,  234;  twenty-one  years,  310;  twenty-two  to  twenty- 
five  years,  1,184;  twenty-six  to  thirty  years,  1,343;  thirty-one  to 
thirty-five  years,  960;  thirty-six  to  forty  years,  978;  forty-one  to  fifty 
years,  921;  fifty-one  to  sixty  years,  358;  sixty-one  to  seventy  years, 
74;  seventy-one  to  eighty  years,  16;  eighty-one  to  ninety  years,  9. 
Showing  that  508  were  under  sixteen  years  of  age;  1,413  were  under 
twenty-one;  2,907  were  under  twenty-six;  and  4,241  were  under  thirty 

years  of  age. 

PARENTAGE. 

Again,  it  appears  from  the  same  report  that  of  the  7.566  incar- 
cerated during  said  year,  3,460,  or  almost  half,  had  no  parents  living; 
1,105  had  only  mother  living;  529  had  only  father  living — making 
5,094,  or  five-sevenths  of  all,  whose  home  conditions  were  bad,  while 
almost  half  of  the  whole  number  committed  had  no  home  at  all. 


14  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

The  same  conditions  are  found  in  the  larger  prisons,  as  will  be 
seen  by  examining  the  following  table  prepared  by  Fred.  L.  Thompson, 
chaplain  of  the  Southern  Illinois  Penitentiary  at  Chester.  It  throws  a 
flood  of  light  on  this  subject. 

TABLE  SHOWING  PRIME  CAUSES  OF  CRIME,  ON  A  BASIS   OF 
FIVE  HUNDRED  MEN. 

HOME   INFLUENCES. 

Lost  father  at  5  years  and  under 65 

10  '     over  5 20 

15  '    over  10 7 

Lost  mother  at  5  years  and  under 42 

"         10        "         "     over  5 29 

"         15         "         "     over  10 28 

Lost  both  parents  at  5  years  and  under 24 

10        "        "    over  5 28 

Never   knew  a   home 38 

Left  home  at  10  years  and  under 49 

15      "        "    over  10 167 

18      "        "        "     15 165 

20  "        "        "•    18 47 

21  "        "      upward 34 

Without  home  influence  at  18  years  and  under 419 

SCHOOL     PRIVILEGES. 

Never  went  to  school 218 

Went  to  school  2  years  and  less 104 

"      5      "      "     over  2 99 

"10      "      "       "       5 79 

Illiterate 153 

Read  and  write  very  imperfectly 189 

Read  and  write  with  higher  attainments 188 

Learned  to  read  and  write  in  prison 32 

HABITS. 

Frequented  saloons   406 

Drunken  habits 121 

Drunk  at  time  crime  was  committed 115 

Gambled   246 

Carried  concealed  weapons 208 

AGE    AT    FIRST    PENITENTIARY    CRIME. 

20  years  and  under 150 

25         over  20 140 

30   "   "    "  25 90 

40  '  30 -o 

SO  '  40 24 

60  '  50 21 

70   "   "    "  60 5 


CRIME-PRODUCING   CONDITIONS.  ig 

In  his  report  accompanying  this  table  Mr.  Thompson  says:  ''I 
have  read  every  available  thing  on  crime,  its  cause  and  cure;  on 
prisons,  their  discipline,  etc.  I  have  talked  freely  with  the  convicts 
as  to  their  early  lives,  their  home  influences,  their  early  opportunities, 
and  their  habits;  and  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  are 
two  prime  causes  of  crime — the  want  of  proper  home  influence  in 
childhood,  and  the  lack  of  thorough,  well-disciplined  education  in 
early  life.  Of  the  first,  there  are  at  least  five  classes:  Those  who 
never  knew  a  home;  those  who  lost  parents,  one  or  both,  while  young; 
those  who  had  vicious  homes;  those  who  ran  away  from  home  in  the 
formative  period  of  life;  and  those  who  were  over  indulged  in  their 
homes.  Of  the  second  there  are  those  who  never  went  to  school; 
those  who  went  but  very  little;  and  those  who  played  truant,  or  were 
idle  and  refractory  in  school.  The  lack  of  this  early  influence  and 
training  at  home,  and  of  this  discipline  and  learning  at  school,  has  left 
the  individuals  morally  and  mentally  weak,  the  easy  subjects  of  bad 
habits,  vicious  appetites,  and  designing  men. 

"These  drift  into  the  tide  of  bad  associations,  trashy  and  then 
vicious  reading,  to  places  of  carnal  amusements,  to  saloons,  gaming- 
houses, houses  of  ill-fame,  to  the  society  of  the  vulgar  and  criminal, 
to  the  committing  of  crimes — small  at  first,  but  bolder  at  last — and  then 
into  the  penitentiary.  The  current  of  this  stream  is  as  traceable,  and 
its  sweep  as  powerful  and  merciless,  as  the  channel  of  the  Mississippi 
River.  As  the  latter,  unmolested,  sweeps  its  drift  into  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  so  certainly  the  former  sweeps  its  drift  into  the  penitentiary 
or  some  other  form  of  penal  service,  unless  the  strong  arm  of  society 
is  in  some  way  put  forth  to  the  rescue.  That  you  and  others  may 
see  and  feel  this  as  I  do,  I  have  visited  five  hundred  prisoners,  taken 
in  succession,  and  put  to  them  uniform  questions,  the  answers  to 
which  I  have  carefully  noted,  tabulated,  and  present  with  this  report. 
When  you  have  studied  this  table,  I  am  certain  you  will  be  convinced 
of  the  position  I  have  taken  as  to  the  prime  causes  of  crime.  No 
one  has  a  better  opportunity  to  see  the  discipline  of  the  prison,  and 
study  its  effects  upon  the  convicts,  than  the  chaplain." 

Looking  a  moment  at  Mr.  Thompson's  table,  we  see  that  of  the 
500  convicts  examined,  419,  or  upward  of  four-fifths,  were  without 
home  influence  when  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  and  under.  This 
shows  where  the  multitude  comes  from. 

It  also  appears  that  of  the  same  500,  218  never  had  attended  school; 
and  that  only  188,  or  less  than  two-fifths,  had  what  is  usually  called 
a  good,  fair  education.  It  also  appears  that  more  than  half  were 
under  twenty-six  years  of  age. 


1 6  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

This  showing  is'not  exceptional  to  that  penitentiary;  on  the  con- 
trary, these  conditions  are  substantially  the  same  in  all  the  large 
prisons  in  the  country.  I  have  examined  the  reports  of  nearly  all 
the  large  prisons  in  the  United  States,  and  find  a  remarkable  similarity 
in  them  all,  in  so  far  as  they  treat  of  the  question  here  under  con- 
sideration. 

The  truth  is,  that  the  great  multitudes  annually  arrested  for  the 
first  time  are  of  the  poor,  the  unfortunate,  the  young  and  neglected; 
of  those  that  are  weak  and,  to  a  great  extent,  are  the  victims  of 
unfavorable  environments.  In  short,  our  penal  machinery  seems  to 
recruit  its  victims  from  among  those  that  are  fighting  an  unequal 
fight  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 

The  subject  of  crime-producing  conditions  has  received  but  little 
attention  in  the  past,  and  is  only  now  beginning  to  be  discussed. 
It  has  always  been  assumed,  in  our  treatment  of  offenders,  that  all 
had  the  strength,  regardless  of  prior  training  and  surroundings,  to 
go  out  into  the  world  and  do  absolutely  right  if  they  wished,  and  that 
if  any  one  did  wrong  it  was  because  he  chose  to  depart  from  good 
and  to  do  evil.  Only  recently  have  we  begun  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  every  man  is  to  a  great  extent  what  his  heredity  and  his  early 
environment  have  made  him,  and  that  the  law  of  cause  and  effect 
applies  here  as  well  as  in  nature. 

CANNOT  SAY  "NO." 

Nor  have  we  thus  far  sufficiently  considered  the  fact  that  a  large 
proportion  of  the  human  family  cannot  say  "no"  at  all  times  when  they 
should.  How  common  it  is  for  people  of  education  and  character  to 
do  things  which  they  know  at  the  time  to  be  injurious.  Yet  an 
influence  which  somehow  they  cannot  resist  impels  them,  and  they  act, 
as  it  were,  under  protest — often  doing  things  which  at  the  very  time 
fill  them  with  dread. 

This  is  true  of  many  that  have  had  excellent  training,  while  among 
the  less  fortunate  there  are  multitudes,  with  fair  intelligence  and  in- 
dustry, who  want  to  do  right,  but  who  suddenly  find  themselves 
within  the  power  of  an  evil  influence,  exerted  by  pretended  friends, 
which  they  dread — which  drags  them  down,  often  leads  them,  against 
their  will,  into  crime,  and  from  which,  unaided,  they  cannot  free 
themselves.  They  are  morally  weak,  not  naturally  bad.  They  are 
tools,  not  masters — mere  instruments,  not  principals,  and,  so  far  as  it 
concerns  moral  responsibility,  might  as  well  be  inanimate  and  un- 
conscious. Yet  we  treat  them  as  if  thev  were  masters. 


REPEATERS.  17 

CHAPTER  IV. 
REPEATERS. 

In  the  Milwaukee  house  of  correction  there  were  committed, 
during  the  year  ending  December  31,  1881,  1,420  prisoners;  of  these 
58.52  per  cent,  were  committed  for  the  first  time,  while  41.48  per  cent., 
or  less  than  half,  had  been  imprisoned  before. 

During  the  year  1882  there  were  committed  in  the  Chicago  house 
of  correction,  or  bridewell,  7,566  prisoners;  of  these,  3.923,  or  a  little 
over  half,  admitted  that  they  had  been  imprisoned  before. 

These  two  institutions  may  be  taken  as  showing  the  average  of 
re-committals  in  similar  institutions  throughout  the  country,  which 
may  be  set  clown  as  50  per  cent.;  that  is,  one-half  of  all  imprisoned 
admit  that  they  have  been  in  prison  before. 

But  it  must  be  remembered  that  all  those  imprisoned  because  of 
inability  to  pay  a  fine  imposed  by  some  police  magistrate,  as  well  as 
those  convicted  of  the  smaller  offenses  only,  are  sent  to  these  insti- 
tutions; hence  the  average  of  re-committals  is  much  higher  than  in 
the  other  prisons. 

For  example,  in  the  Illinois  penitentiary  at  Joliet,  there  were 
committed,  during  the  year  ending  September  30,  1882,  747  convicts. 
Of  these,  121,  or  16.20  per  cent.,  admitted  that  they  had  been  im- 
prisoned in  the  penitentiary  before.  In  some  years  the  average  is 
higher.  It  varies  a  little  in  all  the  penitentiaries,  but  in  many  it  is 
25  per  cent. ;  and  if  we  include  the  Southern  States,  where  negroes 
are  frequently  re-committed  for  rather  trivial  offenses,  it  will  average 
30  per  cent.  No  doubt  a  great  many  are  re-committed  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  prison  officers,  and  consequently  the  number  of 
re-committals  really  exceeds  the  above  estimate. 

Of  the  121  mentioned  above,  88  were  committed  for  a  second  term, 
29  for  a  third,  5  for  a  fourth,  3  for  a  fifth,  and  I  for  a  sixth. 

No  doubt  the  average  given  above  of  50  per  cent,  in  houses  of 
correction,  and  30  per  cent,  for  penitentiaries,  would  be  much  higher 
still,  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  the  average  lifetime  of  the  chronic 
criminal  is  short;  exposure  and  misery  carry  him  to  an  early  grave. 
But  this  average  is  much  higher  than  it  should  be.  The  idea  that 
one-half  of  the  several  millions  annually  arrested  must  go  on  and 
become  chronic  criminals  has  about  it  something  appalling.  And 
when  we  consider  that  it  is  from  this  throng  that  the  majority  of  the 
desperate  and  vicious  criminals  come,  the  question  again  suggests  itself 


i8  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

whether  there  is  not  something  the  matter  with  the  system;  whether 
the  system  is  not  responsible  for  a  part  of  this  result;  whether,  in  fact, 
the  system  we  now  have,  instead  of  being  reformatory  and  preventive, 
is  not,  in  reality,  debasing  and  productive. 

Having  taken  a  general  survey  of  its  size,  cost,  and  results,  and 
having  seen  who  are  its  victims,  let  us  consider  its  operations  a  little 
further,  especially  so  far  as  the  effect  on  the  young,  on  the  innocent, 
and  on  the  first  offenders  is  concerned.  And  for  this  purpose  it  is 
important  that  we  have  at  least  some  general  ideas  as  to  the  character 
of  the  average  police  prisons  or  lockups. 


CHAPTER  V. 
LOCK-UPS. 

Of  these  Wines,  in  his  great  work  on  prisons,  says:  "There  is 
another  class  of  prisons,  little  known  or  thought  of,  but  very  numer- 
ous and  often  extremely  crowded,  namely,  the  city  prison — station- 
houses,  or  lock-ups,  as  they  are  variously  called.  They  almost  need  a 
John  Howard  for  their  sole  reformation.  *  *  *  It  would  seem, 
at  first  thought,  to  be  a  matter  of  slight  importance  where  arrested 
persons  are  put  for  a  single  night  or  day,  or  how  treated,  or  under 
what  circumstances  of  discomfort  kept.  It  is  urged,  'Make  the  place 
intolerable  and  they  will  keep  out  of  it!'  If  they  would,  the  case 
would  be  different,  and  there  would  be  less  to  say.  If  crime  were 
more  effectually  prevented  by  cruel  treatment  of  the  criminal,  that 
would  be  some  excuse  for  it.  But  all  experience  proves  the  con- 
trary. Brutal  treatment  brutalizes  the  wrong-doer  and  prepares  him 
for  worse  offenses.  *  *  *  In  studying  what  character  to  give  to 
a  lock-up,  we  must  consider  that  among  the  occupants  there  will 
always  be  a  number  who  are  there  for  the  first  time  and  the  first 
offense.  They  have  be.en  caught  in  bad  company,  or  been  guilty  of 
some  disorder,  or  found  sleeping  out-of-doors,  having  no  in-doors 
where  to  sleep;  or  accused  by  the  blunder  of  a  policeman,  or  held  on 
groundless  suspicion. 

"Just  at  that  point  not  a  few  of  these  take  their  first  step  in  a 
downward  course.  Probably  not  less  than  ten  per  cent,  of  all  confined 
nightly  in  this  class  of  prisons  are  there  for  the  first  and  trifling  offense, 
or  for  no  punishable  offense  at  all ;  and  the  aggregate  number  every 
night  shut  up  in  them,  throughout  the  entire  country,  can  hardly  be 
less  than  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand.  Think  of  it!  Not  less  than 


LOCK-UPS.  19 

a  thousand  every  night  in  the  year  locked  up  for  the  first  time  for  a 
small  offense  or  for  no  offense.  Not  a  few  of  them  children — boys 
and  girls  under  fifteen  years  of  age,  whose  chief  fault  is  that  they  have 
never  known  a  parent's  love,  never  enjoyed  the  blessings  of  a  home, 
never  felt  the  warm  presence  of  Christian  care  and  kindness.  Truly, 
human  justice  is  a  clumsy  machine,  and  often  deserves  the  punishment 
which  it  inflicts." 

Dr.  Eliot,  of  St.  Louis,  contributed,  in  1876,  a  paper  to  the  New 
York  prison  congress,  in  which  he  describes  one  of  these  lock-ups 
in  St.  Louis,  in  which  each  cell  is  twelve  feet  long  by  eight  feet  wide 
and  ten  feet  high,  with  no  windows  and  no  ventilation,  all  the  light 
and  air  being  admitted  through  grated  doors  opening  into  a  passage. 
The  usual  nightly  average  of  occupants  to  each  cell  is  four  or  five,  on 
Sunday  nights  often  going  up  to  eight  or  ten.  Dr.  Eliot  says: 

"What  school-houses  of  crime  are  these!  The  city's  public  schools 
of  vice  and  profligacy,  open  for  men,  women  and  children,  every  day 
in  the  year,  with  a  doubly  accumulated  crowd  for  the  Lord's  day! 
Go  through  the  lock-ups  of  any  large  city  on  Sunday  night,  and  you 
will  see  where  no  small  part  of  the  primary  instruction  in  crime — 
yes,  and  advanced  instruction,  too — is  given,  and  who  the  learners 
are." 

I  cannot  add  anything  to  the  above,  and  if  anyone  doubts  the 
correctness  of  the  picture,  I  simply  say  to  him:  Go  and  see  for  your- 
self, and  be  convinced;  and  bear  in  mind  that  the  above  condition 
is  not  an  exception,  for  these  stations,  or  lock-ups,  are  very  much 
alike  all  over  the  country.  (See  Jails  and  Remedy.) 


CHAPTER  VI. 
COUNTY  JAILS. 

Mr.  Charles  E.  Felton,  the  superintendent  of  the  Chicago  house 
of  correction,  who  has  had  a  wide  experience  in  prison  management, 
has  written  the  following  concerning  county  jails: 

"If  there  is  a  school  for  teaching  vice  and  crime,  it  is  the  ordinary 
county  jails,  in  which  prisoners  are  herded  in  cells,  and  are  allowed  to 
congregate  in  the  halls,  without  the  least  discrimination  being  made 
as  to  cause  of  detention,  habits  of  life,  physical  condition,  or  previous 
moral  character.  This  fact  as  to  jails  comes  from  what  would  be 
called  heredity  if  applied  to  the  peculiarities  in  human  character; 
but  as  touching  jail  construction  and  management,  it  would  be  as  a 


20  'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

resultant  of  common  habit.  From  the  earliest  days  down  to  the 
present  time,  jails  have  been  constructed  without  a  seeming  thought 
being  given  to  any  other  end  than  that  of  safety  from  escape  of  their 
inmates;  and  in  their  management,  with  few  exceptions,  there  seems 
to  have  been  but  one  additional  thought,  and  that  was,  'How  can  the 
most  money  be  made  through  the  care  of  their  inmates?'  Now  that 
is  about  the  status  of  the  jail  question  to-day.  That  our  jails  are 
nurseries  of  vice  and  crime  is  a  recognized  fact — one  which  jail  officfals 
seldom,  if  ever,  deny;  and  in  writing  thus  of  them,  it  is  not  the  inten- 
tion to  point  toward  any  one  in  particular  of  the  more  than  twenty-five 
hundred  in  this  country;  nor  to  exclude  but  few  as  being  different  from 
the  others." 

That  eminent  authority  upon  prison  and  reformatory  work,  Rev. 
Fred.  II.  Wines,  lately  said  of  the  jail  system: 

"It  is  a  system  of  the  association  of  the  clean  with  the  unclean; 
of  the  old  and  the  young;  of  the  innocent  and  the  guilty;  and,  in  some 
jails,  of  men  and  women,  because  men  and  women  are  not  separated 
in  some  jails.  In  a  jail  in  this  State,  I  have  known  men  and  women 
to  have  the  liberty  of  the  entire  jail,  without  any  interference  on  the  part 
of  the  jailers.  I  suppose  they  were  locked  up  at  night,  but  they  were 
together  all  the  day.  Th'en,  again,  the  jail  is  a  place  of  absolute  idle- 
ness. No  work  is  provided  for  the  inmates.  In  the  third  place,  it  is 
a  system  in  which  the  State  ignores  its  own  responsibility,  and  throws 
the  men  for  whom  it  is  responsible  into  the  hands  of  incompetent 
county  boards.  If  there  is  an  iniquity  in  this  land  to-day,  it  is  the 
county  jail  system.  I  do  not  know  of  any  greater  iniquity  perpetrated 
to-day  in  the  world  than  the  jail  system  of  the  United  States.  It 
originated  in  the  primitive  days  of  society;  and  there  is  no  reason  for 
its  continuance,  except  that  the  people  have  not  awakened  to  its 
enormity.  There  is  no  reason  for  it  in  law,  morals,  or  public  policy; 
there  is  no  reason  for  it  unless,  as  I  have  heard  suggested,  it  is  kept 
up,  as  it  is  in  some  cases,  I  suppose,  by  the  sheriffs,  who  receive  fees 
for  looking  after  the  prisoners,  and  get  an  allowance  for  dieting  them, 
and  they  are  not  willing  to  give  up  their  perquisites." 

So  much  for  their  character.     As  to  the  remedy; 

The  most  experienced  managers  and  reformers  now  agree  that 
none  should  be  confined  in  county  jails  except  prisoners  that  are 
awaiting  trial  and  are  charged  with  offenses  of  a  character  so  grave 
as  to  require  confinement  before  conviction.  And  these  should  not 
be  permitted  to  congregate  together,  but  be  kept  in  separate  cells — 
well  lighted,  but  so  arranged  that  one  prisoner  cannot  see  any  other 
— so  that  those  that  may  be  discharged  cannot  contract  any  contamina- 


IMPROPER    ARRESTS.  21 

tion  while  in  jail,  the  prisoner  being  permitted  to  converse  only  with 
the  keeper  and  with  such  visitors  as  may  be  admitted. 

I  am  informed  by  General  Brinkerhoff,  of  Mansfield,  Ohio,  that 
several  jails  have  been  built  and  are  managed  on  this  plan  in  that 
State,  and  the  result  is  found  to  be  so  satisfactory,  both  to  keepers 
and  to  the  better  class  of  prisoners,  that  the  general  adoption  of  the 
system  is  most  earnestly  advocated  by  all  who  are  familiar  with 
its  workings. 

I  will  add  that  all  that  can  be  said  in  favor  of  such  a  plan  for  a 
county  jail  applies  with' greater  force  to  lock-ups. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

EFFECTS  OF  IMPRISONMENT.— ARRESTS  A  MATTER  OF  PRIDE.— 
PRISON  PRINCIPLES.— ALL  TREATED  ALIKE.— NO  GOOD 
RESULTS. 

What  effect  do  arrest  and  imprisonment  have  on  those  arrested, 
more  particularly  on  the  young? 

When  we  consider  the  great  number  annually  arrested  and  im- 
prisoned, and  when  we  realize  that  of  all  these  a  large  majority  are 
under  twenty-six  years  of  age,  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  them 
are  under  twenty  years  of  age,  and  that  in  some  instances  one-fifth 
of  them  are  females;  and,  still  further,  that  almost  all  are  of  the  poor 
— of  the  class  that  needs  encouragement  more  than  almost  anything 
else — then  does  the  effect  of  arrest  and  imprisonment  become  a  most 
important  question.  However  great  an  improvement  it  may  be  on 
the  past  (and  nobody  disputes  that  it  is),  still  it  is  not  a  success. 

Turning  now  again  to  the  report  of  the  chief  of  police  of  Chicago, 
we  find  that  of  the  32,800  arrested,  10,743  were  discharged  by  the 
police  magistrates,  to  say  nothing  of  those  that  were  bound  over  to 
the  grand  jury  and  then  discharged.  So  that  during  the  one  year  there 
were  in  that  one  city  upward  of  10,000  young  persons,  who,  without 
having  committed  any  crime,  were  yet  condemned  to  undergo  a 
regular  criminal  experience.  Think  of  this  a  moment.  And  if  so 
many  in  one  city,  what  a  multitude  must  there  be  throughout  the  land! 
Mind,  these  were  not  even  offenders.  But  what  was  the  treatment 
which  they  received?  Why,  precisely  the  same  as  if  they  had  been 
criminals.  They  were  arrested,  some  of  them  clubbed,  some  of  them 
handcuffed,  marched  through  the  streets  in  charge  of  officers,  treated 
gruffly,  jostled  around.  At  the  police  station  the  name  and  a  com- 
plete description  of  the  person  of  each  were  written  on  the  prison 


22  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

records,  there  to  remain.  Some  of  the  unhappy  creatures  were  bailed 
out,  while  the  remainder  were  shoved  into  cells  and  forced  to  spend 
a  night,  and  sometimes  a  week  there,  forced  to  stand  around  with 
criminals,  before  they  were  discharged.  Now,  what  effect  will  this 
treatment  have  on  them?  Will  not  every  one  of  them  feel  the  in- 
dignity to  which  he  or  she  was  subjected  while  life  lasts?  Will  they 
all  not  abhor  the  men  who  perpetrated  what  is  felt  to  be  an  outrage? 
Will  they  not  look  on  this  whole  machinery  as  their  enemy  and 
take  a  secret  delight  in  seeing  it  thwarted?  Will  they  not  almost 
unconsciously  sympathize  with  those  that  defy  this  whole  system, 
and  are  they  not  thus  suddenly  brought  a  whole  length  nearer  crime 
than  they  were  before?  And  will  not  those  that  were  already  weak, 
and  were  having  a  hard  struggle  for  existence,  be  further  weakened, 
and  therefore  more  liable  soon  to  become  actual  offenders  than  they 
otherwise  would  have  been?  Remember,  brutal  treatment  brutalizes, 
and  thus  prepares  for  crime. 

ARRESTS  A  MATTER  OF  PRIDE. 

At  present,  to  make  numerous  arrests  is  a  matter  of  pride  with 
many  policemen.  In  fact,  in  many  places  their  efficiency,  their  stand- 
ing as  peace  officers,  actually  depends  on  and  is  determined  by  the 
number  of  arrests  they  make.  And  the  chiefs  of  police  in  many 
villages,  in  preparing  their  reports,  take  great  pride  in  being  able  to 
report  a  large  number  of  arrests.  There  often  exists  even  a  rivalry 
in  this  respect  between  different  policemen  on  the  same  squad,  each 
being  anxious  to  get  the  credit  of  "running  in"  some  poor  wretch. 
I  recently  heard  a  policeman  boast  of  his  magnanimity  toward  a 
brother  officer,  whom  he  allowed  to  make  four  different  arrests  and 
thus  get  his  standing  improved,  when  the  speaker  could  just  as  well 
have  made  them  himself. 

Now  this  is  wrong.  It  begets  the  wrong  kind  of  efficiency.  It 
encourages  unnecessary  arrests. 

In  the  enforcement  of  the  law,  every  unnecessary  indignity  in- 
flicted, whether  by  word  or  act,  especially  in  the  case  of  first  offenders, 
only  makes  matters  worse.  The  person  having  to  submit  to  it  is 
thereby  made  the  enemy  of  the  officers  and  of  the  law. 

In  reality,  the  police  and  other  officers  of  the  law  should  be  pro- 
tectors and  friends  of  the  poor  and  the  weak,  and  these  should  natur- 
ally fly  to  the  former,  as  a  child  to  a  parent,  for  assistance  and  pro- 
tection. But  almost  the  opposite  of  this  is  too  often  the  case.  It 
is  the  poor  and  the  weak  who  are  afraid  of  the  officers,  and  avoid 
them  whenever  possible.  This  is  not  as  it  should  be.  The  trouble 


IMPROPER    ARRESTS.  23 

is  that  too  many  officers  (there  are  noble  exceptions)  like  to  assert 
their  authority  when  there  is  no  necessity  for  doing  so.  They  are 
too  anxious  to  act  the  master,  when  they  should  act  rather  as  friends 
and  assistants.  As  an  illustration,  take  the  following  case,  reported 
in  the  daily  papers  among  the  proceedings  of  the  police  courts: 

OFFICER  -     — 'S  ASSAILANT. 

"Officer  M.  D- ,  charged  with  assault  and  battery  by  Addie 

M ,  took  a  change  of  venue  when  his  case  came  up  before  Justice 

Prindeville  yesterday,  and  went  before  Justice  Hammer.  The  evi- 
dence was  not  materially  different  from  the  facts  as  published  the  day 
after  the  issuance  of  the  warrants  by  Justice  Prindeville,  January  3d. 

"Addie  M and   Rosa  L were  arrested  the  day  before, 

charged  with  disorderly  conduct,  and  were  discharged  January  3d  by 
Justice  Prindeville,  on  payment  of  costs.  When  they  stepped  out- 
side the  court-room,  Officer tried  to  arrest  Addie  M for  an 

attempted  assault  with  a  deadly  weapon  on  him  when  he  had  Rosa 
L under  arrest  the  day  before,  though  he  had  not  known  any- 
thing about  the  assault  until  he  was  told  of  it  afterward  by  Officer 

S ,  who  took  a  pocketknife  from  Addie  M 's  hand.    Justice 

Hammer  said  he  thought  it  a  little  singular  that  a  man  should  have 
to  be  told  about  an  assault  on  himself,  and  said  the  arrest  at  the  court- 
room door,  without  a  warrant,  was  unauthorized  under  the  circum- 
stances, and  fined  him  three  dollars,  the  lowest  fine  for  thi§  offense. 

"There  are  some  facts  in  regard  to  Officer  and  his  fight 

against  this  woman  which  were  not  brought  out  in  evidence.  A  few 
nights  ago  he  arrested  her  on  a  charge  of  disorderly  conduct,  but,  as 
nothing  was  proved  against  her,  she  was  discharged  by  Justice  Prinde- 
ville. Having  gained  the  animosity  of  this  officer,  she  will  have  a 
lively  time,  for  the  whole  police  force  is  now  arrayed  against  her. 
A  police  official  said  yesterday  that  she  would  leave  the  South  Side 
if  she  knew  what  was  good  for  her." 

,  One  would  think  that  such  an  incident  as  the  above  would  cause 
the  immediate  discharge  of  the  police  officer  concerned;  but  nothing 
of  the  kind  is  even  dreamed  of — on  the  contrary,  so  trifling  is  the  mat- 
ter regarded  that  the  smallest  fine  possible  is  inflicted. 

Think  a  moment  about  this  condition  of  things.  Even  if  it  were 
true  that  the  woman  was  not  of  good  repute — though  nothing  of  the 
kind  was  proven — would  her  case  not  be  sad  enough  already?  Ought 
she  not,  at  least,  to  be  let  alone  until  she  actually  commits  an  offense? 
What  possible  good  can  result  from  having  a  brutal  police  officer 
seize  her  whenever  he  gets  sight  of  her,  and  forcibly  drag  her  off  to 


24  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  lock-up  and  make  her  spend  the  night  there,  for  no  other  reason 
than  that  the  police  officer  thinks  she  is  not  a  chaste  woman?  I  re- 
peat, suppose  she  was  disreputable,  what  possible  good  can  come  of 
such  treatment?  Is  it  not  alone  sufficient  to  ruin  her,  even  if  she 
were  an  angel  at  the  beginning?  If  this  were  an  isolated  case,  it  might 
not  deserve  much  attention; -but  it  is  simply  a  specimen  of  what  is 
happening  every  day  in  every  large  city  in  this  country. 

Again,  every  year,  hundreds  of  persons,  generally  boys,  are  "run 
in"  by  the  police,  simply  because  they  have  been  found  sleeping  in 
sheds,  stables,  and  other  like  places,  and  have  been  unable  to  give  a 
satisfactory  account  of  themselves.  When  their  case  is  called  by  the 
police  magistrate,  they  are  charged  with  being  vagrants,  or  with  being 
disorderly;  a  fine  is  imposed,  which  they,  of  course,  are  not  able 
to  pay,  and  then  they  are  sent  to  the  bridewell  to  work  out  their  fines. 
Here  they  remain  from  ten  days  to  six  months. 

See  how  tenderly  we  care  for  the  homeless.  If  a  boy  who  has 
nowhere  to  go  when  nature  is  exhausted  ventures  to  lie  down  in  a 
shed,  we  seize  him  with  the  strong  arm  of  the  law,  as  if  he  had 
committed  a  murder,  and  forthwith  send  him  to  prison.  Now,  what 
effect  does  all  this  have?  The  sentences  are  short,  for,  as  the  un- 
fortunate beings  were  not  charged  with  anything  in  particular,  the 
sentence  could  not  well  be  long.  They  are  imprisoned  "for  the  fun  of 
it,"  as  it  were,  "just  to  keep  them  out  of  mischief,  you  know."  But 
what  will  they  do  when  they  get  out?  Why,  nothing  is  left  then  but 
to  do  the  same  thing  and  make  the  same  prison  rounds.  Would  it 
not  be  madness  even  to  imagine  that  any  good  could  come  of  this? 
Experience  has  shown  over  and  over  that  just  the  opposite  follows; 
that  this  process  produces  exactly  those  results  which  society  is 
anxious  to  prevent. 

As  early  as  1822,  the  Hon.  Hugh  Maxwell,  District  Attorney  of 
New  York,  speaking  of  this  class  of  cases,  said: 

"None  of  these  have  actually  been  charged  with  crime,  or  indicted 
and  arraigned  for  trial.  It  includes  those  only  who  are  taken  up  as 
vagrants,  who  can  give  no  satisfactory  account  of  themselves ;  children 
who  profess  to  have  no  homes,  or  whose  parents  had  turned  them  out- 
of-doors  and  taken  no  care  of  them;  beggars  and  other  persons  dis- 
covered in  situations  which  imply  the  intention  of  stealing,  and  num- 
bers who  were  sleeping  in  the  streets  or  stables.  These  miserable 
objects  are  brought  to  the  police  office  under  suspicious  circumstances, 
snd,  according  to  the  result  of  their  examinations,  they  are  sentenced 
as  before  mentioned.  Many  of  these  are  young  people,  on  whom  the 
charge  of  crime  cannot  be  fastened,  and  whose  only  fault  is  that  they 


IMPROPER    ARRESTS.  25 

have  no  one  on  earth  to  take  care  of  them,  and  that  they  are  incapable 
of  providing  for  themselves.  Hundreds,  it  is  believed,  thus  circum- 
stanced, eventually  have  recourse  to  petty  thefts,  and  commit  the  mis- 
demeanors in  order  to  save  themselves  from  the  pinching  assaults 
of  cold  and  hunger.  That  many  of  these  might  be  saved  from  con- 
tinued transgression,  no  one  can  doubt  who  will  examine  the  records 
of  the  police  office.  Many  notorious  thieves  now  infesting  the  city 
were,  at  first,  idle,  vagrant  boys,  imprisoned  for  a  short  period  to  keep 
them  from  mischief;  a  second  and  third  imprisonment  is  inflicted,  the 
prison  becomes  familiar  and  agreeable,  and  at  the  expiration  of  their 
sentences  they  come  out  accomplished  in  iniquity." 

Since  Maxwell  wrote  the  above,  more  than  sixty  years  have  con- 
firmed his  observations  and  shown  that  the  above  treatment  defeats 
its  purpose  and  produces  not  only  the  repeaters  for  our  prisons,  but 
the  thieves  and  dangerous  criminals  we  so  much  dread.  Is  it  not 
time  to  try  something  else?  The  Inspectors  of  the  Penitentiary  for 
the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania,  in  their  report  for  1881,  say  on 
this  head: 

"Yearly  the  crime-cause  of  youths  is  developing;  yearly  the  temp- 
tations to  crime  are  increasing;  yearly  it  is  more  and  more  apparent 
that  the  State  has  utterly  neglected  provision  for  a  large  number  of 
minors  who  are  moving  in  the  direction  of  crime,  because  there  is  no 
adequate  prevention  presented.  Congregating  youth  in  a  place  of 
detention,  more  of  a  prison  than  a  refuge — for  loss  of  liberty  by  com- 
pulsion, and  detention  by  force,  is  all  that  a  prison  pretends  to  be — 
is  too  often  making  criminals  of  some  who  else  might  be  restored 
to  good  conduct  and  made  useful  citizens.  It  is  congregation  under 
such  circumstances  that  produces  the  mischief.  Congregating,  asso- 
ciating youth,  deprived  of  their  freedom  as  a  penalty  for  some  offense 
of  omission  or  commission,  is  but  training  them  by  such  associations 
for  no  higher  aim  in  after-life.  The  stigma — the  fact  of  a  quasi-prison 
graduation — does  not  tend  to  lift  up  the  man  out  of  the  degradation  of 
such  youthful  associations." 

THE  PRISON  PRINCIPLE. 

The  superintendent  of  the  Michigan  State  Reform  School,  in  his 
report  for  1880,  says: 

"The  prison  principle  is  hateful  to  the  adult  delinquent;  to  the 
youthful  offender  it  is  abhorrent.  The  prison  principle  in  reform 
peculiarly  outrages  the  nature  of  child  life;  the  shock  penetrates  his 
being,  and  body  and  soul  rise  up  against  it  in  fiercest  antagonism. 
*  *  *  To  the  boy,  the  bolted  door,  the  barred  window,  the  walled 


26  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

yard,  and  other  contrivances  of  brute  force,  are  enemies  that  he  will 
resist  with  all  the  force  of  his  nature,  though  he  is  apparently  rendered 
helpless  against  them.  I  believe  that  these  barriers  against  the  crav- 
ings of  his  child  nature,  instead  of  tending  to  his  reform,  have  rather 
a  contrary  effect,  and  will  hastily  develop  any  criminal  germs  which 
may  exist  in  his  nature.  The  question  does  not  naturally  occur  to 
him,  'How  shall  I  reform  through  these  agencies?'  but  rather,  'How 
may  I  escape  from  them?'  and  to  the  solution  of  this  question  his  best 
energies  are  devoted.  *  *  *  It  frequently  causes  expressions  of 
surprise  to  see  children  of  such  tender  age  and  innocent  appearance 
brought  to  our  institution,  and  the  question,  'What  could  he  have 
done?'  is  asked  very  often;  and  yet  it  is  of  common  occurrence  for  a 
powerful  officer  to  present  himself  at  our  office,  having  in  his  cus- 
tody a  frail  lad  who  has  scarcely  seen  ten  summers,  bound  with 
handcuffs  to  prevent  him  from  escaping  or  from  making  an  assault 
on  his  brave  custodian." 

What  is  here  said  about  the  effect  of  the  prison  principle  on  a  boy 
applies  with  equal  force  to  the  adult  who  is  not  yet  inured  to  crime. 

ALL  TREATED  ALIKE. 

At  present,  so  far  as  personal  treatment  is  concerned,  all  offenders 
are  treated  precisely  alike,  with  the  one  exception  of  the  length  of 
sentence  imposed  at  the  time  of  conviction.  And  even  herein  strange 
things  are  done.  But,  as  already  stated,  the  personal  treatment  is  the 
same  in  all  cases.  The  man  entirely  innocent,  as  well  as  the  boy 
arrested  for  some  trifling  offense,  is  treated  from  first  to  last  like  the 
midnight  burglar,  the  highway  robber,  or  the  chronic  criminal.  Ar- 
rested on  the  street,  and  not  infrequently  clubbed,  often  handcuffed, 
and  led  in  irons  to  the  police  station,  he  is  there  pushed  into  a  cell 
as  if  he  were  a  dumb  brute.  He  spends  a  night  with  the  vicious  of 
every  kind.  In  the  morning  the  police  magistrate  goes,  as  a  matter  of 
business — and,  if  it  were  a  matter  of  conscience,  he  could  not,  under 
existing  laws,  do  much  better — to  the  station  to  dispatch  the  ten  to 
forty  cases  that  have  been  put  on  his  docket  since  the  previous  morn- 
ing, and,  being  anxious  to  get  away,  he  performs  his  task  in  the  short- 
est order  possible.  The  cases  are  called,  one  after  another,  in  rapid 
succession,  as  if  they  represented  so  many  bundles  of  merchandise 
to  be  shipped,  and,  as  each  is  called,  the  police  officer  who  has  made 
the  arrest  makes  his  statement;  the  prisoner  may  say  something  if 
he  wishes,  and  this  is  generally  all  there  is  of  the  trial.  In  this  pro- 
ceeding, the  boy  mentioned  fares  precisely  like  the  old  offender  with  a 
heinous  crime.  He  takes  his  position  on  the  saw-dust  in  the  bull- 


EFFECTS  OF  IMPRISONMENT.  27 

pen  till  his  case  is  called,  and,  if  discharged,  goes  free  (and  it  appears 
that  in  1882  over  10,000  were  discharged  in  one  city  by  the  police  mag- 
istrates alone,  showing  that  nearly  one-third  of  all  those  arrested  were 
wrongfully  arrested).  If  not  discharged,  and  the  charge  be  one  which 
the  grand  jury  must  consider,  he  is  bound  over,  and,  failing  to  give 
bond,  is  sent  to  jail.  There  he  is  weighed  and  measured,  the  color  of  his 
hair  and  eyes  is  set  down — in  short,  a  complete  description  is  taken 
of  him.  Then  he  is  hustled  off  among  a  number  of  other  prisoners, 
the  iron  door  is  shut  behind  him,  and  he  stays  there  for  weeks — some- 
times for  many  months — before  his  case  is  reached.  Then,  perhaps 
the  grand  jury  refuses  to  find  an  indictment  (for  nearly  one-fourth  of 
those  bound  over  are  not  indicted),  and  in  this  case  he  is  discharged. 
Should  he  be  indicted,  he  is  arraigned  and  sent  back  to  jail.  In  the 
course  of  weeks,  sometimes  months,  his  case  is  tried.  If  then  acquitted 
by  a  jury,  he  goes  free;  if  not,  he  is  sentenced  to  a  further  period  in 
jail,  or  is  sent  to  the  house  of  correction,  where  he  is  set  to  work  among 
several  hundred  prisoners,  some  of  whom  are  of  the  most  abandoned 
sort.  Having  served  out  his  sentence,  he  is  set  free.  If,  however,  the 
offense  for  which  he  was  arrested  is  one  for  which  the  police  magistrate 
can  impose  a  fine,  then,  instead  of  being  sent  to  jail  and  going  the 
round  mentioned  above,  he  is  fined;  and,  having  no  money  to  pay, 
is  put,  with  a  great  many  others,  into  an  omnibus,  or  "Black  Maria," 
with  iron  bars  at  windows  and  door,  and  is  then  driven  to  the  house 
of  correction — a  short  term  penitentiary — to  serve  out  his  fine.  Of 
course,  if  he  has  friends  who  will  bail  him  out  or  pay  his  fine,  he  will 
escape  a  part  of  the  imprisonment. 

In  the  meantime,  the  vicious  and  hardened  criminal,  arrested  for 
burglary,  for  highway  robbery,  or  for  some  other  equally  heinous 
crime,  is  treated  precisely  like  the  boy  whose  case  we  have  been  con- 
sidering, except  that  when  taken  from  the  jail  he  is  taken  to  the  peni- 
tentiary and  is  sentenced  for  a  longer  term  of  imprisonment. 

NO  GOOD  RESULTS. 

Now,  does  anybody  suppose  that  a  boy  or  a  man,  either  innocent 
or  guilty  of  only  a  trifling  offense,  will  be  benefited  by  this  kind  of 
treatment?  Does  clubbing  a  man  reform  him?  Does  brutal  treat- 
ment elevate  his  thoughts?  Does  handcuffing  fill  him  with  good  re- 
solves? Stop  right  here,  and  for  a  moment  imagine  yourself  forced 
to  submit  to  being  handcuffed,  and  see  what  kind  of  feelings  will  be 
aroused  in  you.  Submission  to  that  one  act  of  degradation  prepares 
many  a  young  man  for  a  career  of  crime.  It  destroys  the  self-respect 
of  others  and  makes  them  the  easy  victims  of  vice.  Even  the  morally 


28  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

strong  will  look  back  with  hatred  to  the  day  on  which  they  were 
subjected  to  outrage,  and,  down  deep  in  their  souls,  they  will  hate  the 
system  and  the  men  who  wronged  them. 

Every  man  is  sensitive  about  the  treatment  of  his  person,  and  feels 
that  he  is  injured  when  he  is  rudely  jostled  about,  or  forced  into  humil- 
iating surroundings.  Is  it,  then,  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  re- 
mainder of  the  treatment  above  mentioned — the  thrusting  into  a  cell 
with  old  criminals,  the  standing  in  the  so-called  bull-pen,  or  prisoner's 
dock — will  not  injure  those  who  are  innocent,  or  that  it  can  possibly 
have  any  reformatory  influence  upon  the  young  man,  who,  although 
he  has  violated  some  law,  is  not  yet  depraved,  has  not  yet  lost  his  self- 
respect,  and  is  yet  desirous  of  living  an  honorable  life?  Nay,  if  he 
has  any  ambition  at  all,  will  it  not  have  just  the  opposite  influence? 
Will  he  not  wish  to  be  avenged?  Will  he  not  consider  this  whole 
machinery  as  his  foe,  and  will  he  not  be  more  ready  than  ever  before 
to  commit  crime,  if  he  can  but  escape  detection?  I  claim,  therefore, 
that  imprisonment  for  trifling  offenses  before  convictions,  except  in  ex- 
treme cases,  is  wrong  in  principle,  and  works  a  great  injury  not  only 
to  those  imprisoned,  but  to  society  itself. 

To  save  the  weak  and  neglected  from  becoming  criminals,  the  all- 
important  thing  is  to  develop  and  to  build  up  their  self-respect — their 
manhood  and  womanhood.  So  long  as  this  is  wanting,  their  natural 
course  is  downward ;  and  any  act  that  tends  to  crush  this  only  pushes 
them  lower  down. 

In  October,  1870,  there  was  held  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  a  National 
Prison  Reform  Convention.  It  met  in  pursuance  of  a  call  signed 
by  a  large  proportion  of  the  governors  of  the  States  and  upward  of 
one  hundred  persons  eminent  in  the  cause  of  reform.  The  conven- 
tion was  composed  of  several  hundred  members  from  all  parts  of  the 
Union,  and  was  presided  over  by  the  governor  of  Ohio.  Being  largely 
made  up  of  persons  familiar  with  the  practical  management  of  prisons 
and  deeply  interested  in  the  subject  of  prison  reform,  its  proceedings 
were  distinguished  for  marked  ability.  It  continued  in  session  six 
days,  and  did  a  great  amount  of  work.  As  a  result  of  its  delibera- 
tions, it  formulated  and  adopted,  with  almost  entire  unanimity,  a 
declaration  of  principles,  thirty-seven  in  number,  of  which  the  sixth 
is  so  apposite  to  the  point  now  under  consideration  that  I  give  a  part 
of  it  here: 

"Sixth.  It  is  essential  to  a  reformatory  prison  treatment  that  the 
self-respect  of  the  prisoner  should  be  cultivated  to  the  utmost  extent, 
and  that  every  effort  be  made  to  give  back  to  him  his  manhood. 
Hence  all  disciplinary  punishment  that  inflicts  unnecessary  pain  or 


EFFECTS  OF  CRUEL   TREATMENT.  29 

humiliation  should  be  abolished  as  of  evil  influence.  *  *  *  There 
is  no  greater  mistake  in  the  whole  compass  of  penal  discipline  than 
its  studied  imposition  of  degradation  as  a  part  of  punishment.  Such 
imposition  destroys  every  better  impulse  and  aspiration ;  it  crushes  the 
weak,  irritates  the  strong,  and  indisposes  all  to  submission  and  reform. 
It  is  trampling  where  we  ought  to  raise,  and  is  therefore  as  unchristian 
in  principle  as  it  is  unwise  in  policy." 

If  the  imposition  of  degradation  has,  on  actual  convicts,  the  effect 
described  above,  what  effect  must  it  have  on  the  innocent,  and  on  the 
thousands  who  are  daily  dragged  into  our  police  prisons  not  even 
charged  with  a  crime,  but  simply  with  being  disorderly?  Incredible 
as  it  may  seem,  we  now  daily  take  thousands  who  are  not  criminals 
and  subject  them  to  almost  every  kind  of  degradation — do  what  we 
can  to  crush  the  weak  and  to  irritate  the  strong — do  what  we  can  to 
destroy  the  self-respect  of  all  and  send  them  from  bad  to  worse;  and 
when  they  finally  land  in  the  penitentiary,  then  we  discover  that  in 
order  to  restore  them  to  society  we  must  undo  everything  we  have 
done. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

TREATMENT  IN  HIGHER  PRISONS.— CRUELTY  NEVER 
EFFECTED  A  CONVERSION.— THE  WONDER  IS  THAT  ANY 
SURVIVE. 

Recently  there  have  been  some  revolts  in  several  penitentiaries, 
and  precisely  those  in  which,  according  to  report,  the  greatest  cruelty 
is  practiced — notably  in  one  of  the  penitentiaries  of  New  York,  in 
that  of  Missouri,  and  in  that  of  Arkansas.  In  the  last  State,  the  con- 
victs are  leased  and  the  lessees  manage  the  institution  as  a  close 
corporation,  fefusing  to  give  anybody  any  information  in  regard  to  the 
condition  of  the  convicts. 

Concerning  this  prison,  Mr.  Wines,  in  his  great  work  on  prisons, 
at  page  200,  says: 

"The  lease  system  of  prison  labor  in  Arkansas  has  been  weighed  in 
the  balance  by  a  joint  legislative,  committee,  and  clearly  found  wanting 
by  the  evidence  as  well  as  by  seven  of  the  sixteen  members  of  the 
committee.  The  evidence,  as  is  commonly  the  case  in  such  inquiries, 
was  not  a  little  contradictory;  but  to  my  conception  the  following 
points  were  established:  That  the  prisoners  were  not  properly  nour- 
ished, being  fed  mostly  on  beef  and  corn  bread,  with  vegetable  occa- 
sionally, but  not  commonly — the  beef  being  so  poor,  so  devoid  of 
nutritive  qualities,  and  so  indigestible,  that  its  introduction  into  the 


30  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

human  stomach  proves  an  irritant  which  generates  the  larger  part  of 
the  diseases,  such  as  diarrhoea,  dropsy,  etc.,  known  in  the  institution. 
That  the  prisoners  are  overworked,  the  hours  of  labor  being  usually 
more  than  twelve  per  day,  and  those  who  work  on  a  farm  five  miles 
from  the  penitentiary  being  often  forced  to  walk  or  trot  rapidly, 
especially  in  returning  after  work,  thereby  inducing  over-heat,  hemor- 
rhages, heart  disease,  and  other  forms  of  sickness.  That  shocking 
cruelties  are  practiced  upon  the  prisoners  to  get  work  out  of  them, 
as  well  as  to  maintain  discipline,  so  that  many  bear  marks  of  violence 
upon  their  persons  for  months  after  its  infliction.  That  the  hospital  is 
unfit  for  its  purpose,  being  extremely  filthy  and  noisome;  sheets  and 
pillow-cases  often  dirty  or  wholly  wanting;  food  unsuited  to  the  needs 
of  such  persons,  proper  stimulants  deficient  and  hard  to  get — the 
whole  being  more  likely  to  intensify  and  even  generate  disease  than 
to  serve  as  an  agent  in  its  cure.  And  that,  to  sum  up  all  in  a  word, 
the  penitentiary  is  turned  into  a  speculative  establishment,  in  which 
the  convicts  are  the  stock  in  trade  of  the  lessee,  in  the  prosecution 
of  whose  business  they  are  so  many  mechanical  contrivances,  to  be 
used  for  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  and  operated  with  little  regard  to 
the  fact  that  they  are  children  of  the  same  Father,  or  even  that  they 
are,  blood  and  tissue,  vitalized  and  controlled  by  the  same  physio- 
logical laws  of  waste  and  repair  common  to  all  mankind." 

On  the  other  hand,  in  those  institutions  which  have  been  managed 
most  successfully,  where  the  best  results  have  been  achieved,  equally 
in  maintaining  discipline,  in  making  the  prison  self-sustaining,  and 
in  reforming  the  prisoner,  kindness  has  been  the  most  conspicuous 
factor  in  the  treatment.  Quoting  again  from  Mr.  Wines: 

"Cruel  treatment  was  once  generally  esteemed  the  most  sure,  just, 
and  only  fitting  method  of  penal  discipline.  But  the  period  is  well 
passed  when  the  interior  of  a  prison  is  to  be  the  arena  for  the  exercise 
of  brutalizing  forces  upon  erring  and  wicked  men.  The  thought  and 
action  of  the  present  have  emerged  from  the  dark  shadows  of  the  last 
century.  Surely,  all  means  of  penal  control  which  are  severally  re- 
strictive of  the  mental,  moral  and  physical  good  of  the  convicted 
criminal,  and  manifestly  tyrannical,  simply  because  an  opportunity 
is  afforded  or  created,  do  not  conserve  the  high  purpose  of  calm, 
helpful  justice.  The  government  which  works  out  the  best  results 
for  its  subject  secures  therefrom  something  more  than  a  machine-like 
obedience.  Submission  to  rules,  and  the  concurrence  in  an  enforced 
task,  which  are  not  beyond  reason,  can  be  secured  in  the  vast  majority 
of  cases,  in  well-regulated  prisons,  by  means  which  are  at  hand  and 
which  are  far  removed  from  cruelty.  In  so  doing,  the  prisoner's  self- 


EFFECTS   OF   CRUEL    TREATMENT.  31 

control  is  evoked,  and  habits  of  industry  acquired,  which  can  never 
be  brought  about  by  the  crushing  process  so  much  lauded  by  con- 
ceited and  inexperienced  prison  reformers." 

On  this  point,  the  inspectors  of  the  Maine  penitentiary  say: 
"For  many  years  the  discipline  of  the  prison  has  not  been  as  strict 
as  at  many  other  prisons;  it  has  not  degraded  the  prisoners  below  the 
brute  creation,  but  has  recognized  them  as  men,  and  taught  them 
to  believe  that  the  State  had  an  interest  in  them  beyond  their  term 
of  imprisonment.  For  this  reason  I  believe  that  a  large  majority 
of  them  have  left  the  prison  without  bitter  and  revengeful  feelings, 
and  with  a  determination  to  live  better  and  more  useful  lives.  To  this 
state  of  affairs  is  largely  attributable  the  fact  that  there  is  very  much 
less  of  crime  in  Maine,  in  proportion  to  its  population,  than  in  any 
other  State." 

CRUELTY  NEVER  EFFECTED  A  CONVERSION. 

In  the  entire  history  of  the  human,  race  there  is  not  a  single  in- 
stance in  which  cruelty  effected  a  genuine  reformation.  It  can  crush, 
but  it  cannot  improve.  It  can  restrain,  but  as  soon  as  the  restraint  is 
removed  the  subject  is  worse  than  before.  The  human  mind  is  so 
constituted  that  it  must  be  led  toward  the  good,  and  can  be  driven 
only  in  one  direction,  and  that  is  toward  ruin. 

Florian  J.  Ries,  inspector  of  the  house  of  correction  of  Milwaukee, 
in  the  management  of  which  he  achieved  a  signal  success,  says,  in  his 
report  for  1880: 

"The  subject  of  reforming  convicts  is  one  that  ought  to  be  entitled 
to  the  very  first  consideration  in  the  management  of  a  prison.  The 
idea  that  a  prison  is  solely  an  institution  for  the  punishment  of  vio- 
lators of  the  law  is  fast  becoming  obsolete,  and  one  more  humane  and 
in  keeping  with  our  advanced  civilization  is  taking  its  place.  Ex- 
perience has  taught,  and  humanity  demands,  that  the  discipline  of  a 
prison  be  directed  more  toward  the  moral  improvement  of  its  inmates 
than  to  punishment  or  to  torture."  And  in  his  report  for  1881  he 
says:  "As  to  the  management  of  prisoners,  I  have  very  little  to  add 
to  my  report  of  last  year;  my  experience  has  fully  convinced  me  that 
by  kind  treatment  and  by  appealing  to  the  better  instincts  of  human 
nature,  better  results  can  be  obtained  than  in  any  other  way."  He 
then  adds:  "Yet  all  that  may  be  accomplished  with  the  prisoner  in 
this  manner,  inside  the  prison,  will  be  of  little  avail  after  he  is  dis- 
charged unless  he  finds  friends  who  are  willing  to  lend  him  a  helping 
hand  and  encourage  him  in  his  effort  to  lead  a  better  life."  But  this 
only  demonstrates  the  necessity  of  letting  him  earn  something  for 


32  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

himself  before  discharge,  so   that  lie   can  maintain  himself,  as  ex- 
plained under  the  head  of  Prison  Labor. 

THE  WONDER   IS  THAT  ANY  SURVIVE. 

The  real  wonder  is,  not  that  so  large  a  percentage  of  those  once 
arrested  and  imprisoned  become  hardened  and  inured  to  crime,  but 
that  comparatively  so  few  do.  The  wonder  is  that  any  are  able  to 
outlive  and  overcome  the  effects  of  their  degrading  experience;  and 
the  fact  that  over  half  of  them  do  so  shows  that  human  nature  is 
not  so  depraved.  For  all  these  live  respectable  lives,  not  by  reason 
of,  but  in  spite  of,  their  experience.  As  the  American  Colonies  pros- 
pered in  spite  of,  and  not  by  reason  of,  the.  protection  Great  Britain 
had  given  them — the  protection  having  been  wholly  of  a  kind  that 
tended  to  impoverish  the  Colonies — so  the  large  percentage  of  men 
once  arrested  who  do  well,  do  so  in  spite  of,  and  not  by  reason  of, 
their  hated  experience. 

The  principle  and  love  of  right,  the  longing  to  be  respectable  and 
to  live  honorable  lives,  was  so  strong  in  them  that  it  overcame  the 
degrading  influences  to  which  they  had  been  subjected.  Herein  lies 
one  of  the  objections  to  our  present  system.  It  applies  the  crushing 
process  to  those  that  are  already  down,  while  the  crafty  criminal — 
especially  if  he  be  rich — is  gently  dealt  with. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

PUNISHMENT  MUST  BE,  FIRST,  NECESSARY;  AND,  SECONDLY, 
CALCULATED  TO  PRODUCE  THE  DESIRED  RESULT.— EX- 
AMPLES UNDER  THE  PRESENT  SYSTEM. 

Society  never  has  claimed  and  does  not  now  claim  the  right  to 
punish  for  an  infraction  of  the  moral  law.  The  right  to  chastise  for 
an  act  which  has  been  a  violation  of  the  eternal  principles  of  right 
and  justice  has  always  been  and  still  is  conceded  to  be  the  exclusive 
prerogative  of  the  Almighty.  Society  never  claimed  more  than  the 
right  to  punish  for  a  violation  of  its  laws;  and  this  right  has  always 
been  and  still  is  based  on  the  benefit  to  be  done  to  the  whole. 

The  fundamental  principle  upon  which  man  assumes  the  right  to 
punish  his  fellow-man  is  that  society  as  a  whole  may  be  protected. 
It  is  therefore  clear  that  the  imposing  of  any  punishment  that  is  not 
necessary  for  the  protection  of  society  is  unwarranted  and  wrong; 
is  absolutely  indefensible  upon  any  ground  whatever;  is  nothing  less 
than  a  deliberate  injury,  done  by  the  strong  to  the  weak,  and  is  there- 


PUNISHMENT.  33 

fore  in  the  highest  degree  cowardly;  and  no  man  can  participate  in 
such  an  act  without  becoming  morally  accountable  for  the  injury  thus 
done  to  another. 

Secondly,  it  is  also  clear  that  any  penalty  thus  imposed  which  does 
not  tend  to  protect  society  must  be  indefensible,  and,  like  the  other, 
a  wrong  inflicted  by  the  strong  upon  the  weak,  for  which  there  can 
be  no  excuse. 

True,  society  has  to  learn  by  experiment,  and  it  therefore  may  be 
excused  for  some  things  done  in  the  hope  that  they  will  result  in 
protecting  the  whole.  But  whenever  experience  shows  that  certain 
things  do  not  answer  the  purpose  for  which  they  were  intended,  then 
the  right  to  continue  them  ceases.  That  is,  whenever  it  becomes  ap- 
parent that  certain  acts  done  for  purposes  of  punishment  do  not  serve 
the  purposes  for  which  they  were  intended — i.  e.,  do  not  tend  to 
protect  society — then  the  right  to  continue  or  to  repeat  them  ceases, 
and  any  further  repetition  of  them  will  be  simply  a  wrong  done  by 
society  to  one  of  its  members,  an  injury  inflicted  by  the  strong  upon 
the  weak;  and  it  is  no  excuse  to  say  that  the  member  had  first  in- 
jured society,  for  one  wrong  never  justifies  another.  If  society  has 
been  injured,  it  may  punish  the  offender  in  order  to  prevent  a  repe- 
tition of  the  offense,  either  on  his  part  or  on  the  part  of  others ;  but  it 
must  prescribe  a  punishment  or  treatment  that  will  be  likely  to 
produce  this  result,  and  it  has  no  right  whatever  to  do  an  act  which 
it  has  found  does  not  serve  this  purpose.  As  an  example  under  the 
first  head,  take  the  case  of  a  cigar-maker  in  a  small  country  town 
who  is  arrested  by  a  United  States  marshal,  taken  seventy  or  eighty 
miles  for  an  examination  before  a  United  States  commissioner,  then 
bound  over  to  the  grand  jury,  and,  being  unable  to  give  bail,  is  put 
into  prison  for  from  one  to  six  months,  until  that  body  meets.  Then 
he  is  indicted  and  kept  in  jail  some  time  longer  until  he  can  be  tried, 
and  when  tried  he  is  convicted,  is  fined  from  ten  to  one  hundred  dol- 
lars— and  all  this  not  because  he  is  really  a  vicious  man,  not  because 
he  is  a  dangerous  man,  not  because  he  had  stolen  something  or  injured 
somebody,  but  simply  because  he  had  failed  to  put  a  dollar  revenue- 
stamp  on  a  small  box  of  cigars  which  he  had  manufactured  and  sold. 
He  may  be  an  industrious,  sober  man,  struggling-  to  the  best  of  his 
ability  to  make  his  family  respectable  and  comfortable.  But  all  this 
counts  for  nothing.  Some  United  States  detective  has  been  prying 
into  the  little  shop;  a  technical  violation  of  the  revenue  law  has  been 
discovered;  there  is  a  chance  for  the  detective  to  win  some  credit 
for  alertness,  and  for  the  United  States  marshal,  United  States  com- 
missioner, and  prosecuting  attorney  to  make  some  fees.  So  the  man 

3 


34  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

is  arrested,  dragged  away  from  his  family,  who  are  frequently  left 
without  any  means  of  support  in  the  meantime,  and  is  treated  pre- 
cisely as  if  he  had  committed  a  murder  or  a  highway  robbery.  Could 
anything  possibly  be  more  absurd? 

Granting  that  the  law  had  been  violated,  and  that  it  was  proper  to 
inflict  some  punishment  when  the  man  was  convicted,  will  anybody 
claim  that  it  was  necessary  to  arrest  him  and  to  keep  him  in  jail  a 
long  time  before  he  was  convicted ?- — and  if  it  was  not  necessary,  then 
it  was  not  justifiable.  As  the  offense  was  trivial,  and  the  danger  of 
escape  therefore  slight,  he  should  not  have  been  deprived  of  his  liberty 
until  convicted.  For,  mark  you,  wealthy  offenders  are  never  thus 
dealt  with,  they  are  always  able  to  give  bail;  so  that  it  is  only  the 
poor  who  are  thus  made  to  suffer.  Cases  of  similar  wrongs  are  of 
much  more  frequent  occurrence  under  the  State  and  municipal  laws. 
Almost  daily  there  are  arrests  on  trivial  charges,  where,  in  case  of 
conviction,  the  punishment  generally  is  only  a  fine,  and  therefore 
there  is  no  danger  of  escape;  yet,  as  the  persons  arrested  are  not  able 
to  give  bond  for  their  appearance,  there  is  no  alternative  but  to  send 
them  to  jail,  there  to  remain  for  weeks,  frequently  for  months,  before 
they  can  be  tried.  And  when  tried,  if  convicted,  they  are  simply  fined, 
or  possibly  have  a  short  jail  sentence  imposed.  Now,  in  nearly  all 
these  cases  it  is  unnecessary  to  make  arrests  in  the  first  instance,  as  a 
civil  proceeding  would  answer  every  purpose  until  the  trial;  then,  if 
the  fine  is  not  paid  it  is  early  enough  to  introduce  the  jail.  Arrests, 
in  the  first  instance,  in  this  class  of  cases  being  unnecessary,  they  are, 
as  above  shown,  unjustifiable,  and  are  productive  of  much  harm  with- 
out any  compensating  good. 

Again,  things  are  daily  done  in  the  name  of  punishment  which 
common  sensa  condemns,  which  all  experience  has  shown  to  be  pro- 
ductive of  just  the  opposite  results  from  those  designed  and  desired, 
and  which  society  has  therefore  no  right  to  continue  doing.  Thus, 
of  the  7,566  prisoners  committed  to  the  house  of  correction  at  Chicago 
during  1882,  4,787  were  simply  charged  with  breach  of  the  peace. 
Granting  that  some  of  these  had  committed  grave  offenses  and  the 
charge  was  changed,  still  could  anything  be  more  unreasonable  than 
every  year  to  subject  over  4,000  human  beings  to  a  regular  criminal 
treatment,  as  heretofore  described,  simply  because  they  had  been 
guilty  of  hilarious  or  disorderly  conduct? 


IMPRISONING    WOMEN.  35 

CHAPTER  X. 
IMPRISONING  WOMEN. 

It  appears  from  the  report  of  the  superintendent  of  police  of  Chi- 
cago that  in  1882  6,835*  women  were  arrested  and  taken  to  the  police 
prisons  in  Chicago,  and  that,  during  that  year,  1,800  women  were 
incarcerated  in  the  Chicago  house  of  correction,  mostly  for  non-pay- 
ment of  fines  which  had  been  imposed.  Of  the  latter  number,  359 
were  reported  prostitutes,  871  were  servants,  114  were  launders,  and 
all  were  poor.  Now,  can  any  good  come  of  thus  treating  unfortunate 
women?  What  are  they  to  do  when  released?  Can  anybody  tell? 
The  359  whom  the  officers  call  prostitutes,  and  think  that  a  sufficient 
accusation  to  excuse  any  kind  of  treatment,  were  not  the  petted  chil- 
dren of  sin,  not  those  that  live  in  gilded  palaces  and  dress  in  silks 
and  satins,  for  these  are  rarely  disturbed;  they  were  the  poor,  unfor- 
tunate, and  forlorn  creatures  who,  without  friends,  without  sympathy, 
without  money,  often  hungry,  and  without  sufficient  clothing  to  pro- 
tect them  from  the  cold  winds,  wander  out  on  the  streets,  not  so  much 
wantonly  as  from  necessity,  literally  trying  to  sell  their  souls  for  a 
morsel  of  bread,  dealing  in  shame,  not  from  choice,  but  because  every 
Christian  door  is  shut  against  them,  because  there  is  no  place  where 
they  can  work  and  find  shelter.  Now,  in  what  condition  are  they 
when  they  have  gone  through  the  above  experience?  What  are  they 
to  do  when  again  set  at  liberty?  Experience  has  answered  this  a  hun- 
dred times.  They  return  to  their  old  ways,  because  there  is  nothing 
else  that  they  can  do;  the  only  difference  being  that  they  have  become 
more  degraded,  more  brutalized,  by  the  treatment  which  they  have 
received,  and  from  which  no  good  ever  has  or  ever  can  come.  Is  it, 
therefore,  reasonable  to  continue  it? 

Take  the  other  1,450  women  who  in  1882  were  incarcerated  in  the 
Chicago  house  of  correction;  what  is  to  become  of  them  when  re- 
leased? What  can  they  do?  For  what  has  the  prison  fitted  them? 
Some  of  them,  no  doubt,  have  homes  to  which  they  can  go;  but  they 
will  enter  these  more  degraded  because  of  the  experience  they  have 
had,  and  instead  of  being  better  prepared  to  resist  temptations  than 
formerly,  they  are  weaker  and  more  liable  to  go  downward  than 
otherwise.  As  to  the  remainder — those  that  have  no  homes  where 
they  can  be  received  and  taken  care  of — what  are  they  to  do?  Where 
will  they  be  admitted?  How  can  they  make  an  honest  living?  There 
is  no  answer  to  these  questions,  and  the  probability  is  that  the  great 

"The  number  has  been  increasing  every  year  with  the  number  of  arrests. 


36  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

majority  will  be  literally  driven  to  get  their  bread  by  the  wages  of 
sin,  and  go  down  the  path  of  vice  and  misery,  dragging  out  an  exist- 
ence that  will  long  for  death.  Now,  wherein  has  society  been  bene- 
fited or  protected  by  the  above  treatment?  Clearly,  in  no  way.  On 
the  contrary,  it  has  done  to  itself  an  injury,  and  to  the  wretched 
beings,  who  were  charged  only  with  slight  offenses,  a  great  wrong. 

It  is  both  unnecessary  and  unsuitable. 

In  the  reports  of  the  proceedings  in  the  city  police  courts,  as  pub- 
lished in  the  daily  papers,  you  can  see,  almost  every  day,  items  like 
the  following: 

"The  seventy  vagrant  and  disreputable  women  corraled  in  the 
basement  pen  of  the  Desplaines  Street  Police  Station,  Wednesday 
night,  were  brought  before  Justice  C.  J.  White  yesterday  in  a  lump. 
Sin-hardened,  sad,  poor,  and  unhappy,  the  haggard  crew  presented  a 
sickening  sight.  Most  of  them  escaped  with  light  fines,  the  justice 
recognizing  that  these  wrecks  of  humafi  beings  deserved  merciful  con- 
sideration." 

"Bridget  Smith,  a  poor  woman  whose  path  through  this  world 
has  led  her  through  several  terms  in  the  bridewell,  was  found  drunk, 
in  the  snow,  Sunday  night,  at  the  corner  of  Desplaines  and  Adams 
streets.  For  this  mistaken  idea  of  getting  enjoyment  out  of  life,  Jus- 
tice C.  J.  White  sentenced  her  to  another  short  term  in  the  said  insti- 
tution and  a  ten-dollar  fine." 

And  at  another  time  the  following: 

"There  seems  to  have  been  a  general  raid  by  the  West  Side  police 
on  the  disreputable  women  found  on  the  streets.  At  all  events,  twenty 
of  the  poor  creatures  were  before  Justice  White  yesterday,  and  four- 
teen were  arraigned  in  Justice  Woodman's  court.  They  were  mostly 
a  dissipated,  worn-looking  lot,  most  of  them  shabbily  dressed,  but 
three  of  them  were  young  and  rosy,  and  one  was  a  mere  child,  hardly 
fifteen  years  of  age.  Fines  ranging  from  one  to  five  dollars  were  in- 
flicted, and  the  poor,  misguided  mortals  passed  out  of  court." 

Reflect  on  this  a  moment!  Was  it  necessary  to  drag  in  these  un- 
fortunate creatures  every  few  weeks  and  corral  them  like  cattle?  And 
wherein  has  society  been  benefited  by  the  whole  proceeding?  What 
object  was  there  in  all  this?  Certainly  none  can  be  perceived,  except 
to  make  a  large  amount  of  fees  for  the  police  justices.  Several  dollars' 
cost,  in  each  case  in  which  the  fine  is  paid,  extracted  from  these  mis- 
erable people,  may  be  satisfactory  to  the  police  justice,  but  what  is  to 
become  of  the  women?  One  of  the  accounts  says,  "they  passed  out 
of  court."  Of  course  they  did,  but  where?  Where  did  they  go? 
Whither?  Why,  a  great  many  of  them  to  the  bridewell,  because  they 


RESULTS  OF  PINING.  37 

did  not  have  three  or  five  dollars  in  the  world,  nor  any  friend  to  pay 
the  amount  for  them.  And  when  they  get  out  of  the  bridewell,  what 
are  they  to  do?  Is  there  any  other  course  open  than  to  make  the 
same  round?  Mind  you,  they  were  not  the  gay  and  luxurious  sirens, 
for  these,  though  numerous,  were  not  disturbed. 

Xow,  if  it  were  even  conceded  that  some  measures  were  necessary 
in  the  matter,  it  certainly  cannot  be  claimed  that  the  proceedings  given 
above  were  necessary,  much  less  that  society  is  benefited  by  them. 
This  being  so,  where  is  the  justification  for  these  proceedings? 

Take  the  woman  found  drunk  in  the  snow.  She  is  sent  to  prison 
time  after  time — simply  to  lie  down  again  in  the  snow.  The  very 
frequency  of  the  sentences  shows  that  they  only  aggravate  the  case, 
and  serve  no  good  purpose;  then  why  continue  repeating  them? 

Take  the  following  item  from  the  police-court  proceedings: 

"The  officers  of  the  Humane  Society  brought  William  Hogan,  his 
wife,  and  four  children  into  Justice  R 's  court  yesterday  for  dis- 
position. They  had  been  existing  in  a  hovel  at  the  corner  of  Stave 
Street  and  Armitage  Avenue,  in  the  most  squalid  poverty  and  destitu- 
tion. There  was  no  food  or  fuel  in  the  place,  and  little  or  no  bedding. 
The  family  were  in  rags,  were  dirty,  and  were  all  covered  with  vermin. 
Their  condition,  as  they  appeared  in  the  court-room,  was  at  once  dis- 
gusting and  pitiable.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hogan  were  sent  to  the  bride- 
well, and  the  children,  aged  five,  seven,  nine,  and  eleven  years,  were 
sent  to  the  Home  for  the  Friendless." 

Think  of  a  system  that  will  send  a  woman  to  a  penitentiary  simply 
because  she  is  the  mother  of  four  small  children  and  has  a  husband 
who  either  cannot  or  will  not  support  her!  As  to  the  husband,  if  he 
was  unable  to  do  anything,  he  should  not  have  been  sent  to  the  bride- 
well ;  and  if  able,  then  he  should  be  required  to  earn  something  for  his 
family.  We  have  already  too  long  kept  up  the  practice  of  crowding 
our  prisons  with  those  that  ought  not  to  be  there,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence, we  find  that  prisons  no  longer  have  any  terrors  for  those  that 
should  be  there. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  PRESENT  INDISCRIMINATE  FINING   LEADS  TO   NO  GOOD 

RESULTS. 

If  any  person  wants  an  accurate  idea  of  the  manner  in  which  this 
system  is  carried  on,  let  him  attend  one  of  our  so-called  police  courts 
on  some  morning  when  from  ten  to  thirty  miserable  beings,  mam- 
filthy  and  squalid,  are  "trotted  through."  The  charges  are  usually  of 


38  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  minor  sort — "drunk,"  "disorderly,"  etc.  Generally  a  fine  of  from 
five  to  one  hundred  dollars  is  imposed;  and  what  then?  Well,  if  the 
unfortunate  creatures  cannot  pay  it  they  are  packed  into  the  omnibus 
and  taken  to  the  house  of  correction,  as  already  mentioned,  and  there 
they  "work  it  out,"  as  heretofore  explained,  the  time  required  for  this 
purpose  being  from  ten  days  to  six  months;  and  when  they  get  out, 
the  conditions  in  which  they  lived  before  having  in  no  way  improved, 
on  the  contrary  generally  having  become  worse,  they  almost  immedi- 
ately make  the  same  rounds  again,  and  then  again,  getting  a  little 
worse  every  time,  until  they  land  in  the  penitentiary. 

But  in  many  cases  the  fine  is  paid,  often  even  after  commitment 
to  the  house  of  correction;  and  of  course  the  prisoner  is  discharged. 

But  who  generally  pays  this  fine?  Here  is  the  vital  question. 
Usually  the  prisoner  does  not  pay  it,  for  as  a  rule  he  has  nothing  but 
the  rags  on  his  back.  Well,  then,  who  pays  it?  Why,  generally  his 
squalid  family.  The  wife  pawns  whatever  she  may  have  left  in  order 
to  get  her  husband  out;  or  more  often  it  is  the  mother,  who  already  is 
unable  properly  to  feed  and  clothe  her  smaller  children,  and  who  is 
suffering  from  the  ailments,  both  physical  and  mental,  that  a  life  of 
poverty  and  misfortune  entails,  but  who  will  yet,  by  heroic  effort, 
scrape  together  enough  pennies  to  pay  her  child's  fine  and  get  him 
out.  Well,  the  fine  being  paid,  then  what?  Why,  the  conditions 
being  all  the  same,  the  companionship  the  same,  there  having  been 
nothing  reformatory  or  elevating  in  the  experience  through  which 
the  offender  has  gone,  he  is  in  no  wise  better,  is  no  more  industrious, 
no  more  sober;  and,  instead  of  being  morally  stronger,  and  better 
able  to  overcome  the  weakness  that  got  him  into  trouble,  his  prison 
experience  has,  if  anything,  lowered  him;  he  is  less  able  now  to  cope 
with  the  world  than  he  was  before,  and  the  almost  invariable  result 
is  that  he  goes  the  same  round  time  after  time,  becoming  constantly 
more  vicious,  and  in  the  end  swells  the  number  of  hardened  criminals. 
Take  the  hundreds  of  poor  women  fined  in  the  police  courts;  if  they 
themselves  pay  their  fines  it  takes  usually  their  last  penny,  and  not 
infrequently  the  very  money  with  which  they  pay  the  fine  is  the  earn- 
ings of  shame.  So  that  while  the  law  with  one  hand  prohibits  vice,  it 
pockets  the  earnings  of  vice  with  the  other. 

Now  every  time  a  fine  is  paid  in  any  of  the  cases  mentioned,  the 
crime-producing  conditions  have  been  aggravated;  the  want  existing 
before  has  been  intensified;  the  offender  has  not  been  benefited,  while 
his  family  has  been  injured.  Fines  should  therefore  be  imposed  only 
in  exceptional  cases,  where  nothing  of  a  reformatory  character  is 
required. 


INEQUALITY    OF    SENTENCES.  39 

CHAPTER  XII. 
FORMALITY.— INEQUALITY  OF  SENTENCES. 

The  present  system  is  formal,  iron-bound,  and  superficial;  every 
case  has  to  go  through  the  same  steps,  no  matter  how  much  the  cir- 
cumstances may  differ;  the  proceedings  must  be  the  same,  no  matter 
how  trifling  the  charge;  the  accused  must  be  arrested,  must  then  either 
give  bond  or  be  locked  up  until  he  can  be  tried  and  the  fact  ascer- 
tained whether  he  is  even  guilty  of  the  trifling  offense  charged  or  not, 
and,  if  found  guilty,  then,  no  matter  what  the  condition  of  the  accused 
may  be,  whether  old  or  young,  vicious  or  merely  weak,  male  or  female, 
there  is  but  one  course  open,  and  this  for  all  alike;  that  is,  to  impose 
a  fine,  and,  if  this  is  not  paid,  to  send  the  accused  to  the  jail  or  to  the 
bridewell.  The  magistrate  is  not  to  blame;  it  is  the  law,  the  system, 
which  is  at  fault. 

If  the  State  were  to  enforce  a  system  of  medical  practice,  and 
were  to  provide  that  but  one  prescription  should  be  given  for  all  the 
ills  that  afflict  the  flesh,  it  would  not  be  more  absurd  than  is  the  pres- 
ent system  of  treating  offenders. 

INEQUALITY  OF  SENTENCES. 

In  the  Fifth  Biennial  Report  of  the  Michigan  State  Board  of  Cor- 
rections and  Charities,  1879-80,  the  subject  of  "Inequality  of  Sen- 
tences" is  thus  considered: 

"Having  still  in  view  our  analogy  between  crime  and  mental  dis- 
ease, which  analogy  we  do  not  claim  to  be  one  that  is  perfect  and 
holding  at  all  points,  yet  holding  sufficiently  to  justify  what  we  have 
said  and  what  we  shall  say,  we  shall  conclude  this  paper  by  a  few 
moments'  commentary  upon  the  sentences  of  the  courts. 

"We  can  stay  but  for  a  single  example  of  the  inequality  of  sen- 
tences, growing  out  of  qualifying  circumstances  and  the  inability  of 
judges  to  see  things  alike,  or,  as  in  the  case  of  the  one  referred  to, 
form  opinions  even  for  themselves. 

"Assault  with  intent  to  commit  murder,  intention  being  the  gauge 
of  crime,  necessarily  implies  the  guilt  of  murder. 

"In  Michigan,  during  the  year  ending  September  30,  1877,  there 
were  eight  convicts  sent  to  the  state-prison  for  assault  with  intent  to 
commit  murder — one  for  forty-five  years,  one  for  twenty-five  years, 
one  for  fifteen  years,  one  for  nine  years,  one  for  six  years,  one  for 
five  years,  one  for  two  years,  and  one  for  one  year. 


40  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

* 

"It  is  supposable  that  these  eight  men,  so  sentenced  for  the  same 
technical  offense,  may  have  been  seen  in  prison  working  in  the  same 
department,  eating  at  the  same  table,  listening  to  the  same  prayers  in 
the  chapel,  with  occasional  opportunities  for  surreptitious  exchange 
of  notes  as  to  their  respective  allotments  of  justice  and  their  progress 
in  reformation — reformation  being  agreed  upon,  in  all  such  confer- 
ences as  this,  as  one  of  the  chief  ends,  if  not  the  chief  end,  of  punish- 
ment. 

"This  inequality  of  sentences  runs  through  all  the  courts.  Cases 
like  this  (an  actual  case)  occur  somewhere  in  the  United  States  every 
month  in  the  year.  At  the  same  term  of  the  court,  a  bank-teller,  for  a 
theft  of  five  hundred  dollars  from  his  employers  or  from  a  customer,  is 
released  on  a  nominal  or  suspended  sentence,  while  a  boy  of  seventeen 
is  sentenced  to  prison  for  three  years  for  stealing  a  second-hand  suit 
of  clothes  worth  less  than  twenty  dollars;  producing  in  appearance 
distortions  of  justice  a  little  like  Lord  Dundreary's  distortion  of 
proverbs  when  he  says,  'One  man  is  hanged  for  looking  a  gift  horse 
in  the  mouth,  while  another  may  see  the  whole  animal  over  a  hedge 
and  get  clear.' 

"The  damage  to  society  of  a  given  offense  can  be  approximately 
estimated;  the  guilt  of  the  transaction  is  beyond  man's  power  of  meas- 
urement. 

"Then  why  not  better  to  cut  the  Gordian  knot  and  proceed  for 
the  good  of  society;  estimate  the  offense  according  to  its  damage  and 
danger  to  society,  and  at  once  remove  the  offender,  not  for  one,  two, 
ten,  or  forty-five  years,  but  until  he  is  apparently  restored  to  such 
condition,  whether  mental  or  moral,  or  both,  as  will  give  the  public 
reasonable  assurance  of  safety? 

"If  there  were  high  courts  or  commissions  in  lunacy  and  they  were 
to  commit  eight  maniacs  who  had  attempted  murder,  from  one  State, 
in  a  single  year,  to  an  insane  hospital  for  terms  varying  from  one  to 
forty-five  years,  it  would  at  once  be  apparent  to  all  that  the  high 
court  itself  was  wildly  insane.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  would-be  mur- 
derers were  sent  to  a  hospital  until  wholly  restored  to  reason,  the 
conduct  would  appear  to  be  reasonable. 

"But  if  the  criminals  are  put  under  restraint  by  a  similar  seclusion 
in  buildings  suitable  for  the  purpose,  that  is,  in  prisons  properly  pro- 
vided and  graded,  it  may  be  asked:  How  shall  it  be  ascertained  with 
certainty  when  they  are  so  far  reformed  as  to  make  their  enlargement 
safe  to  society? 

"The  answer  is,  that  we  cannot  know  with  certainty,  but  it  can  be 
known  at  least  equally  well  in  this  case  as  in  the  cases  of  insanity. 


INEQUALITY    OF    SENTENCES.  41 

Some  insane  patients  are  discharged  apparently  cured,  three,  five,  or 
ten  times,  but  are  still  found  dangerous  to  society,  and  have  to  be 
returned  to  the  hospitals,  and  ultimately  die  without  recovery.  There 
will  be  mistakes,  incident  to  imperfect  human  knowledge. 

"Criminals  sentenced  for  limited  terms  are  discharged  and  re-com- 
mitted over  and  over  again,  with  this  difference  against  the  good 
sense  of  the  proceeding,  that  there  is,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  no 
appearance  of  reformation,  but,  on  the  contrary,  perfect  knowledge 
on  the  part  of  the  authorities  that  they  are  turned  out  more  and  more 
dangerous  to  society  at  each  successive  time." 

The  table  on  pages  42  and  43,  from  the  report  of  the  commissioners 
of  the  Illinois  penitentiary  at  Joliet,  for  the  year  ending  September 
30,  1882,  shows  what  incredible  difference  there  is  in  the  length  of 
sentences  imposed  for  the  same  offense  in  the  State  of  Illinois. 

A  glance  at  this  table  shows  that  sentences  imposed  for  the  same 
offense  range  all  the  way  from  one  to  twenty  years.  Of  course,  allow- 
ance must  be  made  for  the  fact  that  some  of  the  crimes  were  com- 
mitted under  more  atrocious  circumstances  than  others  of  the  same 
class;  still,  the  great  diversity,  after  all,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
different  cases  are  tried  before  different  juries  and  different  judges. 
For  it  not  infrequently  happens  that  in  the  same  court  a  man  who  has 
deliberately  committed  a  crime  under  circumstances  showing  great 
depravity  will  be  sentenced  for  a  much  shorter  time  than  another  who 
has  committed  the  same  offense  under  circumstances  showing  far  less 
depravity.  So  that,  practically,  we  have  the  same  law  sentencing  the 
hardened  offender  to  a  short  term,  and  the  less  dangerous  to  a  long 
term  for  the  same  offense.  Now,  if  fixed  sentences  were  entirely  abol- 
ished and  indeterminate  sentences  (to  be  presently  discussed)  were 
substituted,  this  would  not  happen  so  frequently. 


42  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Comparative  Table  of  Sentences  and  Crimes,  showing  their  relative  connection 
with  the  number  of  convicts  in  the  Illinois  State  Penitentiary,  September 
30,-  1882. 

SENTENCES. 


•O      5 


CRIMES. 

M 

0 

C 
cU 

nd  fractions. 

and  fraction?. 
nd  fractions. 

nd  fractions. 

"O              tfl    •—     «— 

S    S    g    2   "2 
«  .2    £  g    § 

cJ     tJ      C      ^      « 

f     rt     QJ     *^-     *~* 
x    i-     a;    r?    rt 

**-      ^^                  4,» 

^  -O    3     C     ^ 

V 

c 

a 

tn 

a 

•2     re!    S     £• 

c 

a 

u     < 

Sc 

u 

a     >i 
u     re 

!H 

ra 

18     £     0     0     £ 

*>  S  *  *•   » 

C 

>>    Si 

>> 

10     [ 

.    v    c    c     C 

w    S 

0 

i     3 

o 

« 

c    •£ 

-G       O 

> 

O 

O  pa 

H 

H   fe 

£ 

c/)  H  W  fe    O    i-l 

H 

T 

T 

2 

I 

I 

3    2  

O 

2 

2 

Assault   to  commit  burglary 

T 

I 

2 

Assault  to  commit  felony   

T 

I  

f 

I 

i 

2 

A.ssanlt  to  kill       

5  .  . 

4 

2      I 

6 

•J      2    

97 

2      2 

6 

t         2 

6 

4    6    2     i   .... 

36 

I 

7 

I      I 

7     i     3  

19 

3 

i 

6 

I 

I 

2 

Being  found  in  post-office  with 

intent 

to  steal   . 

2 

2 

Bigamy    2  ..     I 3 

Buggery I i 

Burglary    73  16  87  49  19  33  33  10    4  "   •  •    •  •  335 

Burglary  and  larceny 42     5  45  39  16  22  15     5     2     2  ....  193 

Burglary,   larceny  and  arson I     I I     I     I    ..    ..  5 

Burglary   and  larceny  and   assault   to 

kill 2     i   .  .  3 

Burglary  and  larceny  as  bailee I I 

Burglary,  murder,  assault  to  kill I    ..    ..  I 

Burglary  with  intent  to  steal I i 

Confidence   game    I     3     4     3     2  ..     2 15 

Conspiracy    34 7 

Conspiracy  and  larceny i i 

Conspiracy  to  commit  offense I I 

Counterfeiting    2   .  .      i     i     i    .  .     I   .  .    .  .  6 

Crime   against   nature I i 

Cruelty  to  children I I 

Embezzlement    I  ..     I  ..   ..     I..      I 4 

False  affidavit  to  procure  money i i 


INEQUALITY    01'    SENTENCES.  43 


SENTENCES. 

CRIMES. 

X 

One  year. 
Between  one  and  two  years. 
Two  years  and  fractions. 
Three  years  and  fractions. 
Four  years  and  fractions. 

.    O 

C/l 

U 

Six,  7,  8  and  9  years  and  fractions. 
Ten  years  and  fractions. 
Eleven  to  fourteen  years  and  fractions. 
Fifteen  to  twenty  years  inclusive. 
Over  twenty  years  and  less  than  life. 
Life. 

•d 
c 

0 
0 

H 

Felony          

3 
4 

C 

8 
4i 

2 

35 
i 

2 

16 
7 

i 
i 
i 

i 

2 

5 
5 
27 
3 
140 
i 

I 

2 

6 

2 

IS 

I 

4 
104 
3 

7 

'440 

Forgery    

13  ..       7     10    2 

3  ....     2  ..    .. 

2 

Forgery  and  larceny  

Grand   larceny   

61884 

3 

I       I      2      I     .... 

I 

Grand  larceny  and  burglary.  .  .  . 

Having  in  possession  burglars' 
tools    

i 

i 

Horse  stealing  

•i 

5 

5     i     i   ..     i   .. 

2      2      2      I    .... 
27    IO      1 

Incest    

Larceny                 

82  10    64    75  13 

31 

i 

Larceny  and  confidence  game.  . 

Larceny   and   embezzlement.... 

i   .  . 

Larceny  from  post-office  

i   .  . 

Larceny    and    receiving   stolen 
property   

i 

Larceny  and  robbery  

...     i    

I    ... 

Making  and  uttering  fictitious 
notes    

I       I         2    ...... 

i 

Malicious  mischief  

I                 121 

Manslaughter 

I      2        2        2      I 
I 

8 

4     4     i    ....     2 
i           i 

Mayhem   

Murder  

2 

4    5  26  31  20  52 

Obstructing  railroad  

I    

Obtaining  money  by  false  pre- 
tenses     

I                      

Passing   U.    S.   counterfeit   coin 
Perjury  

2 

111 

i 

Personating  another   

I    .  .          I    .  . 

Rape    

'                                •} 

I 

c              222 

Rape  and  assault  to  rape   . 

I 

Receiving  stolen  property  

I      2 

I            

Robbery  

II     7     12     15  15 

II 
I 

16  10    5  .  .     2  .  . 

2       

Robbery  and  burglary  

Robbery  and  larceny 

-3 

112 

Sodomy    

I 

Total 

249     48     265     239    85 

ISS 

138  70  56  59  29  56 

(44  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
REMEDY. 

I  am  aware  that  it  is  difficult  for  one  man  to  see  all  sides  of  a  com- 
plicated question,  and  that  all  new  remedies  are  apt  to  prove  crude 
and  more  or  less  impracticable  when  attempted  to  be  applied — for 
the  perfect  remedy  is  the  outgrowth  of  experiment.  Still,  every  im- 
provement must  have  a  beginning,  crude  though  it  be;  therefore,  I 
venture  to  give  my  views  freely,  and  leave  it  to  those  who  have  exam- 
ined and  considered  the  subject  more  thoroughly  to  suggest  some- 
thing better. 

In  discussing  a  remedy,  it  is  important  to  keep  in  mind  the  exact 
difficulties  to  be  remedied,  or  that  are  capable  of  being  remedied 
which  in  the  present  case  are: 

First.  That  many  are  imprisoned,  before  trial  and  after,  ana 
broken  into  the  prison  life  and  brought  into  contact  with  the  criminal 
atmosphere,  and  thus  started  on  the  downward  road,  who  ought  not 
to  have  been  imprisoned  at  all,  and  who,  had  they  been  differently 
treated,  might  have  made  good  citizens. 

Second.  That  the  pole  star  of  the  present  system  seems  to  be 
punishment,  whereas  the  protection  of  society  should  be  its  sole  object, 
and  as  punishment  never  made  a  sincere  convert,  and  as  the  multitude 
of  first  offenders  comes  from  the  weaker  class,  they  should  be  treated 
rather  as  wards,  whom  it  may  be  necessary  to  confine,  but  whom  it  is 
yet  necessary  to  train  and  educate,  if  possible,  into  good  citizens. 

Third.  That  at  present  our  prisons  do  not,  as  a  rule,  reform  the 
prisoners,  but  turn  them  loose,  at  the  expiration  of  sentence,  in  a 
condition  which  soon  returns  a  great  per  cent  of  them  to  prison. 

Fourth.  That  the  really  vicious  and  dangerous  criminals  are 
treated  like  the  good-intentioned,  but  weak;  are  not,  at  the  beginning, 
convicted  with  promptness;  are  discharged  after  short  terms  of  im- 
prisonment when  they  ought  not  to  be,  and  that  in  a  condition  which 
almost  precludes  their  doing  anything  but  committing  crime. 

Keeping  the  foregoing  in  mind,  I  would  suggest: 

First.  The  abolishing  of  the  fee  system,  so  that  no  petty  officials 
will  be  directly  interested  in  having  arrests  made  for  the  sake  of  earn- 
ing a  few  dollars  of  money;  the  State  should  pay  all  officials  a  salary 
for  discharging  their  duties. 

The  Maryland  legislature,  by  acts  passed  in  1880  and  1882,  sub- 
stantially abolished  the  fee  system  in  criminal  cases,  so  far  as  it  related 


REMEDY.  45 

to  proceedings  before  magistrates  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  and  the 
result  was  a  falling  off  in  the  number  of  arrests  in  that  city  from  up- 
ward of  twelve  thousand  to  about  seven  thousand,  or  almost  half, 
in  one  year. 

Second.  Arrest  and  imprisonment  before  conviction  should  be 
permitted  by  law  only  in  those  instances  where  it  is  shown  that  the 
offender  is  a  dangerous  person,  or  that  the  offense  with  which  he  is 
charged  is  of  a  character  so  heinous  as  to  require  his  arrest  and  in- 
carceration, or  the  placing  under  bonds  until  he  can  be  tried. 

This  would  reduce  the  incredibly  large  number  of  impromptu  ar- 
rests by  police  and  other  officers.  As  heretofore  shown,  of  the  32,800 
persons  arrested  by  the  police  of  Chicago  in  1882,  over  10,000  were 
discharged  because  they  were  not  shown  to  have  been  guilty  of  any 
offense  whatever.  It  would  also  prevent  imprisonment  for  trifling 
offenses,  as  is  now  the  practice.  Thus,  of  the  7,566  committed  to  the 
Chicago  house  of  correction  in  1882,  4,787  were  simply  charged  with 
a  breach  of  the  peace,  1,171  with  drunkenness,  673  with  vagrancy, 
169  with  being  inmates  of  disorderly  houses,  222  with  the  violation 
of  miscellaneous  city  ordinances,  and  354  with  violating  village  ordi- 
nances. The  remainder  of  the  7,566  were  charged  with  the  following 
offenses:  Robbery,  12;  burglary,  29;  horse  stealing,  i;  assault  with 
intent  to  kill,  21 ;  assault  with  intent  to  do  bodily  injury,  3;  conspiracy, 
i ;  rescuing  prisoners,  i ;  obtaining  goods  under  false  pretenses,  i ; 
passing  counterfeit  bank  notes,  4;  vagabondage,  4;  larceny,  113.  So 
that  it  will  be  seen  that  out  of  a  total  of  7,566  committed,  only  190 
were  charged  with  crimes;  and  of  these  190  the  large  number  of  113 
was  charged  with  larceny,  or  petty  theft,  whether  the  thing  stolen 
was  worth  fifty  cents  or  ten  dollars. 

But  the  great  majority  were  not  criminals,  and  society  would  have 
been  better  off  if  it  had  not  arrested  and  incarcerated  them. 

Deducting  the  190  charged  with  offenses  that  are  considered  crim- 
inal, it  leaves  7,376  that  should  have  been  differently  dealt  with.  No 
blame  is  attached  to  the  officers,  for  they  simply  carried  out  existing 
laws.  But  these  laws  should  be  changed.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
in  very  many  cases  of  drunkenness  and  of  disorderly  conduct,  if  the 
parties  were  taken  directly  to  their  homes  by  the  officers,  and  nothing 
further  done  for  the  first  offense  except  a  memorandum  of  the  fact 
made  by  the  officers  for  future  reference  in  case  of  a  repetition,  it 
would  have  a  better  effect  than  arrest  and  incarceration.  And  where 
proceedings  are  had,  there  should,  except  in  extreme  cases,  be  no 
arrest  until  the  trial  is  ended  and  a  sentence  is  imposed.  This  treat- 
ment of  first  offenders  would  have  all  the  benefit  that  can  be  got  from 


46  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

a  scare  or  the  terror  of  the  law,  and  none  of  the  degrading  and  harden- 
ing effects  that  produce  stolidity  and  hatred.  I  refer  more  particularly 
to  the  young  and  to  those  charged  for  the  first  time  with  any  offense. 
Hardened  cases  would,  under  the  plan  about  to  be  discussed,  soon 
be  weeded  out,  and  be  situated  where  it  was,  at  least,  possible  for 
them  to  reform. 

In  this  connection,  the  city  should  be  divided  into  small  police 
districts,  with  a  competent  man  in  each,  who  should  acquaint  him- 
self with  the  condition  of  every  offender,  and  use  his  best  efforts  to 
induce  him  to  quit  bad  associations,  and  who  should  also  find  out  the 
homeless  and  try  to  have  them  cared  for.  This  would  be  a  great 
preventive  of  the  small  offenses  which  are  the  initiatives  of  criminal 
careers.  Every  one  knows  how  valuable  is  a  little  timely  encourage- 
ment. This  system  of  a  public  agent  to  look  after  all  cases  of  first 
arrests  for  minor  offenses  has  been  tried  for  a  number  of  years  in 
Massachusetts,  with  most  satisfactory  results.  A  gentleman  who 
once  filled  the  position  of  agent,  and  is  now  at  the  head  of  one  of  the 
excellent  reformatory  institutions  of  that  State,  recently  stated  that 
they  had  found  it  necessary  actually  to  imprison  only  a  little  over 
one-fourth  of  those  who  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  police.  In  most 
cases  they  procured  better  homes  for  the  young  offenders,  and  found 
that  they  did  well  thereafter.  In  Baltimore,  as  I  am  informed,  the 
same  plan  has  been  tried  on  a  smaller  scale,  but  with  most  gratifying 
results.  The  present  neglect  is  productive  of  crime.  In  those  cases 
that  prove  incorrigible,  and  in  which  something  must  be  done,  and  it 
becomes  necessary  to  try  a  party  for  the  commission  of  further  offenses 
of  a  light  character,  the  suit  should,  except  in  extreme  cases,  be  begun 
by  civil  process.  Then,  this  man  should  either  directly  assist  the 
magistrate  by  sitting  with  him,  or  at  least  should  testify  to  the  result 
of  his  efforts  in  the  case,  giving  fully  the  character,  habits,  surround- 
ings, history,  and  associations  of  the  accused,  and  also  show  whether, 
from  all  the  information  obtainable,  there  is  a  reasonable  prospect 
of  the  offender's  yet  reforming  and  living  an  industrious,  orderly  life 
if  the  sentence  were  suspended.  And  if  the  magistrate  is  of  opinion 
that  there  is  yet  a  reasonable  prospect  of  reformation,  sentence  should 
be  suspended  and  the  offender  let  go,  with  the  understanding  that 
he  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  under  the  supervision  of  the  superintendent 
of  the  district,  and  that  he  can  at  any  time  be  taken  into  custody. 

But  Few  Women  would  be  Imprisoned. — It  is  safe  to  say  that 
tinder  such  a  regulation  very  few  women  would  ever  have  to  be  in- 
carcerated, and  the  present  diabolical  practice  of  annually  arresting 
thousands  of  friendless  and  helpless  creatures  for  trivial  offenses — 


REMEDY.  47 

in  many  cases  for  no  offense  at  all — and  locking  them  up  like  so  many 
cattle  in  cells,  and  then  fining  them  and  sending  them  to  the  bridewell, 
would  cease. 

If,  however,  the  magistrate  is  of  opinion  that  from  all  the  informa- 
tion obtainable  there  is  no  prospect  of  reformation,  then  the  offender 
should  be  sentenced  generally  to  the  house  of  correction,  not  for  a  few 
days  or  for  a  few  months,  as  is  now  the  practice,  from  which  no  good 
comes,  nor  can  come,  but  simply  to  the  house  of  correction,  the  maxi- 
mum time  of  confinement  there  to  be  fixed  by  law,  and  to  be  not  less 
than  several  years,  but  the  actual  time  of  confinement  to  be  determined 
in  each  case  by  the  conduct  of  the  offender,  as  hereafter  explained. 

The  house  of  correction  should  be  conducted  with  some  modifica- 
tions upon  the  principle  obtaining  in  the  reformatory  at  Elmira, 
N.  Y.  This  institution,  as  a  reformatory,  appears  to  be  far  in  advance 
of  any  institution  of  the  kind  in  this  country,  and  to  be  productive 
of  the  most  gratifying  results.  The  principle  upon  which  it  is  con- 
ducted, and  upon  which  offenders  are  confined  there,  is,  in  brief,' this: 
The  prisoner  enters  for  no  definite  time,  except  that  the  maximum 
time  is  fixed  by  law,  and  that  he  must  stay  at  least  one  year.  And 
while  treated  with  firmness  he  is  yet  treated  kindly,  and  an  effort  is 
made  to  develop  his  self-respect;  he  is  given  to  understand  that  it  is 
largely  for  his  own  good  that  he  is  confined,  and  that  the  length  of 
confinement  will  depend  on  himself;  that  as  soon  as  he  shows  that  he  is 
able  to  govern  himself,  and  that  he  can  safely  be  trusted  to  make  an 
honest  living  and  live  an  orderly  life,  he  will  not  only  be  given  his 
liberty,  but  an  effort  will  be  made  to  find  him  employment.  Then, 
as  a  part  of  his  prison  duties,  every  prisoner  must  attend  a  school 
conducted  within  the  prison-walls,  and  take  a  regular  course  of  in- 
struction, while,  at  the  same  time,  he  is  required  to  do  a  given  amount 
of  work  every  day;  thus,  in  fact,  a  great  many  acquire  there  a  good 
education,  and  a  preparation  for  the  duties  of  life  which  they  never 
would  have  got  elsewhere.  The  conduct  and  development  of  the 
prisoner  are  watched  from  day  to  day,  and  when  the  board  of  in- 
spectors, who  at  the  same  time  are  put  in  possession  of  all  the  facts 
relating  to  the  previous  history  and  condition  of  the  prisoner,  are  of 
opinion  that  he  can  maintain  himself  against  his  evil  propensities  or 
surroundings,  they  secure  him  employment,  and  send  him  out,  as 
it  were,  on  a  probationary  parole,  they  continuing,  for  at  least  six 
months,  to  look  after  him,  by  corresponding  with  his  employer  and 
otherwise.  Should  he  do  well  during  his  probationary  period,  he  is 
dropped ;  if  not,  then  the  inspectors  have  the  power  to  take  him  again 
into  custody.  So  different  is  the  treatment  of  prisoners  in  this  institu- 


48  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

tion  from  that  in  the  ordinary  prison,  that  such  a  thing  as  an  attempt 
to  escape  is  almost  unknown,  although  the  prisoners  are  trusted  to  an 
extent  which  could  not  be  even  thought  of  in  other  institutions. 
And  in  several  instances  where  probationers  were  unlucky  in  losing 
their  jobs,  and  were  not  able  to  get  other  work,  rather  than  commit 
crimes  they  came  back  and  voluntarily  entered  the  prison  until  another 
job  was  secured,  when  they  again  went  out  and  got  along  well. 

In  connection  with  such  a  system  as  this,  the  prisoner  should  be 
not  only  permitted,  but  required,  to  earn  something  for  himself  while 
in  prison,  over  and  above  the  actual  expense  of  keeping  him,  as  will 
be  more  fully  explained  in  discussing  Prison  Labor. 

Under  this  system  none  would  be  subjected  to  the  prison  in- 
fluences except  those  whose  character,  vicious  inclination,  or  con- 
firmed habits  rendered  their  restraint  necessary  for  the  best  interests 
of  society,  and  this  number  would  be  reduced  to  a  minimum;  and 
these,  being  the  vicious,  could  be  held  in  restraint  until  it  was  thought 
safe  to  liberate  them,  or  until  the  maximum  time  fixed  by  law  ex- 
pired. 

Third.  As  to  the  lighter  offenses  that  are  yet  classed  with  crime, 
such  as  petty  thefts,  etc.,  the  treatment,  instead  of  being  alike  in  all 
cases,  as  at  present,  should  be  varied  to  meet  each  particular  case; 
instead  of  being  bound  over  to  the  grand  jury,  as  now,  they  should 
be  tried  at  once  by  magistrate  and  jury.  The  treatment  described 
under  the  last  head  should,  to  a  great  extent,  be  followed.  The  super- 
intendent should  investigate  the  previous  character,  habits,  condition, 
and  associations  of  the  offender,  and  the  magistrate  or  jury  should 
determine,  in  each  case,  first,  whether  the  accused  is  guilty  of  the 
offense  charged,  and  secondly,  the  magistrate  should  determine 
whether  sentence  should  be  suspended  as  discussed  above. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  offenses  of  the  character  now  under  con- 
sideration are  often  committed  by  parties  who  are  not  criminals,  and 
who,  if  properly  treated,  would  never  again  be  guilty  of  any  offense, 
the  simple  detection  alone  being  sufficient  for  all  purposes  of  reform, 
while  additional  prison  treatment  would  only  harden  and  debase. 

Fourth.  As  to  those  guilty  of  the  graver  offenses,  and  all  those 
cases  that  show  a  deliberate  criminal  intent,  they  should  be  tried  at 
once,  directly  upon  information  of  the  prosecuting  attorney,  or  upon 
warrant  sworn  out  by  private  parties,  instead  of  being  sent  by  the 
circuitous  grand  jury  route  as  now.  And  on  the  trial  all  that  can 
be  learned  about  the  previous  condition,  character,  habits,  etc.,  of  the 
prisoner  should  be  shown,  not  simply  by  his  friends,  but  by-the  prose- 
cution, the  jury  to  determine  whether  the  prisoner  is  guilty  of  the 


REMEDY.  49 

offense  charged,  but  nothing  more.  In  fixing  sentence,  the  prisoner, 
if  young  and  the  offense  is  his  first,  should  be  sentenced  generally  to 
the  house  of  correction.  If  not,  or  if  he  has  shown  strong  criminal 
propensities,  he  should  be  sent  to  the  penitentiary  under  an  indeter- 
minate sentence;  the  maximum  as  well  as  the  minimum  time  of  con- 
finement being  fixed  by  law.  There  he  should  be  not  only  permitted, 
but  required,  to  earn  something  to  be  carried  to  his  credit  before  being 
again  discharged,  as  will  be  explained  hereafter;  so  that  when  again  set 
free  he  will  not  be  in  a  condition  in  which  he  can  scarcely  do  anything 
except  beg,  starve,  or  steal. 

NOTK. — The  law  of  Massachusetts,  just  referred  to,  provides  for  the 
appointment  of  probation  officers,  who  shall  examine  the  conditions  of  every 
person  arrested,  and,  if  they  think  best,  endeavor  to  save  him  from  imprison- 
ment. This  law  has  produced  results  so  astonishing  that  I  here  give  its  most 
important  features,  and  also  a  summary  of  the  results  of  the  first  ten  years' 
experience  under  it  in  and  about  Boston.  Having  provided  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  probation  officers — one  in  each  district — and  for  the  manner  in  which 
notice  shall  be  given  them  of  every  arrest,  among  other  things  it  says: 

"Section  75.  Such  probation  officer  shall  carefully  inquire  into  the  char- 
acter and  offense  of  every  person  arrested  for  crime  in  his  city  or  town,  for  the 
purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  the  accused  may  reasonably  be  expected  to 
reform  without  punishment,  and  shall  keep  a  full  record  of  the  results  of  his 
investigations. 

"Section  76.  Such  probation  officer,  if  satisfied,  upon  investigation,  that 
the  best  interests  of  the  public  and  of  the  accused  would  be  subserved  by 
placing  him  upon  probation,  shall  recommend  the  same  to  the  court  trying  the 
case,  and  the  court  may  permit  the  accused  to  be  placed  upon  probation,  upon 
such  terms  as  it  may  deem  best,  having  regard  to  his  reformation.  [When 
probation  is  recommended  by  the  officer,  the  prisoner  is  practically  released  on 
his  own  bond.] 

''Section  78.  He  shall  attend  the  sessions  of  the  courts  held  within  said 
county  for  criminal  business,  investigate  the  cases  of  persons  accused  or  con- 
victed of  crimes  and  misdemeanors,  and  recommend  to  the  courts  the  placing 
on  probation  of  sucn  persons  as  may  reasonably  be  expected  to  reform  without 
punishment.  He  shall  have  a  place  in  the  office  of  the  superintendent  of  police. 
When  he  deems  it  advisable  for  any  person  placed  on  probation  to  be  sent  out 
of  the  State  at  the  expense  of  the  city,  the  city  council  may  make  the  necessary 
appropriation  for  the  purpose,  to  be  expended  by  him,  under  the  direction  of 
the  superintendent  of  police,  and  he  shall  render  an  account  of  such  expendi- 
tures, with  the  items,  quarterly,  to  said  superintendent.  He  shall  also,  as  far 
as  practicable,  visit  the  offenders  placed  on  probation  by  the  court,  at  his 
suggestion,  and  render  such  assistance  and  encouragement  as  will  tend  to 
prevent  their  again  offending.  Any  person  placed  upon  probation,  upon  his 
recommendation,  may  be  re-arrested  by  him,  upon  approval  of  the  superin- 
tendent of  police,  without  further  warrant,  and  again  brought  before  the  court; 
and  the  court  may  thereupon  proceed  to  sentence,  or  may  make  any  other 
lawful  disposition  of  the  case." 

4 


50  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

The  law  was  passed  in  1878,  and  on  January  i,  1889,  Mr.  Edward 
H.  Savage,  probation  officer  for  the  central  district  of  Boston,  made 
a  report  of  his  work  for  the  year  1888,  showing  that  during  the  year 
there  had  been  referred  to  him  1,056  cases  in  his  district,  which  were 
disposed  of  as  follows: 

Done  well  and  were  dismissed 473 

Sent  to  their  country  homes 329 

Sent  to  charity  homes 138 

Sailors  sent  to  sea 49 

Died  before  term  of  probation  expired 3 

Did  not  improve  and  were  surrendered  for  sentence 52 

Ran  away 12 

Total    1056 

Of  these,  880  would  have  been  imprisoned,  except  for  the  provi- 
sions of  this  law;  and  the  minimum  time  of  imprisonment  in  all  these 
cases  put  together  would  have  amounted  to  2,334  months,  or  nearly 
200  years,  which  was  practically  saved  to  both  the  persons  arrested 
and  to  society,  for,  had  the  accused  been  imprisoned,  they  would 
probably  not  have  earned  anything  for  themselves  or  for  society.  Be- 
sides, there  was  saved  to  the  public  $22,978  in  prison  expenses. 

The  offenses  charged  ranged  from  forgery  to  vagrancy.  Under 
the  head  of  work  done  by  agent,  appears  the  following: 

Visits  to'  homes  of  persons  on  probation 1061 

Visits  at  office  by  persons  on  probation 1467 

Reports  from  persons  sent  to  country  homes 337 

Reports  from  persons  sent  to  private  charity  homes 208 

Investigations  for  persons  charged  with  crime 3673 

Places  of  employment  secured  for  persons  on  probation. .       64 

Temperance  pledges  taken  by  persons  on  probation 557 

Investigations  on  applications  for  release  from  prison. ...       53 

(In  reference  to  the  last  item,  it  should  be  stated  that  this  law 
provides  that  persons  already  imprisoned  may,  under  certain  condi- 
tions, be  released.)  A  summary  of  the  ten  years'  experience  is  also 
given  as  follows: 

1879  1880  1881  1882  1883  1884  1885  1886  1887  1888 

Whole  number  taken  on  pro- 
bation    430  376  418  549  788  846  797  852  827  1056 

Did  well  and  were  dis- 
charged    375  335  377  489  718  757  742  790  784  99.- 

Proved  incorrigible   55      41      41      60      70      89      55      62      43      64 

The  report  also  shows  that,  had  there  been  no  probation,  all  those 
that  were  saved  must  have  been  sentenced  and  imprisoned,  and  their 


REMEDY.  51 

sentences  during  the  ten  years,  when  put  together,  would  have 
amounted  to  1,715  years  and  ten  months,  or  an  average  of  171  years 
and  seven  months  of  time  each  year,  all  this  having  been  saved  to  the 
accused  and  their  families,  as  well  as  to  society;  for  in  prison  their 
time  would  have  been  substantially  a  dead  loss,  while  the  extra  prison 
expense  to  the  public  during  the  ten  years  would  have  been  $210,856. 
But  all  this  sinks  into  insignificance  when  compared  with  the  loss 
which  would  have  followed  when  the  imprisonment  was  over.  For  in 
most  cases  the  discharged  convict  would  have  been  unable  to  make  a 
living;  in  fact,  he  would  have  been  a  ruined  man  or  boy,  who  would 
never  do  much  for  himself  or  for  society,  but  in  many  cases  would  be 
almost  forced  into  a  criminal  career  to  prey  upon  society. 

I  have  thus  far  given  only  the  results  in  one  probation  district, 
but  the  results  in  other  districts  in  and  about  Boston  were  of  the 
same  gratifying  character.  Mr.  George  N.  Parker,  the  officer  for 
the  South  Boston  district,  summarizes  his  report  as  follows:  "About 
ninety-three  per  cent,  of  the  persons  placed  under  my  care  have  done 
well  and  have  been  discharged.  On  account  of  their  poverty  all 
would  have  had  to  go  to  prison  had  they  been  sentenced  on  the  day 
of  trial.  But,  as  probation  was  intervened,  many  of  them  have  since 
lived  good,  orderly  lives;  have  been  a  blessing  to  their  families;  have 
kept  their  homes  from  being  broken  up  and  their  children  sent  to 
charitable  institutions.  So  that  the  workings  of  probation  have  in 
many  cases  been  twofold,  viz:,  reformed  the  parents  and  saved  the 
children." 

In  his  report  for  1889,  Mr.  Savage  says:  "In  the  1,125  cases  dis- 
posed of  during  the  year,  1,065,  or  ninety-four  per  cent.,  were  ac- 
credited with  doing  well,  while  60,  or  less  than  six  per  cent.,  proved 
incorrigible.  *  *  *  Of  the  315  persons  sent  home,  a  majority  were 
strangers  in  the  city — had  been  convicted  of  some  minor  offense  and 
were  without  means.  They  were  sent  home  to  save  them  from  prison. 
Among  them  were  forty-nine  young  women  convicted  the  first  time, 
and  were  sent  to  parents  or  relatives  to  save  them  not  only  from  prison, 
but  a  probable  life  of  infamy.  *  *  *  Probation,  by  securing  op- 
portunity for  hundreds  of  unfortunate  specimens  of  human  frailty 
who  show  an  honest  desire  to  reform;  by  restoring  to  destitute  and 
suffering  families  those  on  whom  they  were  dependent  for  the  neces- 
saries of  life ;  and  by  aiding  to  stay  the  increase  of  the  criminal  classes 
— renders  a  service  that  outweighs  any  pecuniary  consideration." 

Mr.  Wm.  F.  Reed,  probation  officer  for  the  Roxbury  district,  closes 
his  report  for  the  year  1888  as  follows:  "Probation  has  saved  many 
of  both  sexes  from  exposure,  shame,  and  loss  of  situation,  in  cases 


52  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

where  they  had  committed  their  first  offense,  and  not  only  saved  them 
for  the  time  being,  but  for  all  times."  I  will  simply  add  to  the  above 
that  I  am  informed  that  boys  and  young  women  have  almost  entirely 
disappeared  from  the  prisons  of  Massachusetts. 

The  method  of  procedure  is  simply  to  continue  a  case  for  three 
months,  and  then  to  continue  it  again  as  often  as  may  be  deemed 
necessary.  If  the  accused  does  well,  he  is  finally  discharged.  If  he 
does  not  do  well,  he  can  be  sentenced  at  any  time. 

Few  Run  Away. — It  is  a  most  remarkable  circumstance  that  so 
few  run  away.  Thus,  out  of  1,056  placed  on  probation  in  one  district 
in  one  year,  only  12  ran  away,  and,  on  the  whole,  the  average  of  run- 
aways is  scarcely  one  and  one-half  per  cent. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

INDETERMINATE   SENTENCES. 

The  idea  of  having  the  maximum  length  of  confinement  fixed  by 
law,  and  then  sentencing  offenders  generally  and  letting  their  actual 
confinement  be  determined  by  certain  conditions,  though  compara- 
tively new,  is  meeting  with  general  approval  by  men  who  have  given 
this  subject  much  thought.  W.  D.  Patterson,  superintendent  of  the 
Cleveland  house  of  correction,  in  his  report  for  the  year  1881,  says  on 
this  point: 

"It  is  worse  than  folly  to  attempt  or  expect  the  reformation  of  such 
old-time  chronic  offenders  as  frequent  our  police  courts  every  week 
or  every  month  when  they  are  out  of  confinement,  by  the  infliction  of 
such  penalties  as  an  imprisonment  of  five,  ten,  or  thirty  days,  or  by 
the  imposition  of  a  fine  and  costs.  The  object  sought  to  be  accom- 
plished by  such  a  course,  however  good  the  intention  of  the  law, 
or  however  correct  the  motives  of  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  enforce 
the  same,  must  end  in  an  expensive  failure,  and  the  offenders  con- 
tinue in  their  degradation  and  debauchery  and  bestial  inebriety,  not- 
withstanding the  law  and  the  courts  and  the  prison.  Instead,  as  now, 
let  them  be  committed  as  children  are  to  the  house  of  refuge,  or  as 
prisoners  are  now  committed  to  the  New  York  State  Reformatory 
at  Elmira,  until  their  reformation  is  accomplished.  An  imprisonment 
in  such  cases  as  the  above  would  not  only  be  wise  and  beneficial  to  the 
offenders,  but  would  be  of  especial  advantage  to  die  community 
financially." 

In  the  report  of  the  committee  on  prisons,  made  in  1881.  to  the 
legislature  of  California,  with  some  reflection  on  prison  discipline 


INDETERMINATE    SENTENCES.  53 

and  management,  the  question  of  "indeterminate  sentences"  is  thus 
discussed: 

"By  indeterminate  sentences  is  meant  that  all  persons  in  a  State 
who  are  convicted  of  crimes  or  offenses  before  a  competent  court 
shall  be  deemed  wards  of  the  State  and  shall  be  committed  to  a  board 
of  guardians,  until,  in  their  judgment,  they  may  be  returned  to  society 
with  ordinary  safety,  and  in  accord  with  their  own  highest  welfare. 
If  this  principle  be  adopted,  the  confinement  of  a  prisoner  will  depend 
upon  his  own  exertions  to  earn  promotion  and  eventual  freedom. 
The  duration  of  confinement  is  placed  under  the  control,  and  is  de- 
termined by  the  conduct,  of  the  convict  himself.  The  advantages  of 
an  indeterminate  sentence  arc: 

"i.     It  supplants  the  law  of  force  by  the  law  of  love. 

"2.  It  secures  certainty  of  restraint  and  continued  treatment, 
which  operate  to  prevent  crime,  as  severity  does  not. 

"3.  It  makes  possible  the  arrest  and  right  training  of  that  whole 
brood  of  beginners,  before  great  depravity  is  reached  and  character 
is  irretrievably  fixed. 

"4.  It  utilizes  for  reformatory  ends  the  motive  that  is  always  the 
strongest — the  desire  to  be  released,  the  love  of  liberty. 

"5.  It  removes  the  occasion,  and  so  mollifies  the  feeling  of  ani- 
mosity usually  felt  toward  the  law  and  its  officers,  puts  the  personal 
interest  of  the  prisoner  plainly  in  obedience  to  the  rules  of  discipline, 
and  leads  him  to  co-operate  with  those  laboring  for  his  welfare." 

Again,  under  the  head  of  "classifications,"  the  report  continues: 

"It  is  self-evident  that  the  young  offender  should  be  disassociated 
from  the  old  criminal;  that  the  person  who  has  committed  the  first 
offense,  perhaps  venial,  should  be  separated  from  the  hardened  villain; 
that  the  comparatively  innocent  should  not  be  associated  with  the 
pronounced  guilty.  The  real  classification  is  one  based  on  character, 
conduct,  and  merit,  as  shown  in  the  daily  routine  of  prison  life." 

In  the  report  of  the  special  commission  of  the  State  of  Connecti- 
cut on  contract  convict  labor,  with  accompanying  papers,  1880,  the 
reformatory  at  Elmira,  N.  Y.,  is  thus  commented  upon: 

"There  are  several  peculiarities  about  this  prison,  which,  so  far 
as  your  committee  is  aware,  are  not  found  at  any  other  in  this  country, 
and  which  tend  largely  to  its  success.  It  is  strictly  a  reformatory, 
and  as  such  is  graded  into  three  classes.  No  prisoner  is  received  over 
thirty  years  of  age,  and  all  only  for  the  first  offense.  Special  laws 
have  been  enacted,  all  of  which  are  in  the  interest  of  reform,  and  to 
enable  the  proposers  of  this  experiment  to  give  the  plan  a  full  and  fair 
trial.  The  prisoners  are  not  sentenced  to  a  definite,  fixed  period, 


54  LIFE   QUESTIONS. 

but  for  a  maximum  term.  Upon  entering  the  prison  they  are  received 
into  the  second  grade,  from  which  they  are  promoted  to  the  first  for 
good  conduct,  or  degraded  into  the  third  for  bad.  *  *  *  As  a 
reformatory,  the  prison,  so  far,  is  a  success.  All  the  power  of  hope, 
love,  ambition,  pride,  and  shame  is  brought  to  bear  upon  each  indi- 
vidual; every  possibility  of  a  speedy  liberation  and  success  in  the 
future  is  held  up  to  the  prisoner — of  places  of  respect  and  honor  in 
society  and  confidence  in  business,  if  by  well-doing  they  deserve 
respect  and  confidence;  or  shame,  poverty,  and  a  prison,  if,  by  a 
return  to  criminal  practices,  they  again  forfeit  their  right  to  liberty. 
Such  treatment  can  have  but  one  result.  Whenever,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  superintendent  and  board  of  managers,  a  prisoner  has  shown, 
by  long-continued  good  conduct,  that  he  is  fit  to  be  trusted  with 
liberty,  he  is  given  a  leave  of  absence,  during  which  time  he  must 
keep  the  superintendent  informed  of  his  whereabouts,  and  of  his  con- 
dition and  prospects,  until,  after  a  time  of  trial,  having  proved  his 
reformation  by  his  conduct,  he  is  given  a  full  discharge.  Out  of 
twenty-four  liberated  on  parole,  twenty-two  earned  their  discharge  by 
showing  their  fitness  for  liberty,  one  was  returned  to  prison  to  serve 
out  the  full  length  of  his  sentence,  and  one  left  the  country.  The  same 
motives  which  induce  these  prisoners  to  strive  for  the  highest  grade 
also  induce  them  to  do  the  most  and  best  work." 

The  following  extract  is  taken  from  the  message  of  Governor 
Hoyt  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  January  4,  1881 : 

"What  can  be  done  for  the  very  young,  up  to  the  age  of  sixteen 
years,  who,  by  commitments  by  courts  and  magistrates,  have  fallen 
in£o  the  hands  of  the  law,  for  various  offenses,  has  been  well  exem- 
plified by  the  house  of  refuge  in  Philadelphia  and  the  Pennsylvania 
reform  school  at  Morganza.  Amid  some  controversy  over  these 
schools,  and  the  methods  at  the  bottom  of  them,  it  is  too  late  now  to 
question  their-  value  and  service,  although  neither  has  as  yet  reached 
an  equipment  necessary  for  the  best  work.  The  purpose  of  their  ex- 
istence, and  the  aim  of  their  managers,  is  to  rescue  their  inmates  from 
the  evil  associations  out  of  which  they  have  come  and  to  reform  them. 
Few  of  these  waifs  have  responsible  parentage  or  guardianship.  They 
are  quite  sure  to  become  State  charges.  The  State,  co-operating 
with  private  benefactors,  proposes  to  return  them,  self-supporting,  to 
society,  under  the  best  auspices  the  case  will  admit.  Within  the  limits 
of  the  school  they  are  moulded,  intellectually  and  morally,  by  com- 
petent, careful  teachers,  and  instructed,  trained  and  drilled  to  some 
trade  or  induFtria!  pursuit.  The  effort  is  to  reproduce,  within  the 
inclosurc,  the  exact  condition  of  society  they  will  encounter  when  they 


INDETERMINATE    SENTENCES.  55 

return  to  the  world.  This  requires  time,  and  the  inmates  are  re- 
tained until  the  work  is  more  or  less  completely  done.  The  process 
goes  upon  the  correct  and  safe  assumption  that  it  is  impossible  to 
reform  the  conduct  of  a  child  or  man  without  first  measurably  reform- 
ing his  nature.  The  scheme  is  no  longer  an  experiment,  as  it  has 
been  faithfully  worked  out  in  England,  France,  Germany,  and  many 
of  the  States  of  our  Union.  This  leads  up  to  an  extension  of  the 
general  method,  which,  in  the  judgment  of  political  economists  of 
the  very  highest  authority,  promises  the  most  beneficial  results.  This 
will  include  all  the  first  offenders,  except  of  the  most  brutal  type, 
under  the  age  say  of  thirty  years.  The  purpose  of  the  process  is  also 
to  return  them  to  society,  with  the  preparation  and  discipline  best 
fitted  to  enable  them  to  earn  an  honest  livelihood,  permit  them  to 
retain  their  self-respect,  and  fit  them  to  resume  their  places  among 
their  fellow-men,  if  they  so  choose,  without  the  brand  of  infamous 
punishment  or  penal  servitude  upon  them.  The  aim  and  scope  is  to 
give  the  convict  intellectual,  moral,  and  industrial  training,  systematic 
habits,  and  definite  purposes,  in  a  reformatory  school,  and  not  in  a 
penitentiary;  to  afford  him  another  chance  in  life;  in  short,  to  help 
him  to  help  himself. 

''In  the  "discretion  of  the  court  rendering  the  sentence,  defendants 
convicted  of  a  first  offense  of  such  magnitude  as  to  justify  adequate 
imprisonment,  and  under  the  age  of  thirty  years,  are  committed  to 
such  an  intermediate  prison.  They  go  without  a  determinate  sentence, 
but  cannot  be  held  for  a  period  longer  than  the  maximum  term  fixed 
by  law  for  the  offense.  Under  a  proper  system  of  grades  and  classes 
and  marks,  every  motive  to  shorten  the  period  of  detention  is  pre- 
sented. That  period  will  lie  in  the  discretion  of  the  proper  officers 
of  the  institution.  Positions  in  life  are  found  for  them,  and  they  may 
then  be  conditionally  discharged  on  parole,  reporting  from  time  to 
time  thereafter  their  behavior  and  surroundings;  or,  in  default  thereof, 
or  of  good  conduct  for  a  prescribed  period,  they  may  be  liable  to  be 
returned  to  the  institution.  It  has  been  found  by  experience  that  the 
prisoners  thus  discharged  have  been  well  received  again  by  society, 
and  in  one  of  the  largest  institutions  of  this  kind  in  our  land  it  is 
officially  reported  that  less  than  seven  per  cent,  of  the  number  dis- 
charged have  failed  to  maintain  their  promise  of  good  conduct.  I 
refer  to  the  reformatory  at  Elmira,  N.  Y.  The  acts  creating  it,  and 
the  practical  management  there  carried  out,  are  worthy  of  attention 
and  study." 

In  accordance  with  Governor  Hoyt's  recommendation,  a  com- 
mittee composed  of  members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre- 


56  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

sentatiyes  visited  Elmira,  made  a  thorough  inspection  of  the  practice 
pursued  at  the  reformatory,  and  subsequently  submitted  a  report, 
unanimously  advising  the  erection,  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  of 
buildings  in  conformity  with  the  principles  there  in  operation. 

A  commission  from  the  State  of  New  Jersey  also  inspected  the 
reformatory  at  Elmira,  and  made  a  like  recommendation  to  the  legis- 
lature of  that  commonwealth. 

The  Tenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioners  of  Prisons  of 
Massachusetts,  January,  1881,  devotes  considerable  space  to  the  con- 
sideration of  "Indeterminate  Sentences,"  in  the  following  language: 

''Whatever  plan  may  be  adopted  to  afford  the  best  opportunities 
for  accomplishing  the  reformation  of  criminals,  the  highest  results 
can  never  be  attained  while  the  present  system  of  imposing  definite 
sentences  for  crime  is  in  force.  This  was  long  ago  recognized  as 
true  in  the  treatment  of  young  offenders,  and  for  many  years  children 
have  been  sentenced  to  the  reform  schools  for  their  minority,  no  time- 
sentences  being  imposed,  the  power  to  release  them  when  they  are 
deemed  to  be  reformed  being  given  to  the  authorities  in  charge  of  the 
schools. 

"There  are  many  reasons  for  applying  the  same  principle  in  the 
treatment  of  adult  criminals.  The  present  system  holds  out  no 
inducement  to  the  convict  to  reform.  His  sentence  is  a  fixed  one, 
and  expires  on  a  day  certain,  regardless  of  his  conduct  or  of  his  char- 
acter. The  one  thing  he  keeps  more  constantly  in  mind  than  any 
other  is  the  day  of  his  release.  He  knows  that  this  will  not  be  much' 
delayed  by  anything  he  may  do,  and  cannot  be  materially  hastened 
by  good  behavior  or  by  any  change  of  character.  He  learns  to  look 
upon  his  punishment  as  wholly  retributive;  and,  when  he  comes  out  of 
the  prison,  lie  feels  that  he  has  'wiped  out'  the  record  against  him, 
and  is  to  begin  again.  During  his  trial,  his  main  effort,  and  that  of 
his  counsel,  is  to  secure  as  light  a  sentence  as  is  possible,  and  often, 
with  no  conception  of  the  gravity  of  his  offense,  he  harbors  a  spite 
against  the  government  for  punishing  him  too  severely. 

"It  may  be  necessary  to  continue  for  the  present  this  system-  for 
most  offenders,  as  a  change  from  fixed  sentences  to  indefinite  ones 
involves  a  change  in  the  whole  system  of  prison  management  and  dis- 
cipline. But  for  an  institution  whose  first  aim  is  the  reformation  of 
criminals,  indefinite  sentences  must  eventually  prevail.  Under  such 
a  system,  a  convict  would  be  confined  until  he  was  deemed  to  be  re- 
formed, be  it  a  short  or  long  time.  This  throws  around  the  prisoner 
every  possible  inducement  for  self-improvement.  He  realizes  that  his 
future  is  in  his  own  hands.  He  sees  that  the  State  is  not  punishing 


INDETERMINATE    SENTENCES.  57 

him  arbitrarily  for  his  crimes,  but  is  interested  in  his  welfare;  that  he 
is  deprived  of  his  liberty  not  so  much  on  account  of  his  acts  as  on 
account  of  his  character;  and  that  his  right  to  freedom  is  dependent 
upon  his  reformation,  which  in  turn  depends  upon  his  own  use  of  his 
opportunities. 

"With  such  a  view  of  his  offenses,  of  the  results  they  have  brought, 
and  of  the  way  of  obtaining  his  liberty,  he  has  every  inducement  to  do 
his  best.  Some,  with  their  future  thus  in  their  own  hands,  will  speedily 
change  their  habit  of  life,  and  make  resolute  endeavors  to  build  up 
better  characters,  and  can  soon  be  released.  Others  will  come  to  such 
endeavors  very  slowly,  and  some,  possibly,  not  at  all.  Some  of  those 
who  begin  the  struggle  will  fail;  but,  as  a  rule,  they  will  try  again 
and  again,  until  they  attain  some  degree  of  success. 

"In  determining  when  a  convict  has  reformed,  a  great  responsi- 
bility rests  upon  those  who  have  his  training  in  charge.  They  will 
sometimes  be  deceived;  and  sometimes  one  who  has  within  the  prison 
really  reformed,  will  fall  under  temptations  in  a  life  of  freedom,  and 
return  to  a  criminal  life.  But  this  is  equally  true  of  other  wards  of 
the  State.  A  large  percentage  of  those  discharged  from  our  asylums 
for  the  insane  as  cured  return  again  for  treatment,  the  physicians  hav- 
ing been  mistaken  in  regard  to  the  cure,  or  having  over-estimated 
its  permanency  when  the  patient  came  in  contact  with  the  world. 
But  these  mistakes  would  not  lead  any  one  to  suggest  a  fixed  term  of 
confinement  for  the  insane  with  a  discharge  at  its  end,  regardless  of 
the  condition  of  the  person. 

"If  an  indefinite  sentence,  to  be  ended  only  by  his  own  reforma- 
tion, be  deemed  too  severe,  the  indeterminate  sentence  now  imposed  in 
New  York  upon  those  who  are  sent  to  the  State  reformatory  at 
Elmira  ought  certainly  to  be  tried.  A  convict  is  there  sentenced  to 
the  reformatory  for  the  longest  period  for  which  he  could  possibly 
be  sentenced  for  his  offense.  For  instance,  under  our  criminal  code, 
a  person  may  be  sentenced  to  the  State  prison  for  five  years  for  larceny 
from  the  person,  or  he  may  be  sent  to  jail  for  a  lesser  term.  Under 
the  New  York  statutes,  a  person  sent  to  the  reformatory  for  this 
offense  would  merely  be  sentenced  to  that  institution,  and  regardless 
of  the  amount  stolen,  or  of  the  circumstances,  he  could  be  held  for 
five  years,  unless  sooner  reformed.  In  the  reformatory  he  is  sub- 
jected to  the  closest  surveillance  and  the  most  careful  training.  He 
wins  his  release  by  his  deportment  and  by  his  character.  Whenever 
he  is  -thought  to  be  reformed,  he  may  be  released  upon  parole.  He 
continues  under  the  control  of  the  board  of  managers  until  the  ex- 
piration of  five  years,  unless  they  sooner  discharge  him,  precisely  as 


58  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

minors  released  from  the  reform  schools  in  this  State  do.  He  may 
be  returned  to  the  reformatory  for  misbehavior  at  any  time  during  his 
sentence. 

"It  will  be  seen  that  this  plan  holds  out  to  the  convict  the  strongest 
possible  inducements  for  reformation,  both  in  confinement  and  after 
release.  If  anything  in  the  way  of  legislation  will  secure  a  change  of 
life,  this  will;  for  it  takes  advantage  of  every  motive  which  usually 
moves  a  rational  being,  and  makes  full  use  of  the  means  which  are 
most  likely  to  change  a  criminal  into  a  good  citizen.  The  system  has 
produced  excellent  results  in  the  Elmira  reformatory;  and  we  recom- 
mend that  it  be  adopted  in  sentences  to  the  reformatory  prison  for 
women,  and  to  the  reformatory  for  men,  which  we  have  suggested, 
if  it  shall  be  thought  wise  to  send  a  part  of  the  prisoners  to  it  directly 
from  the  courts,  instead  of  transferring  them  from  the  county  prisons." 

In  the  report  from  the  Joint  Committee  of  the  Senate  and  As- 
sembly, appointed  to  investigate  the  affairs  of  the  New  York  State 
reformatory,  submitted  April  27,  1881,  to  the  questions,  "Is  the  re- 
formatory doing  the  work  for  which  it  was  intended?  Is  it  reform- 
ing young  men?  Is  it  a  success?"  the  following  reply  was  presented: 

"We  take  pleasure  in  commending  the  management  for  the  excel- 
lent condition  in  which  the  buildings  and  grounds  are  being  main- 
tained, and  for  the  skill,  thoroughness,  and  efficiency  with  which  the 
work  of  reforming  and  reclaiming  the  inmates  is  being  carried  on. 
The  prisoners  are  all  young  men,  between  sixteen  and  thirty  years  of 
age  when  sentenced  and  convicted  of  their  first  offense.  The  prison 
was  suggested,  planned,  and  is  erected  and  operated,  with  a  view  to 
the  reformation  of  this  class  of  offenders.  We  are  convinced  that  its 
object  is  being  attained  to  a  greater  degree  than  its  best  friends  antici- 
pated. The  structure  has  cost  nearly,  or  quite,  a  million  and  a  half  of 
dollars,  but  the  State  has  something  to  show  for  its  money.  The 
buildings  are  large  and  substantial,  well  lighted  and  ventilated,  and 
models  of  cleanliness  and  good  order.  The  five  hundred  cells  are  of 
good  size  and  comfortable,  each  being  furnished  with  a  bed,  a  chair,  a 
small  cupboard  or  bookcase,  and  a  crude  writing-desk;  and  each  is 
lighted  with  gas.  The  food  supplied  to  prisoners  appears  to  be 
plentiful  and  wholesome,  and  the  clothing  is  all  that  is  required. 
Books  and  writing  materials  are  supplied  as  needed.  In  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  buildings,  as  well  as  in  the  management  of  the  prison, 
everything  compatible  with  reformatory  discipline  seems  to  have 
been  done  with  a  view  to  the  comfort  of  those  who  are  so  unfortunate 
as  to  be  incarcerated  within  its  walls.  The  prisoners  are  kept  hard  at 
work  throughout  the  day,  and  attend  school  during  three  alternate 


INDETERMINATE    SENTENCES.  59 

evenings  of  each  week;  the  intervening  evenings  being  occupied  in 
study.  It  was  the  privilege  of  the  committee  to  attend  the  schools, 
which  we  found  in  the  hands  of  competent  instructors.  The  work 
bore  every  evidence  of  substance  and  thoroughness,  while  the  ad- 
vanced studies  taught,  and  the  brightness  and  the  proficiency  of  the 
pupils,  quite  surprised  us. 

"As  is  well  known  to  the  legislature,  if  not  to  the  people,  the  in- 
mates of  the  reformatory  are  sentenced  to  the  institution  for  an  in- 
definite period  of  time,  the  law  only  providing  that  they  shall  not  be 
imprisoned  for  a  longer  period  than  already  authorized  by  law  in  a 
State  prison  or  penitentiary  for  a  like  offense.  Aside  from  this  pro- 
vision, the  time  of  their  imprisonment  depends  upon  their  industry, 
good  conduct,  and  proficiency  in  studies.  They  are  made  to  under- 
stand that  they  can  regain  a  place  in  society  by  deserving  it.  The 
pride,  self-respect,  and  ambition  of  the  inmates  is  encouraged  and 
stimulated  by  a  system  of  marks  most  skillfully  arranged,  which  re- 
sults in  classifying  them  into  different  grades,  thus  entitling  them, 
as  they  advance,  to  enlarged  privileges,  greater  confidence,  and  better 
and  more  attractive  clothing,  and,  finally,  to  release  upon  parole. 
The  committee  was  struck  with  the  frankness,  cheerfulness,  and  manly 
conduct  of  the  inmates,  and  the  entire  absence  of  that  sullen  and 
dogged  indifference  and  abandonment  so  universal  in  prison  life. 

"In  general,  we  have  none  but  words  of  commendation  for  the 
reformatory  work  of  the  State  reformatory.  The  experiment  is  being 
proved  a  success.  Young  men  who  have  fallen  into  bad  ways  are 
being  saved  to  homes,  friends,  and  society,  instead  of  being  crushed  in 
spirit  and  prepared  for  deeper  shame  and  greater  crimes.  The  prin- 
ciple upon  which  the  reformatory  is  conducted  should,  in  our  judg- 
ment, be  persevered  in,  developed,  and  extended  into  the  other  penal 
institutions  of  the  State." 

In  1881,  Mr.  Langmuir,  inspector  of  prisons  in  Canada,  in  com- 
pany with  a  number  of  Canadian  officials,  visited  the  prisons  in  several 
of  the  States  of  the  Union,  and,  on  his  return,  in  an  interview  pub- 
lished in  the  Toronto  Globe,  gave  his  opinion  of  the  system  in  vogue 
at  Elmira,  as  follows: 

"Q.  Did  you  see  any  new  methods  which  might  be  introduced 
here  in  whole  or  in  part? 

"A.  Yes,  we  did.  At  the  New  York  State  reformatory  for  adult 
males,  at  Elmira,  I  found  certain  features  of  prison  management  de- 
cidedly in  advance  of  our  views.  The  system  has  been  in  operation 
five  years.  The  building  is  a  fine  one,  and  is  furnished  throughout 
with  all  the  modern  conveniences  of  prisons.  Instead  of  the  prisoners 


60  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

being  associated  together,  as  they  are,  without  regard  to  the  differ- 
ences in  their  character  and  conduct,  there  are  four  large  dormitories 
which  provide  sleeping  room  for  four  different  classes  of  prisoners. 
The  distinction  made  is  not  on  account  of  the  offense  for  which  they 
were  committed,  or  the  length  of  the  term  of  imprisonment  to  which 
they  are  liable.  There  are  three  grades,  and  entrance  to  the  higher  of 
these  depends  entirely  on  the  conduct  of  the  prisoner  while  in  prison. 
Offenders  sent  to  this  prison  are  not  sentenced  for  definite  periods,  as 
with  us.  The  State  law  provides  a  maximum  period  of  confinement 
for  the  different  classes  of  crimes,  and  no  minimum.  This  applies 
only  to  the  Elmira  prison.  What  the  real  duration  of  the  sentence 
shall  be  depends  on  the  prisoner.  All  enter  in  the  same  grade,  and 
their  conduct  is  observed  carefully  from  the  very  first,  and  marks  of 
merit  and  demerit  are  given.  By  good  conduct  a  prisoner  may  earn 
promotion  to  the  first  grade,  which  has  certain  privileges  attaching 
to  it.  Here  good  conduct  still  further  promotes  the  interest  of  the 
prisoner,  and  if  the  signs  of  reformation  which  led  to  his  promotion 
from  the  second  grade  are  still  manifest,  the  superintendent  and  prison 
managers  may  release  him  on  a  probation,  which  generally  lasts  six 
months.  The  friends  of  the  prisoner  are  corresponded  with,  and 
their  wishes  consulted.  Arrangements  are  also  made  with  farmers 
and  others  in  a  part  of  the  State  where  the  prisoner  is  not  known,  and 
there  he  is  sent  to  earn  his  living.  Great  care  is  exercised  in  securing 
respectable  employers,  who,  of  course,  are  confidentially  informed 
of  all  the  antecedents  of  the  prisoner.  The  employer  makes  a  report 
at  the  end  of  the  time  on  the  probationer's  conduct  and  sincerity  in  his 
efforts  for  reformation.  The  prisoner  also  reports  every  month.  A 
comparison  is  made  between  these  reports,  and  the  superintendent  and 
board  of  managers  may  then  decide  on  an  unconditional  discharge. 
In  this  way  a  prisoner  is  encouraged  to  reform,  by  the  prospect  of 
shortening  his  term  of  prison  life,  which  may  in  some  cases  last  ten 
years,  to  five  or  six  years,  or  even  to  two  or  three.  Good  conduct 
insures  confidence  and  promotion.  Some  of  the  prisoners  are  even 
employed  as  monitors,  and  some  are  intrusted  with  the  keys  to  various 
apartments.  *  *  *  I  never  saw  a  prison  in  which  the  inmates  had 
less  of  a  convict  expression.  They  were  cheerful,  and  wore  an  ex- 
pression of  openness  and  candor  I  have  never  seen  in  any  other  penal 
institution.  The  great  encouragement  given  to  right  conduct  has  a 
very  salutary  effect,  both  in  securing  good  conduct  and  encouraging 
good  habits  and  desires.  A  prisoner  told  me  that  he  could  scarcely 
sleep  at  night,  thinking  what  he  could  do  the  next  day  to  merit  a 
good  mark.  There  are  other  excellent  features  associated  with  the 


INDETERMINATE    SENTENCES.  61 

system.  The  superintendent,  instead  of  addressing  the  prisoners  as 
a  mass,  must  become  personally  familiar  with  the  disposition  and  con- 
duct of  each  man.  He  is  brought  into  contact  with  each,  and  this 
contact  has  the  effect  of  individualizing  the  prisoner.  Of  course,  no 
pains  are  spared  to  make  each  man,  while  retaining  his  manliness, 
submit  his  will  to  subordination."  I  have  cited  at  length  from  the 
reports  relating  to  the  Elmira  reformatory — not  for  the  purpose  of 
praising  it,  however  excellent  it  may  be — but  to  show  the  opinion  our 
leading  public  men  who  have  examined  the  subject  entertain  in  regard 
to  indeterminate  sentences. 

Sir  Frederick  Hill,  who  obtained  great  reputation  in  the  suc- 
cessful management  of  Scottish  prisons,  said  that  the  chief  reliance 
of  a  prisoner  is  on  hope.  "This,"  he  says,  "secures  the  hearty  co- 
operation of  the  prisoners,  without  which  there  can  be  little  expectation 
of  real  reform.  I  set  a  high  value  on.  the  arrangement  in  convict 
prisons  by  which  it  is  granted  to  a  prisoner,  by  great  self-control,  in- 
dustry, and  exertion  for  moral  improvement,  to  materially  abridge  the 
length  of  his  confinement." 

Dr.  Despine,  an  eminent  physician  and  philosopher  of  France, 
made  a  profound  study  of  the  criminal  from  the  standpoint  of  psy- 
chology, and,  after  showing  that  criminals  are,  as  a  rule,  morally  weak 
and  in  an  abnormal  state,  says: 

"If  these  men  who  are  the  subjects  of  a  real  moral  idiocy  are  dan- 
gerous, they  are,  at  the  same  time,  deserving  of  our  pity.  To  shield 
ourselves  from  danger  we  have  to  separate  them  from  society.  This 
is  in  itself  a  punishment.  But  the  treatment  which  aims  only  to 
punish  is  dangerous  both  to  society  and  the  criminal.  It  rarely  im- 
proves the  latter,  but  often  makes  him  worse.  In  France  it  pro- 
duces from  forty  to  forty-five  per  cent,  of  repeaters.  This  is  because, 
having  taken  as  our  guides  only  fear  and  vengeance,  and  not  scientific 
data,  we  have  never  studied  the  moral  state  which  leads  a  man  to 
crime;  we  have  ignored  this  abnormal  condition.  If  the  criminal  is 
different,  in  a  moral  point,  from  other  men,  the  best  way  to  prevent 
crime  is  to  cause  this  difference  to  cease — not  wholly,  which  is  im- 
possible, but  near  enough  to  render  him  a  safe  member  of  society. 
In  this  view,  it  is  the  first  duty  to  segregate  them,  not,  however,  for 
a  fixed  period  determined  in  advance  'by  the  nature  of  the  crime  com- 
mitted. It  is  rather  the  moral  state  of  the  criminal  that  is  to  be  taken 
into  account. 

"Here  we  have  the  first  point  in  reference  to  the  treatment  of  crim- 
inals, that  of  the  time  of  sequestration  established  by  science,  which  is 
thoroughly  in  accord  with  what  is  demanded  by  common  sense. 


62  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Under  the  system  which  fixes  the  time  in  advance,  we  see  daily  set 
loose  in  society  a  multitude  of  malefactors  who  are  known  to  be 
dangerous.  Does  not  such  a  mode  of  action  wear  absurdity  on  its 
face? 

"In  taking,  as  a  starting  point,  the  principle  that  we  have  here  to 
deal  with  persons  afflicted  with  a  moral  anomaly  in  the  nature  of  a 
disease,  it  is  evident  that  to  cure  or  at  least  lessen  this  malady  should 
be  the  supreme  aim  in  their  treatment.  It  is  to  this  end  that  all  the 
means  employed  ought  to  converge.  Further,  as  the  moral  anomaly 
with  which  criminals  are  attacked  varies  almost  indefinitely,  it  is  as 
irrational  to  treat  all  these  varieties  in  the  same  manner  as  it  would  be 
to  treat  all  the  ailments  of  the  body  alike." 

To  what  is  said  above  about  indeterminate  sentences,  I  will  add 
that,  in  my  opinion,  the  convict  should  be  required  to  earn  some  money 
for  himself,  as  explained  hereafter,  before  he  is  permitted  to  leave  the 
prison,  in  order  that  he  may  not  be  absolutely  dependent,  should  he 
fail  in  either  getting  or  keeping  work. 

For,  granting  that  he  has  completely  reformed,  and  is  anxious  to 
lead  an  honorable  life,  he  is  then  still  no  better,  nor  can  he  possibly  be 
morally  stronger,  than  the  honest  man  who  never  was  in  prison;  and 
even  such  a  man  would  be  in  great  danger  of  becoming  a  criminal 
should  he  suddenly  be  left  without  money,  without  work,  without 
friends,  with  nothing  to  eat,  and  nowhere  to  go  when  night  comes. 

So  long  as  a  man  is  able  to  pay  his  way,  he  preserves  his  self- 
respect  and  is  comparatively  free  from  danger. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
GRAND  JURIES. 

Grand  juries  should  be  abolished.  They  work  a  great  injury  to 
the  innocent,  and  greatly  assist  the  guilty.  For  the  delays  incident  to 
the  action  of  the  grand  jury  keep  hundreds  in  jail,  who  are,  on  exam- 
ination, discharged.  At  the  same  time,  the  great  delay  incidental 
to  their  action  is  of  the  greatest  advantage  to  the  real  criminals.  They 
thus  gain  time,  frequently  many  months,  till  the  public  has  lost  inter- 
est in  their  case,  and  further  delays  have  become  easy  to  procure. 

At  present,  there  is  an  examination  before  a  justice  of  the  peace, 
where  a  number  of  continuances  are  generally  obtained.  Then  the 
offender  is  bound  over  to  await  the  action  of  the  grand  jury,  and  if  he 
cannot  give  bail  he  has  to  go  to  jail,  and  the  worst  criminals  often  are 


GRAND    JURIES.  63 

able  to  give  bail,  while  the  poor,  wrongfully  arrested,  frequently  are 
not.  Owing  to  the  number  of  cases,  trifling  and  otherwise,  requiring 
their  action,  it  frequently  takes  a  number  of  months  before  the  grand 
jury  reaches  the  case.  Then  the  prosecution  is  required  again  to 
produce  all  its  witnesses.  If  an  indictment  is  found,  it  again  takes 
months  before  it  can  be  reached  for  trial,  when  the  whole  agony  has 
once  more  to  be  gone  through  with.  Surely,  no  system  better  calcu- 
lated to  defend  criminals  and  injure  the  innocent  could  well  be  devised. 
Courts  should  always  be  open  for  the  trials  of  criminals,  so  that 
a  continuance  would  be  but  for  a  few  days,  and  not  for  a  number  of 
months  to  the  next  term,  as  now.  Then  the  accused  should  be  tried 
on  information,  so  that  a  trial  could  take  place  immediately  after  the 
offense.  This  would  protect  the  innocent,  and  at  once  bring  to 
justice  the  guilty.  The  speedy  trial  is  what  the  guilty  always  dread. 


PART   SECOND. 


PRISON   LABOR. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PRISON  LABOR.— KIND  OF  WORK  DONE.— EARNINGS  AND  COST 
OF  PRISONERS.— LOSS  TO  SOCIETY.— INNOCENT  SUFFER 
WITH  GUILTY.— REASON  OF  LOW  AVERAGE.— NO  INTEREST 
IN  LABOR  MAKES  POOR  WORKMEN.— LEAVES  HIM  IN 
HELPLESS  CONDITION.— INDUSTRIES  LIMITED. 

There  are  in  vogue  four  methods  of  working  prisoners:  By  the 
first  of  these,  called  the  Public  Account  System,  the  State  furnishes 
material,  and  then  sells  the  goods  made.  By  the  second,  which  is 
known  as  the  Contract  System,  the  services  of  a  specified  number  of 
convicts  are  hired  out  or  contracted  to  one  contractor  for  a  fixed  time, 
and  at  a  fixed  price  per  day,  and  the  money  thus  made  goes  to  the 
State;  by  this  method  the  State  keeps  control  of  the  prisoners  and 
feeds  and  clothes  them.  The  third  is  the  Piece  Price  System,  by  which 
outsiders  supply  the  material,  and  often  some  of  the  machinery,  and 
the  State  manufactures  the  desired  articles  at  a  fixed  price  per  piece. 
These  three  systems  are  in  vogue  in  the  Northern  States,  except 
Delaware;  in  that  State  the  prisoners  do  not  work.  By  the  fourth' 
method  the  convicts  are  leased  out,  and,  as  they  are  thenceforth  clothed 
and  fed  by  the  lessee,  they  receive  from  the  State  scarcely  any  further 
attention.  This  system  prevails  in  many  of  the  Southern  States,  and 
is  by  far  the  most  objectionable  of  all.  Under  it,  there  is  scarcely  a 
possibility  of  the  reformation  of  a  prisoner.  The  lessee  wants  to  make 
as  much  money,  and  give  as  little  in  return,  as  possible;  and,  in  some 
cases,  the  condition  of  the  prisoner  is  said  to  be  far  worse  than  that 
of  the  most  cruelly  treated  slave. 

KIND   OF  WORK   DONE. 

The  work  done  in  prisons  varies.  In  the  Northern  States  it  is 
generally  confined  to  manufacturing;  the  making  of  boots,  shoes,  and 
chairs  being  carried  on  to  a  greater  extent  than  the  making  of  any 

64 


PRISON    LABOR.  65 

other  article,  though  a  great  many  prisoners  work  at  stone-cutting. 
In  some  of  the  Southern  States  mines  are  worked  and  plantations 
managed  by  prisoners. 

EARNINGS  AND  COST  OF  PRISONERS. 

The  average  earnings  of  prisoners  in  the  best  managed  State 
prisons  is  fifty  cents  per  day  for  every  man  engaged  in  what  might  be 
called  productive  labor,  skilled  and  unskilled.  The  average  for  all, 
including  those  that  do  prison  duties,  is  about  thirty-five  cents  per 
day  per  man.  Thus,  in  the  penitentiary  at  Joliet,  Illinois,  which,  in  this 
respect,  is  one  of  the  best  managed  in  the  country,  the  average  contract 
price  per  man  per  day  for  year  ending  September  30,  1881,  was  46.83 
cents,  and  for  year  ending  September  30,  1882,  was  52.52  cents;  and 
the  average  earnings,  including  working  days,  Sundays,  and  holidays, 
was  33.91  cents  and  39.42  cents  during  said  years.  It  will  strike  any 
one  at  a  glance  that  this  is  an  exceedingly  low  average;  that  it  is  less 
than  half  what  a  man  should  earn  and  less  than  half  what  a  free 
laborer  will  earn  on  an  average. 

But,  notwithstanding  this,  many  prisons  in  which  the  inmates  labor 
are  self-sustaining;  some  require  appropriations  by  the  State;  while 
some  actually  have  a  surplus;  the  total  average  cost  of  keeping  (in- 
cluding guarding,  clothing,  etc.)  each  convict  in  the  various  peni- 
tentiaries being  from  twenty-eight  to  thirty-five  cents  per  day. 

LOSS  TO  SOCIETY. 

It  will  be  seen  by  the  above  that  in  the  case  of  every  convict  there 
is  an  actual  dead  loss  to  society  of  over  half  of  his  productive  powers. 
That  is,  over  half  of  his  ability  to  support  not  himself  simply,  but 
others,  is  absolutely  lost.  His  time  is  passing,  he  has  so  many  less 
months  or  years  to  live.  But  he  is  contributing  less  than  half  of  what 
he  should  contribute  as  a  free  man. 

Society  is  so  constituted  that  it  requires  every  able-bodied  man 
to  contribute  a  proportionate  share  toward  the  support  of  the  whole. 
This  he  usually  does  in  supporting  his  family  or  those  depending  on 
him.  And  whenever,  from  any  cause,  he  fails  to  do  this,  there  is  a 
loss  to  society,  and  the  burden  of  the  remainder  is  proportionately 
increased.  This  increased  burden  is  felt  in  various  ways,  and  is  just 
as  real  as  though  the  whole  of  the  loss  had  to  be  collected  in  increased 
taxes  every  year.  In  fact,  to  a  certain  extent  it  is,  for  as  the  num- 
ber of  those  paying  taxes  is  diminished,  the  burden  of  the  remainder 
increases,  and  what  is  paid  directly  and  indirectly  for  charitable  pur- 
poses, to  feed  and  clothe  those  that  are  dependent  for  support  on  those 

5 


66  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

confined  in  prison,  might  as  well  be  paid  in  the  shape  of  taxes.  Fur- 
ther, in  so  far  as  those  dependent  on  a  convict  are  more  poorly  cared 
for,  though  not  actually  objects  of  charity,  they  become  poorer  citi- 
zens, and  are  more  likely  to  be  a  bill  of  expense  than  a  source  of  as- 
sistance to  society  in  the  future.  Even  in  the  case  of  the  convict  who 
has  absolutely  no  one  depending  on  him  society  sustains  this  dead 
loss,  for  his  time  is  lost,  his  best  days  are  passing,  he  is  accumulating 
nothing,  he  is  not  equipping  himself  for  the  struggle  of  life  that  is 
before  him;  he  cannot,  therefore,  after  he  becomes  free,  accomplish 
what  he  otherwise  might  have  done — nay,  all  the  chances  are  against 
him,  and  his  life  liable  to  be  a  failure;  thus  society  will  lose  not  only 
his  assistance,  but  will  actually  find  in  him,  at  some  time  in  the  future, 

a  burden. 

INNOCENT  SUFFER  WITH  GUILTY. 

Under  the  present  system,  the  innocent  are  punished  with  the 
guilty.  The  law  intends  that  its  penalties  shall  fall  only  on  those  that 
actually  violate  it;  but  at  present,  in  many  cases  the  consequences  of 
a  conviction  fall  with  equal  severity  upon  the  innocent  and  dependent, 
for  it  in  effect  takes  away  their  bread.  When,  therefore,  a  man  is  con- 
victed, those  dependent  on  him  are  at  once  left  without  support,  be- 
sides having  to  bear  the  terrible  social  blight  which  settles  upon  fami- 
lies of  convicts,  isolating  them  from  the  rest  of  mankind  and  making 
them  objects  of  aversion,  for  which  it  is  hard  to  suggest  a  remedy,  and 
which  cannot  well  be  avoided.  But  to  be  deprived  of  the  means  with 
which  to  procure  the  necessaries  of  life  is  an  uncalled-for  hardship ;  for 
the  man  is  not  dead,  his  strength  is  not  destroyed,  he  is  as  able  as 
ever  to  work,  and  in  very  many  cases  would  gladly  work  harder  than 
ever  before,  if  thereby  he  could  do  anything  for  those  he  leaves  be- 
hind. And  why  should  he  not  be  permitted  to  do  so — nay,  why 
should  he  not  be  actually  required  to  do  so?  He  has  violated  the  law, 
it  is  true,  but  his  family  have  not;  he  ought  to  be  punished,  but  they 
ought  not  to  be.  While,  therefore,  he  must  be  deprived  of  his  liberty, 
must  be  isolated  from  society  and  bear  the  hardships  of  prison  life, 
he  should  still  be  not  only  permitted,  but  required,  to  contribute  to 
the  support  of  those  that  are  absolutely  dependent  on  him.  True,  the 
State  may  require  that  he  first  work  enough  for  it  to  pay  the  expense 
of  feeding,  clothing,  guarding,  and  superintending  him;  but  this,  in 
most  penitentiaries,  is  only  from  twenty-eight  to  thirty-two  cents  per 
day,  while  he  is  capable  of  earning,  perhaps,  three  times  as  much. 
Upon  this  subject,  W.  Searles,  chaplain  of  the  penitentiary  at  Auburn, 
N.  Y.,  in  his  report,  says: 

"An  agreeable  and  profitable  intercourse  with  the  inmates  of  the 


PRISON    LABOR.  67 

prison,  which  I  enjoy,  arises  out  of  their  social  correspondence,  which 
it  falls  to  my  lot  to  conduct.  The  prisoners  are  permitted  to  visit  my 
office  during  the  week  to  obtain  permission  to  write,  or  for  advice,  or 
to  transact  such  necessary  business,  or  ask  for  such  favors  as  rules  will 
permit.  I  read,  record,  and  direct  all  letters  that  go  out,  and  also  read 
all  that  come  in.  This  opens  up  my  way  to  their  most  tender  and 
susceptible  moral  feelings  and  family  sympathies.  The  letters  received 
by  the  prisoners  from  their  almost  broken-hearted  wives,  mothers, 
sisters,  and  friends,  enjoining  upon  them  repentance,  reformation,  and 
obedience  to  the  prison  rules,  that  they  may  the  sooner  be  reunited, 
must  have  a  great  influence  upon  them,  both  for  their  present  and 
future  good.  And,  sir,  it  is  the  perusal  of  these  letters  from  the  poor 
old  mother,  the  broken-hearted  wife,  the  suffering  children,  the  griev- 
ing brothers  and  sisters,  that  enforces  upon  my  mind  the  lesson  that 
no  man  liveth  to  himself  alone.  In  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  these 
mothers,  wives,  and  children  are  poor,  and  were  dependent  upon  the 
son,  the  husband,  and  the  father  for  the  actual  necessaries  of  life. 
In  consequence  of  his  imprisonment  they  must  suffer.  While  it  is  the 
duty  of  society  to  protect  itself  against  the  inroads  of  the  criminals, 
let  me  inquire,  is  it  not  equally  the  duty  of  society  to  protect  from 
want  and  suffering  the  innocent  wife  and  child?  As  I  have  hereto- 
fore suggested,  permit  me  again  to  express  the  hope  that  the  incoming 
legislature  will  make  some  provision  by  which  a  portion,  however 
small,  6f  the  convict's  earnings  may  be  set  apart  for  his  own  or  his 
family's  benefit." 

This  system,  therefore,  works  a  great  injustice  to  the  innocent, 
and,  in  the  long  run,  entails  a  heavy  burden  on  society;  for  where  the 
family  of  a  convict  is  left  without  support,  the  burden  of  providing 
falls  directly  on  society.  It  is  immaterial  whether  this  burden  be  dis- 
charged in  taxes  or  in  charity,  or  in  the  loss  of  goods  stolen:  it  still 
comes  from  the  public. 

Further  than  this,  the  children  of  a  convict  thus  situated,  having 
no  regular  source  to  look  to  for  bread,  are  liable  to  grow  up  violators 
of  the  law  from  the  sheer  force  of  their  surroundings;  for  squalor  and 
misery  are  hot-beds  of  crime. 

So  that,  instead  of  extirpating  crime  by  the  punishment  inflicted, 
we  create  anew  the  conditions  out  of  which  it  grows — that  is,  we 
constantly  create  the  conditions  that  will  be  certain,  in  due  time,  to 
bring  forth  new  criminals,  with  all  the  expense  to  the  public  that  is 
incident  to  arresting,  prosecuting,  and  confining  law-breakers.  In 
fact,  it  would  be  much  cheaper  for  the  public,  and  certainly  much 
better  even  to  charge  the  convict  nothing  for  guarding,  superintend- 


68  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

ing,  feeding,  and  clothing  him,  than  to  pursue  the  system  now  pur- 
sued; for  the  results  just  described  will,  in  the  end,  cost  the  public 
much  more  than  thirty  cents  per  day.  But  as  already  stated,  if  given 
an  opportunity,  he  could  pay  the  State  and  contribute  toward  the  sup- 
port of  his  family  besides;  and  as  thirty  cents  per  day  is  as  little  as  he 
could  be  clothed  and  fed  for  at  home,  he  could  in  reality  pay  the  State 
for  his  keeping  and  contribute  almost  as  much  to  the  support  of  his 
family  as  if  he  were  free.  In  fact,  in  many  cases  he  could  be  required 
to  contribute  much  more  than  he  would  if  free.  But  I  shall  consider 
this  subject  hereafter. 

REASON   OF   LOW   AVERAGE. 

The  chief  cause  of  the  low  average  earnings  of  convicts  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  is  unwilling  labor.  A  man  while  free  will  earn  more  than 
double  what  he  will  earn  as  a  convict. 

Of  course,  much  depends  on  the  skill  of  the  foreman  in  managing 
the  prisoners,  and  getting  much  work  out  of  them.  But  the  chief 
reason  of  a  low  average  is  apparent. 

NO  INTEREST  IN  LABOR  MAKES  POOR  WORKMEN. 

A  convict  has  no  interest  whatever  in  his  work.  It  does  him  no 
good  to  do  a  large  amount  of  work  in  a  day,  for  it  will  benefit  neither 
him  nor  any  one  dear  to  him.  Men  are  generally  impelled  to  work 
by  a  desire  to  benefit  themselves  or  those  dependent  upon  or  dear  to 
them.  But  the  convict  has  none  of  these  incentives.  He  may  be 
anxious  to  earn  and  save  a  pittance,  so  that  when  he  regains  his  free- 
dom he  will  be  able  to  support  himself  for  a  time,  even  though  he 
fail  to  get  work.  Or  he  may  be  eager  to  earn  something  for  the 
assistance  of  those  that  are  without  bread  because  of  his  acts  and 
absence;  but  all  in  vain.  If  he  does  more  work  than  he  is  required 
to  do,  the  profits  go  generally  into  the  pockets  of  wealthy  contractors, 
while -he  is  simply  wearing  himself  out.  In  short,  he  has  no  heart  in 
his  work.  It  is  involuntary  servitude,  which  rarely  accomplishes  more 
than  half  what  voluntary  service  will. 

At  present,  the  convict's  work  is  to  him  a  treadmill  affair,  from 
which  he  is  to  get  no  benefit.  He  goes  to  his  task  because  forced  to 
go ;  works  only  while  forced  to  work ;  studies  to  slight  his  work  rather 
than  to  do  it  well;  tries  to  get  along  by  doing  as  little  as  possible. 
Indeed,  how  could  it  be  otherwise?  Outside  of  prisons  men  study  to 
do  as  little  as  possible  of  that  in  which  they  feel  no  interest  and  from 
which  they  are  to  get  no  benefit,  and  surely  we  cannot  expect  to  find 
more  virtue  inside  of  prison  than  out. 


PRISON    LABOR.  69 

The  effect  is,  therefore,  to  make  a  man  a  slow  workman,  and  in 
many  cases  an  indifferent  and  careless  one;  and  in  time  these  habits 
will  become  natural,  especially  where  they  are  long  continued.  There- 
fore, instead  of  becoming  an  expert  and  skilled  workman,  he  is  more 
apt  to  become  a  slow  botcher,  and  is  therefore  not  well  equipped  to 
make  an  honest  living  when  he  regains  his  liberty.  And  if  the  effect 
of  his  confinement  has  been  to  make  him  a  poor  workman  instead  of 
an  expert,  the  chances  are  against  his  being  able  to  get  along  and 
the  probability  is  increased  of  his  drifting,  with  his  family,  among  the 
criminal  classes.  Few  have  any  conception  of  the  expense  entailed 
on  the  public  by  the  relapse  of  a  convict,  especially  when  the  depreda- 
tions committed  before  he  is  again  incarcerated  are  included.  In  1872 
Mr.  Tallack,  at  the  request  of  the  Howard  Association  and  of  the 
Central  Committee  of  the  International  Prison"  Congress,  collected  a 
vast  amount  of  information  on  the  subject  of  prison  management, 
prison  labor,  and  the  reformation  of  prisoners.  On  this  point  he 
says:  "Prisoners,  if  discharged  untaught  and  untrained,  soon  re- 
lapse, and  cost  the  public  £159  per  annum  (nearly  $800),  at  a  low  esti- 
mate, by  their  robberies." 

LEAVES  HIM  IN  HELPLESS  CONDITION. 

But  by  far  the  most  serious  defect  in  the  present  system  lies  in  the 
fact  that  when  a  man  has  spent  years  in  prison,  on  again  going  out 
into  the  world  he  is  absolutely  dependent;  he  has  no  money  and  gen- 
erally no  friends  who  will  help  him ;  he  may  be  anxious  to  work  and 
earn  an  honest  living,  but  often  cannot  get  work.  Now  what  is  to  be 
expected  in  such  a  case — bearing  in  mind  that  in  the  first  instance  he 
succumbed  to  evil  influences  and  violated  the  law,  and  that  a  man  not 
a  convict  and  with  friends,  but  who  has  nothing  but  his  labor  on  which 
to  rely,  has  a  very  hard  lot  of  it?  I  ask  what  can  with  reason  now 
be  expected?  He  is  under  a  ban.  He  is  an  outcast.  Everybody's 
door  is  shut  against  him.  He  may  be  full  of  good  resolves,  but  he 
cannot  live  on  them.  He  may  again  long  to  be  respectable  and  inde- 
pendent; but  he  must  be  housed,  fed,  clothed,  and  if  work  is  not  to  be 
had,  what  can  he  do? 

Florian  J.  Ries,  one  of  the  most  successful  prison  managers,  in 
his  report  of  the  Milwaukee  house  of  correction  for  1880,  in  speaking 
of  this  subject,  says: 

"Many,  doubtless,  leave  the  prison  with  a  strong  determination 
to  lead  honorable  lives  in  the  future;  but  here  the  question  arises, 
How  will  they  accomplish  this?  With  all  boasted  philanthropy  and 
all  pretended  kindly  feeling  toward  these  persons,  how  does  society 


70  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

meet  them  when  the  prison  door  has  closed  behind  them?  As  long 
as  people  demand  that  prisons  must  be  self-sustaining,  these  persons 
will  receive  but  a  pittance  upon  their  discharge.  With  this  they 
venture  out  upon  the  world,  seeking  employment;  and,  if  they  are 
frank,  and  admit  that  they  have  just  been  discharged  from  prison, 
who  will  employ  them?  Without  employment,  without  money,  with- 
out friends,  what  are  they  to  do?  Is  it  not  perfectly  natural,  under 
these  circumstances,  that  they  should  seek  and  find  their  former  asso- 
ciates in  crime?  Here,  then,  is  a  wide  field  for  humanitarians,  a  field 
in  which,  perhaps,  the  practical  reformation  of  many  of  these  persons 
could  be.  accomplished.  What  can  the  prison  officials  accomplish  by 
assuring  those  prisoners  that  if  they  will  only  show  the  good-will  to 
reform,  society  will  receive  them  and  forgive  past  transgressions, 
when,  after  their  actual  discharge,  there  is  no  one  to  extend  a  helping 
hand?  I  believe  that  a  'prisoners'  aid  society'  could  do  an  incalcul- 
able amount  of  good  in  the  way  of  advising  and  assisting  such  per- 
sons. This  is  a  subject  which  should  receive  the  earnest  consideration, 
not  only  of  our  legislature,  but  of  all  true  humanitarians." 

The  following  forcible  remarks  are  from  the  report  of  William  H. 
Hill,  moral  instructor  of  the  California  state-prison.  In  enumerating 
the  conditions  necessary  for  the  reformation  of  prisoners,  he  says: 

"Second.     The  prisoners  must  desire  and  determine  to  reform. 

"Third.  The  officers  in  charge  should  help  in  the  work  of  refor- 
mation. 

"Fourth.  Christians  and  philanthropists  in  the  world  outside 
should  also  help,  and  not  by  cold  looks  and  colder  actions  drive  the 
discharged  prisoners  again  into  crime. 

"As  to  the  second  element,  there  is  a  great  misapprehension  on  the 
part  of  the  people  generally.  It  seems  to  be  taken  for  granted  that  all 
who  are  here  deserve  their  punishment,  and  should  be  kept  from 
further  harm  by  indefinite  imprisonment.  This  is  a  great  mistake. 
Some  of  the  inmates  here  are  undoubtedly  innocent,  having  been  the 
victims  of  perjury  or  mistaken  identity.  These  may  be  few  in  num- 
ber. The  great  majority  of  the  prisoners,  however,  are  here  for  the 
first  time — at  least  three-fourths  of  the  whole  number.  A  mistaken 
impression  is  abroad  as  to  this.  It  is  not  true,  as  often  asserted  and 
believed,  that  a  large,  or  even  any,  majority  return  for  the  second, 
third  or  fourth  time.  Not  one-fourth  do  so.  This  would  seem  to  be 
proof  positive  that  the  majority  not  only  resolved  to  lead  a  different 
life  after  release,  but  carried  their  intention  into  practice.  And  facts 
are  always  more  conclusive  than  fiction. 

"As  to  the  third  requisite,  I  can  bear  testimony  that  the  officers 


PRISON    LABOR.  71 

do  their  duty,  and  wish  to  help  the  prisoners  to  do  well,  not  only  in 
the  prison,  but  out.  And  if  their  efforts  were  as  earnestly  seconded 
by  outsiders  there  would  be  little  necessity  to  ask  any  of  the  above- 
named  questions.  And  right  here  is  met  the  greatest  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  reform  of  prisoners;  for  I  must  answer  the  question  involved  in 
the  fourth  position  by  saying  that  Christians  and  philanthropists  out- 
side, though  plentiful  in  lip-service,  do  not  help  the  prisoners  to  re- 
form, but  passively,  if  not  directly,  lend  their  influence  to  drive  them 
back  to  crime  and  punishment.  This  is  a  bold  charge,  I  know;  but 
unfortunately  it  is  true.  No  matter  how  well  an  inmate  may  conduct 
himself  while  in  prison,  nor  how  sincere  he  may  be  in  his  efforts  and 
determination  to  reform  and  lead  a  better  life,  he  goes  out  with  the 
prison  taint  upon  him.  He  applies  for  work,  and  honestly  tells  where 
he  has  been.  With  very  few  exceptions,  he  is  immediately  rebuffed.  In 
vain  does  he  plead  his  reformation  and  determination,  and  show  his 
certificate  of  good  conduct  from  the  prison  officers.  'I  pray  thee,  have 
me  excused,'  is  what  he  hears  on  every  side.  Tempters  to  crime  are 
neither  scarce  nor  fastidious;  and  thus  repulsed  by  those  who  claim, 
morally,  to  be  the  better  class,  it  is  not  strange  if  he  is  again  drawn 
aside  from  the  right  path,  and  returns  here  more  hardened  than  ever, 
on  account  of  his  repulse  by  those  from  whom  he  had  a  right  to  expect 
better  things.  That  is  one  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  reform. 

"But  suppose,  to  avoid  this,  he  simply  conceals  the  fact  that  he  has 
been  an  inmate  of  the  state-prison.  He  secures  work  as  a  mechanic, 
or  clerk,  or  laborer,  and  is  honest,  industrious,  and  faithful.  A  short 
time  only  elapses  before  he  is  'spotted'  by  some  depraved  ex-convict, 
and  'blackmail'  is  demanded  on  threat  of  exposure.  If  he  resists  the 
claim,  and  is  still  trusted,  notwithstanding  the  exposure  made  as 
threatened,  it  is  well.  But  how  often  is  that  likely  to  be  the  case? 
Not  one  time  in  twenty,  I  am  sorry  to  say.  If  he  submits  to  the  de- 
mand of  the  ex-convict,  then  he  is  at  his  mercy,  and  will  be  driven  to 
desperation,  if  not  to  suicide,  by  further  and  still  more  exacting  de- 
mands. Nor  is  this  the  other  side  of  the  picture.  Can  he  escape 
Scylla  and  not  fall  into  Charybdis? 

"And  I  am  sorry  to  say  there  are  some — not  all — of  the  police  in 
San  Francisco  and  other  large  cities  who  seem  to  take  a  delight  in 
pointing  out  these  poor  unfortunates  as  'state-prison  birds,'  and  thus 
drive  them  from  honest  work  into  crime.  What  wonder,  then,  that 
the  percentage  of  real  and  permanent  reform  is  not  as  large  as  could 
be  desired?  I  feel  like  saying  to  these  outside,  fault-finding  philan- 
thropists, 'Physicians,  heal  yourselves,'  ere  throwing  upon  the  prison 
officers  or  directors  the  blame  of  failure  in  efforts  to  reform.  Let 


72  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

outsiders  do  their  duty  as  men  and  Christians,  and  I  believe  that 
nearly  all  of  those  sent  here  for  the  first  time  would  reform  and  lead 
honest,  if  not  true,  godly,  Christian  lives,  when  restored  to  liberty. 
I  hope  to  live  to  see  the  day  when  this  shall  be  the  actual  fact,  and 
not  merely  a  picture  of  the  imagination." 

Upon  the  same  subject  W.  C.  Gunn,  chaplain  and  teacher  of  the 
Iowa  state-prison,  who  has  interested  himself  greatly  in  the  welfare  of 
discharged  convicts,  says,  in  his  report: 

"What  becomes  of  the  discharged  convicts  is  a  question  that  is 
frequently  asked.  That  depends  very  much  upon  how  they  are  treated 
after  they  are  discharged.  And  here  let  me  emphasize  what  I  said 
two  years  ago.  Perhaps  none,  unless  connected  with  a  prison,  and 
but  few  even  of  those,  have  the  remotest  idea  of  the  difficulties  which 
a  discharged  convict,  without  friends,  has  to  meet  before  he  obtains 
employment.  Many,  when  liberated,  do  not  wish  to  return  to  the 
place  from  which  they  were  sent;  why,  I  know  not,  unless,  realizing 
their  disgrace,  they  are  unwilling  to  go  back  where  ft  is  known. 
Many  have  no  friends  or  relatives,  and,  as  a  rule,  not  only  prefer  to 
go,  but  do  go,  where  they  are  unknown.  The  stigma  of  the  peni- 
tentiary resting  upon  them,  the  strength  of  public  opinion  against 
them,  and  nearly  penniless,  they  are  almost  compelled  to  do  one  of 
three  things:  beg,  starve,  or  steal;  and,  alas  for  the  weakness  of  good 
resolutions,  the  latter  at  times  is  resorted  to.  What  are  discipline  and 
teaching  and  reformation  in  prison,  unless  society  sustains  the  effort 
outside  of  the  prison?  Cannot  society  afford  to  try  the  discharged 
convict  once  more?  I  know  that  the  cloud  of  the  penitentiary  hangs 
heavily  over  him.  But  what  if  it  does?  Should  not  Christian  men, 
philanthropic  men,  and  especially  neighbors,  do  what  they  can  to 
save  the  erring?  Let  the  following  letter,  received  from  one  of  the 
'unfortunates,'  tell — and  it  is  only  one  out  of  several  in  my  possession: 

"  'M ,  Iowa,  January  28,  1881. 

"  'Rev.  Gunn,  Dear  Chaplain: — I  am  encouraged  to  address  you  by  the 
remembrance  of  the  kind  and  undeserved  interest  you  manifested  in  my  wel- 
fare during  my  stay  in  Ft.  Madison.  I  have  been  at  home  now  five  months, 
and  I  am  beginning  to  experience  the  difficulties  which  attend  a  man  in  his 
effort  to  regain  the  position  he  held  in  the  estimation  of  his  fellows  before 
departing  from  the  path  of  rectitude.  My  professions  of  intent  to  lead  a  life 
of  honesty  are  distrusted,  and  I  am  tempted  to  relinquish  any  other  life  than 
that  almost  forced  upon  me  by  my  treatment  at  the  hands  of  my  neighbors. 
Your  appreciated  efforts  to  reclaim  the  fallen  emboldens  me  to  turn  to  you  for 
advice  and  encouragement,'  etc. 

"While  that  unfortunate  man  was  in  the  penitentiary,  he  was 
bolted  in;  now  that  he  is  on  the  outside  world  he  is  bolted  out — 


PRISON   LABOR.  73 

bolted  out  from  the  sympathy  and  confidence  of  his  neighbors,  bolted 
out  from  the  workshop,  bolted  out  from  farm  labor.  I  therefore 
most  heartily  recommend  that  a  State-prison  Aid  Association  be 
organized,  with  a  branch  in  every  county,  and  that  persons  with  large 
sympathy  and  warm  hearts  be  encouraged  to  assist  in  this  noble  enter- 
prise, thus  procuring,  for  all  who  desire  to  reform,  places  to  work, 
where  they  can  earn  an  honest  living,  by  this  means  shielding  them 
from  idleness  and  from  the  merciless  attacks  of  unkind  and  evil- 
disposed  persons. 

"Kindness  oftentimes  may  be  scarce  toward  a  discharged  convict, 
but  it  is  not  wholly  dead.  There  are  some  who  are  not  afraid  to  take 
them  by  the  hand  and  succor  them  in  time  of  need.  During  the  three 
years  and  one  month  of  my  chaplaincy,  I  have  found  good  homes  for 
three  hundred  and  five  out  of  the  six  hundred  and  forty-six  discharged. 
Only  two  of  these  were  discharged  by  their  employers  on  account  of 
dissatisfaction — one  in  Des  Moines  County,  for  not  earning  his 
wages,  and  the  other  in  Marshall  County,  for  smoking  too  frequently. 
Both  have  done  well  since.  But  what  became  of  the  three  hundred 
and  forty-one  for  whom  no  homes  were  found?  As  far  as  I  am  able 
to  learn,  thirty-nine  of  them  are  in  the  penitentiary,  seven  are  living 
by  gambling,  and  two  are  'fugitives  from  justice.'  " 

The  prisoners'  aid  societies  mentioned  above,  which  have  in  late 
years  been  formed  by  kind-hearted  and  philanthropic  people,  are  do- 
ing a  great  good,  but  they  have,  after  all,  the  nature  of  a  palliative 
and  not  of  a  cure. 

INDUSTRIES    LIMITED. 

Keeping  all  prisoners  entirely  within  prison  walls,  as  is  now  done, 
greatly  limits  the  industries  which  they  can  pursue1,  and  the  result  is 
that  too  many  are  forced  to  take  up  particular  trades,  which  they 
would  not  have  taken  up  as  free  men;  and  this  is  a  direct  injury  to  the 
honest  free  laborers  who,  with  their  families,  are  dependent  for  their 
living  upon  that  particular  trade.  These  laborers  have  no  right  to 
complain  of  men  working  at  a  particular  trade  in  prison,  provided  it 
appears  that  the  parties  working  at  such  trade  in  prison  would  have 
worked  at  it  had  they  never  been  imprisoned,  and  provided,  further, 
that  the  effects  of  this  prison  labor  do  not  reduce  thtir  wages  any 
more  than  they  would  have  been  reduced  had  the  prisoners  remained 
free  men  and  followed  the  same  trade  as  they  do  in  prison.  For 
every  one  has  a  right  to  follow  any  trade  that  he  may  wish.  A  free 
laborer  cannot  object  to  other  men  choosing  whatever  trades  they 
prefer.  A  fair  competition  between  parties  similarly  situated  is  not 


74  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

objected  to,  but  the  overcrowding  of  certain  trades  by  purely  arbitrary 
and  unnatural  means  is  doing  an  injustice  to  those  that  have  volun- 
tarily selected  those  trades  as  a  means  of  livelihood. 

If  the  prisoners  could  be  divided,  and  those  that  have  long  sen- 
tences to  serve,  or  that  are  guilty  of  heinous  crimes,  be  kept  within 
prison  walls  and  divided  among  such  trades  as  can  well  be  carried  on 
there,  the  number  assigned  to  each  would  be  small,  and,  probably,  not 
in  excess  of  the  number  that  would  have  selected  the  same  trades  as 
free  men.  And,  if  a  system  were  adopted  whereby  the  temptation  to 
escape  would  be  greatly  reduced,  then  the  remainder  of  the  prisoners 
could  be  taken  out  to  labor  at  such  work  as  they  would,  to  a  great 
extent,  have  chosen  had  they  labored  as  free  men.  By  this  means, 
prison  labor  could  be  assigned  to  many  more  branches  of  industry 
than  is  possible  at  present.  Besides,  the  moral  effect  would,  under 
proper  regulations,  be  much  better.  As  it  is,  a  great  number  of 
men  are  set  at  the  same  kind  of  work,  without  regard  to  their  adapta- 
tion for  it.  Instead,  therefore,  of  learning  trades  or  occupations  which 
they  could  follow  when  again  free,  they  find,  upon  regaining  their 
freedom,  that  they  have,  in  fact,  no  occupation  at  all,  as  the  work  at 
which  they  have  been  engaged  was  not  the  kind  for  which  they  were 
adapted  or  which  they  could  successfully  follow. 

Further,  the  objections  to  convict  labor  now  so  strenuously  urged 
in  so  many  quarters  could  be  removed  without  increasing  the  burdens 
of  the  public.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  objection  is  more  to  the 
method  of  conducting  the  convict  labor,  and  of  bringing  it  into  com- 
petition with  free  labor,  than  to  the  working  of  convicts  at  all.  In 
fact,  no  objection  could  be  urged  against  this,  for  every  man  has  a 
right  to  pursue  some  kind  of  labor.  Nay,  it  is  his  duty  to  do  so. 
When,  therefore,  convicts  work  in  prisons,  they  are  doing  no  more 
than  they  would  have  done,  or  at  least  should  have  done,  as  good 
citizens. 

But  besides  the  forcing  of  large  numbers  of  men  to  perform  a 
particular  kind  of  labor  which  they  otherwise  would  not  have  per- 
formed, the  objection  to  convict  labor,  as'now  managed  in  most 
prisons,  is,  that  it  is  contracted  out  at  such  figures  that  the  honest 
free  laborers  are  reduced  to  starvation  in  the  necessary  competition 
which  ensues;  or,  in  case  the  convicts  work  under  the  public-account 
system,  that  their  products  are  sold  cheaper  than  the  same  kind  of 
goods  can  be  made  by  free  labor  at  living  wages. 

That  goods  manufactured  on  public  account  for  the  State  are  sold 
at  lower  prices  than  the  like  goods  manufactured  by  free  labor  is,  I 
believe,  not  generally  true,  and  certainly  ought  not  to  be  permitted, 


PRISON   LABOR.  75 

for  the  State  ought  not  to  enter  into  competition  with  its  own  citizens. 
But  that  convicts  are  contracted  out  in  great  numbers,  at  average 
prices  (forty  to  fifty-five  cents  per  day)  that  appear  on  their  face  to  be 
ruinous  to  free  labor,  is  true. 

At  present  there  is  much  ground  for  complaint,  especially  in  re- 
gard to  certain  kinds  of  skilled  labor  that  can  be  carried  on  in  a 
prison  as  well  as  elsewhere.  Thus,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  making 
of  shoes,  saddlery,  cigars,  and  a  number  of  other  articles  requiring 
skilled  labor  by  convicts,  under  the  contract  system,  at  present  injuri- 
ously affects  the  free  laborers  in  these  branches  of  industry,  and  it 
•affects  them  most  injuriously  in  dull  times;  for  in  good  times,  when 
the  demand  is  equal  to  the  production  of  the  entire  country,  all  find  em- 
ployment, and  that  the  contractor  of  prison  labor  is  making  excessive 
profits  is  not  generally  noticed.  But  when  times  are  dull  and  the 
demand  limited  and  prices  low,  then,  inasmuch  as  the  product  of  the 
convict  labor  must  continue  to  be  the  same — as  the  contracts  usually 
run  for  a  term  of  years — free  labor  has  to  suffer;  for,  should  the  de- 
mand be  no  greater  than  can  be  supplied  by  the  prisons,  then  free 
labor  would  either  have  to  seek  other  employment  or  accept  such 
wages  as  would  enable  it  to  compete  with  convict  labor.  Of  course 
wages  would  still  be  greater  than  the  convict's  wages,  for,  being  much 
more  productive,  free  labor  would  inevitably  command  higher  wages; 
but  still  they  would  be  lower  for  the  prison  competition.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  prison  contractor  also  finds  his  profits  reduced  in  dull  times, 
for  he  pays  the  same  wages  as  when  times  were  good,  and  must  pay 
these  right  along,  whether  he  can  sell  his  products  or  not. 

Now,  if  a  system  were  introduced  by  which  convicts  could  be  con- 
verted into  voluntary  laborers,  and  paid  something  near  the  wages 
paid  voluntary  laborers,  convict  labor  would  never  undersell  free  labor,, 
and  the  prisoners  could  be  set  at  labor  for  which  they  are  adapted,  and 
thus  the  overcrowding  of  certain  branches  of  industry  by  convicts 
could  be  avoided.  True,  it  may  be  said  that  by  changing  involuntary 
into  voluntary  labor,  the  products  would  be  greater  than  at  present, 
and  must  still  more  affect  prices.  But  the  answer  is,  that  there  are  no 
more  men  at  work  than  would  be,  or  at  least  should  be,  at  work  if 
there  were  no  convicts  at  all;  and,  as  their  labor  would  not  undersell 
free  labor,  there  could  be  no  moral  ground  of  objection.  And  further, 
the  real  trouble  now  with  convict  labor  is,  not  that  all  industry  is 
affected  by  it,  but  that  a  few  branches  of  industry  are  overstocked 
by  it. 


76  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 


CHAPTER  II. 

REMEDY. 

If  the  practice  recommended  in  chapter  thirteen  of  Part  First, 
page  44,  were  adopted,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  after  a  short  period,  in 
which  the  more  hardened  characters  would  be  weeded  out,  the  annual 
commitments  to  prison  would  be  diminished  by  more  than  half,  and 
the  prison-labor  question  would  thus  be  solved  to  that  extent.  Then, 
if  those  in  prison  were  permitted  to  earn  something  daily  for  them- 
selves, so  as  to  give  them  an  interest  in  their  work,  and  thus  remove 
the  temptation  from  all  except  those  confined  for  long  terms  to  desert, 
most  of  the  prisoners  could  be  set  at  work  outside  of  prison  walls,  so 
that  comparatively  few  would  be  crowded  into  the  trades  where  they 
come  into  competition  with  skilled  labor,  who  would  not  otherwise 
have  pursued  the  same  calling.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  would 
soon  be  no  question  of  prison  labor  to  agitate  the  public. 

The  idea  of  working  prisoners  outside  of  prison  walls  is  not  new. 
It  has  been  tried,  successfully,  even  under  existing  laws,  which,  by 
depriving  the  prisoner  of  almost  all  hope,  may  be  said  to  encourage 
desertion.  But  unfortunately  the  only  States  where  this  plan  has  thus 
far  been  tried  are  those  in  which  the  lease  system  prevails,  under 
which  the  most  shocking  barbarities  have  been  practiced,  on  account 
of  which  many  good  men  have  become  prejudiced  against  the  idea  of 
letting  prisoners  work  outside  of  prison  at  all.  It  must,  however,  be 
borne  in  mind  that  cruelty  may  be  practiced  as  well  under  one  system 
as  under  another,  and  that  there  is  no  more  excuse  for  its  infliction 
where  prisoners  work  outside  of  prisons  than  where  they  do  not. 

The  warden  of  the  Northern  Penitentiary  of  Illinois — an  institution 
having  nearly  sixteen  hundred  inmates — recently  stated  to  the  writer 
that  he  was  in  favor  of  the  purchase  by  the  State  of  a  large  tract  of 
land  lying  near  the  prison,  which  would  enable  him  to  carry  on  farm- 
ing and  gardening  with  the  prisoners,  for  the  purpose  of  supplying 
the  prison  with  farm  and  garden  products,  and  he  added  that  he  be- 
lieved the  project  to  be  entirely  practicable. 

To  carry  out  the  foregoing,  and  also  to  overcome  the  objections  to 
the  present  system  considered  in  the  last  chapter,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  change  involuntary  into  voluntary  labor,  which  can  be  done  by 
paying  each  convict  wages  nearly  equal  to  the  current  wages  paid  to 
free  men  for  like  work,  and  then  to  charge  the  convict  with  the  total 
expense  of  his  keeping,  including  guarding,  superintending,  cloth- 
ing, feeding,  etc.  As  the  average  cost  of  keeping  a  convict  is  usually 


REMEDY.  77 

ftot  much  over  thirty  cents  per  day,  and  as  he  could,  if  laboring 
voluntarily,  earn  much  more,  there  would  soon  be  a  surplus  in  his 
favor.  This  surplus  should  be  placed  to  his  credit  and  be  applied 
toward  the  support  and  education  of  his  family  or  other  dependents,  if 
there  are  any,  and  if  there  are  none,  then  to  be  held  on  deposit  until 
his  discharge;  and  when  he  is  discharged  he  should  be  paid  a  small 
portion  of  his  money — say  enough  for  transportation  to  the  point 
which  he  may  desire  to  reach,  and  for  his  support  for  a  month  or 
longer,  until  he  shall  have  again  become  accustomed  to  the  ways  of 
the  world  and  have  had  time  to  determine  what  he  shall  go  at  for  a 
living,  and  then  he  should  be  paid  the  remainder.  He  will  thus  have 
saved  something  out  of  the  years  of  his  confinement,  and  will  have 
something  to  start  on.  He  will  not  be  driven  at  once  to  beg,  steal, 
or  starve,  and  will  not  be  likely  soon  to  find  himself  again  on  the  way 
to  the  penitentiary. 

This  would  be  salvation  to  all  those  that  really  wanted  to  live  re- 
spectable and  useful  lives,  and  it  would  have  a  good  influence  on  even 
the  abandoned;  for  nothing  is  so  adapted  to  steady  a  man  as  first 
training  him  to  work  and  then  letting  him  accumulate  some  property. 
As  soon  as  he  has  something  to  call  his  own,  he  begins  to  grow  con- 
servative ;  there  is  aroused  in  him  a  desire  to  better  his  condition,  and 
he  will  avoid  the  vicious  from  a  sense  of  self-protection,  if  for  no  other 
reason. 

Under  this  system  almost  every  convict  would  become  willing  and 
eager  to  work,  and  the  present  stolid  indifference  of  some  prisoners, 
who  care  for  nothing  but  to  drag  through  the  weary  days,  the  hope- 
less despair  of  others,  and  the  desperation  of  still  others,  would  give 
way  to  hope  in  most,  and  to  comfort  and  satisfaction  in  all;  for  even 
they  who  know  that  their  days  must  end  in  prison  would  feel  that 
they  could  make  some  beings  comfortable,  if  not  happy,  by  contribut- 
ing something  to  support  those  to  whom  they  should  have  been 
protectors. 

I  am  aware  that  the  State  cannot  carry  on  business  as  economically 
as  private  individuals — or,  at  least,  rarely  does — but  it  will  be  noticed, 
the  State  has  very  much  of  an  advantage  to  start  with.  It  is  not  re- 
quired to  pay  rent  or  interest  on  the  investment  in  buildings,  ma- 
chinery, etc.,  for  even  in  those  institutions  which  under  the  present 
system  boast  that  they  have  become  self-sustaining,  no  allowance  is 
made  for  rent  or  interest  on  investment.  This  is  certainly  a  large 
item,  and  one  would  suppose  it  alone  would  be  sufficient  to  enable  the 
State  to  pay  the  same  wages  (not  necessarily  per  day,  but  for  work 
done)  that  is  paid  by  private  parties,  and  come  out  whole. 


78  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

But  as  shown  heretofore,  under  the  present  system  the  State  an- 
nually loses,  directly  and  indirectly,  very  large  sums  of  money,  besides 
the  loss,  both  financial  and  of  a  higher  character,  that  will  result  from 
the  evil  effects  upon  a  large  proportion  of  her  citizens;  so  that  if  the 
State  were,  under  the  proposed  system,  to  lose  money,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  she  could  by  any  possibility  suffer  as  much  in  the  long  run 
as  she  now  suffers.  However,  as  there  would  be  at  least  twice  the 
amount  of  work  done  as  there  is  now,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the 
State  could  possibly  lose  anything. 

Should  the  contract  system  be  preferred  to  the  public-account  sys- 
tem, the  matter  can  be  easily  arranged  by  requiring  the  contractor 
to  pay  the  prisoner  for  what  he  does — that  is,  in  all  cases  where  pos- 
sible, to  pay  him  by  the  piece;  where  this  cannot  be  done,  to  pay  him 
for  a  full  day's  work  when  he  does  it.  All  the  contractor  asks  is  to 
have  the  work  done.  If,  therefore,  a  convict  is  willing  and  able  to 
do  as  much  in  one  day  as  he  formerly  did  in  two,  the  contractor  should 
not  hesitate  to  pay  him  double  the  wages.  Nay,  he  could,  in  that 
case,  pay  more  than  double  the  wages,  because  he  saves  the  expense 
of  superintendence  and  of  furnishing  power,  and  of  other  incidentals 
for  one  day — that  is,  in  that  case  one-half  of  what  he  now  pays  for 
the  last-named  items  would  be  saved  to  him,  and  he  could  afford  to 
pay  more  than  double  the  wages  he  now  pays.  Besides,  the  work 
would  be  done  better,  for  a  willing  man  always  does  his  work  better 
than  an  unwilling  one,  and  his  goods  will  therefore  command  a  higher 
price  in  the  market.  But  the  "piece-price"  system  of  managing  convict 
labor  is  the  best  thus  far  devised.  Under  it  the  contractor  simply  fur- 
nishes the  material  and  agrees  to  pay  a  stipulated  price  for  having  it 
manufactured.  His  agents  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  prisoners,  as 
now,  and  the  State  neither  buys  material  nor  sells  manufactured 
products.  _ 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  OBJECTION  THAT  CRIMINALS  WILL  NOT  WORK.— MAKE 
TIME  OF  DISCHARGE  DEPEND  IN  PART  ON  SURPLUS  EARN- 
INGS.—AIDS  IN  PRESERVING  DISCIPLINE.— TOO  MUCH 
PRISON  LABOR.— WORKING  OUTSIDE  PRISON  WALLS- 
WASTE  OF  SENTIMENT.— LABOR  AS  A  PART  OF  THE  PUN- 
ISHMENT.—RESULTS. 

It  will,  however,  be  objected  by  those  with  whom  the  reformation 
of  criminals  is  no  object,  who  see  nothing  worthy  of  consideration 
about  any  person  in  prison,  that  the  criminal  classes  do  not  work 
except  when  compelled;  that  the  chance  of  earning  some  wages  over 


RESULTS.  79 

and  above  the  expense  of  their  keeping  would  not  induce  them  to 
make  any  extra  effort;  and  that  therefore  the  proposed  system  would 
fail. 

To  this  I  reply  that,  supposing  the  objection  to  be  good,  supposing 
it  to  be  true  that  many  convicts  would  not  do  any  more  than  they 
were  compelled  to  do,  and  consequently  would  not  earn  anything 
over  and  above  the  total  expense  of  their  keeping,  then  there  will  still 
be  nothing  lost.  Society  will  still  be  as  well  off  as  now,  for  that  is 
all  that  the  best  are  now  made  to  do,  on  the  average. 

But  the  objection  is  not  well  taken,  for  it  has  been  found  that  the 
majority  are  eager  to  earn  something,  if  only  given  a  chance.  Thus, 
in  the  Michigan  state-prison,  where  the  contract  system  prevails,  and 
where  no  provision  is  made  for  giving  the  convicts  an  opportunity  to 
earn  something  for  themselves,  but  where,  nevertheless,  those  that 
worked  by  the  piece  were  not  prohibited  from  overwork,  it  appears, 
from  the  report  of  the  inspectors,  that  during  the  year  1881  this  class 
of  convicts  earned,  over  and  above  what  they  had  to  do,  $9,485.85; 
and  during  the  year  1882  they  earned  $11,154.75  by  voluntary  over- 
work. Referring  to  this,  the  inspectors  say: 

"This  sum  has  been  paid  by  the  contractors  to  the  prison,  and  been 
credited  to  the  convicts  in  proportion  to  their  several  earnings.  This 
money  is  in  many  cases  remitted  by  the  convict  to  his  family,  and 
what  remains,  if  anything,  is  paid  to  him  at  the  expiration  of  his  term. 
It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  some,  at  least,  have  in  this 
way  done  more  for  the  comfort  of  their  families  than  they  would 
have  done  had  they  remained  outside." 

This  was  earned  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  no  provision  had  been 
made  for  them  to  earn  anything  for  themselves.  Will  anybody  deny 
that  had  there  been  regulations  permitting,  nay,  requiring  all  con- 
victs, including  those  that  were  not  assigned  to  piece-work,  to  earn 
something  for  their  families  or  for  themselves,  that  they  would  not 
have  done  it,  especially  if  they  had  known  that  they  could  not -be  set 
at  liberty  until  they  had  made  certain  provisions  of  this  kind? 

In  the  inspectors'  report  of  the  Western  Penitentiary  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, I  find  the  following: 

"In  the  shops  we  aim  to  have  order  and  silence;  unruly  conduct  is 
punished,  and  excellence  of  labor  performed  is  rewarded  by  a  pro- 
portionate division  of  profit  with  the  prisoners,  in  the  shape  of  over- 
work. In  this  way  many  of  the  convicts  are  enabled  to  make  weekly 
or  monthly  remittances  to  their  homes,  thus  contributing  toward  the 
support  and  comfort  of  the  dependent  ones,  made  so  by  their  indis- 


8o  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

cretions.  During  the  past  two  years,  $26,080  have  been  earned  in 
this  way,  and  for  the  most  part  distributed  as  stated." 

In  Minnesota  the  convict  in  the  state-prison  is  allowed,  for  good 
conduct,  six  days  every  month,  for  which  he  receives  the  same  rate 
that  is  paid  by  the  contractors  to  the  State.  The  money  thus  earned 
may  be  paid  by  the  prison  authorities  to  the  convict's  family,  if  needy, 
and  when  not  thus  paid,  it  is  given  to  the  convict  on  being  dis- 
charged; many  convicts  on  leaving  the  prison  have  had  upward  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  to  their  credit,  with  which  to  start  again 
in  life.  Are  these  not  more  likely  to  do  well  than  if  they  had  not  a 
cent? 

In  1876  Mr.  Richard  Vaux,  president  of  the  board  of  directors  of 
the  Eastern  Penitentiary  of  Pennsylvania — one  of  the  very  best  insti- 
tutions of  the  kind  in  this  country — in  speaking  of  the  work  done 
there,  said: 

"Manufacturing  material  is  bought  at  market  prices,  and  the  goods 
manufactured  are  sold  at  the  same;  so  that  there  is  no  unfair  com- 
petition with  manufacturers  who  employ  honest  men.  The  convicts 
are  allowed  pay  for  overtime.  One  man  supported  a  wife  and  family 
outside  of  prison  by  over-work  done  in  prison.  The  prisoners  cost 
about  thirty-four  cents  a  day  per  capita.  Labor  is  not  farmed  out, 
nor  let  out  by  contract.  We  are  not  self-supporting,  and  I  trust  we 
never  shall  be.  When  a  prison  becomes  self-supporting,  it  is  just 
what  prisons  are  not  intended  to  do."  (The  italics  are  mine.) 

The  inspectors  of  the  same  prison,  in  their  report  for  1881,  say: 

"As  a  reformatory  agency,  intended  also  to  stimulate  the  self- 
respect,  strengthen  and  preserve  the  ties  of  father  and  husband  and 
family,  the  system  of  overwork  has  been  adopted  in  this  institution. 
The  task  of  each  prisoner  able  to  work  after  he  has  been  taught  is 
fixed.  All  the  prisoners  are  included  in  this  provision.  When  the 
task  has  been  completed,  then  whatever  excess  of  work  is  done  by 
the  prisoner  is  divided;  one-half  is  given  to  the  county  sending  the 
individual,  and  the  other  half  is  credited  to  him  on  the  books  of  the 
clerk.  He  can  give  orders  for  his  share  to  his  wife  and  family.  These 
orders  are  in  printed  forms,  signed  by  the  prisoner  and  attested  by 
his  overseer,  and  entered  into  a  separate  account  kept  for  each  pris- 
oner. When  these  orders  are  presented  to  the  clerk,  they  are  paid, 
and  the  receipt  indorsed  on  the  order.  If  no  orders  are  given,  the 
prisoner  receives  his  share  on  his  discharge.  During  the  year  over 
$10,000  have  been  gained  by  the  convicts  and  paid  to  them  or  their 
respective  families.  It  is  believed  that  decided  good  results  from  this 
plan,  and  even  in  an  economic  view,  it  is  of  decided  advantage.  Labor 


RESULTS.  81 

thus  applied     .     .     .     gives  to  convict  labor  a  phase  that  neither  de- 
grades the  laborer  nor  adds  a  stigma  as  an  inflicted  punishment." 

William  Kunz,  superintendent  of  the  St.  Louis  work-house,  says: 

"By  carefully  studying  the  habits  and  inclinations  of  the  prisoners, 
I  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  a  greater  amount  of  work  could  be 
obtained  from  them  by  offering  a  reward  to  the  industrious  prisoners 
than  by  exacting  work  from  them  under  the  threat  of  punishment. 
With  the  consent  of  the  Board  of  Public  Improvements,  and  the  ap- 
proval of  his  Honor  the  Mayor,  I  established  task-work  for  all  such 
labor  as  the  possibilities  would  allow,  whereby  a  prisoner  inclined 
to  be  industrious  has  the  opportunity  afforded  him  of  materially 
shortening  his  imprisonment  by  making  overtime.  Of  this  a  great 
many  prisoners  have  availed  themselves.  To  others,  to  whom,  from 
the  nature  of  their  employment,  no  regular  task  could  be  assigned,  I 
have  held  out  the  promise  of  executive  clemency  as  a  reward  for  their 
industriousness,  and  it  has  frequently  been  earned,  and,  after  a  proper 
investigation,  has  been  granted  by  his  Honor  the  Mayor.  The  sys- 
tem works  very  satisfactorily;  the  foremen  in  charge  of  the  various 
gangs  have  fewer  complaints  of  indolence  of  prisoners;  cases  of  pun- 
ishment for  failure  to  perform  the  amount  of  work  expected  are 
becoming  rare,  and  the  production  of  the  institution  has  been  ma- 
terially increased." 

Wines,  in  his  exhaustive  treatise  on  Prisons,  in  referring  to  Amer- 
ica, says: 

"In  a  few  of  our  prisons,  the  convicts  are  allowed  some  small  share 
of  their  earnings;  and  the  influence  of  this  is  admirable,  indeed  almost 
magical."  Again  he  says:  "The  practice  of  allowing  prisoners  a 
share  of  their  earnings  has  not  been  extensively  adopted  in  America. 
But  whenever  the  principle  has  been  introduced,  its  effect  has  been 
excellent.  Let  me  cite  an  example:  The  Allegheny  County  Work- 
house, at  Claremont,  Pennsylvania,  a  correctional  prison  for  persons 
guilty  of  minor  offenses,  has  introduced  this  principle  into  its  admin- 
istration. Its  chief  industry  is  the  manufacture  of  kerosene-oil  barrels, 
which  is  carried  on  in  two  large  workshops,  in  the  same  building,  one 
above  the  other.  At  a  certain  point  in  the  manufacture  the  casks 
are  passed  from  the  lower  to  the  upper  shop,  and  the  prisoner  receiv- 
ing them  at  this  point  is  required  to  finish  seven  for  the  institution, 
without  any  gain  to  himself,  after  which,  for  each  additional  barrel 
completed,  he  gets  five  cents  for  himself.  The  average  day's  work 
outside,  for  a  free  laborer,  is  about  fourteen.  Under  this  stimulus, 
I  saw  prisoners  making  twenty-four  barrels  a  day,  and  the  average 
daily  production  is  from  sixteen  to  eighteen,  equal  to  one  and  one- 


82  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

fifth  day's  work  of  ordinary  workmen  in  free  shops  outside.  At  first 
the  proprietors  of  the  petroleum  refineries  laughed  the  superintendent 
to  scorn  for  thinking  that  he  could  utilize  the  labor  of  his  short- 
term  men  on  such  a  manufacture  at  all,  the  average  sentence  being  a 
little  over  two  months.  But  the  laugh  is  now  on  the  other  side, 
for  the  prison-made  barrels  actually  command  five  cents  apiece  more 
in  the  market  than  those  made  in  the  outside  factories.  Most  of  the 
work  done  in  the  lower  shop  is  unskilled,  and  for  a  time  the  prisoners 
working  there  received  no  part  of  their  earnings.  At  length  the 
superintendent  hit  upon  the  plan  of  giving  to  each  prisoner  against 
whom  there  was  no  complaint  at  'the  end  of  the  day  a  credit  of  ten 
cents  for  that  day.  The  effect  of  this  was  magical.  I  visited  the 
establishment  three  or  four  months  after  the  plan  went  into  effect, 
and  not  a  man  in  the  shop  had  received  a  single  black  mark.  All  had 
regularly  gained  their  credits  of  ten  cents  a  day.  The  daily  amount 
of  work  performed  in  that  shop  had  also  very  sensibly  increased." 

The  same  author  has  traced  the  history  of  the  struggle  of  prison 
reformation  in  Europe,  amid  the  corruption,  brutality,  and  officialism 
of  the  past,  and  cites  several  instances  of  success  that  merit  attention. 
Speaking  of  Belgium,  he  says: 

"Near  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  all  Europe  was  deso- 
lated by  the  scourge  of  innumerable  tramps.  .  .  .  Out  of  this 
fact  grew  a  remarkable  reform  in  penitentiary  science  and  practice 
in  that  part  of  Europe  which  now  forms  the  kingdom  of  Belgium. 
.  .  .  Prince  Charles,  then  (1765)  Governor-General  of  Flanders, 
called  attention  of  the  Privy  Council  at  Vienna  to  the  inefficiency  of 
whipping,  branding,  and  torturing  for  the  repression  of  the  evil. 
.  .  .  But  the  most  important  agent  in  this  work  of  reform  was 
Viscount  Vilain  XIV.  .  .  .  He  was  the  founder  of  the  Great 
Central  Convict  Prison  at  Ghent.  .  .  .  Here,  then,  we  find  at 
Ghent,  already  applied,  nearly  all  the  great  principles  which  the  world 
is,  even  to-day,  but  slowly  and  painfully  seeking  to  introduce  into 
prison  management.  What  are  they?  Reformation  as  a  primary  end 
to  be  kept  in  view;  hope  as  the  great  regenerative  force;  industrial 
labor  as  another  of  the  vital  forces  to  the  same  end;  education,  reli- 
gious and  literary,  as  a  third  essential  agency;  abbreviation  of  sen- 
tence and  participation  in  earnings  as  incentives  to  diligence,  obedi- 
ence, and  self-improvement ;  the  enlistment  of  the  will  of  the  criminal, 
etc."  The  result  of  this  management  was  a  remarkable  success. 
Again  he  says:  "Among  the  most  remarkable  of  the  early  experi- 
ments in  prison  discipline  was  that  of  Colonel  Montesino  in  the  prison 
of  Valencia,  Spain,  containing  from  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred 


RESULTS.  83 

prisoners.  This  experiment  covered  the  period  from  1835  to  1850. 
Previously  the  re-committals  had  run  up  to  forty,  fifty,  sixty,  and 
even  seventy  per  cent.  For  the  first  two  years  no  impression  was 
made  upon  these  figures,  but  after  that  they  fell  rapidly,  coming  down 
m  the  end  to  nearly,  or  quite,  zero.  To  what  was  this  remarkable 
decrease  owing?  Mainly  to  the  use  of  moral  force,  instead  of  phys- 
ical, in  the  government  of  the  prison.  He  introduced  a  great  variety 
of  trades,  about  forty  in  all,  and  allowed  the  prisoner  to  choose  the 
one  he  would  learn.  .  .  .  He  seized  those  great  principles  which 
the  Creator  has  impressed  upon  the  human  soul,  and  moulded  them 
to  his  purpose.  He  aimed  to  develop  manhood,  hot  to  crush  it;  to 
gain  the  will,  not  simply  to  coerce  the  body.  He  employed  the  law 
of  love,  and  found  it  the  most  powerful  of  all  laws.  .  .  .  He  ex- 
cited the  prisoners  to  diligence  by  allowing  them  a  by  no  means 
inconsiderable  portion  of  their  earnings.  He  enabled  them  to  raise 
their  position,  step  by  step,  by  their  own  industry  and  good  conduct. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Hoskins,  an  intelligent  English  traveler,  after  giving  an 
extended  account  of  the  prison,  adds  this  conclusion:  The  success 
attending  the  reformation  of  the  prisoners  in  this  establishment  seems 
really  a  miracle.' " 

Wines  also  records  one  other  remarkable  case,  and  that  in  a 
country  where  it  was  least  to  be  expected — Russia.  It  appears  that 
Count  Sollohub  introduced  a  system  into  the  house  of  correction 
in  Moscow,  similar  in  its  general  features  to  that  last  described.  So 
long  as  a  convict  remained  an  apprentice  he  got  no  part  of  the  product 
of  his  labor;  but  as  soon  as  he  was  adjudged  to  be  a  master-workman, 
he  received  a  proportion  equal  to  two-thirds  of  his  entire  earnings, 
the  greater  part  of  which  was  reserved  for  him  as  a  little  capital  to 
begin  life  with  again  after  his  liberation.  So  effectual  was  the  power 
of  hope  thus  applied,  that  in  some  instances  the  convict  apprentices 
learned  their  trade  and  became  master-workmen  in  two  months. 
Nine-tenths  of  all  learned  their  trade  so  thoroughly  that,  on  their  re- 
lease, they  could  fill  the  position  of  foreman  in  other  shops.  And  fur- 
ther, there  were  scarce  any  relapses;  so  that  of  2,128  persons  released 
during  the  first  six  years,  only  nine  were  returned  to  prison. 

But  the  times  were  not  ripe  for  such  a  reform  in  either  of  the 
countries  mentioned.  Corrupt  and  rapacious  officialism,  which  sought 
only  to  make  money  out  of  the  prisoners,  soon  managed  to  get  other 
men  in  charge  of  the  prisons,  with  whom  reformation  was  no  object; 
and  as  in  each  case  the  systems  which  had  been  productive  of  such 
good  results  were  not  supported  by  law,  but  had  depended  on  the 


84  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

overseer  alone,  they  retired  with  him,  and  the  old  order  of  things 
continued. 

MAKE  TIME  OF  DISCHARGE   DEPEND   IN   PART  ON   SURPLUS 

EARNINGS. 

But  as  a  most  powerful  incentive  to  work  that  can  be  thought  of, 
if  such  a  thing  is  necessary  to  induce  some  prisoners  to  work,  let  the 
law  provide  that  no  prisoner  shall  be  set  free  or  given  his  liberty 
until  he  has  earned  a  certain  sum  with  which  to  start  out  again  in 
life — except  where  he  has  been  supporting  his  family  out  of  extra 
earnings. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  this  would  transform  almost  every  con- 
vict into  a  most  anxious  and  energetic  laborer.  For  no  matter  how 
averse  the  worst  man  may  be  to  labor,  the  anxiety  to  get  free  again, 
which  is  powerful  with  all  prisoners,  would  overcome  the  aversion. 

AIDS   IN   PRESERVING  DISCIPLINE. 

Under  such  a  system,  it  would  be  a  comparatively  easy  matter  to 
keep  up  the  strictest  discipline.  Corporal  punishment,  or  confine- 
ment in  dark  cells,  etc.,  would  rarely,  if  ever,  need  to  be  resorted  to; 
for  the  fear  of  having  his  surplus  earnings  diminished  by  very  small 
fines,  as  well  as  having  his  term  of  imprisonment  lengthened,  would 
make  almost  every  prisoner  willing  and  obedient. 

TOO   MUCH    PRISON   LABOR. 

If  it  is  objected  that  there  would  then  be  too  much  prison  labor 
performed,  by  which  free  labor  would  be  injured,  I  answer  that,  in 
the  first  place,  there  would  be  no  more  men  at  work  than  there  would 
be,  or  at  least  should  be  at  work,  if  there  were  no  prisons;  and,  as 
the  prison  labor  is  no  cheaper  than  the  free  labor,  no  injustice  would 
be  done  to  the  free  laborer.  In  fact,  one  great  cause  of  complaint 
that  now  exists — viz.,  the  cheapness  of  prison  labor — would  be  done 
away  with. 

And  further,  as  the  temptation  to  desert  would  be  but  slight,  the 
prisoners  could  be  divided;  so  that  while  the  vicious,  and  those  that 
had  long  terms  to  serve,  were  kept  within  the  walls,  the  remainder 
could  more  generally  be  set  at  work  for  which  they  were  adapted, 
both  inside  and  outside  of  the  prison.  Instead  of  being  confined  to 
the  few  trades  that  can  be  successfully  carried  on  inside  prison  walls, 
prisoners  could  be  set  at  almost  every  kind  of  manual  labor:  and, 
instead  of  having  to  crowd  them  all  into  a  few  branches  of  industry, 
as  is  now  done,  thus  overstocking  them,  they  would  be  distributed 


RESULTS.  85 

more  nearly  as  they  would  have  been  had  each  selected  work  from 
choice  as  a  free  man.  Surely  no  fault  can  be  found  with  this.  In  all 
cases  in  which  a  young  man  who  is  imprisoned  for  a  term  of  years 
desires  to  learn  a  trade  by  accepting  lower  wages  for  a  time,  he  should 
be  permitted  to  do  so.  In  other  cases  the  prisoners  should,  as  nearly 
as  may  be,  be  set  at  such  work  as  they  are  adapted  for,  or  as  they 
followed  before  conviction,  and  can  successfully  follow  after  they  are 
again  set  free.  Especially  should  those  that  had  no  honest  vocation 
before  conviction  be  set  at  work  which  they  could  successfully  follow 
when  again  set  free;  for  it  is  idle  to  expect  a  man  to  be  industrious 
and  make  an  honest  living  if  he  has  no  means  of  becoming  the  one  or 
of  doing  the  other. 

WORKING  OUTSIDE   PRISON  WALLS. 

The  idea  of  working  prisoners  outside  of  prison  walls,  when  pos- 
sible, has  been  tried  and  found  to  be  highly  beneficial.  In  fact,  this 
is  about  the  only  thing  that  is  urged  in  favor  of  the  leasing  system 
which  now  prevails  in  many  of  the  Southern  States,  under  which  pris- 
oners work  plantations,  work  mines,  build  railroads,  etc.  True,  there 
it  has  been  marred  by  the  brutality  practiced;  the  lessees,  and  not  the 
State,  having  charge  of  the  prisoner,  and  feeling  no  interest  in  him 
except  as  a  machine,  to  be  worked  as  hard  as  possible,  at  the  least 
possible  outlay,  so  that  the  convict  soon  becomes  worse  than  a  slave, 
and  almost  destitute  of  hope ;  for  the  master  of  a  slave  had  an  interest 
in  his  preservation  as  so  much  property,  and  saw  to  it  that  he  was 
at  least  properly  fed,  housed,  and  cared  for.  But  not  so  with  the 
lessee  of  a  convict.  He  has  no  interest  in  the  convict,  except  for  the 
work  he  can  get  out  of  him.  But  if  the  State  were  to  keep  charge  of 
the  prisoner,  and  give  him  an  interest  in  his  work,  the  whole  would 
be  changed.  Not  many  would  think  of  deserting,  and  perhaps  the 
majority  of  all  those  now  confined  could  be  set  to  work  at  various 
things  outside. 

As  some  convicts  (working  at  skilled  labor)  would  get  higher 
wages  than  those  that  worked  at  unskilled  labor,  it  would,  perhaps, 
be  proper  to  charge  the  skilled  laborer  a  little  more  for  his  keeping 
than  the  common  laborer,  in  order  to  prevent  too  great  a  difference 
between  them  in  this  respect.  But,  as  heretofore  stated,  in  all  cases 
of  young  convicts  they  should  be  required  to  learn  a  trade,  and  that 
a  trade,  if  possible,  that  they  would  have  selected  as  free  men.  But, 
in  any  event,  the  employments  should  be  diversified  as  much  as 
possible. 

In  this  connection,  I  quote  from  the  report  of  the  Bureau  of 


86  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Labor  Statistics,  made  to  the  legislature  of  Illinois  for  the  year  ending 
January  12,  1881,  which  is  a  remarkably  full  and  able  document. 
The  Bureau  had  availed  itself  of  the  reports  of  the  committees  ap- 
pointed by  different  States,  particularly  Massachusetts  and  New  York, 
to  investigate  the  question  of  prison  labor.  Among  other  recom- 
mendations are  the  following: 

"Fifth.  Increased  diversity  of  employment  in  penal  institutions 
tends  not  only  to  lessen  whatever  competition  now  exists,  but  has  an 
excellent  reformatory  effect  on  the  prisoners." 

Again,  the  same  report  recommends:  "That,  whenever  possible, 
farms  shall  be  carried  on  by  the  prison  administration  for  the  supply 
of  the  institution." 

WASTE  OF  SENTIMENT. 

But  there  are  some  who  will  pronounce  all  talk  about  humane 
treatment  of  convicts  a  waste  of  sentiment,  because,  say  they,  "these 
fellows  are  criminals,  and  are  not  entitled  to  any  consideration,  and 
would  neither  do  better  nor  reform  if  they  could."  This  objection 
is  ill-considered;  for,  as  heretofore  stated,  the  most  of  them  are  weak 
rather  than  criminal,  and,  secondly,  experience  has  shown  that  the 
great  majority  of  convicts  are  capable  of  reformation,  and  that  the 
chances  of  their  reforming  are  always  in  proportion  to  the  humane 
treatment  received.  Under  the  old  system  and  in  the  old  prisons, 
as  in  the  existing  prisons  of  this  country,  where  brutality  is  still  the 
icigning  deity  and  cruelty  the  only  disciplinarian,  there  is  no  hope  for 
the  prisoners;  few  if  any  of  them  ever  reform.  Even  if  they  possessed 
both  self-respect  and  a  desire  to  do  better  at  the  time  of  entering 
the  prison,  the  treatment  received  either  forever  breaks  their  spirits  or 
makes  them  desperate;  and  they  leave  the  prison,  if  they  survive  at 
all,  either  total  wrecks  or  desperate  enemies,  bound  to  be  avenged 
upon  that  society  which  they  feel  has  not  simply  punished  them  for 
their  misdeeds,  but  has  greatly  wronged,  if  not  ruined  them.  (See 
Chapters  VII.  and  VIII.,  of  Part  First.) 

LABOR  AS  PART  OF  THE  PUNISHMENT. 

Again,  it  will  be  objected  by  some  that  the  labor  of  the  convict 
is  a  part  of  his  punishment,  and  therefore  to  give  him  the  benefit  of  a 
part  of  his  labor  would  be  to  reduce  his  punishment.  This  objec- 
tion grows  out  of  a  misapprehension  of  the  objects  for  which  labor 
was  introduced  into  the  larger  prisons.  This  was  not  as  a  punish- 
ment, but  as  a  sanitary  and  humane  measure.  Its  object  was  to  bene- 
fit the  prisoners,  to  give  exercise  to  the  body,  and  to  employ  the 


RESULTS.  87 

mind.  For  it  was  found  that  when  men  are  doomed  to  a  long  period 
of  enforced  inaction  they  break  down,  both  physically  and  mentally, 
so  that  the  death-rate  in  the  old  prisons  was  fearfully  large,  and  what 
may  be  called  the  insanity  rate  was  still  larger.  There  are  prisons 
for  the  convicted  where  the  prisoners  do  not  work.  Yet  in  the  eye 
of  the  law  the  punishment  is  the  same.  The  punishment  consists  in 
the  disgrace  of  conviction,  and  in  the  imprisonment,  i.  e.,  being  de- 
prived of  their  freedom.  The  idea  of  the  State  making  money  out  of 
the  earnings  of  the  prisoners  was  an  afterthought,  and  it  is  only  in 
recent  years  that  this  has  been  considered.  While  in  some  States  it 
has  been  thought  quite  an  achievement  to  make  the  penitentiaries 
self-supporting,  in  others,  where  the  subject  was  more  carefully  con- 
sidered, this  has  been  made  a  secondary  matter,  and  the  reformation 
or  moral  development  of  the  prisoners  is  considered  the  matter  of 
greatest  moment.  Thus,  Governor  Hoyt,  of  Pennsylvania,  in  his  last 
message  to  the  legislature  of  that  State,  expressed  himself  as  follows, 
on  this  subject: 

"In  neither  of  the  penitentiaries  of  this  State  has  there  ever  been 
an  attempt  yet  made  to  administer  them  on  the  vulgar,  wicked,  un- 
worthy consideration  of  making  them  self-sustaining.  In  neither  of 
them  has  it  been  forgotten  that  even  the  convict  is  a  human  being, 
and  that  his  body  and  soul  are  not  so  the  property  of  the  State  that 
both  may  be  crushed  out  in  the  effort  to  reimburse  the  State  the  cost 
of  his  scanty  food,  and  at  the  end  of  his  term  what  then  is  left  of  him 
be  dismissed,  an  enemy  of  human  society." 

But  all  that  could  possibly  be  claimed  for  the  State  in  any  event 
is  that  it  should  be  paid  out  of  the  earnings  of  the  convict  the  actual 
cost  of  keeping  him.  It  has  no  right  to  make  a  slave  of  him.  It  has 
no  right  to  take  his  services  from  him  without  paying  him,  any  more 
than  it  has  a  right  to  take  his  property  from  him  without  making 
compensation  for  it.  When,  therefore,  as  at  present,  the  State  pro- 
hibits him  from  earning  anything  over  and  above  the  expense  of  keep- 
ing him,  it  is  forcibly  taking  something  valuable  from  him  without 
making  compensation.  For  it  might  as  well  take  his  property  as 
his  time.  While  it  has  the  legal  right  to  take  both  to  an  extent  suf- 
ficient to  make  good  its  outlay,  it  has  no  right  to  take  any  more. 
This  is  no  part  of  the  legal  punishment.  The  idea  of  the  State  trying 
to  make  money,  over  and  above  the  outlay,  out  of  its  convicts  is 
monstrous;  and  the  right  to  do  so  has  never  yet  been  claimed.  See 
report  of  inspectors  of  Pennsylvania  penitentiary  on  this  subject,  as 
follows : 

"There  is  a  broader,  more  scientific,  and  far  more  important  view 


88  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

to  be  taken  of  the  duty  society  owes  to  itself,  and  to  those  convicted 
for  crimes  against  its  security  and  welfare,  than  that  narrow,  selfish, 
and  pecuniary  consideration  which  is  satisfied  in  proclaiming  that  the 
State  has  made  a  money  profit  out  of  the  crimes  of  its  citizens." 

The  plan  suggested  gives  the  State  everything  it  is  entitled  to; 
and,  I  will  add,  it  is  a  serious  question  whether  the  State  would  not 
better  forego  even  the  right  to  deduct  the  cost  of  keeping,  in  some 
cases,  in  order  that  the  prisoner  may  be  the  more  certain  to  be  self- 
supporting  when  again  free,  than  to  take  the  chance  of  having  to 
re-arrest  and  re-incarcerate  him. 

RESULTS. 

I  therefore  claim  that  by  the  proposed  change: 

First.     Discipline  could  be  easily  maintained. 

Second.  There  would  be  no  loss  in  productive  labor  to  society; 
in  fact  there  would  be  an  increase,  for  those  that  have  never  been 
taught  to  work,  and  consequently  prey  upon  the  community,  would 
not  only  be  compelled  to  work  as  much  as  they  are  now,  but  most 
of  them  would,  under  the  conditions  mentioned  above,  work  to  the 
best  of  their  abilities,  so  that  in  effect  there  would  be  restored  to 
society  a  vast  amount  of  productive  labor  which  is  now  lost. 

Third.  The  innocent,  i.  e.,  the  family  and  dependents  of  the  con- 
vict, would  not  be  punished  by  being  deprived  of  his  support,  as  they 
now  are,  but  would  be  supported  by  his  earnings — not  only  as  well  as, 
but  in  many  cases,  where  he  was  dissolute,  very  much  better  than, 
when  he  was  a  free  man. 

Fourth.  The  kinds  of  labor  that  could  then  be  carried  on  being 
greatly  increased,  the  convict  being  put  to  work  at  something  for 
which  he  was  adapted,  and  which  he  could  follow  when  again  released, 
would,  as  a  rule,  learn  to  do  his  work  well;  and  further,  would  learn 
to  work  rapidly,  and  thus,  instead  of  being  turned  out  a  stolid  and 
desperate  man,  who  for  years  has  trained  himself  simply  to  put  in  his 
time  without  regard  to  results,  and  is,  consequently,  not  prepared  to 
do  a  full  day's  work,  he  would  be  able  to  do  as  much  work  as  any- 
body, and  therefore  much  more  likely  to  get  along. 

Fifth.  When  again  set  free,  if  his  money  has  not  been  used  to 
support  his  family,  he  would,  in  many  cases,  be  comparatively  inde- 
pendent; he  would  not  find  himself  without  money  and  without 
friends,  shunned  by  everybody  and  unable  to  get  work,  and  thus  at 
once  driven  to  beg  or  steal ;  but  would  have  money  enough,  not  only 
to  support  him  for  some  time  until  he  could  find  something  to  go  at, 
but  in  many  cases,  where  the  best  years  of  his  life  have  been  spent  in 


UNNECESSARY   IMPRISONMENT.  89 

prison,  he  would  have  means  enough  to  enable  him  to  do  a  small 
business  for  himself. 

Sixth.  All  convicts  would  not  then  be  forced  into  a  few  trades, 
and  the  present  objections  to  convict  labor  would  be  at  least  in  part 
removed. 

Seventh.  All  the  chances  of  reformation  and  development  of 
moral  character  would  be  in  favor  of  the  convict,  instead  of  being 
almost  entirely  against  him,  as  now. 


UNNECESSARY   IMPRISONMENT. 

[An   Address    delivered   before   the    National    Prison    Reform   Association    at 
Detroit,  Mich.,  October  21,  1885.] 

Early  in  this  century  Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  after  years  of  disap- 
pointment, succeeded  in  effecting  what  was  regarded  as  a  great  re- 
form in  the  criminal  law  of  England.  But  his  reforms  were  limited 
in  their  scope,  and  related  only  to  the  punishment  to  be  inflicted  after 
trial  and  conviction  in  certain  classes  of  felonies.  He  stopped  the 
practice  of  inflicting  inhuman  barbarities  in  the  name  of  punishment 
in  certain  cases;  and  so  great  was  the  opposition  that  it  took  all  his 
life  to  accomplish  this.  He  had  no  time  to  insist  that  the  punishment 
inflicted  on  the  poor,  who  cannot  pay  a  fine  and  are  guilty,  say,  of  a 
breach  of  the  peace,  should  differ  not  only  in  degree,  but  also  in 
character  from  that  meted  to  those  guilty  of  heinous  crimes — that  the 
former  should  be  treated  rather  as  moral  patients  who  needed  treat- 
ment than  malefactors  to  be  punished.  He  had  not  the  time  to  point 
out  that  it  was  monstrous  to  treat  all  that  may  chance  to  be  taken 
into  custody  precisely  alike  until  after  trial  and  conviction  (unless 
they  can  give  bail),  whether  they  have  committed  a  felony  or  simply 
shouted  too  loud  upon  the  streets. 

In  these  two  particulars,  at  least,  the  criminal  law  has  undergone 
but  little,  if  any,  change;  it  stands  to-day  substantially  as  it  did  cen- 
turies ago,  and  may  be  said  to  be  mediaeval,  not  only  in  origin  but  in 
character.  And  the  various  criminal  codes  of  this  country  are,  with 
some  slight  modifications,  simply  enactments  of  the  criminal  law  of 
England  as  left  by  Romilly;  and  most  of  the  cities  and  municipalities, 
in  framing  their  ordinances  in  relation  to  minor  offenses,  have  blindly 
followed  the  codes  in  this  respect.  So  that  young  men  and  boys, 
and  even  girls,  accused  of  violating  some  city  ordinance  are  treated  by 
the  police  and  the  police  magistrates,  in  the  first  instance,  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  hardened  criminal.  They  are  arrested,  not  infrequently 


90  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

clubbed,  sometimes  handcuffed,  marched  through  the  streets  in  charge 
of  an  officer  to  the  station,  which  in  many  cases  is  worse  than  a  jail, 
where  a  full  description  of  each  is  written  down  opposite  their  respec- 
tive names,  and  then  they  are  required  to  give  bail  for  their  appear- 
ance at  some  time  in  the  future  when  the  magistrate  can  hear  their 
case.  If  they  cannot  furnish  the  bond  instantly — and  generally  they 
cannot — they  are  shoved  into  a  cell,  and  frequently  occupy  the  same 
cell  for  a  night,  and  sometimes  for  a  week,  with  the  most  desperate  of 
criminals.  The  station-keeper  is  not  to  blame  for  this,  for  the  law 
has  made  no  other  provision  and  left  no  alternative  but  to  lock  them 
up. 

Attend  a  session  of  the  police  court  in  any  of  our  large  cities, 
on  almost  any  morning,  and  you  will  see  on  the  sawdust  in  the  pris- 
oners' pen  a  miscellaneous  crowd  of  human  beings  of  both  sexes, 
ranging  from  middle  life  down  to  tender  years,  nearly  all  from  the  less 
fortunate  class  in  life — poor,  more  or  less  ragged,  with  misery  stamped 
deep  into  their  faces,  weak,  with  little  or  no  training,  no  steady 
habits,  without  homes  worthy  of  the  name,  and  raised  in  an  atmos- 
phere destitute  of  good  and  pregnant  with  vicious  influences.  As  their 
cases  are  called,  you  learn  that  about  one  out  of  twelve  is  charged 
with  a  serious  offense,  about  five-twelfths  are  charged  with  minor 
offenses,  but  there  is  something  about  the  appearance  of  the  accused 
which  tells  you  they  have  made  this  round  before.  The  remaining 
half  are  also  charged  with  minor  offenses,  such  as  drunkenness,  dis- 
orderliness,  etc.,  but  you  soon  become  satisfied  that  they  are  not  yet 
thoroughly  depraved;  that  while  they  may  have  violated  some  ordi- 
nance, they  yet  have  the  stuff  in  them  to  make  good  citizens,  if  given 
a  little  better  chance;  and,  as  you  look  at  them,  the  conviction  settles 
in  your  mind  that  it  was  unnecessary,  and  therefore  wrong,  to  drag 
them  in  and  corral  them  like  so  many  cattle,  and  that  neither  they  nor 
anybody  else  will  be  benefited  by  such  treatment.  If  you  ask  the 
magistrate  why  they  were  thus  treated  before  they  had  even  been 
tried  to  see  if  they  were  guilty,  he  will  tell  you  that  the  law  required 
this;  that  under  the  law  no  other  course  was  open. 

You  sit  down  while  their  cases  are  heard,  and  to  your  surprise 
find  that  about  one-third  are  discharged  by  the  magistrate  because 
the  evidence  fails  to  show  that  they  were  guilty  of  any  offense  what- 
ever. (The  police  reports  show  that  nearly  one-third  of  all  that  are 
arrested  are  discharged  by  the  magistrate.)  Turning  then  to  those 
not  discharged,  you  find  that  a  few,  being  shown  to  be  probably 
guilty  of  the  graver  offenses,  are  bound  over  for  the  action  of  the 
grand  jury,  while  the  great  majority  are  shown  to  have  violated  some 


UNNECESSARY   IMPRISONMENT.  91 

ordinance,  and  are  fined;  and  as  the  fines  are  not  paid  at  once  in 
many  cases,  you  see  men,  women,  and  often  children,  crowded  into  an 
omnibus  with  iron  grating  at  windows  and  door,  and  driven  to  the 
work-house  or  to  the  bridewell  (which  may  properly  be  called  a  short- 
term  penitentiary)  to  work  out  the  fine,  or,  in  the  absence  of  a  work- 
house, they  are  led  back  to  jail  to  serve  out  the  fine  at  so  much  a  day. 

Dismissing  from  your  mind  those  bound  over  for  the  action  of  the 
grand  jury,  and  calming  your  feelings  by  saying  that  the  security  of 
society  requires  that  those  shown  to  be  even  probably  guilty  of  serious 
offenses  against  property  or  human  life  should  not  be  permitted  to 
roam  at  large,  you  turn  to  consider  the  omnibus  load  of  ragged 
humanity — some  thoroughly  vicious,  some  simply  besotted,  some 
almost  innocent.  Children,  women,  men,  all  thoroughly  wretched, 
going  to  the  bridewell — some  for  twenty,  some  for  sixty,  some  for 
ninety  days,  and  a  few  for  even  a  longer  time,  for  having  violated  some 
city  ordinance;  and  as  you  wonder  what  is  ultimately  to  become  of 
these  people,  you  find  yourself  both  asking  and,  then  answering  ques- 
tions after  this  fashion: 

"Will  these  people  be  any  better  when  they  regain  their  liberty?" 
"No;  for  there  is  nothing  in  this  treatment  that  is  adapted  to  make 
anybody  better."  "Will  they  be  more  intelligent  or  better  educated?" 
"No."  "Will  the  idle  be  more  industrious?"  "No."  "Will  the  in- 
dustrious be  more  able  to  get  employment?"  "No;  on  the  contrary, 
this  stigma  will  be  in  their  way."  "Will  the  untrained  be  masters 
of  a  trade?"  "No."  "Will  they  have  better  homes?"  "No."  "Bet- 
ter friends?"  "No."  "Better  surroundings?"  "No;  if  anything, 
poorer  surroundings."  "Will  those'that  now  have  no  homes  then  have 
places  to  which  they  can  go?"  "No."  "Will  society  extend  them 
a  helping  hand?"  "No."  "Will  there  be  any  Christian  door  open  to 
receive  the  women  and  children  on  their  return?"  "Scarcely."  "Will 
the  self-respect  of  any  be  raised,  and  they  therefore  be  stronger?" 
"No;  on  the  contrary,' the  self-respect  of  all  will  be  lowered,  and  they 
will  therefore  be  weaker."  "Will  the  good-intentioned,  but  weak,  be 
better  off?"  "No."  "Will  the  viciously  inclined  be  more  subdued?" 
"No;  on  the  contrary,  they  will  be  a  little  more  desperate."  "Will 
those  without  homes  have  any  money  when  they  leave  the  prison  with 
which  to  maintain  themselves  until  they  can  find  a  home  or  something 
to  do?"  "No;  not  money  enough  to  pay  for  a  night's  lodging."  "If 
men  who  have  not  been  imprisoned  find  it  very  difficult  to  get  employ- 
ment, will  these  people  find  it  easier?"  "No;  on  the  contrary,  they 
will  find  it  harder."  "Then  what  are  many  of  them  to  do?"  "Well, 
they  can  beg,  starve,  or  steal."  "How  will  the  police  treat  them?" 


92  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

"Well,  the  police  call  them  jail-birds,  or  bridewell-birds,  and  seem  to 
take  delight  in  'running  them  in'  again  at  the  earliest  possible  oppor- 
tunity."    "Then  will  many  of  these  people  make  this  round  again 
soon?"     "Yes;  experience  teaches  that  they  will,  and  that  they  will' 
become  a  little  more  vicious  and  desperate  as  they  do  so." 

"Referring  to  those  not  yet  vicious  or  criminal — the  boys,  the 
women,  and  first  offenders  generally — whence  does  society  derive  its 
power  thus  to  incarcerate  them?"  "From  the  right  of  self-protec- 
tion." "Was  it,  then,  necessary  for  the  immediate  protection  of 
society  thus  to  treat  these  first  offenders?"  "Oh,  no;  but  this  is  done 
to  enforce  respect  for  the  majesty  of  the  law,  and  thus  prevent  others 
from  violating  it."  "How  long  has  this  been  going  on?"  "Oh,  sev- 
eral hundred  years."  "Well,  then,  how  has  it  worked;  does  this  prac- 
tice actually  deter  others,  and  are  there  really  fewer  arrests  now  in 
proportion  to  population  than  formerly?"  "No;  to  tell  the  truth, 
there  are  more."  "Can  this  practice,  then,  be  truly  said  to  protect 
society?"  "Well,  no."  "But  suppose  that  arrest  and  imprisonment 
had  a  repressive  influence  on  outsiders;  would  you  not  get  enough  of 
it  by  the  arrest  and  incarceration  of  the  actual  criminals  and  hard 
cases,  and  do  you  not  destroy  the  efficacy  of  your  remedy — in  fact, 
rob  it  of  its  influence — by  applying  it  so  indiscriminately  and  making 
it  so  common?"  "Well,  the  results  indicate  that  this  is  so."  Finally: 
"Does  society  get  any  benefit  from  this  treatment  of  its  first  offend- 
ers?" "On  the  contrary,  to  say  nothing  of  the  expense,  it  is  a  question 
whether  this  practice  of  imprisoning  people  for  trifling  offenses  does 
not  constitute  the  training  which  -  crushes  the  self-respect,  and  by 
degrees  forms  those  desperate  characters  whose  crimes  all  over  the 
land  make  men  shudder."  . 

Now  I  ask,  if — instead  of  this  superficial,  and,  in  a  sense,  unjust 
system,  which  requires  a  conviction  if  a  technical  offense  be  proven, 
and  after  conviction  allows  some  that  can  pay  a  fine  to  escape  incar- 
ceration while  it  sends  the  poor  to  the  bridewell,  no  matter  what  their 
physical  or  moral  conditions  may  be,  and  no  matter  what  the  past 
history  of  the  accused  may  be,  and  without  reference  to  the  question 
as  to  whether  such  a  course  is  necessary  for  the  well-being  of  society 
— it  would  not  be  better  in  all  minor  offenses  to  adopt  a  practice 
which  would  require,  not  only  proof  of  a  technical  offense,  but  also  an 
inquiry  into  the  moral  condition  of  the  accused,  his  habits,  associa- 
tions, etc.,  and  then,  except  in  extreme  cases,  permit,  if  you  please,  a 
suspension  of  sentence,  and  release  the  accused  with  the  understanding 
that  if  his  conduct  in  the  future  gives  no  offense  he  will  not  be  dis- 
turbed, but  that  otherwise  he  will  be  taken  into  custody?  This  would 


UNNECESSARY    IMPRISONMENT.  93 

have  none  of  the  degrading  influence  of  actual  imprisonment,  while 
at  the  same  time  it  would  be  a  most  powerful  incentive  to  good  con- 
duct. Then  it  should  be  the  duty  of  some  officer  to  assist  the  delin- 
quent, as  far  as  possible,  in  getting  employment,  finding  a  home,  etc. 
This  latter  plan  has  been  tried  both  in  Massachusetts  and  in  Baltimore, 
with  the  most  happy  results. 

And  in  extreme  cases,  or  cases  in  which  repetition  of  offense  re- 
quires a  sentence  of  imprisonment,  would  it  not  be  better  to  adopt  the 
indeterminate  sentence  system,  whereby  the  maximum  time  of  impris- 
onment would  be  fixed,  but  the  actual  term  would  be  determined  by  the 
conduct  of  the  accused,  and  his  probable  ability  to  become  a  law- 
abiding  citizen?  And  supplement  this  not  only  with  educational  in- 
fluences that  shall  develop  his  character,  but  also  with  a  provision 
requiring  him  to  work,  and  at  the  same  time  give  him  an  interest 
in  his  work,  so  that  a  certain  per  cent,  of  what  he  earns  every  day 
shall  be  carried  to  his  credit,  and  be  applied  either  to  the  support  of 
his  family  or  paid  to  him,  not  at,  but  after,  the  time  of  his  discharge. 
And  further  provide  that  in  no  case  shall  a  prisoner  be  discharged 
until  he  has  earned  a  sufficient  sum  to  his  credit,  so  that  on  regaining 
his  liberty  he  will  not  be  an  outcast  or  in  a  position  in  which  about 
the  only  alternative  he  has  is  tc  steal  or  starve. 

The  experiment  of  giving  prisoners  a  part  of  their  earnings  has 
worked  almost  like  magic  where  it  has  been  fairly  tried,  and  if  the 
provision  were  added  requiring  them  to  have  something  ahead  before 
they  could  be  set  at  liberty,  almost  every  prisoner  would  be  a  willing 
laborer,  which  is  the  very  first  requisite  affecting  his  reformation 
and  developing  character.  Under  such  a  system  only  the  incorrigible 
would  ever  need  to  be  imprisoned,  and  when  they  are  imprisoned, 
instead  of  being  discharged  in  twenty  or  sixty  days,  as  is  now  the 
case,  simply  to  make  the  same  round  again,  they  would  be  held  for 
such  a  length  of  time  and  under  such  conditions  as  would  make  it 
at  least  possible  to  create  habits  of  industry  and  develop  character, 
so  that,  when  finally  released,  there  would  be  at  least  ground  to  hope 
for  reform.  The  large  class  of  repeaters,  loafers,  and  known  hard 
cases  would  soon  be  weeded  out  and  subjected  to  a  course  of  training, 
which  would  not  only  tend  to  make  them  steady  and  self-supporting, 
but  would  free  society  from  their  presence  and  put  an  end  to  the 
farce  of  perpetual  re-conviction. 

THOSE  DISCHARGED  BY  THE  MAGISTRATE. 

Turning  now  to  those  that  were  discharged:  what  about  them? 
Well,  most  of  what  has  been  said  about  those  not  discharged  will 


94  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

apply,  if  possible,  with  greater  force  to  these;  for  most  of  them  were 
innocent,  yet  they  have  been  imprisoned;  their  names  and  a  complete 
description  of  their  persons  are  on  the  prison  records.  They  have 
been  wronged,  and  will  feel  the  indignity  to  which  they  were  sub- 
jected as  long  as  they  live.  They  have  been  shoved  down  in  the 
struggle  to  rise.  They  will  hate  and  keep  out  of  the  way  of  the  police. 
Many  will  sympathize  with  those  that  circumvent  and  defy  the  police. 
They  will  be  more  ready  to  slink  into  dark  places ;  and  as  they  become 
accustomed  to  dark  places,  they  will  become  familiar  with  dark  deeds, 
and  many  of  them  will  soon  make  the  round  with  those  in  the  omnibus, 
and  in  time  form  a  part  of  that  ubiquitous  horde  against  which  we 
bolt  our  doors  at  night,  and  whose  nocturnal  visits  we  dread  worse 
than  the  plague.  Society,  in  making  war-  on  these  people  without 
cause,  has  wronged  them,  and,  at  the  same  time,  made  enemies  of 
such  as  are  certain  to  be  avenged. 

But  some  one  will  ask  whether  there  is  enough  in  all  these  things 
to  make  much  fuss  necessary.  In  reply,  I  will  refer  to  the  report 
of  the  superintendent  of  police  of  Chicago,  for  1884;  and  I  take  this 
because  in  Chicago  the  present  system  is  found  at  its  best,  Chicago 
having  one  of  the  finest  and  best  managed  police  forces  in  the  country, 
and  the  proportion  of  arrests  to  population  is,  if  anything,  smaller 
there  than  in  other  large  cities.  According  to  the  report,  the  whole 
number  arrested  in  that  city  by  the  police,  to  say  nothing  of  the  arrests 
by  State  and  county  officials,  during  the  year,  was  39,434.  Of  these, 
16,260,  or  considerably  more  than  one-third,  were  discharged  by  the 
magistrates;  about  2,000,  or  five  per  cent,  of  all  arrested,  were  held 
for  the  action  of  the  grand  jury  on  criminal  charges;  about  900,  or 
one  out  of  forty,  were  sent  to  hospitals  or  asylums ;  and  about  20,000, 
or  a  little  over  half  of  all  arrested,  were  fined  by  the  magistrates; 
8,547,  or  about  one-fifth  of  all  arrested,  were  females;  17,566,  or  nearly 
half  of  all  arrested,  were  without  any  occupations.  Of  the  whole 
number  arrested,  over  23,000,  or  considerably  over  half,  were  orig- 
inally only  charged  with  being  either  drunk  or  disorderly;  and  the 
fact  that  out  of  nearly  40,000  arrested  only  about  2,000  were  held  on 
criminal  charges,  shows  that  ninety-five  per  cent,  were  arrested  for 
the  minor  offenses.  Of  these,  6,532  were  sent  to  the  bridewell  for 
non-payment  of  fines,  which  shows  that  they  were  of  the  very  poor. 

As  already  stated,  in  many  sections  of  the  country  the  proportion 
of  arrests  to  the  population  is  greater  than  in  Chicago.  It  is  therefore 
safe  to  say  that  during  that  year  there  were,  including  repeaters, 
nearly  two  millions  and  a  half  people  arrested  in  the  United  States, 
of  whom  about  three-fourths  of  a  million  were  discharged  by  the 


UNNECESSARY    IMPRISONMENT.  95 

magistrates  because  it  was  not  proven  that  they  had  violated  any  law, 
and  therefore  should  not  have  been  arrested.  Notwithstanding  the 
appallingly  large  number  of  arrests,  crime  seems  to  be  on  the  increase, 
and  careful  observers  are  asking  the  question  whether  our  penal  sys- 
tem, instead  of  being  a  success,  is  not,  through  the  needless  arrests 
and  the  blind  application  of  brute  force,  actually  swelling  the  number 
of  criminals  in  the  land.  We  fancy  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  is  a  great  bulwark  of  liberty,  but  you  would  be  aston- 
ished to  see  with  what  ease  a  policeman  and  a  police  magistrate  will 
brush  it  all  away  when  dealing  with  the  poor. 

The  question  may  now  be  asked:  "Why  should  people  be  arrested 
and  locked  up  before  there  has  been  an  examination  to  see  if  they 
are  guilty  of  any  offense?"  In  reply,  we  say  that  it  is  right  that  per- 
sons charged  with  crimes  which  indicate  a  wanton  disregard  of  human 
life  or  of  the  property  rights  of  others,  on  the  part  of  the  accused, 
should  be  restrained  as  long  as  there  is  even  a  probability  of  their 
guilt;  that  the  safety  of  society  may  require  this.  But  I  submit  that 
in  all  those  cases  where  the  offense  charged  is  simply  a  misdemeanor, 
and  where  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  society  will  in  some  way 
suffer  or  be  endangered  before  a  trial  can  be  had  unless  the  accused 
is  placed  in  custody  or  put  under  bonds,  he  should  not  be  deprived 
of  his  liberty  until  shown  to  be  guilty. 

"Oh,  but,"  says  some  one,  "if  that  were  the  practice,  every  one  in 
danger  of  being  convicted  of  a  misdemeanor  would  run  off,  so  that 
by  the  time  you  had  your  trial  there  would  be  nobody  to  be  fined  or 
to  collect  costs  from."  Well,  suppose  for  the  moment  that  this  were 
true,  who  would  suffer  by  it?  Mind  you,  those  that  we  are  consider- 
ing are  not  criminals.  There  is  nothing  in  their  case  to  indicate 
that  if  they  were  to  go  away  and  settle  in  some  other  community  they 
would  endanger  the  lives  or  property,  or  even  the  peace,  of  others. 
And  this  is  the  only  ground  upon  which  society  has  the  right  to  de- 
prive a  citizen  of  his  liberty  before  conviction. 

Furthermore,  if  those  charged  simply  with  the  more  trivial  offenses 
were  to  leave  the  country  before  conviction,  never  to  return,  would 
not  this,  of  itself,  be  as  severe  a  punishment  for  them  as  could  be 
inflicted?  The  thought  of  being  obliged  suddenly  and  forever  to  leave 
the  community  in  which  one  has  his  abode,  is,  to  most  people, 
horrible — so  much  so,  in  fact,  that  the  probability  of  escape  before 
conviction  would  be  slight.  Society  derives  its  power  in  the  matter 
solely  from  the  necessity  of  protection;  therefore,  in  all  cases  of  this 
grade  in  which  the  safety  of  society  does  not  require  the  confinement 


96  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

of  the  accused  before  trial,  society  has  no  right  to  deprive  him  of  his 
liberty  until  after  conviction. 

The  practice  of  imprisoning  before  triai,  in  cases  where  some 
trifling  offense  was  charged,  never  came  into  existence  as  the  result 
of  a  careful  consideration  of  the  best  interests  of  society,  but  had  its 
origin  in  that  mediaeval  barbarism  which  regarded  every  kind  of 
violation  of  law  as  a  source  of  profit — a  source  of  revenue  at  first  for 
the  feudal  lord,  and  later  for  the  magistrates,  jailers,  and  other  small 
officials.  The  more  numerous  the  charges  and  the  more  protracted 
and  complicated  the  proceedings,  the  fatter  these  officials  got.  And 
vet  they  were  more  consistent  than  we  are.  They  understood  that  the 
liberty  of  an  Englishman  meant  the  liberty  of  the  rich,  and  that  the 
term  was  merely  a  beautiful  fiction  when  applied  to  the  poor;  while 
we  incorporate  lengthy  provisions  about  liberty  in  our  fundamental 
laws,  guarantee  it  to  every  man,  woman,  and  child,  and  then  we  adopt 
a  system  and  permit  a  practice  which  robs  the  fiction  even  of  its 
beauty — a  system  and  a  practice  which  gave  more  suffering,  more 
misery,  and  more  degradation  to  the  poor  of  England  than  all  her 
wars.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  we  not  only  still  follow  mediaeval  ways 
— blindly  make  local  applications  of  brute  force  for  ills  that  require 
constitutional  treatment — but  we  still  make  the  failings  and  wrong- 
doings of  a  part  of  our  people  a  source  of  revenue  for  others.  In 
almost  every  city  and  town  there  are  men  who  expect  to  supj>ort 
their  families  on  the  toll  to  be  collected  in  the  shape  of  fees  from  those 
that  may,  from  time  to  time,  be  accused  of  some  violation  of  law. 
Think  of  a  band  of  officials,  men  in  good  standing  in  the  community, 
directly  interested  in  having  the  law  violated,  and  who  would  starve 
if  there  should  suddenly  be  a  cessation  of  wrong-doing!  Many  of 
them  watch  with  whetted  appetites  for  an  opportunity  to  have  some 
wretch  brought  before  them,  no  matter  on  what  charge.  If  he  gives 
bond,  there  is  an  extra  fee  for  the  bond;  if  he  is  sent  to  jail,  there  is 
an  extra  fee  for  the  magistrate,  an  extra  fee  for  the  constable,  and  an 
extra  fee  for  the  jailer.  What  is  it  to  them  that  they  are  crushing 
the  self-respect  of  a  man  and  casting  on  him  and  his  family  a  stigma 
which  may  ruin  him?  The  Taw  permits  it,  and  they  are  making 
money  out  of  it,  and  that  is  enough.  I  am  informed  that  the  legis- 
lature of  Maryland,  in  1882,  abolished  the  "fee  system,"  in  so  far  as 
it  related  to  Baltimore,  and  the  result  was  a  falling  off  in  the  number 
of  arrests  for  minor  offenses  in  that  city,  in  one  year,  from  12,000  to 
7,000,  or  almost  half;  thus  showing  that  the  "fee  system"  had  been 
responsible  for  nearly  half  of  the  arrests  theretofore  made. 

In  addition  to  this  there  prevails  too  widely  the  notion  among 


UNNECESSARY    IMPRISONMENT.  97 

policemen  that  their  standing  and  efficiency  as  peace  officers  are  to 
be  determined  by  the  number  of  people  that  they  "run  in."  Hence  the 
eagerness  of  many  policemen  to  make  arrests,  especially  in  cases 
where  they  do  not  apprehend  much  danger.  There  was  a  time  in  the 
history  of  education  in  this  country  when  some  people  seemed  to 
think  that  the  efficiency  of  a  school  teacher  was  to  be  determined 
largely  by  the  number  of  pupils  he  flogged — as  if  flogging  and  not 
teaching  was  the  main  object  of  the  school — and  when  there  was  in 
many  schools  a  suppressed  but  constant  hostility  between  pupils  and 
teacher,  and  a  perpetual  effort  on  the  part  of  the  pupils  to  deceive  or 
outwit  the  teacher,  and  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  to  detect  the  pupils ; 
and  as  a  result,  offenses  of  all  kinds  against  the  rules  of  the  school 
were  frequent,  and  flogging  was  a  matter  of  daily  occurrence.  But 
now  we  have  got  to  a  point  where  we  consider  teaching,  and  not 
flogging,  the  chief  end  of  the  school,  and  we  have  discovered  that  to 
have  a  feeling  of  confidence,  and  even  affection,  between  teacher  and 
pupil,  is  productive  of  far  better  results,  and  that  a  very  little  use  of 
the  rod  is  sufficient  in  most  cases. 

Now,  society  demands  protection,to  life  and  property  and  a  pre- 
servation of  the  peace.  That  is  all  that  it  has  any  right  to  ask.  It 
has  no  authority  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  sins  of  its  members.  This 
is  a  function  which  the  Almighty  has  thus  far  reserved  to  Himself. 
It  is  with  a  view  to  protection  solely  that  peace  officers  are  created, 
and  their  chief  object  should  be  to  keep  the  peace;  but,  owing  to  the 
fee  system  and  the  false  notion  with  reference  to  efficiency,  a  practice 
just  the  opposite  in  spirit  has  always  prevailed.  Arrests  appear  to 
be  the  prime  object,  and  to  protect  life  and  property  seems  a  sec- 
ondary matter. 

Read  the  report  of  some  chief  of  police,  and  see  with  what  genuine 
satisfaction  he  speaks  of  the  large  number  of  arrests;  it  shows  that 
the  force  has  been  doing  something.  There  is  something  spectacular, 
something  almost  brilliant,  about  our  system ;  it  makes  a  large  showing 
so  far  as  numbers  are  concerned.  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  the  great  Eng- 
lish surgeon,  when  once  in  conversation  with  another  surgeon,  who 
boasted  of  his  own  brilliant  performances,  was  asked  how  many 
brilliant  operations  he,  Cooper,  had  performed  in  his  professional 
career — that  is,  operations  requiring  a  rare  union  of  nerve,  dexterity, 
and  skill — to  which  Cooper  replied  that  he  had  performed  thirteen 
operations  which  he  considered  of  that  character.  "Thirteen!"  ex- 
claimed the  other  surgeon;  "why,  I  have  performed  one  hundred  and 
fifty  most  brilliant  operations;  how  many  did  you  save  out  of  your 
thirteen?"  "Well,"  replied  Cooper,  "I  saved  the  lives  of  eleven  out  of 

7 


98  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

the  thirteen;  how  many  did  you  save  out  of  the  one  hundred  and 
fifty?"  "Oh,"  was  the  answer,  "they  all  died;  but  the  operations  were 
very  brilliant." 

Now,  our  peace  keeping  establishment  points  with  pride  to  millions 
of  annual  arrests,  but  when  we  ask  how  many  are  saved  to  society  by 
reason  of  these  operations,  we  learn  that  all  the  patients  grow  worse, 
except  such  as  have  sufficient  moral  vitality  to  recover  in  spite  of  the 
treatment  they  receive. 

If  we  think  most  of  that  teacher  who  can  teach  a  good  school 
with  but  little  flogging,  why  should  we  not  think  most  of  that  police- 
man who  can  keep  the  peace,  can  protect  society,  and  yet  make  but 
few  arrests?  We  have  found  that  mutual  confidence  and  affection 
between  teacher  and  pupil,  which  follows  kind  treatment,  is  pro- 
ductive of  better  results  in  the  school  than  mutual  hostility.  Can 
anybody  doubt  that  a  kindly  feeling  between  the  police  and,  not  the 
criminals,  but  the  poor  and  the  outcast,  would  produce  better  results 
than  the  mutual  hostility  which  now  exists? 

"Oh,  but,"  says  some  one,  "there  is  too  much  sentiment  about  this; 
those  people  are  violators  of  the  law  and  ought  to  be  punished;  they 
have  done  wrong  and  ought  to  suffer;  and  it  doesn't  make  any  differ- 
ence what  becomes  of  them." 

To  this  I  first  demur,  and  then  answer:  I  demur  because  it 
does  not  lie  in  the  mouth  of  any  person  not  possessed  of  a  perfectly 
white  soul  to  raise  this  objection,  and  if  none  other  raise  it,  we  shall 
hear  little  of  it  in  this  world,  for  none  of  us  are  perfectly  pure,  and 
none  other  has  a  right  to  sit  in  moral  judgment  on  his  fellow-man; 
^very  likely  even  the  objector,  if  judged  by  the  principles  of  eternal 
justice,  would  himself  be  in  the  lock-up.  And  I  answer  that,  in  the 
first  place,  it  is  not  correct,  because,  as  already  shown,  over  one-third 
of  all  arrested  by  the  police  are  discharged,  because  not  shown  to  be 
guilty  of  any  offense  whatever;  and,  further,  if  it  is  true,  as  competent 
observers  assert,  that  notwithstanding  our  numerous  arrests  crime  is 
on  the  increase,  that  our  present  system  makes  criminals  of  many 
that  otherwise  would  not  become  such,  then  it  should  be  changed; 
and,  as  we  have  been  trying  brute  force  and  the  crushing  policy  with 
such  unsatisfactory  results,  let  us  stop  locking  up  the  young  before 
conviction,  and  dispense  with  a  little  of  the  brute  force,  and  in  those 
cases  in  which  something  must  be  done,  try  a  system  of  development 
which,  while  it  will  protect  society  better  than  the  present  system, 
will  also  make  it  at  least  possible  for  the  accused  to  come  out  with 
more  character,  moral  strength,  and  self-respect,  than  he  had  when 
taken  into  custody. 


WHAT  TO  DO   WITH  CRIMINALS.  99 

WHAT  SHALL  WE  DO  WITH   OUR  CRIMINALS? 
[An  Address  delivered  before  the  Sunset  Club  of  Chicago,   March  27,   1890.] 

No  man  can  examine  the  great  penal  system  of  this  country  without 
being  astounded  at  its  magnitude,  its  cost,  and  its  unsatisfactory  re- 
sults. There  are  in  the  United  States  upward  of  2,200  county  jails, 
several  hundred  lock-ups,  or  police  stations,  between  fifty  and  sixty 
penitentiaries,  with  workshops,  machinery,  etc.  The  first  cost  of  erec- 
tion of  all  these  buildings  and  shops  has  been  estimated  at  upward  of 
$500,000,000,  which  is  dead  capital — the  interest,  at  five  per  cent.,  upon 
which  sum  alone,  would  annually  amount  to  $25,000,000.  To  this 
must  be  added  the  sums  annually  appropriated  out  of  the  treasury 
to  feed  the  prisoners,  pay  the  officers,  judicial  and  executive,  and  keep 
up  and  maintain  all  these  institutions,  which'  sums  have  been  esti- 
mated at  upward  of  $50,000,000,  to  say  nothing  of  the  costs  paid  by 
the  accused;  there  are,  in  addition  to  the  many  thousands  of  police- 
men and  detectives,  about  70,000  constables  in  this  country,  and 
about  as  many  magistrates.  There  are  upwards  of  2,200  sheriffs,  and 
in  the  neighborhood  of  12,000  deputy  sheriffs.  Then  come  the  grand 
juries,  petit  juries,  judges,  and  lawyers;  next  the  keepers  and  their 
numerous  assistants  for  all  these  prisons.  On  the  whole,  there  are 
about  a  million  of  men  partly  or  wholly  supporting  their  families  from 
this  source,  and  as  I  am  on  the  list,  I  may  speak  with  freedom,  and 
say  that,  as  a  rule,  they  are  comfortable,  are  anxious  to  hold  on,  and 
ready  to  defend  the  system  which  gives  them  and  their  families  bread. 

A  glance  at  this  system  almost  suggests  the  question  whether 
society  has  any  other  object  to  care  for,  or  mission  to  accomplish,  than 
simply  to  maintain  this  machinery.  Looking  at  its  workings,  we  find 
that  there  are  in  the  neighborhood  of  75,000  convicts  in  the  various 
penitentiaries.  As  the  average  sentence  is  about  two  years  and  one- 
half,  the  whole  number,  on  the  average,  is  therefore  renewed  once 
every  two  years  and  one-half;  so  that  there  are  in  the  neighborhood  of 
three-quarters  of  a  million  of  men  living  in  our  midst  who  have  had  a 
penitentiary  experience.  We  next  see  that  upward  of  five  per  cent, 
of  the  entire  population  is  arrested  by  the  police  and  other  officials 
every  year;  so  that  there  are  about  three  million  people  arrested  and 
"run  in"  every  year.  Assuming  that  one-third  of  them  are  what  are 
called  "repeaters" — that  is,  have  been  arrested  before — it  would  still 
leave  two  millions  who  are  for  the  first  time  each  year  broken  into 
what  may  be  called  a  prison  experience ;  and  yet,  notwithstanding  the 
vast  army  of  men  employed,  the  millions  annually  expended,  the 
numerous  arrests,  the  large  number  imprisoned,  crime  is  said  to  be 


ioo  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

increasing,  and  our  whole  penal  system  is  pronounced  to  be  a  failure, 
both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  where  they  have  similar  systems. 

And  the  question  is  asked  by  thoughtful  men:  "What  shall  be 
done?  Society  must  be  protected.  If  the  present  system  is  a  failure, 
what  shall  we  substitute?"  It  has  been  but  a  few  years  since  the  gen- 
eral public  gave  this  question  any  consideration.  Heretofore  the  only 
remedy  ever  suggested  or  thought  of  was  the  application  of  brute 
force.  In  all  the  past  centuries,  and  in  every  country  on  the  globe, 
methods  of  punishment  for  the  prevention  of  crime  have  prevailed 
which  were  the  embodiment  of  brutality  and  of  fiendish  cruelty.  The 
prisoners  were  often  transformed  into  either  raving  maniacs  or  wild 
beasts,  while  the  keepers  of  prisons  became  fiends  in  human  form; 
and  in  all  times,  and  in  every  country  on  the  globe,  this  system  of 
human  torture  was  a  failure.  Brutality  never  yet  protected  society 
or  helped  humanity.  There  was  a  time  in  England  when  men  were 
hanged  or  burned  for  trivial  offenses;  but  instead  of  deterring,  the  very 
shadow  of  the  gallows  seemed  to  produce  a  crop  of  fresh  offenders, 
and  the  glow  of  human  embers  invited  new  victims  to  the  stake. 

One  difficulty  with  our  system  is  that  it  proceeds  on  the  idea  of 
expiation — that  is,  paying  for  having  violated  the  law.  In  feudal 
times  every  violation  of  law  was  a  source  of  revenue  to  the  feudal  lord, 
or  to  the  king.  The  fine  was  paid  to  him,  or  whatever  penalty  was 
paid  went  to  him,  the  more  serious  of  offenses  being  followed  by  a 
confiscation  of  property.  The  imposition,  then;  of  a  fine  was  one  of 
the  means  employed  by  the  strong  to  plunder  the  weak.  Now  we  have 
advanced  until  theoretically  we  declare  that  crime  should  not  be  a 
source  of  revenue,  and  that  it  is  only  for  the  protection  of  society 
that  punishment  can  be  inflicted;  yet  when  we  come  to  impose  penal- 
ties, we  proceed  upon  the  theory  that  if  the  offender  pays  for  or 
expiates  the  violation,  then  that  ends  all.  He  can  go  right  on  and 
violate  the  law  a  second  time,  and  if  he  pays  the  penalty  all  is  wiped 
out.  Instead  of  inquiring  into  the  history,  the  environment,  and  the 
character  of  the  offender,  and  then  applying  a  treatment  which  will  in 
reality  protect  society,  we  simply  fix  a  price  upon  each  infraction ;  and 
we  treat  those  who  are  not  vicious,  but  have  been  unfortunate,  and 
have  been  guilty  of  some  slight  offense,  in  almost  the  same  manner 
that  we  treat  the  vicious  who  have  been  guilty  of  graver  offenses; 
and  we  put  both  in  a  condition  in  which  it  is  next  to  impossible  for 
either  to  make  an  honest  living  when  they  have  been  once  imprisoned. 

I  desire  to  consider  the  subject  rather  from  a  practical  than  from 
a  theoretical  standpoint.  The  first  important  question  that  arises  when 
we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  workings  of  our  system  is,  Where 


WHAT  TO  DO   WITH  CRIMINALS.  101 

do  all  these  people  who  are  arrested  come  from?  What  is  the  en- 
vironment which  produces  them?  As  we  have  not  the  time  to  inquire 
extensively  into  home  conditions,  or  the  training  of  the  youth,  we 
will  start  at  once  at  the  point  where  they  are  first  brought  to  our  view, 
and  that  is  in  the  police  court,  and  we  will  soon  see  where  they  come 
from. 

The  report  of  the  superintendent  of  police  of  Chicago  for  the  year 
1888  shows  that  in  that  year  the  police  officers  of  Chicago  alone  ar- 
rested and  carried  to  the  lock-up  50,432  people,  40,867  of  whom  were 
males,  9,565  of  whom  were  females.  The  great  majority  of  them 
were  under  thirty  years  of  age;  nearly  9,000  were  under  twenty  years 
of  age;  a  little  over  30,000  of  them  were  American-born;  the  others 
were  made  up  of  various  nationalities.  The  same  report  shows  that 
10,263  were  common  laborers;  18,336  had  no  occupation;  1,975  were 
housekeepers.  Some  of  you  may  ask:  "What  were  these  people 
arrested  for,  and  what  was  done  with  them?"  Well,  the  same  report 
shows  that  upward  of  15,000,  or  nearly  one-third,  were  discharged 
in  the  police  court  because  it  was  not  proven  that  they  had  violated 
any  law  or  ordinance;  and  out  of  the  whole  number  arrested,  only 
2,192  were  held  over  on  criminal  charges.  The  rest  were  fined  for  a 
violation  of  some  ordinance,  generally  on  the  charge  of  disorderly 
conduct.  The  police  magistrate  having  no  power  to  try  a  charge  of 
crime  or  grave  misdemeanor,  it  follows  that  every  case  of  that  nature 
had  to  be  sent  to  the  grand  jury;  and  I  repeat  that,  out  of  the  whole 
50,000,  only  a  little  over  2,000  were  held  over;  and  the  records  of 
the  criminal  court  show  that,  of  these,  more  than  two-thirds  fell  to 
the  ground  because  no  offense  could  be  proven. 

Bearing  in  mind  that  those  arrested  were  young,  that  they  came 
from  the  poorer  classes,  from  those  who  are  already  fighting  an 
unequal  fight  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  I  ask  you  what  effect  do 
you  suppose  the  act  of  arresting  them  upon  the  street,  possibly  club- 
bing them,  then  marching  them  to  the  lock-up,  and  shoving  them 
into  a  cell — what  effect  did  all  this  have  upon  the  15,000  who  were  not 
shown  to  have  been  guilty  of  any  offense,,  who  had  violated  neither 
law  of  God  nor  statutes  of  man?  They  were  treated  while  under 
arrest  as  if  guilty  of  highway  robbery.  Did  this  treatment  strengthen 
them  and  make  them  better  able  to  hold  their  heads  up,  or  did  it 
tend  to  break  their  self-respect,  to  weaken  them?  Did  it  not  embitter 
them  against  society  and  a  system  which  had  done  them  this  wrong? 
Will  they  not  feel  the  humiliation  and  degradation  as  long  as  they 
live;  and  will  that  very  treatment  not  mark  the  beginning  in  many 
cases  of  a  downward  criminal  career? 


102  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

But  we  will  follow  the  subject  a  little  further.  You  are  aware  that 
when  a  fine  is  imposed  in  the  police  court,  if  it  is  not  paid  the  defend- 
ant is  taken  to  the  house  of  correction — that  is,  the  bridewell,  which  for 
all  practical  purposes  is  a  penitentiary.  It  has  for  many  years  been 
in  charge  of  Mr.  Charles  E.  Felton,  who  is  one  of  the  most  experienced 
and  most  intelligent  prison  managers  in  the  United  States.  In  his 
report  for  that  year  he  says:  "In  the  year  1888  the  number  of  pris- 
oners was  10,717,  the  average  daily  number  imprisoned  was  7^41; 
the  average  duration  of  imprisonment  was  but  26.1  days.  Of  the 
above  who  were  received  during  the  year  all  save  ninety-six  were  con- 
victed for  petty  offenses,  the  executions  under  which  they  were  im- 
prisoned showing  their  offense  to  have  been  chiefly  disorderly  con- 
duct, or  other  violation  of  municipal  or  town  or  village  ordinance, 
mere  petty  misdemeanors,  punishable  by  fine  only,  the  imprisonment 
being  the  result  of  the  non-payment  of  the  fine." 

Reflect  upon  this  a  moment:  10,717  were  imprisoned  during  the 
year,  and  out  of  this  number  only  ninety-six  were  convicted  of  crim- 
inal offenses.  The  others,  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Felton,  were  guilty 
of  mere  petty  misdemeanors,  punishable  by  fine  only,  and  they  were 
imprisoned  because  they  could  not  pay  this  fine.  Of  these  10,717, 
1,670  were  women  and  girls. 

Speaking  of  their  social  relations,  Mr.  Felton's  report  says  that 
2,744  were  married;  7,184  claimed  to  be  single;  2,121  had  children. 
It  also  shows  that  nearly  4,000  had  no  parents  living;  upward  of  1,600 
had  only  a  mother  living,  and  822  had  only  a  father  living,  showing 
that  one-half  were  without  proper  parental  supervision. 

Several  years  ago  Mr.  Fred.  L.  Thompson,  chaplain  of  the  peni- 
tentiary at  Chester,  Illinois,  made  a  personal  inquiry  of  500  convicts 
in  regard  to  their  early  environment,  and  the  result  showed  that  419, 
or  upward  of  four-fifths,  were  parentless,  or  without  proper  home 
influence  before  reaching  eighteen  years  of  age.  Also  that  218  never 
had  attended  school.  Mr.  Thompson  sums  up  an  interesting  report 
in  these  words:  "I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  are  two 
prime  causes  of  crime;  first,  the  want  of  proper  home  influence  in 
childhood,  and,  second,  the  lack  of  thorough,  well-disciplined  training 
in  early  life."  I  will  only  add,  it  is  the  boy  and  girl  who  grow  up 
on  the  streets  or  amid  squalor  and  misery  at  home  whose  path  seems 
forever  to  wind  toward  the  prison  door,  and  whatever  system  will 
train  the  youth,  or  will  let  light  into  the  hovels,  cellars,  and  garrets 
where  children  are  growing  up,  will  reduce  the  ranks  of  criminals. 

The  fact  that  all  save  ninety-six  of  the  inmates  of  the  bridewell  for 
that  year  were  there  because  they  could  not  pay  a  fine,  shows  that  they 


WHAT  TO  DO   WITH  CRIMINALS.  103 

came  from  the  poor,  the  very  poor,  the  unfortunate.  And  as  they  had 
not  been  charged  with  any  serious  offense,  and  as  the  treatment  which 
they  got  in  the  bridewell  in  twenty-six  and  one-tenth  days  would  not 
build  up  or  strengthen  character,  could  not  educate  the  mind  or  train 
the  hand;  and  inasmuch  as  the  treatment  there,  as  in  all  prisons, 
of  necessity  tends  to  weaken  self-respect,  and  as  all  these  had  to  go 
cut  of  the  prison  absolutely  penniless  and  friendless — for  they  were 
sent  there  because  they  were  penniless  and  friendless — I  ask,  What 
were  these  people  to  do  when  they  came  out?  What  could  they  do 
to  make  an  honest  living?  Take  the  1,670  women  and  girls  who  were 
sent  there  because  they  had  not  the  money  with  which  to  pay  a  small 
fine,  and  had  not  a  friend  upon  earth  to  pay  it  for  them;  can  any  of 
you  suggest  what  they  could  go  at  when  they  were  turned  out  of  the 
bridewell  and  found  themselves  on  the  corner  of  Twenty-sixth  Street 
and  California  Avenue?  There  was  absolutely  nothing  left  for  them 
except  to  go  back  to  their  old  haunts — go  anywhere  where  they  could 
get  something  to  eat  and  a  night's  lodging.  And  the  prison  expe- 
rience they  had  had  only  degraded  them,  weakened  them,  and  sank 
them  lower  into  depravity. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  men  and  boys  confined  there.  The 
city  is  full  of  men  who  have  not  been  imprisoned,  and  who,  during  a 
large  part  of  the  year,  can  get  nothing  to  do.  It  was  estimated  that 
this  winter  there  were  60,000  men  in  Chicago  out  of  employment. 
This  being  so,  what  show  is  there  for  a  boy  or  a  young  man  coming 
out  of  the  bridewell  to  earn  an  honest  living?  And  if  imprisonment 
in  the  bridewell  has  not  helped  them,  but,  on  the  contrary,  has,  as  a 
rule,  injured  them,  wherein  has  society  been  benefited  by  the  fact 
that  it  imprisoned  10,717  people  on  an  average  of  twenty-six  and  one- 
tenth  days,  because  they  had  committed  trivial  offenses?  But  some  of 
you  will  ask,  "Well,  what  have  you  to  suggest?  Society  must  be 
protected.  We  must  preserve  order."  To  which  I  reply,  unques- 
tionably society  must  be  protected  at  all  hazards,  and  we  must  pre- 
serve order  and  protect  life  and  property.  But  I  insist,  to  begin  with, 
that  it  is  unnecessary  to  arrest  and  lock  up  people  who  have  com- 
mitted no  offense  merely  to  preserve  order;  that  the  15,000  who  were 
not  shown  to  have  committed  any  offense  in  that  year  should  never 
have  been  arrested  and  "run  in"  by  the  police;  that  arresting  them 
neither  tended  to  protect  society  nor  to  preserve  order,  but  was  a 
wrong — in  many  cases  an  outrage — for  which  society,  in  the  end,  must 
suffer;  that  the  trouble  is,  that  there  has  grown  up  in  our  police  force 
a  feeling  that  their  efficiency  is  to  be  determined  largely  by  the  num- 
ber of  people  they  "run  in,"  which  is  all  wrong.  Again,  police  officers 


104  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

too  frequently  feel  that  when  they  have  arrested  somebody,  that  it 
is  then  incumbent  upon  them  to  make  a  case  against  him,  and  hence 
are  reckless  in  their  swearing;  so  that  it  frequently  happens  that  juries 
in  criminal  courts  decline  to  give  much  credit  to  the  testimony  of  a 
policeman.  Policemen  should  feel  that  their  standing  is  not  to  be 
determined  by  the  number  of  people  whom  they  may  happen  to  arrest, 
but  rather  from  their  ability  to  preserve  law  and  order;  to  protect  life 
and  property,  by  making  but  few  arrests. 

I  am  satisfied,  further,  that  it  would  have  been  better  if  a  great 
majority  of  the  28,000  who  were  fined  in  the  police  court  had  been  let 
go,  the  offenses  being  so  trivial  that,  in  fact,  it  would  have  been  better 
for  society  in  the  long  run  if  no  arrest  at  all  had  been  made. 

Then,  in  my  judgment,  we  should  adopt  here  a  system  which  has 
been  in  operation  in  Massachusetts  for  over  ten  years,  whereby  the 
city  is  divided  into  districts,  called  probation  districts,  and  in  each 
district  there  is  appointed  a  probation  officer,  whose  duty  it  is  to  visit 
the  prison  every  day  in  his  district;  get  the  name  of  the  prisoner;  go 
to  his  residence;  see  his  family;  acquaint  himself,  as  far  as  is  possible, 
with  the  history  and  character  of  the  prisoner,  his  home  influences  and 
general  environment,  and  if  it  is  found  that  he  is  not  vicious,  and  if  the 
charge  against  him  is  not  of  such  a  heinous  character  as  to  require  that 
he  be  confined,  the  probation  officer  recommends  to  the  justice  or  to 
the  judge,  as  the  case  may  be,  that  if  the  accused  is  guilty,  instead  of 
sentence  being  pronounced,  the  case  be  continued  from  term  to  term, 
for  the  period  of  a  year,  sometimes  more.  This  done,  he  is  released; 
the  probation  officer  assists  him  in  getting  employment,  where  this  is 
practicable;  assists  him  with  counsel  and  advice;  keeps  a  supervision 
over  him  for  the  period  of  a  year,  requiring  him  to  report  from  time 
to  time,  and  if  he  does  not  do  well,  the  probation  officer  orders  him 
arrested,  and  he  is  then  sentenced. 

This  system  has  been  in  operation  in  Boston  for  upward  of  ten 
years.  The  city  of  Boston  was  divided,  as  I  understand  it,  into  three 
districts,  and  I  have  here  the  reports  of  the  probation  officers  covering 
a  period  of  ten  years.  In  one  district,  during  the  year  1888,  1,139 
prisoners  were  taken  charge  of  by  the  probation  officer.  Of  this  num- 
ber, twelve  ran  away,  or  about  one  per  cent. ;  fifty-two  had  to  be  sur- 
rendered, because  they  did  not  do  well;  but  all  the  remainder  did  well 
— led  sober  and  industrious  lives.  During  ten  years  in  one  district 
7,251  prisoners  were  taken  charge  of  by  the  probation  officer.  Of 
this  entire  number,  during  the  ten  years,  only  107  ran  away,  a  very 
remarkable  fact,  which  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  considering  the  best 
method  of  dealing  with  people  who  have  violated  the  law.  Only  a 


WHAT  TO  DO   WITH  CRIMINALS.  105 

little  over  one  per  cent,  ran  away.  Of  the  7,251,  473  had  to  be  returned 
for  sentence.  All  the  remainder  did  well.  I  will  simply  say  that  the 
results  in  the  other  probation  districts  of  Boston  were  of  the  same 
character. 

In  speaking  of  the  saving  to  both  the  prisoner  and  to  society  by 
this  method  of  treatment,  the  officer  reports  that,  had  the  lowest  sen- 
tence possible  been  imposed,  the  aggregate  time  of  all  the  prisoners 
which  must  have  been  spent  in  prison  during  the  ten  years  would  have 
amounted  to  1,715  years,  which  was  saved  to  society  and  to  the  ac- 
cused, while  the  saving  in  expense  to  the  public  by  not  imprisoning 
amounted  to  many  thousands  of  dollars  per  annum.  The  fact  of 
having  an  intelligent  and  humane  man  acting  as  probation  officer, 
visiting  the  home  of  the  accused  and  assisting  his  family  with  counsel 
and  advice,  can  scarcely  be  over-estimated;  in  many  cases  it  will  save 
•not  only  the  children,  but  also  the  parents  from  a  criminal  career. 
One  of  the  probation  officers  of  Boston,  in  speaking  of  those  who  were 
saved  from  imprisonment  in  his  district,  says:  "Generally  they  have 
since  lived  good,  orderly  lives,  and  have  been  a  blessing  to  their  fam- 
ilies, and  where  they  were  married,  kept  their  homes  from  being 
broken  up  and  their  children  from  being  sent  to  charitable  institutions. 
In  many  cases  they  have  changed  from  lives  of  vice  and  crime  to 
become  good  citizens." 

If  we  were  to  make  our  system  what  the  law  really  intends  it  should 
be,  and  that  is,  protect  society  against  crime,  and  would  put  a  stop  to 
the  practice  of  arresting  and  breaking  into  prison  experiences  those 
who  have  been  guilty  of  no  offense,  and  would,  further,  put  a  stop 
to  the  practice  of  "running  in"  all  who  may  have  been  guilty  of  some 
trivial  offense,  and  would  apply  the  Massachusetts  system  of  probation 
in  cases  where  the  officer  felt  it  could  be  safely  done — for  in  many  cases 
it  could  not  be  done — we  would  so  greatly  reduce  the  number  who 
would  have  to  be  sent  to  prison  that  they  could  then  be  detained,  not 
for  twenty-six  and  one-tenth  days  in  the  bridewell,  or  from  one  to 
three  years  in  the  penitentiary,  and  hot  under  the  conditions  that 
exist  now  in  our  prisons,  where  reformation  and  instruction  are  almost 
impossible;  but  they  could  be  detained  until,  in  the  judgment  of  a 
competent  board,  the  accused  had  acquired  such  habits  of  industry 
and  had  developed  sufficient  strength  of  character  to  go  out  and  make 
his  way  in  the  world,  and  then  he  should  be  assisted  in  getting  a  posi- 
tion, so  that  he  would  not  at  once  find  himself  penniless,  friendless, 
and  homeless.  They  should  be  sent  to  prison  on  an  indeterminate  sen- 
tence, nearly  in  accord  with  the  system  that  has  now  for  a  number  of 
years  been  in  vogue  in  the  Elmira  prison  in  the  State  of  New  York, 


io6  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

where  prisoners  must  remain  at  least  a  year,  and  can  be  kept  a  number 
of  years,  if,  in  the  judgment  of  the  board,  it  is  not  safe  to  let  them  at 
large.  Here  prisoners  go  through  a  regular  course  of  instruction, 
having  regular  hours  of  labor,  and  the  treatment  is  of  such  a  character 
as  is  calculated  to  develop  and  build  up  the  .man.  And  the  manage- 
ment, instead  of  knowing  nothing  about  the  man,  as  is  the  case  now 
with  us,  is  put  in  possession  of  his  whole  history,  all  the  information 
that  can  be  gathered  in  regard  to  it,  and  whenever  it  becomes  satisfied 
that  the  accused  can  with  safety  be  given  his  liberty,  the  management 
first  secures  him  employment,  and  exercises,  for  a  period  of  at  least 
six  months,  a  sort  of  general  supervision  over  him.  If  he  does  not 
do  well  they  can  take  him  back.  If  he  loses  his  place  they  assist 
him  in  getting  another;  and  if  he  does  well  for  a  period  of  a  year  he  is 
discharged.  And  at  different  times  men  who  have  been  discharged 
and  then  suddenly  found  themselves  out  of  employment,  rather  than 
beg  or  steal  voluntarily  came  back  to  the  institution  and  asked  to  be 
taken  in  until  they  could  get  another  job;  and  here,  again,  there  were 
scarcely  any  desertions  by  those  who  were  on  parole. 

Under  such  a  system  as  this,  hardened  and  dangerous  criminals 
would  not  be  set  at  liberty  every  two  or  three  years,  as  they  are  now, 
to  go  out  and  prey  upon  society;  but  they  would  be  kept  confined 
until  they  could  be  safely  set  at  liberty;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  good  intentioned  who  had  got  into  trouble  would  not  need  to  be 
confined  behind  brick  walls  until  they  became  hardened,  stolid,  and 
desperate,  as  is  now  the  case. 

In  addition  to  this,  there  should,  in  my  judgment,  be  given  every 
convict  in  prison  an  opportunity  to  earn  something  over  and  above 
the  cost  of  keeping  him.  I  know  this  involves  difficulties,  but  none 
that  cannot  be  overcome.  He  should  be  not  only  permitted  to  earn 
something,  but  he  should  be  required  to  earn  something  to 
carry  to  his  credit  before  he  is  again  set  at  liberty;  so 
that  when  he  leaves  the  prison  doors  he  will  have  something  to  sus- 
tain him  for  a  while;  and  this  should  not  be  paid  him  at  once,  but  in 
installments,  so  that  he  cannot  lose  it  at  once;  or,  if  he  has  a  family 
to  support,  he  not  only  should  be  permitted  to  work,  but  required  to 
earn  something  while  in  prison  for  the  support  of  his  family. 

You  will  see,  by  such  a  system  as  I  have  outlined,  the  number 
whom  we  would  have  in  the  end  to  imprison  would  be  greatly  reduced; 
and  these,  too,  could  be  so  separated  that  the  great  majority  could  be 
set  to  work,  if  necessary,  outside  of  the  prison.  They  could  farm; 
could  be  made  to  work  the  roads;  could  be  made  to  do  any  kind  of 
work,  because  the  temptation  to  desert  would  then  be  practically 


WHAT  TO  DO   WITH  CRIMINALS.  107 

/ 

taken  away.     I  must  say,  however,  that  the  temptation  to  desert  is 
not  so  great  at  any  time  as  many  people  suppose. 

Major  McClaughrey,  who  was  for  many  years  warden  at  the  Joliet 
penitentiary,  several  years  ago  told  me  that  he  was  then  carrying  on  a 
small  farm  near  the  penitentiary,  and  working  it  with  convicts,  and  they 
had  had  no  trouble  at  all  upon  this  point,  and  that  he  had  repeatedly 
urged  the  State  to  buy  him  three  or  four  hundred  acres,  and  said  if 
it  would  do  so  he  could  work  the  farm  with  the  prisoners,  and  could 
raise  not  only  what  was  needed  for  his  institution,  but  for  other  State 
institutions,  and  that  he  had  no  fear  at  all  of  desertion. 

If  that  is  true  at  present,  then  under  a  system  whereby  the  prisoner 
was  made  to  feel  that  he  was  doing  something  for  himself  instead  of 
simply  wearing  his  life  out  for  the  benefit  of  some  wealthy  contractor, 
very  little  would  need  to  be  feared  upon  that  point,  and  the  number  of 
prisoners  who  were  serving  long  sentences,  and  who  would  be  or  were 
considered  dangerous,  and  therefore  have  to  be  kept  at  work  in  the 
prison,  would  be  so  small  by  the  time  they  were  divided  up  among  the 
various  industries  which  are  now  carried  on  inside  of  the  prison,  the 
number  in  each  industry  would  be  so  small  that  we  would  hear  no 
more  about  prison-made  goods  coming  in  competition  with  free  labor. 
The  question  of  prison  labor  would  solve  itself. 

We  would  thus  save  thousands  of  boys  from  a  prison  experience, 
and  a  possible  criminal  career.  We  would  put  an  end  to  the  practice 
of  degrading  and  breaking  down  women  and  girls  by  repeated  im- 
prisonments for  trivial  offenses,  which  never  does  any  good.  We 
would  prevent  the  really  vicious  and  hardened  criminals  from  being 
turned  loose  upon  society  every  year  or  two.  Both  the  convict  and 
society  would  be  the  gainers. 


PROTECTION  OF  NON-COMBATANTS; 

OR, 

ARBITRATION    OF    STRIKES. 
(Published  in  the  Chicago  "Evening  Mail.") 

Can  the  State  enforce  arbitration  in  a  strike? 

This  question  at  once  resolves  itself  into  two : 

First :  Has  the  State  the  right  or  the  constitutional  power  to  com- 
pel arbitration  independent  of  the  will  of  the  contending  parties? 

Secondly :  If  it  has  the  right,  is  it  feasible  to  exercise  it,  and  in 
what  manner  and  how  far  can  it  enforce  its  award  ? 


io8  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

It  is  assumed  by  many  in  this  country  that  in  a  strike  the  State  is 
powerless  as  a  mediator ;  that  its  sole  function  in  such  a  time  is  to  keep 
the  public  peace,  and  that  so  long  as  the  latter  is  not  disturbed  the  State 
must  remain  an  idle  spectator ;  that  every  person  has  the  right  to  do  as 
he  likes  with  his  property  or  with  his  labor ;  that  the  employer  has  the 
right  in  all  cases  to  employ  and  to  discharge  whom  he  thinks  proper, 
and  when  he  thinks  proper,  and  to  pay  what  wages  he  pleases ;  and 
that  the  laborer  has  the  right  in  all  cases  to  work  when  and  for  whom 
he  thinks  best ;  and  that  neither  employer  nor  employe  stands  in  such 
a  relation  to  society  at  large  as  to  give  the  State,  as  the  conservator  of 
all  classes  and  interests,  any  right  in  case  of  a  strike  to  interfere  without 
the  express  consent  of  the  parties  to  the  dispute.  As  strikes  are  often 
of  such  magnitude  as  to  affect  the  entire  country,  if  long  continued, 
this  doctrine  in  effect  affirms  the  following  propositions  : 

1.  That  the  rights  which  a  man  has  in  a  state  of  nature  are  not 
greatly  modified  or  limited  by  his  becoming  a  member  of  our  complex 
society ;    that  although  all  of  the  members  of  the  latter  are  interde- 
pendent, each  being  affected  by  the  conduct  of  the  others,  yet  that  a 
limited  number  of  these  members  have  the  constitutional  right  to 
pursue  a  course  which  is  not  only  injurious  to  the  whole,  but  which, 
if  persisted  in  sufficiently  long,  must  result  in  a  dissolution  of  society ; 
that  the  remainder,  although  they  may  constitute  ninety  per  cent,  of  the 
whole,  have  no  constitutional  right  to  protect  themselves  from  the  con- 
sequences of  such  conduct.     In  short,  that  the  State,  as  the  embodi- 
ment of  society,  has  no  power  to  prevent  or  to  remove  those  condi- 
tions which,  if  left  alone,  would  lead  to  its  own  overthrow. 

2.  That  although  great  changes  in  the  method  of  production  and 
of  transportation  in  this  country  have  altered  the  natural  order  of 
things  as  it  existed  one  hundred  years  ago ;  have  already  destroyed  and 
tend  more  and  more  to  destroy  independent  occupations ;  and  although 
great  corporations  have  grown  up  with  thousands  of  men  in  their 
employ,  who  are  almost  at  their  mercy ;  and  although  business  is  tend- 
ing more  and  more  to  be  centralized  and  controlled  by  a  few ;   and 
although  it  is  vital  to  the  very  existence  of  society,  as  now  constituted, 
that  business  in  its  various  forms  should  go  on  regularly  and  without 
great  interruption ;    and  that  these  corporations,  particularly  public 
carriers,  should  be  not  only  required,  but  also  enabled,  to  do  their  work 
without  delay,  for  every  interruption  of  their  operations  subjects  the 
public  to  serious  loss  and  inconvenience ;   yet,  as  the  relation  between 
employer  and  employe  is  one  of  contract,  the  State  can  in  no  case  inter- 
fere to  protect  the  interests  of  the  public  at  large,  notwithstanding  the 


'ARBITRATION    OF  STRIKES.  109 

fact  that  the  highest  courts  of  the  land  have,  in  other  cases  of  contract, 
held  that  the  State  can  interfere  for  the  protection  of  the  public.  For 
example,  in  those  cases  relating  to  the  rate  of  interest  which  may  be 
charged,  the  amount  of  toll  which  may  be  charged,  the  rate  of  fare 
which  may  be  charged,  and  the  rate  which  may  be  charged  for  storing 
grain. 

3.  That  although  this  is  an  age  of  great  division  of  labor,  by 
reason  of  which  thousands  of  men  in  one  line  of  industry  are  dependent 
for  work,  and  consequently  for  the  means  of  subsistence,  on  the  in- 
dustry of  others,  yet,  if  in  consequence  of  a  dispute  between  employer 
and  employe  in  any  one  line  all  other  industries  should  become  para- 
lyzed (for  example,  during  the  recent  strike  of  the  coke-makers  in 
Pennsylvania,  many  large  iron  mills  had  to  shut  down  for  want  of  coke, 
thus  throwing  the  iron  workers  out  of  employment,  while  through  these 
in  turn  other  industries  were  affected),*  the  State  has  no  power  to  in- 
quire into  the  nature  of  the  difficulty,  and  dare,  under  no  circumstances, 
interfere  for  the  protection  of  the  non-combatants,  but  must  stand  by 
idle  and  helpless  while  its  very  existence  is  being  jeopardized.     In 
short,  that  the  doctrine  that  was  supposed  to  lie  at  the  foundation  of  all 
civil  society,  viz.,  that  every  man  can  do  as  he  pleases  with  what  is  his 
own  so  long  only  as  his  conduct  does  not  injuriously  affect  others,  has 
no  application  here. 

4.  That  while  the  State  must  bear  the  burden  of  suppressing  crime 
and  of  supporting  paupers,  yet  it  derives  from  this  duty  no  correspond- 
ing right  or  power  to  arrest  or  to  remove  those  conditions  which  are 
certain  to  breed  both  criminals  and  paupers. 

5.  That  an  individual  or  corporation  may  interfere  with  the  natural 
distribution  of  population,  and  cause  several  thousand  laborers  with 
their  families  to  settle  in  a  location  where  they  would  otherwise  not 
have  settled,  and  where  there  are  no  opportunities  of  earning  a  living 
except  what  are  furnished  by  such  individual  or  corporation  as  em- 
ployer, and  that  the  State  has  no  right  to  see  that  these  people  shall 
not  become  a  burden  to  the  State  by  thus  being  made  either  paupers 
or  criminals,  but  that  when  they  are,  as  it  were,  in  the  hands  of  the 
employer,  and  have  it  not  in  their  power  to  go  and  make  a  living  else- 
where, the  employer  may,  in  case  of  a  disagreement,  lock  them  all  out, 
and  may  bring  on  several  thousand  more  (who  otherwise  would  not 
have  come  there),  and  put  these  in  place  of  the  former,  and  in  case  of 

*  Note. — Since  publishing  the  above  there  has  been  a  number  of  instances 
of  whole  communities  of  non-combatants  being  almost  paralyzed,  because  the 
regular  operations  of  great  corporations  were  interrupted  by  strikes — notably 
the  strikes  on  the  Gould  and  on  the  Burlington  systems  of  railroads. 


i io  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

a  second  disagreement  may  bring  on  a  third  lot,  and  so  on,  each  time 
leaving  his  former  workmen  and  their  families  without  the  means  of 
subsistence,  and  in  a  condition  in  which  they  are  certain  to  become 
a  burden  on  the  State,  part  as  criminals,  and  part  as  paupers.  And 
yet  the  State  has  no  right  or  power  to  interfere,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  but  for  the  action  of  such  employer  these  people  would  not 
have  settled  in  that  locality,  but  would  have  distributed  themselves 
over  the  country  more  nearly  in  proportion  to  the  natural  means  of 
subsistence  offered,  and  would  not  have  become  a  burden  on  the  State. 
6.  Or  that  several  hundred  employes  may  impose  terms  upon  an 
employer  with  which  he  cannot  comply  without  actual  loss ;  and  if 
he  declines  to  accede  they  can  prevent  him  from  employing  other  men, 
and  thus  force  him  to  shut  down,  although  by  so  doing  a  whole  series 
of  other  manufacturing  establishments  are  obliged  to  stop  work  and 
their  men  to  be  idle  because  they  need  the  goods  made  by  the  first ; 
so  that  in  the  end  all  industries  will  become  paralyzed,  the  public  gen- 
erally put  to  great  inconvenience,  thousands  of  men  everywhere  who 
have  no  trouble  with  their  employers  will  be  thrown  out  of  work,  and 
those  conditions  which  breed  crime  and  pauperism  are  created  in  a 
most  aggravated  form.  Yet  the  State  must  stand  idly  by  simply 
because  the  parties  that  originated  the  quarrel  are  too  stubborn  to 
compromise  or  to  agree  to  arbitrate. 

The  bare  statement  of  these  propositions  is  all  the  refutation  they 
need.  Every  duty  imposed  upon  the  State  implies  a  corresponding 
right.  The  duty  of  the  State  is  not  simply  to  protect  life  and 
property,  but  also  to  enable  all  those  agencies  that  are  necessary 
to  the  existence  of  modern  society  to  perform  their  functions  properly. 
Besides,  every  government  possesses  the  inherent  right  of  self-preserva- 
tion, at  least  so  far  as  that  it  may,  by  all  means  within  its  power,  resist 
those  antagonistic  or  disintegrating  forces  which  tend  to  its  destruc- 
tion. It  can  resist  foreign  invasion,  can  suppress  internal  rebellion, 
and  can  suppress  and  punish  crime.  It  can  do  things  without  number 
which  are  designed  for  the  benefit  of  the  entire  public,  although  in 
doing  them  it  may  in  a  measure  modify  or  curtail  what  have  been  sup- 
posed to  be  the  natural  rights  of  man.  To  hold,  therefore,  that  it  can- 
not inquire  into  or  remove  those  conditions  which  not  only  breed 
crime  and  pauperism,  but  which,  if  left  alone,  must  in  time  bring  about 
the  ruin  of  society  and  the  overthrow  of  the  government,  would  be 
an  absurdity.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  government  to  conserve  and  protect 
all  interests,  and,  being  its  duty,  there  can  be  no  question  about  its 
power. 

The  objections  so  commonly  urged  against  paternal  government 


ARBITRATION    OF  STRIKES.  ill 

have  here  no  application.  For  in  all  cases  where  it  is  found  to  exist, 
as  in  the  countries  of  the  Old  World,  or  in  the  imposition  of  protective 
duties  in  this  country,  the  State  steps  in  at  the  beginning  and  regulates 
affairs  without  first  giving  individuals  an  opportunity  to  get  along 
without  State  interference,  while  here  the  State  allows  employer  and 
employe  to  manage  their  own  affairs,  and  claims  the  right  to  interpose 
only  after  they  have  failed ;  and  then  only  in  cases  where  the  interests 
of  the  public  are  being  injuriously  affected  in  consequence  of  such 
failure. 

The  question  is,  Can  there  lawfully  be  any  government  or  public 
agency  to  regulate  or  control  this  condition  of  affairs?  As  to  nearly 
all  other  conditions  or  disturbances  which  injuriously  affect  society, 
no  one  questions  the  right  of  the  State  to  interfere.  Now,  why  should 
it  not  interfere  in  this  instance? 

That  the  machinery  or  form  of  government  adopted  to  meet 
troubles  of  this  character  must  be  "of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and 
by  the  people,"  in  order  to  be  successful,  is  unquestionably  true.  But 
that  it  is  as  much  the  duty  of  the  State  to  prevent  injuries  to  the  public, 
at  large  from  strikes  as  it  is  its  duty  to  prevent  injuries  from  any  other 
cause  is  equally  true. 

BUT,   ADMITTING   THE   RIGHT,   IS    IT   PRACTICABLE  TO 
ENFORCE    IT? 

This  is  a  serious  question.  The  first  inquiry  one  hears  is :  "Well, 
what  can,"  or  "what  shall  the  State  do  ?"  And  the  answer  frequently 
heard  is :  "Create  boards  of  arbitration  to  settle  all  these  disputes 
between  employer  and  employe."  Yes,  that  is  all  right,  so  far,  but, 
having  got  the  board  created,  let  us  see  what,  from  the  nature  of  things, 
it  can  and  cannot  do. 

At  the  threshold  it  meets  some  natural  limitations  which  no  legisla- 
tion can  overcome. 

1.  The  board  cannot  compel  the  employer  to  run  his  mill,  for  he 
may  not  be  able  to  do  it,  or  may  think  that  it  cannot  be  run  without 
loss,  or  for  a  number  of  reasons  he  may  not  desire  to  run  it.    And,  I 
repeat,  the  board  cannot  run  it  for  him. 

2.  The  board  cannot  impose  terms  which  would  make  it  impos- 
sible for  the  employer  to  continue  his  business  without  actual  loss, 
for  to  do  this  would  be  to  render  his  property  employed  in  his  business 
worthless ;  would  practically  destroy  it  without  making  compensation 
for  it,  which,  according  to  the  settled  principles  of  American  jurispru- 
dence, cannot  be  done. 

3.  The  board  cannot  force  a  man  or  a  large  number  of  men  to 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

enter  a  factory  and  go  to  work  and  to  continue  to  work  against  their 
will. 

With  these  limitations  in  view,  let  us  set  the  board  in  motion.  A 
strike,  with  its  usual  accompaniments,  exists  in  the  neighborhood. 
The  board  takes  cognizance  of  it,  inquires  into  the  trouble  according 
to  rules  of  procedure  which  it  has  established,  and  it  finds  that  the 
employer  is  in  the  wrong,  and  it  so  decides.  It  fixes  a  price  which 
he  shall  pay  or  determines  in  other  respects  what  he  shall  do.  Now, 
if  he  elects  not  to  run  his  mill,  that  is  the  end  of  the  matter.  But  if  he 
desires,  either  then  or  in  the  future,  to  go  on,  then  the  board  can 
require  him  to  do  so  on  the  terms  it  laid  down,  and  can  further  pro- 
vide that  he  shall  not  employ  any  new  men  until  he  has  given  his  old 
employes  an  opportunity  to  go  to  work  on  the  terms  fixed  by  the 
board.  If  he  objects  that  he  should  not  be  interfered  with  in  his  busi- 
ness, it  may  be  replied  that  there  was  no  interference  until  there  was 
such  a  condition  of  affairs  about  his  premises  as  was  injuriously  affect- 
ing the  good  order  or  well-being  of  society.  And  if  he  objects  that 
he  should  be  permitted  to  employ  whom  he  pleases,  it  may  be  answered 
that  he  had  interfered  with  the  natural  distribution  of  population,  and 
had  led  a  large  number  of  people,  i.  e.,  his  former  employes,  to  settle 
around  him,  who  otherwise  might  not  have  settled  there,  and  that  it 
would  be  against  the  well-being  of  society  that  these  should  all  at  once 
be  thrown  out  of  employment  and  their  places  filled  with  others,  as 
they  would  thus  be  in  danger  of  becoming  a  burden  on  the  public ; 
that  if  he  desires  to  make  a  change  it  must  be  done  gradually,  so  that 
there  will  be  no  danger  of  the  public  peace  being  disturbed  or  of  the 
public  burdens  being  increased.  It  is  clear  that  in  this  case  it.  is 
feasible  to  carry  out  the  decree  or  the  award  of  the  board. 

But  we  now  accompany  the  board  to  another  strike.  Here,  after 
careful  inquiry,  the  board  decides  that  the  employes  are  in  the  wrong, 
and  it  fixes  the  terms  upon  which  they  shall  return  to  work.  Now, 
if  they  all  decline  to  go,  then,  as  already  stated,  the  board  cannot  com- 
pel them. 

But  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  consider  such  a  contingency,  for 
it  is  not  likely  to  happen.  All  experience  points  the  other  way.  As 
a  rule  the  employes  have  no  alternative — they  have  no  other  means 
of  getting  bread  for  themselves  or  their  children.  It  is  true  that  at 
present  they  sometimes  hold  out  to  the  point  of  starvation,  but  this 
is  because  they  have  got  themselves  into  a  situation  where  they  cannot 
gracefully  or  with  self-respect  back  down,  whereas  a  decision  of  a 
properly  constituted  tribunal  would  help  them  out  of  this  dilemma. 

It  must  also  be  borne  in  mind  that,  at  present,  public  sentiment 


ARBITRATION    OF   STRIKES.  113 

is  frequently  with  the  strikers,  and  it  is  the  force  of  this  in  many  cases 
which  prevents  them  from  going  to  work;  whereas,  in  a  case  where 
they  refused  to  abide  by  the  decision  of  a  properly  constituted  tribunal, 
public  sentiment  would  be  against  the  strikers,  and  this  alone  would 
operate  powerfully  to  dissolve  the  strike. 

Again,  in  nearly  all  cases,  many  of  the  men  who  first  stop  work 
are  opposed  to  a  strike,  and  are  only  deterred  from  resuming  by  the 
fear  of  being  expelled  from  their  union,  in  which  they  are  interested 
in  insurance  funds,  benevolent  funds,  etc. ;  and  if  the  law  were  to  pro- 
tect them  against  expulsion,  where  no  other  ground  existed  than  their 
compliance  with  the  award  of  the  board,  they  would  go  to  work  at 
once. 

Further,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  nearly  all  labor  troubles  in  the 
past  it  was  the  laboring  men  who  were  the  most  willing  to  submit  to 
arbitration,  and  I  believe  there  is  not  a  case  of  this  kind  on  record 
in  which  an  arbitration  was  fairly  entered  into  that  the  award  was  not 
promptly  accepted  by  the  men.  It  may  therefore  be  safely  assumed 
that  if  this  board  were  so  constituted  as  to  command  the  confidence 
of  employes  in  regard  to  its  integrity  and  fairness,  there  would  never 
be  any  trouble  about  enforcing  its  awards  against  them.  Should 
experience,  however,  demonstrate  that  something  more  was  necessary 
to  insure  compliance  with  the  award  of  the  board,  by  either  employer 
or  employes,  it  might  be  provided. that  if  an  employer  refused  to  carry 
out  the  award,  he  should  forfeit  say  six  days'  wages  to  each  of  his 
employes ;  or  if  the  employes  refused  to  abide  by  an  award,  they  shall 
forfeit  say  six  days'  wages  to  the  employer.  Of  course,  to  make  this 
provision  enforcible  against  the  men,  it  would  be  necessary  for  the 
employer  always  to  be  six  days  in  arrears  in  paying  them.  But  this 
is  the  case  now  with  most  large  employers,  especially  railroad  corpora- 
tions, and  in  the  case  supposed  it  would  further  have  to  be  provided 
that  during  a  strike  no  judgment  should  be  rendered  in  favor  of  an 
employe  for  such  specified  arrearage. 

The  board  should  further  have  power  to  inquire  into  a  case  where 
the  employer  has  discharged  all  the  striking  employes  and  is  filling 
their  places  with  others ;  for  it  is  the  bringing  on  of  others,  and  thus 
increasing  the  population  of  that  locality  beyond  the  means  there  pro- 
vided for  earning  a  living,  that  vitally  interests  the  public.  It  is  at 
present  a  matter  of  common  occurrence  that  men  are  hired  and  taken 
from  one  end  of  the  country  to  another,  to  fill  the  places  of  striking 
employes,  when,  but  for  such  beginning,  they  would  never  have 
thought  of  going  to  the  points  where  they  thus  swell  the  population. 

But  it  is  safe  to  say  that  if  a  law  for  compulsory  arbitration  were 


114  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

passed  there  would  not  only  be  very  few  arbitrations  under  it,  but 
there  would  be  very  few  strikes.  For  the  consciousness  that  arbitration 
can  be  forced  upon  them  would  induce  both  employer  and  employe 
to  get  together  and  to  try  to  adjust  their  own  differences,  and  this 
nearly  always  results  in  a  settlement,  the  difficulty  at  present  being 
that  many  employers  will  not  talk  with  or  meet  their  men. 

Consequently,  the  employer  does  not  understand  the  men  nor  the 
men  the  employer,  and  thus  trifles  frequently  lead  to  trouble,  when, 
with  a  better  understanding,  they  would  be  unnoticed ;  so  that  any 
measure  which  will  make  the  relations  between  employer  and  employe 
more  familiar  will  be  productive  of  much  good. 

Even  a  board  which  had  full  power  to  make  a  thorough  investiga- 
tion without  the  consent  of  the  parties,  but  had  no  power  at  all  to 
enforce  its  award,  would  prevent  a  great  deal  of  trouble ;  for  the  con- 
sciousness that  a  full  investigation  can  be  made  and  the  result  pub- 
lished to  the  world,  showing  who  is  in  the  wrong,  will  alone  lead  to  an 
effort  at  adjustment. 

BOARD— HOW    CREATED. 

It  is  apparent  that  the  method  of  creating  this  board  is  of  the  great- 
est importance,  and  that  both  employers  and  employes  must  be  given 
a  voice,  if  they  desire,  in  selecting  the  board  in  each  case.  For,  if  the 
board  were  to  be  constituted  by  the  usual  political  agencies,  or 
if  there  were  to  be  one  permanent  board  it  would  not  command 
the  absolute  confidence  of  the  parties,  and  would  soon  be 
regarded  as  many  of  our  courts,  whether  rightfully  or  wrongfully, 
are  now  regarded,  i.  e.,  with  more  or  less  distrust.  Therefore,  in  each 
case  where  there  is  dissatisfaction,  or  a  dispute  liable  to  result  in  a 
strike,  a  separate  board  should  be  created  by  the  employes  selecting 
one  member,  the  employer  one  member,  and  the  two  thus  selected 
agreeing  upon  the  third.  This  is  the  practice  now  in  vogue  in  nearly 
all  cases  of  this  character  wherein  arbitration  is  now  resorted  to. 

There  should  be  a  provision  authorizing  some  court,  on  application 
of  either  employer  or  a  fixed  proportion  of  the  whole  number  of 
employes,  or  in  case  of  an  actual  strike,  where  neither  employer  nor 
employes  apply,  on  application  of  a  specified  number  of  citizens,  to 
select  such  member  of  the  board  for  any  party  to  the  dispute  that  de- 
clines to  select  his  own.  But  this  should  not  be  done  until  after 
notice  is  given  to  either  the  employer  or  a  named  proportion  of  the 
employes,  as  the  case  may  be.  This  would  place  it  within  the  power 
of  either  party,  as  well  as  the  public,  to  secure  a  prompt  settlement  of  all 
disputes  in  reference  to  the  rate  of  wages,  etc.  As  the  authority 


ARBITRATION    OF  STRIKES.  115 

of  the  State  to  interfere  is  based  chiefly  on  its  duty  to  prevent  public 
inconvenience  and  social  disturbances,  as  well  as  to  prevent  increase 
of  public  burdens,  this  board  could  not  take  cognizance  of  cases  where 
there  are  but  few  employes.  The  line  having  to  be  drawn  somewhere, 
the  minimum  might  be  fixed  at  say  ten.  The  rules  of  procedure  by  the 
board  are  matters  of  detail  which  present  no  insurmountable  dif- 
ficulties. 

BOARD    OF    APPEALS. 

As  a  board  of  appeals  would  necessarily  be  distant  from  the  scene 
of  the  trouble  in  most  cases,  and  a  hearing  before  it  accompanied  with 
much  expense  and  cause  much  delay,  which  delay  alone  would  tend  to 
destroy  all  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  arbitration,  and  perhaps 
bring  the  whole  system  into  disrepute,  I  believe  it  would,  be  a  mistake 
to  create  such  a  board ;  for  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  in  favor  of 
arbitration  is,  that  there  can  be  a  speedy  adjustment  of  difficulties. 
Besides,  only  the  strong  could  avail  themselves  of  the  services  of  a 
board  of  appeals.  Should  such  a  board,  however,  be  created,  then  there 
should  be  a  provision  requiring  the  decision  of  the  local  board  to  be 
accepted  and  carried  out,  until  it  is  reversed  or  modified  by  the  board 
of  appeals ;  otherwise,  every  party  dissatisfied  with  the  finding  of  the 
local  board  would  appeal  merely  to  get  delay,  and  it  would  not  be 
long  until  the  whole  system  would  not  only  be  rendered  abortive,  but 
be  brought  into  disrepute. 

COSTS. 

The  costs  of  an  arbitration  should  be  taxed  very  much  as  they  are 
now  in  lawsuits.  At  present  the  public  pays  the  judge,  the  jurors, 
and  furnishes  a  court-house,  and  requires  the  parties  to  pay  the  wit- 
nesses, the  sheriff  and  the  clerk.  As  the  public  is  just  as  much  inter- 
ested in  the  settlements  of  disputes  between  employer  and  employed 
as  it  is  in  the  average  lawsuit,  it  should  bear  at  least  the  same  pro- 
portion of  costs.  The  arbitrators,  in  particular,  should  be  paid  by  the 
public,  so  that  they  may  never  be  suspected  of  considering  the  cer- 
tainty of  getting  their  fees  in  rendering  a  decision.  Provision  might 
be  made  requiring  a  bond  for  costs  to  be  given  by  the  party  applying 
for  an  arbitration,  and  the  board  should  have  power  to  apportion  costs 
in  proper  cases. 

Upon  the  question  of  arbitration  there  has  until  recently  been  a 
wide  divergence  of  opinion  between  employer  and  employes.  The  pub- 
lic, it  may  be  noted,  nearly  always  favors  arbitration  without  stopping 
to  inquire  carefully  into  the  matter.  As  a  rule,  employes  favor  arbi- 
tration, but  until  recently  employers  have  generally  been  opposed 


u6  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

to  any  outside  interference.  But  a  great  change  has  already  taken 
place  in  this  regard  in  the  minds  of  employers,  and  many  of  them  are 
now  advocating  compulsory  arbitration.  Not  that  they  like  to  have 
the  State  step  in  between  them  and  their  men,  but  because  this  is  the 
only  way  in  which  they  can  be  protected  from  the  consequences  of 
strikes  on  the  part  of  their  neighbor's  employes.  At  present,  many 
strikes  force  the  shutting  down  on  the  part  of  employers  who  have 
no  trouble  with  their  men,  and  cause  thousands  of  men  to  quit  work 
who  have  no  complaint  against  their  employers ;  the  only  way  in  which 
these  troubles  can  be  limited  to  the  original  parties  to  the  quarrel  is  to 
provide  for  creating  in  each  case  a  board  of  arbitration,  with  full  power 
to  inquire  into  the  trouble,  whether  the  parties  consent  or  not. 

As  already  stated,  the  public,  which  is  always  interested,  and  fre- 
quently a  direct  sufferer,  favors  arbitration.  As  a  rule  employes  favor 
it,  and  employers  are  beginning  to  see  that  it  is  to  the  interest  of  every 
employer  who  has  no  trouble  with  his  men  to  have  such  a  board,  for 
he  can  then  seldom  be  made  to  suffer  because  of  the  wrong-doing 
of  some  other  employers,  or  of  the  folly  of  other  employes.  We  may 
therefore  reasonably  expect  soon  to  see  laws  enacted  creating  boards 
of  arbitration  similar  in  character  to  those  that  we  have  been  consid- 
ering. JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 
Chicago,  April  26,  1886. 

PENSIONS    FOR    SOLDIERS. 

(Published  in  the  "Comrade,"  Chicago.) 

A  REVIEW  OF  THE  RELATIONSHIP  EXISTING  BETWEEN  THE 
EX-UNION  SOLDIER  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT.— HOW  PEN- 
SIONS ARE  EARNED  AND  THE  WAY  THEY  SHOULD  BE 
ADJUSTED  AND  PAID. 

Editor  of  the  "Comrade" : 

Sir:  Your  note  asking,  "What  does  the  government  owe  its  sol- 
diers of  the  late  war  and  have  they  any  claims  that  should  be  settled 
in  dollars  and  cents?  If  so,  how?"  is  at  hand.  As  you  wish  me  to 
give  reasons  for  any  opinion  I  may  express,  I  submit  the  following  as 
the  result  of  such  reflection  as  I  have  been  able,  amid  the  press  of 
other  business,  to  give  the  subject. 

In  considering  this  question  we  must  regard  the  government  as 
being  the  American  people,  so  that  the  question  is:  "What  do  the 
American  people  owe  the  Union  soldiers  of  the  late  war,  and  have  the 
soldiers  a  claim  against  the  people  that  can  or  should  be  settled  in 
dollars  and  cents?"  And  it  is  only  the  latter  half  of  this  question,  viz., 


PENSIONS  FOR  SOLDIERS.  117 

whether  there  is  a  claim  that  should  be  settled  in  dollars  and  cents — 
about  which  there  can  be  any  controversy  or  great  difference  of  opin- 
ion. All  admit  that  the  brave  men  who  imperiled  (if  they  did  not  all 
actually  sacrifice)  their  lives  to  save  our  institutions  are  entitled  to  the 
affectionate  regard  and  the  everlasting  gratitude  and  homage  of  a  free 
people.  But  can  the  people  discharge  the  whole  claim  merely  with 
gratitude  and  homage?  Or  has  this  claim  a  dual  character,  being 
in  part  for  the  debt  due  to  lofty  patriotism  and  heroic  devotion — a 
debt  which  is  above  money,  and  cannot  be  estimated  in  dollars — and 
being  in  part  for  actual  loss  of  money  and  material  sacrifices  made 
which  can  be  estimated  and  liquidated  in  dollars  and  cents  ? 

One  of  the  bravest  and  most  patriotic  men  who  fought  through 
the  late  war,  in  speaking  on  this  subject,  said :  "We  stand  on  higher 
ground.  There  are  debts  that  cannot  be  settled  across  the  counter. 
The  most  sacred  obligations  are  those  that  can  never  be  paid,  and 
the  only  partial  compensation  possible  is  a  return  in  kind.  Of  this 
nature  is  the  debt  which  a  saved  nation  owes  to  its  defenders."  I  have 
no  doubt  that  these  views  are  held  by  many  of  the  soldiers,  and,  so  far 
as  it  relates  to  compensation  or  pay  for  lofty  patriotism,  devotion  to 
country,  or  sturdy  discharge  of  duty,  they  are  clearly  right.  Money 
cannot  pay  for  those.  And  it  may  be  added  that  the  willingness  to 
leave  family  and  friends  and  rush  to  the  defense  of  your  country  when 
danger  threatens,  without  waiting  to  see  whether  there  can  ever  be  any 
compensation ;  the  readiness  to  imperil  and  even  sacrifice  your  life 
for  a  cause ;  the  unflinching  discharge  of  duty  however  hard — all  come 
within  the  list- of  deeds  that  are  above  money.  And  it  is  upon  these 
that  the  safety  and  perpetuity  of  a  nation  depend.  Whenever  these 
virtues  have  to  be  purchased  in  advance  with  money,  then  the  end  is 
near. 

To  quote  again  from  the  soldier  referred  to :  "If  future  citizens 
of  this  republic  will  not  come  freely  to  their  country's  defense  in  the 
hour  of  need  except  for  such  (moneyed)  inducements,  then  efface  from 
your  banners  the  honored  colors  and  emblems  and  let  the  dollar  of 
your  daddies  on  a  golden  ground  be  their  flag  to  lead  them  to  battle 
and  to  deserved  defeat.  Then  will  this  republic  go  the  way  of  all 
republics,  and  fall,  from  sheer  inability  to  stand  up  longer  in  its  own 
rottenness." 

This  is  strong  language,  and  every  syllable  of  it  is  true  when 
applied  to  the  purchase  of  patriotism.  But  it  does  not  cover  the  whole 
case.  A  patriot  may  make  material  sacrifices  which  can  be,  should  be 
and  are  paid  for  in  dollars  and  cents.  If  the  government  takes  a  man's 
property,  nobody  questions  for  a  moment  his  right  to  compensation. 


ii8  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Cannot  a  man's  time  be  placed  on  the  same  footing  with  property? 
Some  rely  on  property  for  their  support,  others  rely  on  their  time ;  if, 
then,  the  latter  is  taken,  why  should  there  not  be  compensation  ?  Sup- 
pose the  man  enters  the  army  and  serves  through  the  war  without 
receiving  any  compensation,  would  he  not  be  entitled  to  pay  in  dollars 
and  cents  for  his  time  ?  And  if  the  government  paid  him  for  this,  could 
it  be  claimed  that  it  was  paying  him  for  his  patriotism  ?  Clearly  not. 
It  would  only  be  settling  the  money  part  of  the  claim.  The  debt 
properly  chargeable  to  patriotism  would  remain  unpaid.  So  if  he  had 
been  paid  half  what  his  time  was  reasonably  worth,  there  could  be  no 
question  but  in  equity  he  should  be  paid  the  other  half,  and  if  he  were, 
it  would  not  be  paying  for  patriotism. 

Therefore  it  seems  to  me  that  the  question  is :  Has  the  soldier 
made  any  material  sacrifices  of  time,  property,  or  health,  for  which 
he  has  not  been  compensated,  and  if  he  has,  does  common  justice  re- 
quire that  he  should  be  compensated  ? 

Before  considering  this  in  detail,  I  will  simply  notice : 
Public  Policy. — It  is  claimed,  and  with  reason,  that  in  a  country 
like  ours,  wherein  no  standing  army  is  maintained,  and  no  burden 
imposed  for  a  permanent  military  establishment,  and  where  the  govern- 
ment has  to  rely  absolutely  on  the  patriotism  of  its  citizens  to  repel  for- 
eign invasions  or  suppress  domestic  insurrections,  public  policy  alone 
would  require  a  very  liberal  and  comprehensive  spirit  in  dealing  with 
the  soldier.  That  if  the  government  were  even  to  be  lavish,  and  go  be- 
yond the  strict  requirements  of  justice,  it  would  be,  from  a  political 
standpoint,  a  good  investment,  because  it  would  tend  to  insure  a  ready 
response  to  any  call  the  government  may  make  when  in  distress  here- 
after, and  would  tend  to  stimulate  the  men  while  serving.  It  would 
be  a  sort  of  premium  paid  to  insure  the  safety  of  our  homes  and  our 
institutions  in  the  future.  So  that  it  would  be  in  accord  with  a  wise  pub- 
lic policy  with  the  government  not  only  to  do  simple  jusice  to  the  sol- 
dier— that  is,  to  pay  him  what  it  morally  owes  him — but  to  go  beyond 
this,  and  even  do  more  than  it  is  in  strict  justice  bound  to  do. 

WHAT,    THEN,    DOES    COMMON      JUSTICE    DEMAND? 

Other  Governments. — It  is  urged  by  some  that  our  government  has 
already  dealt  more  liberally  with  its  soldiers  than  any  other  govern- 
ment on  earth,  and  therefore  nothing  further  should  be  asked.  Now, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  inquire  whether  this  is  true  or  not,  for  it  makes 
no  difference  what  other  governments  have  done.  Most  of  the  gov- 
ernments of  the  world  are  founded  on  despotic  principles,  and  treat 
both  the  lives  and  the  property  of  the  common  people  as  if  they  existed 


PENSIONS  FOR  SOLDIERS.  119 

only  to  serve  the  pleasure  or  the  ambition  of  the  rulers.  And  the 
soldiers  are  treated  as  so  many  fighting  cattle,  that  are  left  by  the 
roadside  or  in  a  poor-house  to  die  when  they  are  no  longer  of  use. 
But  that  is  not  the  case  here.  Our  government  is  said  to 
be  of  the  people,  for  them,  and  by  them ;  and  all  the  people 
are  supposed  to  have  an  equal  interest  in  maintaining  it,  and 
when  it  is  threatened  with  danger  it  is  the  common  duty 
of  all  to  march  to  its  defense.  The  burden  rests  on  all,  and  when, 
therefore,  some  go  and  some  do  not,  some  make  sacrifices  and  some 
do  not,  common  justice  requires  that  those  that  make  the  sacrifice, 
and  thus  save  the  government,  should  be  in  some  way  recompensed 
or  made  whole  for  what  they  have  done  over  and  above  what  their 
neighbors  did,  for  inasmuch  as  the  duty  rested  equally  on  all,  the  bur- 
den should  be  borne  equally  by  all. 

To  illustrate :  It  is  admitted  that  when  our  institutions  are  threat- 
ened it  is  the  duty  of  all  to  assist  in  protecting  them ;  that  all  should 
pay  taxes  in  proportion  to  the  property  they  own,  and  all  should  give 
their  time  and  personal  services  to  the  common  cause.  The  man 
with  property  having  a  double  interest  in  preserving  the  government — 
i.  e.,  to  protect  his  property  and  also  his  person  and  family — must 
therefore  both  pay  taxes  and  give  his  time  and  personal  service  to 
the  government,  while  the  man  without  property,  being  interested  only 
in  the  protection  of  himself  and  family,  must  give  his  time  and  personal 
service  only.  Now,  if  all  citizens  had  an  equal  amount  of  property 
and  all  entered  the  service  of  the  government,  and  after  a 
victorious  war  all  were  fortunate  enough  to  return  alive  and 
in  good  health,  it  is  clear  none  would  in  common  jus- 
tice be  entitled  to  a  pension  or  extra  pay,  because  all  had 
contributed  equally  and  all  had  derived  an  equal  benefit  from  the  result. 
But  if  in  the  case  just  stated  one  tenth  are  slain  or  die  from  exposure, 
and  one  tenth  more  are  maimed  or  rendered  unable  to  make  a  living 
or  carry  on  their  business  as  before,  then  inequalities  arise ;  the  dead 
and  also  the  maimed  have  given  more  than  their  neighbors  to  the 
common  cause.  The  family  of  the  dead  have  given  up  their  support. 
Whether  that  support  consisted  of  brains  and  muscle  or  of  a  farm 
can  make  no  difference  in  the  scale  of  justice.  It  has  been  given  to 
save  the  country,  and  they  have,  therefore,  given  more  than  their  neigh- 
bors, and  justice  demands  that  they  be  compensated  for  the  excess  they 
have  given.  Likewise  the  maimed  or  disabled.  They  have  been 
deprived  of  their  ability  to  carry  on  business  or  use  their  limbs  as 
before,  and  to  this  extent  have  given  more  than  their  neighbors,  and 
justice  requires  that  they  should  be  compensated. 


120  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

The  government  could  in  each  of  the  cases  given  above  institute 
an  inquiry  as  it  does  when  it  seeks  to  take  a  farm — ascertain  the  amount 
of  damage  the  individual  has  sustained  in  excess  of  his  neighbors,  and 
pay  this  in  a  lump,  or  it  can  provide  for  paying  it  in  installments 
during  the  life  of  the  party  injured,  and  call  it  a  pension.  But  in  either 
case  it  will  be  simply  making  compensation ;  it  will  not  be  giving  away 
anything;  it  will  be  simply  doing  justice — for  let  it  be  clearly  under- 
stood that  a  pension  is  not  a  charity ;  it  is  a  payment  made  in  consider- 
ation of  services  which  the  government  acknowledges  having  received. 

Let  us  now  go  farther.  If,  instead  of  every  man  entering  the  serv- 
ice, as  we  have  supposed  above,  only  a  part  go  (as  is  always  the  case), 
then  if  they  all  return  in  as  good  condition  as  they  went,  and  if  while 
away  they  were  paid  wages  equal  to  what  they  could  have  earned  in 
their  respective  callings  had  they  remained  at  home,  and  they  do  not 
have  to  commence  anew  when  they  come  back,  then  they  have  con- 
tributed no  more  than  their  neighbors,  and  are  not  entitled  to  any 
compensation  except  perhaps  for  the  exposure  and  hardships  endured. 
On  the  other  hand  if  the  wages  paid  them  are  not  equal  to  what  they 
could  have  earned  in  their  respective  callings  had  they  remained  at 
home — if  they  had  to  give  up  business,  and  when  they  returned  had 
to  commence  anew ;  in  short,  if  they  are  in  any  way  worse  off  after 
returning  than  they  would  have  been  had  they  remained,  or  if  they 
endured  inconveniences  which  their  neighbors  did  not,  then  they  have 
given  just  that  much  in  what  has  money  value  over  and  above  what 
their  neighbors  who  did  not  go  have  given,  and  common  justice 
demands  that  to  that  extent  they  should  receive  compensation ;  and 
when  they  do,  it  is  not  payment  for  their  patriotic  deeds,  but  simply 
compensation  for  what  can  and  should  be  adjusted  in  money. 

What  are  the  Facts? — It  is  true  that  all  men  of  the  North  did  not 
go  into  the  army — some  did  stay  at  home.  Therefore,  if  those  that 
did  go  earned  less  money  while  away  than  they  would  have  earned 
had  they  remained  at  home,  or  endured  hardships  which  they  other- 
wise would  not  have  endured,  or  if  after  their  return  they  were  in  any 
way  worse  off  than  they  would  have  been  had  they  remained  at  home, 
then,  to  say  nothing  about  patriotism  in  so  promptly  responding  to 
their  country's  call,  to  that  extent  they  have  contributed  more  than 
their  neighbors,  and  in  justice  and  in  good  conscience  are  entitled  to 
compensation. 

I  think  it  will  have  to  be  admitted  in  all  quarters  that  those  that 
entered  the  army  (I  speak  of  the  privates)  were  not  paid,  as  a  rule, 
what  they  could  have  earned  at  home ;  that  they  endured  hardships 
which  they  would  not  have  had  at  home ;  and  that  they  returned  far 


PENSIONS  FOR  SOLDIERS. 

worse  off  than  they  would  have  been  had  they  remained  at  home.  I 
am  speaking  now  only  from  a  financial  standpoint,  assuming  that  they 
all  returned  healthy  and  sound. 

Thirteen  and  sixteen  dollars  per  month  and  finding  were  the  wages 
paid  to  the  privates  in  the  late  war.  This  was,  if  anything,  less  than 
was  paid  to  common  farm-hands  at  the  same  time,  so  that  those  that 
could  perform  only  the  commonest  kind  of  labor  could  earn  more  by 
staying  at  home  than  by  serving  their  country,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
privations  and  hardships  which  the  soldiers  had  to  endure.  Even 
if  the  wages  paid  had  been  equal  to  that  paid  for  common  labor  at  the 
time,  then,  to  the  extent  that  the  soldier  suffered  privations  and 
endured  hardships,  has  he  contributed  more  to  his  country's  defense 
than  the  man  who  stayed  at  home?  If  this  is  true  of  the  common 
laborer  who  served,  it  follows  that  every  mechanic  or  skilled  man  of 
any  kind  who  entered  the  army  as  a  private  could  have  earned  from 
two  to  four  times  as  much  by  staying  at  home,  and  the  difference 
between  what  he  was  actually  paid  and  what  he  would  have  earned  had 
he  stayed — added  to  the  privations,  exposure,  and  hardships  of  a  sol- 
dier's life — constitute  what  he  has  contributed  of  that  which  can  be 
estimated  in  money  to  defend  the  country  over  and  above  what  those 
gave  that  stayed  at  home.  So  the  man  who  gave  up  a  business  or  the 
opportunity  of  making  money  and  served  in  the  army  has — if  the 
business  or  the  opportunity  was  worth  more  than  the  wages  actually 
paid  him — contributed  the  difference  to  save  his  country.  That  is,  he 
has  contributed  that  much  more,  from  a  money  standpoint,  than  the 
man  who  stayed  at  home. 

Taxes  paid. — It  is  no  answer  to  say  that  the  man  who  stayed  at 
home  paid  taxes,  because  the  soldier,  if  he  had  any  property,  had  to 
pay  taxes  just  the  same.  Besides,  as  heretofore  stated,  the  man  with 
property  had  a  double  interest  in  saving  the  country — one  on  account 
of  himself  and  family,  and  the  other  to  save  the  value  of  his  property. 
In  fact,  the  latter  may  in  some  cases  have  been  the  greater,  because, 
while  the  destruction  of  the  government  might  not  affect  him  person- 
ally, it  might  destroy  the  value  of  his  property. 

Therefore,  taxes  paid  by  those  not  entering  the  army  must  be  con- 
sidered as  being  simply  the  contributions  which  property  makes  to 
save  the  government,  and  thus  to  save  itself.  As  long  as  taxes  are  paid 
only  on  property,  they  are  in  no  sense  a  substitute  for  personal  service 
in  the  army,  and  their  payment  cannot  in  any  way  discharge  the  obli- 
gation that  the  man  who  pays  them  is  under  to  serve  personally  in 
the  army  the  same  as  every  other  citizen. 

It  may  be  said  that  it  was  necessary  that  some  should  stay  at  home 


122  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

and  carry  on  the  industries  of  the  country,  and  that  when  doing  so 
they  were  serving  their  country  just  as  effectually  as  if  they  were  in 
the  field.  This  is  only  in  part  true.  True  if  he  who  stayed  at  home 
could  make  no  more  at  home  than  in  the  field ;  and  if  the  clanger  and 
hardship  were  equal  in  both  cases,  then  it  is  clear  that  the  man  who 
served  in  the  field  contributed  no  more  to  save  the  country  than  the 
man  who  stayed  at  home.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  by  staying  at  home 
he  can  make  more  money  than  by  taking  the  field — if,  in  fact,  he  sells 
his  products,  whatever  they  are,  to  the  very  government  which  is  in 
danger  at  the  highest  price  he  can  possibly  obtain,  so  that  in  fact  he 
gives  the  government  nothing  directly ;  and  if  the  danger  and  the 
hardship  at  home  are  not  equal  to  those  in  the  field,  then  it  is  clear 
that  the  man  in  the  field  contributes  more  than  the  man  at  home,  and 
it  is  equally  clear  that  whatever  the  excess  may  be,  common  justice 
requires  that  he  should  be  compensated  for  it. 

The  question  is  not  whether  it  is  necessary  that  some  shall  remain 
at  home.  The  question  is,  Has  one  contributed  more  to  save  the 
country  than  the  other?  and  if  yea,  then,  inasmuch  as  it  is  admitted 
that  all  should  contribute  equally,  does  justice  demand  that  compensa- 
tion be  made  to  him  who  contributed  the  excess — that  is,  the  excess 
of  what  can  be  estimated  in  money?  Patriotism,  courage,  devotion  to 
duty,  prompt  response  to  the  call  of  one's  country,  and  the  willingness 
to  take  the  risk  of  losing  life  should  be  regarded  as  being  above  money 
value,  and  to  be  compensated  for  only  by  the  gratitude  of  one's  coun- 
try. 

Health. — I  have  thus  far  assumed  that  all  that  returned  from  the  war 
were  as  sound  physically  as  they  would  have  been  had  they  stayed  at 
home,  and  we  have  found  that  even  if  this  were  so  the  soldier  contrib- 
uted more  than  the  man  who  did  not  go  into  the  army,  and  that  this  ex- 
cess had  an  actual  moneyed  value.  But  it  is  a  well-established  fact  that 
comparatively  few  returned  from  the  army  sound  men.  In  most  cases 
where  they  were  apparently  well,  exposure  had  sown  the  seeds  of 
disease  which  sometimes  did  not  develop  for  years,  but  which  did 
finally  develop,  and  not  only  cause  them  suffering,  but  also  greatly 
cripple  their  ability  to  do  business  or  make  a  living,  and  consequently 
they  have  to  be  regarded  very  much  as  if  they  had  actually  been 
maimed  on  the  field.  Yet  they  cannot  now  furnish  sufficient  evidence  to 
get  a  pension  under  our  laws.  So  that  no  matter  from  what  standpoint 
the  subject  is  considered,  it  soon  becomes  apparent  that  the  soldier 
contributed  more  to  save  the  country  than  the  citizen,  and  is  entitled 
to  compensation.  How,  then,  shall  this  be  paid?  In  a  lump  or  in 
installments  by  way  of  pensions?  Here  practical  difficulties  arise. 


PENSIONS  FOR  SOLDIERS.  123 

To  determine  the  exact  amount  due  each  soldier  is  impracticable; 
even  if  it  were  not,  the  total  would  be  so  large  that  the  treasury  could 
not  meet  it,  so  that  whatever  is  paid  must  be  paid  in  installments  in 
the  shape  of  pensions.  But  how  ?  On  what  basis  ?  These  are  difficult 
questions.  No  plan  that  will  do  exact  justice  can  be  devised.  All  that 
is  possible  is  to  approximate.  Several  systems  are  advocated  which  I 
will  consider. 

Service  Pensions. — By  this  term  I  understand  to  be  meant  a  pension 
for  service  rendered,  as  distinguished  from  simple  enlistment,  the  idea 
being  to  pay  for  services  performed  or  sacrifices  made,  and  to  pay 
nothing  where  no  service  was  rendered  or  no  sacrifice  made. 

Of  course  there  will  be  difficulty  in  drawing  the  line,  but  this  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  principle  involved.  Bear  in  mind  that  a  pension 
is  not  a  charity  nor  a  gift ;  it  is  simply  a  payment  in  discharge  of  a 
debt  which,  instead  of  being  paid  in  a  lump,  is  paid  in  installments. 
And  the  principle  involved  here  is  simply  one  of  making  compensation. 

We  have  seen  that  in  common  justice  the  soldier  is  entitled  to  com- 
pensation for  what  he  contributed  over  and  above  what  his  neighbor 
contributed.  Now,  how  shall  this  be  ascertained  and  paid?  If  it  had 
been  practicable  to  do  so,  and  if  it  had  been  insisted  on,  justice  might 
have  required  the  government  to  institute  a  separate  inquiry  in  each 
case,  and  if  anything  was  found  to  be  equitably  due,  to  pay  it.  But 
owing  to  the  great  number  this  was  not  practicable.  Whatever  the 
cause,  it  has  not  been  insisted  on.  Now,  one  way  of  adjusting  a  claim 
is  to  confer  with  the  claimant,  and  if  possible,  arrive  at  an  agreement. 
The  claimants  in  this  case  are  the  men  who  served  in  the  war,  and  if 
they  are  willing  to  accept  compensation  in  installments  instead  of  in  a 
lump,  and  the  government  recognizes  the  justice  of  their  claims,  that 
is  certainly  the  easiest  way  of  arranging  it.  But  a  pension  made  uni- 
form for  a  certain  length  of  service  would  not  do  justice,  because  it 
would  hardly  ever  be  the  case  that  any  two  men  had  made  precisely 
equal  sacrifices  in  order  to  serve  in  the  army.  To  meet  this  objection 
the  advocates  of  a  service  pension  propose  a  graduated  scale,  giving 
to  the  man  who  served  only  three  months  a  small  sum,  to  the  man 
who  served  a  year  a  larger  amount,  and  to  the  man  who  served  three 
years  or  more  a  still  larger  sum — payment  to  begin  when  the  soldier 
reaches  the  age  of  say  fifty-five  years.  This  plan,  it  is  claimed,  would 
lighten  the  burden  on  the  treasury,  as  only  about  one  fourth  of  the 
living  soldiers  would  begin  to  draw  pensions  at  once,  and  then  these 
would  begin  to  die  off  as  new  ones  are  added.  This  plan  recognizes 
the  impossibility  of  devising-  anv  way  to  do  exact  justice ;  it  does  not 
even  try  to  approximate  it  but  seems  primarily  to  aim  at  making  pro- 


QUESTIONS. 

visions  for  the  old  age  of  the  soldier,  and  in  this  view  strikes  me 
favorably.  It  is  free  from  the  objection  urged  against  indigent  pen- 
sions, for  to  obtain  the  latter  the  soldier  must  almost  proclaim  himself 
a  pauper,  and,  as  the  brave  are  usually  sensitive,  they  should  not  be 
subjected  to  this  humiliation.  Upon  the  whole,  this  plan,  as  thus 
limited,  seems  reasonable  and  moderate,  and  if  the  soldiers  are  satisfied 
therewith,  the  government  should  be.  The  government  has  at  different 
times  placed  all  the  survivors  of  former  wars  on  the  pension  list ;  it  is 
true  it  usually  waited  until  they  were  nearly  all  dead.  But  still  it 
recognized  the  principle  that  the  government  should  care  for  the  old 
soldiers,  and,  if  the  principle  is  right,  then  I  say  the  government  should 
not  wait  until  most  are  dead,  but  should  extend  its  hand  the  moment 
they  arrive  at  a  specified  age. 

Objections. — It  is  objected  in  some  quarters  that  to  allow  a  service 
pension  would  make  enormous  demands  on  the  treasury,  and  to  that 
extent  would  increase  the  b.urclens  of  the  people.  But  this  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  question.  If  these  men  have  just  claims  against  the 
government,  and  that  government  is  able  to  pay  them,  then  justice 
demands  that  they  be  paid,  whether  it  take  a  large  or  a  small  sum  out 
of  the  treasury. 

Who  are  the  Objectors? — It  is  a  curious  fact  that  this  objection 
is  urged  most  strongly  by  men  many  of  whom  have  made  fortunes 
out  of  the  government.  It  is  urged  by  what  are  commonly  called 
"Wall  Street  influences" — by  men  who,  when  the  government  was  in 
the  greatest  distress,  would  not  enter  the  service  themselves,  or  render 
patriotic  assistance,  but  bought  the  government  bonds  at  sixty  cents 
on  the  dollar  and  then  were  paid  interest  on  the  full  face  of  the  bonds, 
and  at  their  maturity  insisted  on  having  the  face  of  the  bonds  paid  in 
gold,  which  at  that  time  was  worth  a  premium,  so  that  they  were  paid 
nearly  two  dollars  (besides  interest)  for  every  dollar  they  advanced 
the  government.  They  gave  their  country  very  much  the  same  kind 
of  assistance  that  a  pawnbroker  gives  a  poor  man  that  has  met  with 
an  accident — cautiously  makes  some  advances,  takes  the  best  security 
he  can  get,  and  then  tries  to  get  two  dollars  for  every  one  he  advanced. 

One  might  suppose  that  after  having  reaped  their  harvest  they 
would  be  satisfied.  But  not  so.  For  now,  when  it  is  proposed  that  the 
government  shall  do  simple  justice  to  those  that  left  their  business  and 
their  homes,  and  risked  their  lives  to  save  the  government,  and  prevent 
even  the  very  bonds  of  which  we  have  spoken  from  becoming  worth- 
less, these  Wall  Street  influences  are  exerted  against  the  ex-soldiers. 

There  are  people  who  imagine  that  brains  and  muscle  and  human 
life  should  at  least  be  placed  on  as  high  a  plane  as  money ;  that  if  the 


PENSIONS  FOR  SOLDIERS.  125 

man  who  loaned  the  government  money  to  carry  on  the  war  is  paid 
nearly  two  dollars  for  every  dollar  loaned,  then  the  man  who 
gives  up  his  business  and  his  home,  and  risks  his  life  and  endures  the 
hardships  of  war,  should  be  recompensed  in  the  same  liberal  manner  for 
the  sacrifices  he  has  made. 

But  the  ex-soldiers  do  not  go  this  far  in  their  demands.  They  do 
not  ask  for  double  compensation ;  they  only  ask  that  the  government 
which  was  saved  through  their  efforts  and  which  is  now  great  and 
powerful,  shall  make  them  whole — simply  recompense  them  for  the 
sacrifice  they  have  made — and  will  feel  grateful  if  they  are  but  made 
whole. 

Frauds. — No  doubt  it  is  true  that  great  frauds  have  been  per- 
petrated on  the  pension  department,  and  that  many  are  getting  pen- 
sions that  should  not ;  but  will  anybody  claim  that  therefore  those  that 
in  justice  are  entitled  to  a  pension  should  be  kept  out  of  it  ? 

Private  Pensions. — I  must  admit  that  I  favor  general  rather  than 
special  or  private  pensions ;  I  believe  in  putting  all  belonging  to  the 
same  class  on  an  equal  footing.  Private  pensions  are  invidious  and 
undemocratic.  They  are  only  for  a  fortunate  or  a  favored  few.  Only 
those  that  have  influence  with  some  Congressman  or  "have  a  friend  at 
court"  can  hope  to  get  a  private  pension,  and  these  are  not  always  the 
most  worthy.  A  very  large  number  of  special  or  private  pension  acts 
has  been  passed  at  every  session  of  Congress  for  a  great  many  years 
on  the  ground  that  the  general  laws  were  so  framed  and  construed 
that  many  worthy  and  invalid  soldiers  who  deserved  a  pension  could 
not  prove  their  claims  under  them  so  as  to  have  a  pension  allowed. 
Now  this  should  be  otherwise.  The  pension  laws  should  be  so  framed, 
construed,  and  executed  that  every  soldier  who  has  any  just  claim  to 
a  pension  can  readily  get  it  under  a  general  law,  and  not  be  required 
to  secure  a  special  act  of  Congress  before  he  can  get  what  he  is  justly 
entitled  to. 

Gen.  Oliver  Edwards,  of  Warsaw,  111.,  hit  the  mark  when  he  said: 
"I  believe  private  pension  bills,  as  a  rule,  are  an  injustice  to  most  of  us, 
on  the  ground  that  very  few  old  soldiers  have  sufficient  political  influ- 
ence to  secure  a  private  pension." 

Indigent  Soldier's  Pension. — Careful  inquiry  has  recently  brought 
out  the  fact  that  there  are  at  present  upward  of  ten  thousand  ex-Union 
soldiers  in  the  various  alms-  or  poor-houses  of  the  United  States ;  at 
times  their  number  has  reached  nearly  twenty  thousand.  How  many 
soldiers  have  already  died  there  and  been  buried  in  the  potter's  field  is 
not  known,  but  as  the  average  death-rate  in  alms-houses  is  from  ten 
,  to  fifteen  per  cent,  a  year,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  every  year  for  a  number 


126  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

of  years  over  one  thousand  of  the  old  Union  soldiers  have  died  amid 
the  squalor  of  the  poor-house,  away  from  friend  and  family,  and  been 
buried  in  the  field  set  apart  for  strangers.  But  the  ten  thousand 
represent  but  a  small  portion  of  the  indigents,  because  only  a  small 
portion  of  the  poor  of  any  class  actually  enter  the  alms-house.  Usually 
friends  intervene  and  support  them.  So  that  it  is,  perhaps,  within 
bounds  to  say  that  for  every  soldier  in  the  poor-house  there  are  at  least 
five  who  are  being  supported  as  objects  of  charity  by  friends.  If  this 
is  correct,  then  we  have  the  humiliating  spectacle  of  the  most  powerful, 
most  wealthy,  and  most  enlightened  government  on  earth,  after  a 
victorious  war,  in  which  its  very  existence  was  at  stake,  allowing 
upward  of  fifty  thousand  of  the  men  who  rescued  it  from  destruction 
to  be  supported  by  private  charity ;  upward  of  ten  thousand,  besides 
many  thousands  soldiers'  orphans,  to  be  confined  in  the  public  poor- 
houses  of  the  land,  and  over  one  thousand  to  be  buried  every  year 
as  paupers.  There  may  be  people  who  can  view  this  spectacle  with 
composure,  but  there  are  those  who  feel  that  it  is  a  shame  and  a  dis- 
grace. 

It  matters  not  whether  they  are  in  the  poor-house  because  the 
pension  actually  paid  is  so  small  that  it  will  not  half  support  them, 
which  is  the  case  with  some,  or  whether  they  have  not  been  able,  under 
existing  laws,  to  secure  any  pension,  which  is  true  of  most  of  them. 
In  either  case  the  great  patriotic  masses  of  the  American  people  do 
not  want  to  see  the  soldiers  who  fought  to  save  the  Union,  thus,  as  it 
were,  left  by  the  roadside  to  die. 

We  have  seen  that  those  who  actually  served  in  the  army  have  a 
just  claim  against  the  government  which  has  not  yet  been  paid.  Then 
there  are  thousands  of  men  who  left  the  army  apparently  well,  but  in 
whose  systems  exposure  had  planted  the  seeds  of  disease,  which  after- 
ward slowly  developed,  so  that  they  could  not  make  a  living,  and  yet, 
under  the  strict  proof  required  by  our  existing  laws,  which  practically 
require  the  applicant  to  prove  his  claim  beyond  a  doubt,  they  are  unable 
to  satisfy  the  pension  office,  and  so  get  nothing.  In  fact,  so  eager  do 
some  pension  officials  seem  to  be  to  defeat  a  pension  when  they  can, 
that  in  cases  where  the  proof  satisfied  the  law  and  showed  the  appli- 
cant to  be  entitled  to  a  pension,  they  have  written  to  some  postmaster 
in  the  locality  where  the  applicant  resided,  to  see  if  they  could  not  get 
some  information  that  would  defeat  the  pension. 

We  can  form  some  idea  of  the  large  number  of  men  who  in  justice 
are  entitled  to  pensions,  and  who  have  been  unable  to  secure  one,  by 
considering  the  number  of  private  pension  bills  annually  passed  by 
Congress,  bearing  in  mind  that  there  is  not  one  private  soldier  in  a 


PENSIONS  FOR  SOLDIERS.  127 

hundred  who  has  sufficient  influence  to  get  Congress  to  pass  a  special 
bill  in  his  favor.  And  yet,  during  the  first  two  years  of  Cleveland's 
administration,  not  only  did  Congress  pass,  but  President  Cleveland 
actually  approved,  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three  bills.  In  addition  to 
these  there  were  a  number  passed  by  Congress  which  were  vetoed  by 
the  President. 

That  these  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three  bills  were  founded  on 
justice  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  they  received  the  approval  of  the 
President,  who  is  not  charged  with  being  partial  to  private  bills. 

If  we  consider  how  much  time  and  effort  it  requires  to  get  any 
measure  passed  by  Congress — how  very  few  of  the  bills  introduced  ever 
are  passed — and  that  not  one  private  soldier  in  a  hundred  has  sufficient 
influence  to  enable  him  to  get  Congress  to  pass  any  measure,  and  then 
reflect  that  during  two  years  Congress  actually  passed  and  the  Presi- 
dent approved  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three  private  pension  bills,  we 
can  see  that  there  are  many  thousands  of  poor  soldiers  who  in  justice 
are  entitled  to  a  pension,  but  are  unable  to  get  it,  and  who,  if  they 
have  no  other  means  of  support,  must  depend  on  private  charity  or  else 
make  their  bed  in  the  poor-house. 

But  if  this  were  not  so — if  the  men  who  served  in  the  army  had 
no  just  claim  to  compensation,  and  the  indigent  soldier  of  whom  we 
have  been  speaking  had  no  just  claim  to  a  pension — would  not  an 
enlightened  and  a  wise  public  policy  require  that  the  government  see 
to  it  that  those  that  imperiled  their  lives  in  order  to  save  it  from 
destruction  should  not,  in  their  old  age,  have  to  eat  the  bread  of 
charity,  draw  their  last  breath  in  an  alms-house,  or  be  buried  in  a  pau- 
per's graveyard? 

On  March  18,  1818,  just  thirty-five  years  after  the  close  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  and  only  four  years  after  the  close  of  a  second 
exhaustive  war  with  Great  Britain,  at  a  time  when  the  country  was 
poor  and  had  not  yet  fully  recovered  from  the  effects  of  the  last  war, 
Congress  passed  a  law  granting  pensions  to  all  that  had  served  in  the 
army  of  the  Revolution  "for  a  period  of  nine  months  or  longer  at  any 
period  of  the  war,  and  who,  by  reason  of  reduced  circumstances,  shall 
stand  in  need  of  assistance  from  their  country  for  support." 

Here  the  principle  that  the  government  should  assist  those  that 
imperiled  their  lives  for  its  preservation,  and  that  are  in  need  of  assist- 
ance for  support,  is  distinctly  recognized  and  acted  on.  Can  any  good 
reason  be  given  why  the  powerful  government  of  1887  should  pursue 
a  less  liberal  policy  toward  the  soldiers  than  the  exhausted  government 
of  1818? 

Invalid  and  Disabled. — I  have  thus  far  noticed  only  those  that  do 


128  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

not  receive  any  pension,  and  will  add  a  few  words  in  regard  to  those 
to  whom  pensions  have  been  granted.  According  to  the  reports  of  the 
pension  office,  the  whole  number  of  people  in  the  United  States  in 
1886  drawing  pensions  was  265,855;  since  that  time  the  number  has 
been  slightly  increased. 

The  following  table  shows  the  sums  paid  per  month  for  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  injury: 

Total  deafness   ...........................................  $13  oo 

Inability  to  perform  manual  labor  .........................  30  oo 

Loss  of  a  hand  or  foot  ...................................  30  oo 

Total  disability  in  one  hand  and  one  foot  ...................  36  oo 

Loss  of  one  hand  and  one  foot  ............................  36  oo 

Amputation  at  or  above  elbow  or  knee  ....................  40  oo 

Amputation  at  hip  or  shoulder  joint  ........................  45  oo 

Loss  of  both  hands  .......................................  72  oo 

Loss  of  both  feet  .........................................  72  oo 

Loss  of  both  eyes  .........................................  72  oo 

Need  of  regular  aid  and  attendance  ........................  72  oo 

Widow  and  dependent  relatives  ............................  12  oo 

Child   ...................  .................................  2  oo 

Anchylosis  of  elbow  or  knee-joint  .........................  10  oo 

Anchylosis  of  ankle  or  wrist  .  .  .............................  8  oo 

Loss  of  the  sight  of  one  eye  ...............................  8  oo 

Total  deafness  of  one  ear  ..................................  2  oo 

Slight  deafness  in  both  ears  ...............................  4  oo 

Severe  deafness  in  both  ears.  .  ...................  ..........  8  oo 

Loss  of  hand  except  thumb  ...................  .............  17  oo 

Loss  of  thumb  ............................................  8  oo 

Loss  of  index  finger  ...................  ...................  4  oo 

Loss  of  any  other  finger,  without  complication  .............  2  oo 

Loss  of  all  the  toes  of  one  foot  .....................  .......  10  oo 

Etc.,  the  table  being  long. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  drawing  the  different  sums  : 
29,247  ................................  $'  oo  to    $4  oo  per  month. 

66,421  ................................     2  oo  to      4  oo 

39,578  ................................     40010      600 

51,722  ................................     6  oo  to      800 

[2,992  ................................     8  oo  to     10  oo 

19,383  ................................   10  oo  to     12  oo 

4,804  ................................     12   00  tO      14  00 

8,878  ................................  14  oo  to    16  oo 

3  557  ................................   16  oo  to     1800 

1,626....  ...................  .........   '8  oo  to    2000 

15,963  ................................    20  00  tO      24   00 

9,007  ...................  .............  24  oo  to  30  oo 

647  .............  ...................  30  oo  to  40  oo 

1,046  ................................  40  oo  to  50  oo 

983  ..........  ......................  59  oo  to  75  oo 


100   00 


PENSIONS  FOR  SOLDIERS.  129 

By  glancing  at  these  tables  it  will  be  seen  that  the  amount  paid 
each  pensioner  is  very  small.  Over  one  third  of  all  get  from  one  to 
four  dollars  per  month.  Comparatively  few  get  as  high  as  twelve 
dollars  per  month. 

Any  one  can  see  that  the  pensions  paid  to  disabled  soldiers  are  in 
most  cases  not  only  inadequate  to  their  support,  but  inadequate  to 
make  compensation  for  the  sacrifice  they  made  over  and  above  that 
made  by  their  neighbors  to  save  the  government.  Take  the  man  who 
through  exposure  has  become  totally  deaf.  Will  anybody  claim  that 
to  pay  him  thirteen  dollars  per  month  will  be  a  just  compensation? 

Take  the  man  who,  when  he  entered  the  service,  was  robust.  He 
was  then  able  not  only  to  make  a  living  and  support  a  family,  but  get 
something  ahead ;  now  he  is  totally  unable  to  perform  manual  labor. 
Can  it  be  claimed  that  thirty  dollars  a  month  is  a  just  compensation 
to  him?  So  of  many  of  the  other  sums,  without  reviewing  them  in 
detail.  They  are  inadequate  to  make  compensation,  and  inadequate 
in  many  cases  to  support  the  pensioner  or  his  children,  so  that  it  is 
no  wonder  our  poor-houses  are  filling  up  with  the  old  soldiers  and 
their  children.  As  already  pointed  out,  it  makes  no  difference  what 
other  governments  do.  We  must  proceed  on  a  different  principle. 
With  us  all  should  contribute  equally  to  the  protection  and  support 
of  our  institutions,  and  when  some  have  to  give  more  than  others 
they  are  justly  entitled  to  compensation  for  the  excess. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 
Chicago,  January  3,  1888. 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  DEAF  SOLDIER. 
(Published  in  the  "American  Tribune,"  Indianapolis,  Dec.  27,  1889.) 

Captain  Wallace  Foster : 

Mr  Dear  Mr.  Foster :  Your  -favor  of  the  25th  ult,  stating  that 
"a  deaf  soldier  has  no  show  to  enter  the  civil  service,  while  the  amputa- 
tion cases  are  found  in  every  department  at  Washington,"  reached 
me  some  days  ago,  and  confirms  what  my  own  observation  had  already 
led  me  to  believe. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  government  of  this  great  republic  should 
discriminate  against  the  deaf  soldier.  But  there  has  always  been  against 
him  a  discrimination  invidious  and  unjust,  tending  to  create  a  feeling 
of  bitterness.  Until  about  a  year  ago,  the  pension  paid  to  a  totally 
deaf  soldier  was  only  thirteen  dollars  per  month.  Think  of  thirteen 
dollars  per  month  for  a  man  totally  deaf,  while  at  the  same  time  those 
that  were  disabled  by  reason  of  a  loss  or  disability  of  limb  or  limbs 

9 


130  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

were  paid  from  two  to  three  times  this  amount,  and  more.  Under 
the  law  of  August  27,  1888,  the  totally  deaf  soldier  is  paid  thirty  dol- 
lars per  month,  while  soldiers  suffering  from  other  disabilities  may 
receive  as  high  as  seventy-two  dollars  per  month,  the  loss  of  only  one 
arm  or  of  one  leg  entitling  the  pensioner  to  receive  thirty-six  dollars 
per  month ;  and  yet  experience  has  long  shown  that  such  a  man  can 
get  employment  where  a  totally  deaf  man  cannot,  and  certainly  in 
point  of  suffering  that  of  the  latter  is  infinitely  greater  than  that  of  the 
former. 

The  rules  of  the  civil  service  and  the  practice  thereunder  to  which 
you  refer  simply  show  that  the  same  condition  of  things  exists  in  the 
Federal  service  that  is  found  in  the  world  outside.  The  deaf  soldier 
has  little  show  of  getting  a  job  in  either.  It  is  fair  to  assume  that  the 
men  who  framed  the  rules,  and  the  men  who  from  time  to  time  con- 
trolled the  appointments,  were  honest,  intelligent,  and  humane,  and 
certainly  as  ready  to  assist  the  deaf  soldier  as  any  private  employer 
would  be.  And  the  fact  that  the  former  has  had  little  show  in  securing 
or  holding  positions  in  the  Federal  service  simply  demonstrates  how 
unreasonable  it  is  to  expect  him  to  get  work  from  private  employers, 
and  how  unjust  it  is  to  discriminate  against  him  in  fixing  the  pension 
to  be  paid  him.  No  private  employer  will  from  choice  select  a  deaf 
man.  If  he  employs  him  at  all  it  is  as  a  matter  of  charity,  and  he 
will  keep  him  only  as  long  as  he  feels  that  charity  requires  him  to.  So 
that  even  while  doing  the  little  work  which  may  be  given  him,  he 
must  feel  himself  an  object  of  charity ;  instead  of  receiving  a  cold 
potato  at  the  kitchen  door,  a  pittance  is  doled  out  to  him  in  the  shop. 
This  is  all  wrong.  Our  country  should  not  force  such  a  humiliation 
on  those  of  its  defenders  that  were  unfortunate.  The  American  people 
are  liberal,  and,  above  all  things,  want  to  see  justice  done.  The  dif- 
ficulty grows  out  of  the  fact  that  the  full  extent  of  the  disability  and 
suffering  resulting  from  total  deafness  is  not  at  once  perceived.  When 
a  man  has  lost  a  leg,  or  an  arm,  or  his  eyesight,  the  character  of  the 
affliction  can  be  seen,  and  while  not  fully,  it  is  still  more  nearly 
appreciated.  But  the  deaf  man  can  walk  and  see,  so  that  at  first  view 
he  does  not  seem  to  be  so  badly  off  as  the  other.  It  is  not  till  after- 
ward that  we  discover  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  him  to  get  any- 
thing to  do.  Particularly  is  this  true  now,  when  thousands  of  men 
who  are  in  possession  of  all  their  faculties  find  it  very  difficult  to  earn 
a  living,  and  nobody  but  himself  and  his  God  can  fully  understand  how 
severe  is  the  suffering  that  comes  from  the  utter  isolation  from  all  man- 
kind into  which  he  is  forced.  No  voice  of  wife  or  child  can  gladden 
him ;  no  spoken  word  of  friend  can  cheer  him ;  as  a  rule  he  must  for- 


JUSTICE    TO    THE    DEAF   SOLDIER.  131 

ever  sit  down  alone,  and  can  commune  only  with  his  own  sad  thoughts, 
and  it  seems  to  me  that  the  government  should  see  to  it  that  these 
thoughts  are  not  embittered  by  the  feeling  that  the  country  which  he 
helped  to  rescue  when  it  was  in  peril,  and  in  whose  service  he  was 
disabled,  now  neglects  him  in  the  days  of  its  greatness  and  of  his 
misery. 

What  is  necessary  is  to  make  the  public  once  understand  the  full 
meaning  of  your  affliction.  This  once  accomplished,  you  will  be  fairly 
dealt  with.  You  and  your  comrades  have  already  done  very  much 
in  this  direction,  and  I  hope  soon  to  see  full  justice  done  you.  With 
kind  regards,  I  am  very  truly  yours,  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

Indianapolis,  November  14,  1889. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JUSTICE  IN  CHICAGO. 

(Published  in  the  Chicago  Papers.) 
Hon.  Sherwood  Dixon, 

House  of  Representatives,  Springfield. 

Dear  Sir :  In  answer  to  your  letter  asking  my  views  upon  your 
bill,  which  provides  that  the  judges  of  the  trial  courts  may,  under  cer- 
tain conditions,  give  an  oral  charge  to  a  jury,  permit  me  to  say  that 
I  am  not  satisfied  with  your  bill,  because  it  does  not  go  far  enough ; 
still,  it  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  and  I  hope  the  General  Assembly 
will  take  up  the  matter  of  regulating  the  practice  in  our  courts,  and 
treat  it  with  that  thoroughness  which  its  importance  demands. 

The  main  objections  to  our  system  of  practice  in  the  common  law 
courts,  referring  particularly  to  Cook  County,  are : 

First.  The  uncertainty  as  to  result  without  regard  to  the  justice 
of  a  cause  brought  about  in  part  by  legislation,  which  experience  has 
shown  to  have  been  unwise,  in  part  by  requiring  a  unanimous  verdict, 
and  in  part  by  the  fact  that  the  higher  courts  have  embarrassed  and 
complicated  the  administration  of  justice  by  what  have  been  called 
"frivolous  technicalities,"  applied  not  to  the  merits  of  a  cause  but  to 
some  question  of  procedure,  so  that  hundreds  of  cases  are  reversed 
and  kept  hanging  in  the  courts  for  years,  until  the  subject-matter  of 
litigation  is  lost  and  the  parties  are  worn  out  with  expense  and  worry 
— not  because  the  case  had  been  wrongly  decided  in  the  trial  court 
upon  the  merits,  but  solely  because  there  was  a  difference  of  opinion 
concerning  some  question  of  procedure.  Consequently,  dishonest  men, 
with  no  meritorious  defense,  are  encouraged  to  litigate,  and,  as  a  mat- 


132  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ter  of  fact,  have  almost  as  good  a  chance  of  success — at  least  for  several 
years — as  those  that  have  an  honest  case,  and  many  honest  men  with 
meritorious  cases  are  afraid  to  go  into  the  courts  because  they  feel 
that  they  have  only  a  little  better  chance  there  than  a  scoundrel. 

Second.  Another  objection  is  that  at  present  a  lawsuit  costs  him 
who  loses  but  little,  if  any  more,  than  he  who  wins ;  so  a  man  without  a 
just  cause  of  action  or  meritorious  defense  can  keep  a  case  in  the 
courts  for  years  and  subject  his  opponent  to  great  expense  and  annoy- 
ance without  taking  any  chances.  As  a  result,  many  suits  are  brought 
which  ought  not  to  be,  and  many  others,  in  which  there  is  no  defense, 
are  fought  for  years,  simply  because  an  unscrupulous  defendant  finds 
it  to  his  advantage  to  fight  rather  than  to  settle.  So  that  many  meritor- 
ious cases  are  kept  out  of  the  courts,  while  our  dockets  are  crowded 
with  cases  many  of  which  ought  not  to  be  there,  and  many  others  of 
which  should  be  speedily  disposed  of. 

Third.  Another  objection  is  unreasonable  delay.  This  grows  out 
of  the  conditions  I  have  just  mentioned,  and  at  the  same  time  aug- 
ments them.  As  a  rule,  it  now  takes  from  two  to  four  years  to  dispose 
of  a  suit  in  our  common  law  courts,  whereas  it  should  not  take  over 
forty  days.  At  present,  when  a  man  begins  a  suit,  he  generally  has  to 
wait  nearly  two  years  before  it  comes  up ;  in  the  meantime,  the  situa-  _ 
tion  of  the  parties  may  have  changed,  or  the  subject-matter  of  the  suit 
become  worthless.  Then  he  is  notified  by  his  lawyer  that  -his  case  is 
about  to  be  reached  and  that  he  must  prepare  for  trial.  Thereupon  he 
partially  neglects  his  business,  has  consultations  with  his  lawyer,  and 
looks  around  for  his  witnesses.  In  the  course  of  a  few  days — or  a  few 
weeks — the  case  is  actually  placed  on  the  call  for  the  following  day. 
Then  he  attends  court  with  his  witnesses  for  from  two  to  ten  days  at 
great  expense  until  the  case  is  reached  on  the  call,  whe.n  it  is  dis- 
covered that  on  account  of  the  engagement  of  counsel  on  one  side  or 
the  other  in  some  other  court  the  case  has  to  be  passed  for  a  short  time. 
Then  in  the  course  of  a.  week — or  sometimes  of  three  or  four  weeks — 
he  gets  his  witnesses  together  again  and  goes  to  the  court-house,  where 
he  finds  some  other  case  on  trial,  and  he  is  told  to  wait.  In  the  course 
of  a  day  or  two  his  case  is  again  reached,  when  the  chances  are  about 
two  to  one  that  it  will  again  have  to  be  passed.  And  very  frequently, 
after  having  neglected  his  business  for  weeks,  and  having  been  to 
great  expense  and  trouble  in  getting  his  witnesses  and  attending 
court,  it  is  found  that  on  account  of  absent  witnesses  or  some  other 
cause  the  case  must  be  continued,  and  that  it  will  not  be  reached  again 
for  upward  of  a  year,  when  he  will  have  all  his  work  and  trouble  of 
preparation,  etc.,  to  do  over  again.  If,  however,  the  trial  is  begun,  then 


'ADMINISTRATION   OF   JUSTICE  IN  CHICAGO.   133 

he  is  astonished  to  find  that  it  is  apparently  not  the  justice  of  his  cause 
which  is  the  main  subject  of  inquiry,  but  that,  instead,  it  is  the  rules 
of  procedure  about  which  great  solicitude  is  shown.  When  the  evi- 
dence is  all  heard  and  the  lawyers  have  made  their  arguments,  then 
he  learns  that  we  have  had  legislation  in  this  State  which  changed  the 
practice  as  it  existed  at  common  law  and  still  prevails  in  the  Federal 
courts,  by  which  the  judge  was  to  point  out  to  the  jury  just  what  the 
issues  are,  and  state  to  them  the  law  governing  the  case;  but  that, 
instead,  the  judge  cannot  give  the  jury  any  other  than  written  instruc- 
tions. As  a  consequence  the  jury  is  often  left  with  very  confused 
notions  as  to  what  the  issues  of  fact  are ;  and  as  there  is  usually  not 
time  for  a  judge  to  write  out  a  clear  and  concise  charge  covering  the 
whole  case  after  the  evidence  is  closed,  he  is  frequently  obliged  to  give 
a  number  of  instructions  prepared  by  counsel  for  the  respective  parties, 
and  which  frequently  fail  to  give  to  the  jury  much  light  or  guidance; 
so  that  the  jury  is  liable  to  either  bring  in  a  verdict  which  is  entirely 
wrong  and  must  be  set  aside,  or  else  to  disagree  and  thus  compel  the 
parties  to  wait  until  the  case  is  again  reached  in  its  order,  and  then  do 
all  this  work  over  again.  As  the  law  requires  a  unanimous  verdict, 
the  suitor  finds  that  if  there  should  be  a  corrupt  man  on  the  panel,  or 
a  crank,  or  a  man  who  felt  offended  at  something  said  by  another 
juror,  he  has  it  in  his  power  to  produce  a  miscarriage  of  justice  without 
giving  any  reason.  If,  however,  the  suitor  safely  runs  all  these  gauntlets 
and  secures  a  verdict,  which  after  a  motion  for  a  new  trial  has  been 
argued,  is  left  to  stand,  then  a  judgment  is  entered,  and  the  defendant 
appeals  to  the  appellate  court.  This  takes  about  one  year  more,  and 
occasions  considerable  expense  for  lawyers'  fees,  printing,  etc.  Then 
it  is  found  that  the  appellate  court  reverses  about  forty  per  cent,  of  all 
cases  brought  to  it,  and  sends  them  back  to  be  tried  over  again ;  and 
they  are  reversed,  as  a  rule,  not  on  the  merits — not  because  an  actual 
injustice  has  been  done,  but  a  great  majority  of  cases  are  reversed 
because  of  what  has  been  styled  "some  frivolous  error"  in  the  pro- 
cedure. Frequently  some  point  which  neither  side  thought  of  or 
urged  in  the  court  below  is  made  a  ground  for  reversal,  because,  to 
quote  the  language  of  the  higher  courts,  "it  may  have  influenced  the 
jury";  not  that  it  probably  did  influence  the  jury,  or  that  the  result 
should  have  been  different  on  the  evidence.  So  that  our  suitor  finds 
that  two  chances  out  of  five  are  against  him  in  the  higher  court.  If 
his  case  is  reversed  and  sent  back,  then  he  finds  himself  just  where  he 
was  when  he  started,  and  he  has  had  upward  of  three  years  of  expense, 
trouble,  and  worry  for  nothing.  He  must  do  all  his  work  over  again, 
and  it  will  require  from  two  to  four  more  years  to  get  through  with 


134  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

it.  It",  on  the  other  hand,  his  case  is  affirmed  by  the  appellate  court, 
then,  if  the  amount  involved  exceeds  one  thousand  dollars,  an  appeal 
is  again  taken  to  the  supreme  court.  This  involves  another  delay  of 
about  a  year,  and  the  paying  of  lawyers'  fees,  printers'  fees,  etc.  Here 
again  his  case  may  be  reversed  and  sent  back,  and  if  it  is,  the  suitor 
finds  himself  just  where  he  started,  and  all  his  outlays  and  his  worry 
have  been  for  nothing.  But  as  the  supreme  court  at  present  cannot 
review  the  facts,  but  considers  only  questions  of  law,  the  chances  of  a 
reversal  here  are  not  so  great.  If  the  judgment  is  affirmed  so  that  the 
lawsuit  is  finally  ended,  then  he  learns  that  the  other — that  is,  the 
losing — side  need  pay  him  nothing  for  all  the  expense,  delay,  and 
trouble  to  which  he  had  been  subjected,  even  though  his  suit  was 
founded  on  a  promissory  note.  That  is,  a  man  with  ever  so  honest  a 
claim  may  be  kept  in  the  courts  for  years,  kept  out  of  the  use  of  his 
money  and  put  to  great  expense  and  trouble,  and  the  other  side  need 
not  pay  his  lawyers'  fees,  need  not  pay  the  printer's  bills,  need  not  pay 
for  the  delay,  nor  for  the  trouble  and  annoyance  to  which  he  has  been 
subjected. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  many  of  our  business  men  would  rather  lose 
a  claim  entirely  than  to  go  into  court  with  it?  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
many  conscientious  lawyers  advise  their  clients  to  accept  any  kind  of 
a  settlement  rather  than  attempt  to  litigate  ?  Is  it  not  reasonably  cer- 
tain that  if  the  law  were  to  provide  that  every  time  a  case  is  decided 
on  its  merits  in  any  court  of  record  the  court  shall  fix  a  reasonable 
attorney-fee  to  be  paid  by  the  losing  party  to  the  winning  party,  it 
would  weed  out  much  of  the  litigation  we  now  have,  and  bring  about  a 
condition  in  which  a  man  having  an  honest  claim  would  not  feel  that 
he  might  as  well  lose  it  all  as  to  go  into  a  court  of  justice  with  it? 

Fourth.  Still  another  objection  urged  with  much  force  is  that 
our  present  system  entails  a  heavy  expense  on  the  public — on  the  non- 
litigating  people — which  they  ought  not  to  pay. 

Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  probate  and  the  county  courts, 
which  to  a  certain  extent  are  administrative,  there  are  in  Cook  county 
eighteen  judges,  including  the  superior  and  the  circuit  court  judges. 
Two  of  these  are  constantly  at  the  criminal  court,  leaving  sixteen 
attending  to  civil  business.  It  is  true  three  of  these  are  in  the  appellate 
court,  but  their  salaries  have  to  be  charged  to  the  public. 


'ADMINISTRATION   OF  JUSTICE  IN  CHICAGO.  135 

The  salaries  of  these  sixteen  amount  to .' $112,000 

The  expense  of  the  clerks'  offices  of  the  superior  and  circuit  courts 

for  a  year  is  69,468 

The  expense  of  sheriff's  office,  chargeable  to  these  two  courts,  over 

and  above  its  earnings,  is 7S,ooo 

The  expense  of  keeping  up  court-house,  and  chargeable  to  these  two 

courts,  is  20,000 

The  jurors'  fees  for  these  two  courts  amount  to 62,756 

Total $339,124 

The  total  earnings  of  the  superior  and  of  the  circuit  court  clerks'  offices 

amount  to 107,487 

$231,737 

Leaving  $231,737  as  the  sum  which  the  people  of  Cook  County  pay  an- 
nually for  the  benefit  of  its  litigants.  The  present  fee  to  be  paid  on 
commencing  a  suit  is  $6 ;  and  by  a  defendant  on  entering  an  appear- 
ance is  $1.50. 

The  total  number  of  suits  brought,  including  appeals  from  justices, 
in  the  superior  and  the  circuit  courts  during  the  year  1888,  was  12,380, 
as  follows :  3,460  suits  in  chancery ;  7,960  suits  at  law ;  and  2,325  ap- 
peals from  justices. 

They  were  disposed  of  as  follows :  Judgment  entered  by  default  or 
confessions,  2,759  >  3>°39  were  dismissed  for  want  of  prosecution,  and 
3,407  were  tried.  So  that  there  were  about  3,000  more  cases  brought 
during  the  year  than  were  disposed  of. 

If  we  take  $339,224,  the  total  expense  to  the  public,  and  divide  it  by 
12,380,  the  total  number  of  suits  brought,  we  have  $27.40,  the  amount 
which  each  suit  should  contribute  in  order  to  defray  the  expense ;  or 
if  we  divide  by  9,205,  the  number  of  cases  disposed  of,  we  have  $38.59 
which  each  case  should  contribute. 

But  as  it  would  be  unjust  to  require  a  small  case,  which  consumes 
but  a  few  hours,  to  contribute  as  much  as  one  taking  up  several  days,  it 
would  perhaps  be  better  to  repeal  the  statute  which  provides  that  in 
Cook  County  $6  advanced  by  the  plaintiff  and  $1.50  by  the  defendant 
shall  be  in  full  of  all  costs  to  be  paid  to  the  clerk  of  the  court.  In  that 
case  the  clerk  would  collect  fees  for  everything  that  is  done  and  turn 
them  over  to  the  county  treasurer,  as  is  now  the  practice  throughout 
the  State ;  and  it  is  believed  that  this  would  give  ample  funds  to  cover 
the  whole  expense.  It  may  be  added  that  the  law  limiting  the  fees  to 
be  paid  in  Cook  County  was  passed  at  a  time  when  the  clerks  pocketed 
all  the  fees  paid  and  amassed  vast  fortunes.  It  was  intended  to  limit 
their  income.  But  since  clerks  are  paid  a  salary  and  are  required  to 
pay  all  fees  into  the  county  treasury,  the  reason  for  the  law  has  ceased 
to  exist.  If,  however,  the  statute  cannot  be  repealed,  then  I  would 


136  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

leave  the  fees  as  they  are,  and  suggest  that  the  clerk  be  required  to  tax 
a  fee  of  twenty-five  dollars  per  day  to  be  paid  to  the  county  for  each 
day  or  fraction  of  a  day  consumed  at  the  trial — this  to  be  paid  by  the 
losing  side,  unless  otherwise  ordered  by  the  court. 

Referring  again  to  the  expense  of  keeping  up  our  system  of  juris- 
prudence in  proportion  to  results  attained,  I  will  add  that  the  total 
amount  of  moneyed  judgments  rendered  in  the  circuit  and  superior 
courts  of  Cook  County  during  the  year  1888  was  $7,831,174,  the 
greater  part  of  which  was  in  cases  in  which  there  was  default  or  a 
confession,  and  a  very  large  per  cent,  of  which  is  worthless  because  of 
the  insolvency  of  the  defendants.  To  this  work  must  be  added  judg- 
ments in  cases  seeking  other  than  moneyed  relief,  such  as  ejectment 
suits,  injunction  suits,  etc.,  and  suits  in  which  it  was  sought  to  re- 
cover money  but  in  which  the  court  found  for  defendant. 

If  we  thus  take  the  expense  to  the  public,  as  already  shown,  and  add 
to  this  the  expense  to  the  litigants  in  the  12,380  cases,  in  the  way  of 
lawyers'  fees  on  both  sides,  witnesses'  fees  or  time  on  both  sides,  inci- 
dental expenses  on  both  sides,  loss  of  time  and  neglect  of  business  on 
both  sides  in  preparing  for  trial,  attending  court,  etc.,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  worry  and  anxiety — it  is  a  question  whether  the  cost  will  not 
exceed  the  total  results  attained — that  is,  whether  it  does  not  on  the 
average  cost  us  more  to  secure  for  a  man  his  rights  than  they  are 
worth  to  him.  Just  what  this  expense  and  loss  to  litigants  and  wit- 
nesses would  average,  it  is  of  course  impossible  to  say.  It  has  been 
variously  estimated  at  from  $150  to  $250  to  each  side,  or  from  $300  to 
$500  in  each  case.  If  this  estimate  is  nearly  correct,  then  there  is  little 
doubt  that  the  expense  and  loss  amount  to  more  than  can  be  realized 
on  all  the  judgments  rendered,  or  than  would  have  been  required  to 
settle  all  matters  in  dispute. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that,  if  we  had  encouraged  arbitration, 
instead  of  discouraging  it,  a  great  saving  would  have  been  effected  to 
both  public  and  litigants.  But  instead  of  encouraging  a  speedy  adjust- 
ment of  disputes,  by  having  parties  submit  their  claims  to  arbitrators 
selected  by  themselves,  the  courts  have  almost  invited  the  party  de- 
feated in  an  arbitration  to  come  into  court  and  tie  the  whole  matter  up 
for  several  years,  and  then  have  often  set  the  award  aside  on  purely 
technical  grounds. 

What  I  would  respectfully  urge  upon  the  consideration  of  the 
General  Assembly  is  an  amendment  of  the  law  so  as  to  provide : 

First.  That  in  all  courts  of  record  in  this  State  the  judge  shall 
orally  state  the  law  governing  the  case,  as  was  the  practice  at  common 
law  and  is  now  the  practice  in  the  Federal  courts. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  JUSTICE  IN  CHICAGO.  137 

Upon  this  point  I  will  simply  add  that  the  statute  requiring  the 
instructions  to  be  in  writing  was  passed  in  order  that  there  should  be 
no  dispute  as  to  what  the  charge  was;  and  inasmuch  as  the  law  at 
present  provides  for  a  stenographer  to  attend  the  sittings  of  every  cir- 
cuit court  to  report  the  proceedings,  the  reason  for  requiring  that  the 
instructions  be  in  writing  no  longer  exists ;  and  as  there  generally  is  not 
time  to  write  a  comprehensive  charge,  and,  consequently,  cases  are  fre- 
quently submitted  in  an  unsatisfactory  manner  to  a  jury,  the  law  should 
be  changed.  What  we  need  is  to  restore  trial  by  jury  more  nearly 
to  the  condition  and  form  in  which  it  existed  at  the  common  law  and 
still  exists  in  the  Federal  courts,  taking  away,  however,  the  power  of 
one  man  to  thwart  justice ;  and  when  this  is  done,  this  system  of 
trial  will  remain  the  best  that  has  yet  been  devised.  On  the  last  point 
I  will  add  that,  in  all  other  important,  and  even  vital,  matters,  we  accept 
the  decision  of  the  majority.  A  majority  settles  all  questions  of  taxa- 
tion and  expenditure,  all  questions  of  peace  and  of  war.  A  majority 
decides  who  shall  make  the  laws.  A  majority  decides  what  shall  be 
law,  and,  finally,  a  majority  decides  who  shall  interpret  and  administer 
the  law.  In  short,  questions  which  reach  to  the  very  hearthstone  of  the 
citizen,  and  involve  the  existence  of  our  institutions,  are  settled  by  the 
majority,  and  if,  concerning  any  of  these  matters,  a  man  were  to  urge 
absolute  unanimity,  we  would  question  his  sanity.  But  in  determining 
a  dispute  over  property,  we  put  it  into  the  power  of  one  man — be  he 
rogue,  or  crank,  or  sullen  fool — without  any  risk  to  make  a  mis- 
carriage of  justice,  or  a  farce  out  of  a  proceeding  which  may  have 
consumed  days  and  have  cost  both  the  public  and  the  litigants  large 
sums  of  money.  And  when  asked  why  we  permit  such  an  anomaly, 
our  only  answer  is,  that  they  did  things  in  this  way  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years  ago ;  when  in  truth  trial  by  jury  then  was  a  very  differ- 
ent thing  from  what  it  is  to-day,  for  then  the  judge  practically  tried  the 
case.  If  in  civil  cases  we  were  now  to  accept  a  verdict  of  three-fourths 
of  a  panel,  we  would  preserve  all  that  is  conservative  and  useful  in  our 
jury  system,  and  would  put  an  end  to  the  "funny  verdicts"  that  we 
hear  about,  and  which  are  generally  due  to  one  man  ;  and  particularly 
would  we  put  an  end  to  the  tampering  with  justice,  which  in  large  cities 
is  a  serious  evil.  I  am  in  favor  of  trial  by  jury,  and  am  opposed  to  its 
abolition ;  but  the  system  is  now  so  hampered  as  to  make  it  a  kind  of 
absurdity.  Let  us  make  it  a  rational  institution,  and  it  will  command 
the  respect  of  everybody. 

Second.  That  when  rendering  judgment  on  the  merits  in  any  case 
in  a  court  of  record,  the  court  shall  fix  a  reasonable  attorney-fee,  to  be 
paid  by  the  losing  party  to  the  winning  party :  Provided,  that  if  it 


138  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

appears  that  an  offer  to  compromise  had  been  made  and  kept  good  by 
the  losing  party,  and  no  more  is  recovered  than  had  been  offered, 
then  no  attorney-fee  shall  be  allowed  for  what  was  done  thereafter; 
and  provided,  that  an  attorney-fee  shall  only  be  allowed  for  trying  a 
case  on  the  merits. 

Third.  Either  let  the  clerk  of  the  court  collect  fees  for  everything 
that  is  done,  and  turn  them  into  the  county  treasury,  or  else  tax  as 
costs,  to  go  to  the  county,  a  reasonable  sum  for  every  day,  or  fraction 
thereof,  which  a  case  consumes  at  the  trial ;  so  that  the  non-litigating 
public  may  at  least  partially  be  relieved  of  the  burden  of  expense 
created  solely  by  litigants. 

Fourth.  That  before  any  appellate  court  or  the  supreme  court 
shall  reverse  a  case  and  send  it  back  to  be  tried  over,  the  judges  of 
such  court,  or  a  majority  thereof,  shall  state,  in  writing,  that  an  in- 
justice has  been  done  the  appellant  in  the  judgment  on  the  merits  by 
the  trial  court ;  and  shall  also  specify  wherein  such  injustice  consists. 

As  to  this  fourth  suggestion,  I  will  simply  say  that  if  the  framers  of 
the  Constitution,  and  the  people  in  adopting  it,  intended,  in  creating 
a  system  of  jurisprudence,  that  courts  should  be  places  for  lawyers  to 
fence  and  judges  to  theorize,  and  that  cases  should  be  treated  simply 
as  a  corpse  in  a  dissecting-room — that  is,  used  to  illustrate  a  principle 
— then  no  change  should  be  made,  for  in  many  cases  the  present  system 
produces  everything  that  could  then  be  desired.  But  if  the  object  in 
creating  and  maintaining  courts  was  to  do  justice  between  man  and 
man,  and  if  rules  of  procedure  were  to  be  used  simply  as  means  to  this 
end,  then  no  reasonable  objection  can  be  urged  against  this  provision. 
The  trouble  now  is  that  we  lift  cases  into  the  domain  of  opinion  where 
there  always  is  a  diversity  of  views,  and  then,  on  points  which  settle 
nothing  and  do  not  decide  the  merits,  we  keep  cases  bounding  back- 
ward and  forward  like  a  foot-ball,  to  the  ruin  of  litigants — the  appellate 
court  reversing  the  trial  court,  and  the  supreme  court  reversing  the 
appellate  court. 

Fifth.  That  if  a  matter  is  submitted  to  arbitration,  the  award  shall 
be  final,  and  shall  be  set  aside  only  for  fraud ;  and  that  when  set  aside, 
the  arbitrators  shall  make  a  new  award ;  and  that  in  cases  of  mistake, 
or  where  the  award  is  uncertain,  the  arbitrators  may  amend  it  or  cor- 
rect it. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  remark  that  in  the  mercantile  world,  in  the 
manufacturing  world,  in  agriculture,  in  medicine,  in  fact,  in  nearly 
every  field  of  knowledge  or  human  activity,  there  has  been  an  advance, 
a  steady  improvement,  a  movement  in  the  line  of  common  sense,  an 
honest  effort  to  keep  abreast  of  the  spirit  of  the  nineteenth  century ; 


CONSTABLES,  JUSTICES,  AND  FEE  SYSTEM. 

while  in  our  methods  of  administering  justice  we  seem  rather  to  have 
retrograded.  What  changes  we  have  made  in  this  State  have  tended 
rather  to  complicate  than  to  simplify.  A  century  ago  trial  by  jury  in 
civil  causes  was  simple,  expeditious,  and,  upon  the  whole,  satisfactory. 
We  have  hampered  and  crippled  it  in  its  workings  until  many  good 
people  are  seriously  advocating  its  abolition.  A  century  ago  the  courts 
of  appeal  wrote  opinions  that  were  short  and  to  the  point,  and  gen- 
erally decisive  of  the  case ;  now,  courts  of  appeal,  not  only  in  this  State, 
write  long  essays — learned  disquisitions  which  frequently  evade  the 
main  question  and  settle  nothing.  On  behalf  of  our  great  profession, 
I  ask,  "Cannot  we,  also,  go  forward?" 

Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 

Judge  of  the  Superior  Court. 
Chicago,  February  12,  1889. 


THE  ABOLITION  OF  CONSTABLES,  JUSTICES,  AND  THE 

FEE  SYSTEM. 
Hon.  David  Bartlett, 

Member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention, 

Bismarck,  North  Dakota. 

Dear  Sir :  In  answer  to  your  letter  inquiring  about  the  jurisdi  - 
tion,  usefulness,  and  popularity  of  county  courts  in  this  State,  and 
whether  they  could  not  be  made  to  take  the  place  of  justices  of  the 
peace,  so  as  to  do  away  with  the  latter,  permit  me  to  say  that,  in  this 
State,  county  courts  have  jurisdiction  in  all  tax  matters,  insane  cases, 
all  probate  matters,  election  matters,  and  in  civil  cases  where  the 
amount  involved  is  less  than  one  thousand  dollars.  In  this  county, 
owing  to  the  press  of  business,  the  legislature  created  a  probate  court 
several  years  ago  to  relieve  the  county  court.  I  may  say  that  the 
county  courts  have  jurisdiction  in  those  matters  which  come  nearest 
to  the  people,  and  most  directly  affect  them,  and,  all  things  consid- 
ered, I  believe  they  are  the  most  useful  and  the  most  popular  tribunals 
in  this  State.  So  far  as  I  can  observe,  business  is  usually  done  by  them 
not  only  in  a  legal,  but  also  in  a  business-like  and  common-sense 
method,  and  without  unnecessary  delay,  the  latter  being  something 
which  cannot  always  be  said  of  our  higher  courts.  While  I  have  a 
high  regard  for  some  men  who  now  hold  the  office  of  justice  of  the 
peace,  yet  I  would  recommend  the  abolishing  of  this  office,  and  that  of 
constable,  and,  instead,  the  giving  to  the  county  court  jurisdiction  in  all 
matters  now  heard  by  justices :  but  care  should  be  taken  at  the  same 


140  UVB  QUESTIONS. 

time  to  provide  that  the  county  judge,  as  well  as  clerk  and  sheriff, 
should  be  paid  a  fixed  salary,  and  that  these  should,  under  no  circum- 
stances, have  any  fees,  but  that  all  fees,  where  any  are  collected,  should 
be  paid  into  the  county  treasury.  If  you  have  justices  of  the  peace  you 
cannot  pay  all  a  salary,  because  of  their  number.  And  while  there 
will  be  here  and  there  one  to  whom  the  office  will  be  incidental,  there 
will  be  a  great  many  who  will  depend  largely  on  the  fees  for  a  living, 
and  this  leads  everywhere  to  the  same  results,  viz.,  injustice,  oppression, 
extortion,  and  frivolous  lawsuits,  ruinous  in  the  expense  and  in  the 
loss  of  time  which  they  entail.  The  courts  become  clogged  with  busi- 
ness, while  the  poor  and  the  ignorant  suffer.  Do  away  with  both 
justices  and  constables,  for  they  must  depend  on  fees,  and,  as  a  rule, 
are  always  on  the  lookout,  eager  to  "drum  up"  business ;  and  it  is 
difficult  to  conceive  of  a  worse  demoralization  and  rottenness  than 
usually  grows  out  of  this  system.  Provide  for  sufficient  deputy-sheriffs 
to  do  the  court  work  and  all  the  work  required  to  keep  peace,  and  pay 
each  a  salary,  and  under  no  circumstances  let  any  keep  the  fees.  To 
permit  any  officer,  whether  judicial  or  executive,  connected  in  any 
manner  with  the  administration  of  justice,  to  collect  and  keep  fees  is 
to  offer  a  standing  temptation,  if  not  a  bribe,  to  do  wrong  in  very 
many  matters.  And  it  is  asking  too  much  of  human  nature  to  expect 
a  hungry  man  to  be  very  scrupulous  about  the  means  or  methods 
which  will  secure  him  bread. 

Have  the  courts  easily  accessible  and  always  open  for  business. 
There  is  no  sense  in  having  terms  of  court,  and  these  held  only  a  few 
times  a  year,  so  that  there  must  be  delay  in  getting  a  trial,  whether 
there  is  much  business  or  not.  If  the  same  judge  is  to  hold  the  court 
in  several  counties,  or  if  there  is  but  little  business,  he  can  easily 
arrange  matters  by  having  the  clerk  give  notice  of  the  time  at  which  a 
case  will  be  heard.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  average  case  should 
not  be  tried  in  the  circuit  court  in  fifteen  days  after  service,  just  as  it 
would  before  a  justice  of  the  peace. 

Although  this  has  been  hurriedly  written,  I  wish  to  assure  you  of 
my  interest  in  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  your  new  State,  and  of 
my  hope  that  you  will  be  able  to  avoid  errors  and  abuses  which, 
once  rooted,  will  be  difficult  to  cure. 

Very  respectfully  your  obedient  servant, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 

Judge  of  the  Superior  Court. 
Chicago.  July  19,  1889. 


PROTECTING   THE   BALLOT  BOX.  141 

PROTECTING    THE     BALLOT-BOX.— THE    AUSTRALIAN- 
PLAN. 
Hon.  Richard  Burke, 

Senate  Chamber,  Springfield. 

My  Dear  Senator :  Your  esteemed  favor  in  relation  to  the  Austra- 
lian system  of  voting  came  to  hand. 

I  have  considered  the  question  of  engrafting  this  system  upon  the 
laws  of  Illinois,  and  am  strongly  in  favor  of  so  doing.  I  would  have 
written  you  sooner,  but  as  we  already  have  an  elaborate  election  ma- 
chinery in  Illinois,  particularly  in  Chicago,  it  required  much  time  to 
examine  details  in  order  to  learn  whether  we  could  adopt  the 
Australian  system,  and  at  the  same  time  keep  what  is  called  our  new 
election  law  substantially  intact.  This  law,  as  you  are  aware,  was 
adopted  by  a  popular  vote,  and  while  it  is  in  some  respects  defective, 
it  is  still  a  very  great  improvement  upon  the  old  lax  system ;  par- 
ticularly is  this  true  of  that  part  which  provides  for  a  careful  registra- 
tion of  voters.  Because  it  is  an  improvement  upon  the  old  system  the 
new  law  is  popular  with  our  people,  and  unless  its  salient  features  will 
remain  undisturbed  by  the  adoption  of  the  Australian  system  it  will 
be  useless  to  give  the  latter  subject  any  attention.  But  I  am  convinced 
not  only  that  this  can  be  done,  but  that  it  would  be  approved  by  every 
lover  of  an  honest  election  and  a  fair  and  entirely  free  ballot,  and  I 
believe  that  the  inclosed  bill  will  accomplish  the  desired  result.  If 
adopted,  this  system  will  secure  us  not  only  an  honest  and  free  ex- 
pression of  the  popular  will  upon  any  question  from  both  rich  and 
poor,  high  and  low — which  alone  would  be  enough  to  warrant  its 
adoption — but  it  would  do  more :  it  would  put  an  end  to  the  small 
political  boss,  with  his  retainers;  it  would  wipe  out  the  partisan 
ticket-peddlers,  and  the  entire  crowd  of  half  ruffians  who  sometimes  are 
found  at  the  polls,  and  who  make  themselves  so  offensive  by  importun- 
ing the  voter  that  many  modest  men  hesitate  to  go  there. 

Further,  it  would  enable  a  poor  man  to  run  for  office,  for  he  would 
need  no  ticket -peddlers,  nor  any  of  the  machinery  that  is  now  necessary 
to  get  his  tickets  into  the  voter's  hands,  and  it  would  make  him  abso- 
lutely independent  of  the  party  boss.  In  short,  it  would  place  every 
candidate  upon  his  own  personal  merits  before  the  people ;  and  by 
enabling  the  elector  to  vote  for  the  best  men  without  scratching  his 
ticket,  it  would  destroy  that  partisan  tyranny  which,  by  thorough 
organization,  is  at  present  enabled  to  foist  on  the  public  bad  men  and 
bad  measures,  simply  because  it  is  embarrassing  for  a  man  to  scratch 
his  ticket  in  the  presence  of  his  party  associates. 


142  LIFE   QUESTIONS. 

Again,  it  would  stop  the  practice  that  prevails  among  some  em- 
ployers of  forcing  their  men  to  vote  as  directed,  and  it  would  also  stop 
to  some  extent  the  use  of  money  at  the  polls ;  for  under  this  system 
it  would  be  impossible  for  the  purchaser  of  a  vote  to  make  sure  of  its 
delivery. 

In  regard  to  the  importance  of  protecting  the  ballot,  so  as  to  make 
it  what  the  spirit  of  our  institutions  contemplate  that  it  should  be, 
there  can  be  among  thoughtful  men  no  difference  of  opinion.  It  is 
the  vital  organ  of  our  whole  system ;  destroy  its  functions  and  we 
perish.  It  is  true  that,  like  other  republican  institutions,  it  possesses 
great  vitality,  and  can  stand  some  abuse.  We  have  seen  one  great 
political  party,  with  apparent  justification,  charge  its  adversary  with 
having  thwarted  the  express  will  of  the  American  people  in  seating  a 
chief  magistrate  of  the  nation,  and  with  having  thereafter,  in  various 
States,  repeatedly  outraged  a  free  ballot  by  bribery  and  corruption. 

While  the  other  great  political  party,  with  equal  justification,  ac- 
cuses its  opponent  with  systematically  defeating  the  will  of  the  ma- 
jority in  certain  localities  by  fraud  and  intimidation.  But  while  these 
things  show  that  our  system  has  great  powers  of  endurance  and  great 
recuperative  force,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  we  are  dealing  with  the 
heart,  and,  although  it  may  do  its  work  for  a  time,  yet  a  continuation  of 
abuses  must  not  only  weaken  it,  but  eventually  stop  its  action,  and 
with  its  expiring  beat  will  come  the  end  of  our  free  institutions.  We 
read  that  when  the  children  of  Israel  were  marching  through  the 
wilderness,  by  divine  instruction  they  deposited  those  things  which 
were  most  sacred  in  the  ark,  near  which  only  those  especially  com- 
missioned by  Jehovah  were  permitted  to  come.  Every  stranger  at- 
tempting to  approach  it  was  smitten  dead  upon  the  spot. 

The  American  people  have  likewise  been  given  an  ark,  in  which  to 
deposit  the  most  sacred  things  known  to  man,  namely,  the  ballots  of 
free  men ;  and  we  should  see  to  it  that  only  those  authorized  to  do  so 
by  law  be  permitted  to  approach  this  ark,  and  that  every  person  at- 
tempting to  lay  unclean  hands  upon  it  be  overtaken  by  the  wrath  of  a 
free  people,  which  should  be  as  destructive  as  the  lightnings  of 
Jehovah.  Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 
Chicago,  111.,  January  22,  1889. 


IS   THE    WORLD    WORSE?  143 

IS   THE    WORLD    WORSE?— DIVORCES.— MORAL 
TRAINING. 

George  R.  Stetson,  Boston,  Mass. 

My  Dear  Sir:  Your  favor  of  the  7th  inst.  came  to  hand,  and  I 
thank  you  for  the  kindly  reference  to  my  little  book. 

I  fully  agree  with  you  in  regard  to  the  importance  of  "proper  home 
influences  in  childhood  and  of  thorough  and  well-disciplined  educa- 
tion in  early  life."  In  fact,  upon  these  hangs  the  hope  of  the  future. 
You  have  placed  me  under  obligations  by  sending  me  a  copy  of  your 
articles  on  "Illiteracy  and  Crime"  and  "The  Necessity  of  Moral  and 
Industrial  Training."  I  have  read  them  with  great  interest,  and  hope 
they  may  have  a  wide  circulation. 

While  I  am  in  hearty  accord  with  you  in  your  aims,  and  admit  the 
necessity  of  more  thorough  moral  as  well  as  industrial  training  of  the 
young,  yet,  if  you  will  pardon  me  for  saying  so,  I  do  not  believe  that 
the  world  is  any  worse  now  than  it  was  fifty  years,  or  more,  ago,  as 
you  seem  to  infer,  from  the  fact  that  arrests  and  convictions  for  crime, 
as  well  as  the  number  of  divorces,  in  proportion  to  population,  are  in- 
creasing. On  the  contrary,  I  believe  that,  all  things  considered,  the 
world  is  a  little  better  now  than  it  has  been  in  the  past.  But  we  have 
devised  and  adopted  new  agencies  for  detecting  and  recording  the  foi- 
bles and  transgressions  of  not  only  men,  but  even  of  children,  and  in 
order  to  convince  us  that  they  are  doing  something,  these  agencies 
bring  to  our  attention  thousands  of  cases  which  before  went  unnoticed. 
Just  as  the  microscope  reveals  a  whole  world  which  existed,  but  was  al- 
most unknown  before,  so  our  modern  police  systems,  detective  agencies, 
municipal  governments,  with  their  multifarious  ordinances,  etc.,  bring 
to  light  and  record  acts  the  greater  part  of  which  used  to  pass  un- 
noticed. I  can  remember  the  time  when  the  magistrate  took  notice  of 
only  the  more  serious  offenses,  and  when,  if  a  man  was-  found  drunk 
on  the  streets,  he  was  simply  taken  home ;  if  a  boy  got  into  mischief, 
his  father  would  whip  him,  and  that  was  the  end  of  it ;  if  two  men 
quarreled,  they  would  fight  it  out  and  then  go  home ;  even  many  dan- 
gerous criminals  went  undetected,  but  now  all  this  is  changed.  Not 
only  are  the  grave  offenders  more  generally  detected,  but  all  the  parties 
guilty  of  trivial  offenses  must  now  be  arrested,  tried,  put  in  jail,  etc.,  so 
that  the  record  will,  of  course,  show  a  greater  number  of  arrests  and 
convictions  than  formerly.  But  this,  it  seems  to  me,  does  not  neces- 
sarily prove  that  men  are  any  more  depraved  or  vicious  now  than  they 
were  in  the  past. 

Further,  the  effect  of  numerous  arrests,  incarcerations,  prison  asso- 


144  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ciations,  etc.,  is  to  break  the  self-respect  and  weaken  the  moral  char- 
acter of  many  of  the  young,  and  thus  to  prepare  them  for  the  com- 
mission of  crimes  of  which  they  would  never  have  been  guilty  except 
for  their  degrading  experiences.  Therefore,  while  prison  statistics 
may  assist  us  in  forming  a  correct  opinion  concerning  the  present 
moral  condition  of  society,  it  seems  to  me  they  are  of  little  value  for 
the  purpose  of  comparison  between  different  periods. 

In  regard  to  the  increase  in  the  number  of  divorces  in  proportion 
to  the  population,  allow  me  to  ask,  Would  this  not  almost  necessarily 
follow  an  era  of  great  educational  activity,  an  era  in  which  there  were 
a  thousand  agencies  at  work,  not  only  among  men  but  among  women, 
all  tending  to  place  the  latter  on  an  equality  with  men,  and  tending, 
in  many  cases,  to  create  dissatisfaction  with  existing  conditions? 
Would  there  not  almost  necessarily  follow  a  period  of  transition  or  re- 
adjustment, and  when  the  readjustment  has  taken  place  will  the  or- 
ganization of  society  not  rest  on  a  more  intelligent  basis  than  before, 
and  therefore  the  world  be  a  little  better  than  before,  although  it  may 
appear  worse  while  the  readjustment  is  in  process?  Besides,  is  it  not 
true  that  the  number  of  divorces  is  in  proportion  to  the  progress  made 
in  the  emancipation  of  women  ?  In  those  countries  where  women  are 
merely  beasts  of  burden  there  are  no  divorces.  Further,  is  separation, 
with  all  its  ills,  not  better  for  society  than  union  and  the  rearing  of  a 
family  amid  depraving  and  brutal  conditions?  It  seems  to  me  that 
children  who  have  frequently  to  see  their  mother  thrashed  by  a  brutal 
or  drunken  father  cannot  get  a  very  exalted  idea  of  life,  and  that  any 
system  which  will  keep  a  man  and  woman  together  under  these  cir- 
cumstances is  barbarous,  and  cannot  possibly  be  productive  of  any 
good  to  the  world. 

"The  degeneracy  of  the  times"  has  always  been  a  favorite  theme,  but 
one  which  is  liable  to  mislead,  and  ever  must  be  so,  for  the  imperfec- 
tions, weaknesses,  and  follies  of  "the  present"  are  not  only  seen,  but 
are  felt ;  whereas  the  imperfections,  weaknesses,  and  follies  of  "the 
past"  are  not  only  unfelt,  but  are  mostly  unseen,  because  the  mists  of 
oblivion  hide  all  but  the  more  conspicuous  objects  and  events  from  our 
view.  While,  therefore,  different  periods  of  history  may  be  compared, 
it  is  very  difficult  to  compare  "the  present"  with  any  other  time. 

However,  while  claiming  that  the  world  is  better  now  than  for- 
merly, I  admit  that  it  is  still  bad,  and  that  there  is  a  crying  necessity 
for  more  thorough  moral  and  industrial  training,  and  I  hope  you  may 
be  able  to  arouse  the  interest  of  the  American  public  in  this  question, 
and  thus  pave  the  way  for  improved  methods  of  instruction. 

I  like  your  idea  of  moral  text-books  for  use  in  schools.    If  prop- 


75-    THE    WORLD    WORSE?  145 

erly  prepared,  I  believe  they  will  serve  an  excellent  purpose.  The 
trouble  now  is  with  much  of  the  moral  teaching  that  it  holds  up  the 
punishment  for  wrong-doing  as  a  remote  event,  before  the  happen- 
ing of  which  there  will  be  abundant  opportunity  to  reform,  to  be  for- 
given, etc.,  so  that  the  child  gets  no  proper  comprehension  of  the 
instantaneous,  degrading,  and  weakening  effect  upon  its  nature  of 
doing  a  mean  or  a  wrong  act.  The  child  gets  an  abstract  or  theoretic 
notion  of  right  and  wrong,  and  thinks  it  can  go  and  do  the  wrong  and 
yet  be  precisely  the  same  person  afterward  that  it  was  before,  simply 
having  taken  the  chance  of,  at  some  time,  being  punished.  In  other 
words,  our  youth,  as  a  rule,  are  not  made  to  understand  that  every 
time  they  tell  a  lie  or  steal  or  do  any  wrong  act,  their  nature  under- 
goes a  change  and  they  are  no  longer  quite  the  same  persons  that 
they  were  before ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  that-  every  time  they  do  a 
noble  act  they  expand  and  instantly  become  stronger  and  greater  than 
they  were  before.  Their  idea  of  punishment  is  that  it  is  an  arbitrary 
decree  of  religion ;  they  get  no  idea  of  the  degrading  and  weakening 
effect  of  sin  on  both  mind  and  body.  We  tell  a  child  to  avoid  fire,  and 
it  obeys ;  not  because  it  may  be  damned  for  disobedience,  but  because 
it  knows  that  there  will  be  instant  suffering.  Make  the  child  once  thor- 
oughly understand  that  if  it  does  any  wrong  act  there  will  follow  instant 
suffering,  and  it  will  heed  where  now  it  does  not. 

In  many  cases  morals  can  be  successfully  taught  from  a  purely  re- 
ligious standpoint,  but  in  very  many  others  this  can  only  be  done 
from  a  practical  point  of  view,  and  the  needs  of  these  cases  could  be 
met  by  moral  text-books  such  as  you  recommend. 

Asking  your  pardon  for  thus  obtruding  my  views  on  your  attention, 
and  hoping  you  will  favor  me  with  a  copy  of  any  article  you  may 
publish  in  the  future,  I  am,  Very  respectfully  yours, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 
Chicago,  111.,  September  30,  1887. 


SLAVE-GIRLS   OF  CHICAGO. 

VIEWS  ON  THE  CONDITION  OF  THE  POOR  DRUDGES  IN 
OUR  FACTORIES.— FACTS  TO  SHOW  THAT  LEGISLATION 
CAN  DO  AN  ENORMOUS  AMOUNT  OF  GOOD  IN  THE 
MATTER— HOW  PAUPER  LABOR  AFFECTS  WAGES  AND 
TENDS  TO  PRODUCE  THIS  DEPLORABLE  STATE  OF 
THINGS. 

NOTE. — During  the  summer  of  1888  the  Chicago  Times  published  a  series 
of  articles  exposing  in  a  graphic  manner  the  appalling  conditions  of  the  great 
multitude  of  children  and  women  that  are  working  in  our  factories  and  in  other 
19 


146  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

industrial  establishments  of  Chicago.  The  articles  called  attention,  particularly, 
to  the  fact  that  there  are  many  thousands  of  children  of  tender  years  who  for  a 
pittance  are  doing  the  work  of  adults  and  becoming  stunted  in  both  body  and 
mind  when  they  should  be  at  school,  and  to  the  further  fact  that  many  thou- 
sands of  women  work  ten  hours,  and  more,  per  day,  and  get  only  from  three 
to  four  dollars  per  week,  and  board  themselves  and  frequently  lose  a  part  of 
this  because  of  fines,  which  in  some  cases  seem  to  be  imposed  with  a  view  of 
still  further  reducing  their  wages,  while  the  sanitary  and  moral  surroundings 
of  both  the  children  and  the  women  in  the  shops  are  often  of  a  revolting 
character.  In  answer  to  a  letter  from  the  editor  concerning  these  subjects,  the 
following-  article  was  written  and  published  in  the  Chicago  Times,  Septem- 
ber 9,  1888. 

To  the  Editor:  In  answer  to  your  letter  relating  to  the  "slave- 
girls"  of  Chicago :  I  have  read  all  the  articles  published  in  the  Times 
with  great  interest,  and  while  the  reporter,  owing  to  the  short  time 
spent  in  each  establishment,  almost  necessarily  got  wrong  impressions 
in  some  cases,  and  perhaps  has  done  some  firms  an  injustice,  yet  I 
know  from  experience  and  personal  observation  that  upon  the  whole 
the  picture  is  not  overdrawn,  and  I  will  add  that  in  making  this  ex- 
posure so  general  and  so  thorough  the  Times  has  rendered  to  the  toil- 
ing poor,  and  in  the  long  run  to  society,  inestimable  service. 

The  first  and  all-important  step  toward  improvement  always  is  to 
get  light  into  dark  places.  Ingersoll  says  that  the  sun  is  the  only 
God  that  ever  protected  women.  Whether  this  is  so  or  not,  it  is  true 
that  sunlight  is  the  great  purifier,  reformer,  and  elevator  of  the  uni- 
verse. Wrong  thrives  in  bad  light  and  foul  air.  Turn  the  sunlight 
of  intelligence  on  an  evil  long  enough,  and  it  will  dissolve  it.  The 
Times  has  turned  the  light  on  the  condition  of  the  toiling  girls  and 
women  of  Chicago  at  least  long  enough  to  give  a  view  of  the  situation, 
and  the  remedy  will  gradually  appear. 

No  complete  remedy  can  be  made  to  order  in  advance.  What  is 
needed  is  a  change  of  condition,  and  this  can  only  come  by  degrees. 
As  to  these  people  themselves,  it  is  necessary  to  raise  their  standard 
of  intelligence ;  until  this  is  done  they  can  do  but  little  to  help  them- 
selves, for  ignorance  and  helplessness  go  together.  Society  can  do 
this  and  it  can  furnish  them  protection — nothing  more ;  nor  will  much 
more  be  required,  for  this  once  done  they  will  be  able  to  take  care  of 
themselves.  The  trouble  is  that  the  light  cannot  be  turned  upon  the 
case  long  enough,  and  it  will  probably  be  a  long  time  before  such 
powerful  rays  will  again  be  thrown  on  it.  Meanwhile  society,  with  its 
ten  thousand  other  affairs,  must  move  on,  and  the  majority  will  soon 
cease  to  take  an  active  interest  in  this  matter;  in  fact,  will  forget 
about  it. 


SLAVE-GIRLS   OF   CHICAGO.  147 

But  enough  interest  has  been  aroused  to  set  in  motion  some  of 
the  forces  which  will  bring  about  a  change,  and  there  will  be  found 
to  be  some  men  and  women  who  have  this  matter  at  heart,  and  who 
will  keep  the  fire  slowly  burning  and  keep  up  an  agitation  through 
weary  years,  sometimes  getting  a  little  disheartened,  but  in  the  end 
triumphing.  All  great  movements  require  time,  labor,  and  sacrifice. 

You  ask,  "Can  anything  be  done  for  these  girls  by  legislation?" 
Emphatically  yes.  It  has  already  done  much  for  them,  both  here  and 
in  Europe,  and  will  do  more.  Understand  me ;  legislation  cannot  fix 
prices,  but  it  can,  and  to  a  certain  extent  does,  reach  almost  every 
other  feature  of  the  case,  and  indirectly  may  even  affect  prices.  For 
example :  Legislation  can  prevent  children  of  tender  years  from  be- 
ing stunted  in  factories  when  they  should  be  at  school,  and  thus  it 
can  not  only  reduce  the  number  of  competitors,  but  wipe  out  the  prac- 
tice of  hiring  children  to  do  the  work  of  adults,  one  of  the  worst  of 
existing  abuses.  Legislation  can  secure  to  every  shop-girl  good  light, 
good  ventilation,  reasonably  comfortable  quarters  while  at  work, 
healthy  sanitary  conditions,  such  as  sufficient  wash-bowls  (not  dirty 
sinks),  ample  closet-rooms,  etc. 

In  countries  that  do  not  boast  as  much  of  their  enlightenment  as 
we  do,  legislation  has  for  years  given  to  every  child,  no  matter  how 
poor,  a  certain  number  of  months'  schooling  and  incidental  training 
every  year  and  it  will  eventually  do  so  here ;  and  as  general  ignorance 
is  perhaps  the  main  cause  of  the  helplessness  of  the  poorer  classes, 
when  we  once  give  all  children  at  least  half  a  chance  to  develop  into 
intelligent  men  and  women,  instead  of  growing  up  on  the  streets  to 
become  criminals  or  in  shops  to  become  stunted  for  life,  we  shall  have 
made  considerable  headway  in  furnishing  a  remedy. 

Again,  legislation  can  and  in  time  will  put  an  end  to  the  whole- 
sale importation  by  mine-owners,  large  employers,  and  other  inter- 
ested parties,  of  European  paupers  who  do  not  come  as  independent 
immigrants ;  of  the  latter  this  country  does  not  complain,  in  fact  it 
owes  much  of  its  greatness  to  them ;  but  these  paupers  are  brought 
over  like  so  many  cattle,  and  necessarily  glut  the  labor-market  and 
drag  down  the  American  laborer  (whether  native-born  or  naturalized) 
with  his  family.  I  know  it  is  said,  "Oh,  legislation  amounts  to  noth- 
ing unless  there  is  public  sentiment  to  back  it,"  and  this  is  true.  But 
this  agitation  will  create  public  sentiment ;  in  fact,  it  is  never  brought 
into  existence  in  any  other  way,  and  it  generally  takes  time,  much  hard 
work,  and  much  tribulation  to  create  it;  and  has  it  occurred  to  you 
that  public  sentiment  usually  accomplishes  little  in  matters  of  this 
kind  until  it  crystallizes  into  legislation?  In  fact,  society  gives  ex- 


148  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

pression  to  its  sentiment  on  a  public  question  by  means  of  legislation. 
While  legislation  not  backed  by  public  sentiment  may  be  a  dead  letter, 
public  sentiment  produces  definite  and  lasting  results  only  through 
legislation.  Moral  suasion  and  the  benign  influence  of  religion  are 
beautiful,  but  unfortunately  in  all  ages  there  have  been  men  who  went 
straight  from  the  sanctuary  into  the  world  and  plundered  and  trampled 
on  the  weak,  and,  what  is  more,  they  lost  neither  their  seats  nor  their 
influence  in  the  temple.  So  that  after  all  it  is  legislation  which  pro- 
tects the  lowly.  And  legislation  itself  is  a  matter  of  growth ;  it  is 
scarcely  ever  efficient  at  first,  and  only  after  experience  has  suggested 
the  necessary  alterations  and  amendments  does  it  become  potent. 

If  any  one  doubts  the  efficacy  of  legislation  in  this  direction,  let 
him  study  the  history  and  results  of  the  factory  and  mining  legislation 
in  England  and  some  of  the  continental  countries,  and  he  will  find 
that  while  we  are  great  politicians  and  make  a  great  noise,  yet  in 
practical  and  enlightened  statesmanship  some  of  the  European  coun- 
tries are  a  full  half  century  in  advance  of  us.  Early  in  this  century 
there  existed  in  the  English  factories  and  mines  a  condition  of  things 
which  reduced  women  and  children  almost  below  the  brutes,  a  con- 
dition compared  with  which  the  Chicago  slave-girls  are  lolling  in 
luxury.  To  quote  an  eminent  author :  "A  whole  generation  were 
growing  up  under  conditions  of  physical  degeneracy,  of  mental  ignor- 
ance, and  of  moral  corruption." 

In  1802,  after  much  agitation,  an  act,  very  narrow  in  its  scope, 
was  passed  to  protect  apprentices  in  certain  factories.  In  1815  Sir 
Robert  Peel  endeavored  to  secure  similar  protection  for  children  in 
certain  factories,  but  he  was  not  able  to  secure  the  passage  of  such  an 
act  till  in  1819,  for  it  met  with  the  most  bitter  opposition,  as  did  every 
one  of  the  many  measures  thereafter  passed  to  protect  women  and 
children.  Not  only  did  the  employers  do  everything  within  their 
power  in  opposition,  but  so-called  statesmen,  political  economists,  phi- 
losophers, and  many  of  the  clergy  united  to  oppose  them.  Every 
argument  and  every  sophistry  that  the  mind  can  conceive  was  ex- 
hausted by  these  eminent  people,  and  they  predicted  the  industrial 
and  financial  ruin  of  the  British  empire  as  the  result  of  such  legislation. 
It  is  a  curious  and  sad  fact  that  in  the  long,  weary  upward  march  of 
the  human  race  there  was  scarcely  ever  an  act  proposed  for  the  pro- 
tection, emancipation,  or  elevation  of  the  poor  but  met  with  the  most 
violent  opposition  from  the  so-called  better  classes,  as  well  as  from 
statesmen  and  philosophers  and  from  many  of  the  clergy. 

After  the  act  of  1819  the  agitation  was  kept  up  by  a  few  human- 
itarians. In  1825  another  act  was  passed,  broader  in  its  scope,  and 


SLAVE-GIRLS   OF   CHICAGO.  149 

owing  to  continued  agitation  thereafter,  at  intervals  of  from  t\vo  to 
six  years  down  to  1878,  acts  broader  and  more  stringent  in  their  char- 
acter were  passed,  resulting  in  the  most  advanced  system  of  factory 
and  mining  legislation  in  the  world — a  system  which  has  been  adopted 
by  almost  every  civilized  country  in  Europe.  Although  the  earlier 
acts  were  evaded  in  every  way  and  were  practically  dead  letters,  yet  in 
the  end  they  accomplished  more  than  their  friends  had  expected  of 
them. 

In  1867  the  great  Duke  of  Argyle,  in  writing  of  this  legislation, 
said :  "Some  of  the  old  opponents  have  admitted  that  their  fear  of  the 
results  in  an  economical  point  of  view  has  proved  erroneous.  But 
there  is  no  clear  and  well-grounded  intellectual  perception  of  the  deep 
foundations  of  principle  on  which  it  rests.  Nor  is  there  among  a 
large  section  of  politicians  any  adequate  appreciation  of  the  powerful 
influence  it  has  had  in  improving  the  physical  condition  of  the  people 
and  securing  their  contentment  with  the  laws  under  which  they  live. 
When,  however,  we  think  for  a  moment  of  the  frightful  nature  of  the 
evils  which  this  legislation  has  checked  and  which  to  a  large  extent 
it  has  remedied,  when  we  recollect  the  connection  between  suffering 
and  political  disaffection,  when  we  consider  the  great  moral  laws  which 
were  being  trodden  under  foot  from  mere  thoughtlessness  and  greed, 
we  shall  be  convinced  that  if,  during  the  last  fifty  years,  it  has  been 
given  to  this  country  to  make  any  progress  in  political  science,  that 
progress  has  been  in  nothing  happier  than  in  the  factory  legislation. 
No  government  and  no  minister  has  ever  done  greater — perhaps  all 
things  considered,  none  has  ever  done  so  great  a  service.  It  was  alto- 
gether a  new  era  in  legislation — the  adoption  of  a  new  principle — the 
establishment  of  a  new  idea." 

I  will  only  add  on  this  point  that  we  have  already  recognized  the 
principle  and  adopted  some  of  this  factory  legislation,  and  have  already 
derived  some  benefits  from  it.  It  is,  perhaps,  true  that  it  is  not  prop- 
erly enforced,  and  it  will  probably  require  much  more  legislation  to 
make  it  efficacious,  but  if  only  a  few  zealous  and  determined  people 
will  continue  this  agitation,  they  will,  in  time,  secure  not  only  the 
needed  legislation,  but  a  proper  enforcement  of  it. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  compulsory  education  act.  It  may  be  a 
dead  letter  now,  but  it  will  not  always  be  so ;  by  and  by  some  earnest 
persons  will  come  along  and  stir  the  matter  up,  and  men  will  be 
made  to  understand  that  if  they  want  to  enjoy  the  honors  or  emolu- 
ments of  office,  they  must  discharge  all  the  duties  of  that  office,  whether 
they  be  agreeable  or  not.  There  are  few  questions  that  more  vitally 
affect  the  State,  for  children  growing  up  on  the  street  are  almost  cer- 


150  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

tain  to  become  criminals,  and  thus  a  menace  and  expense  to  society. 
Likewise,  the  toiling  of  women  and  children  in  shops  amid  conditions 
which  dwarf,  stupefy,  and  destroy  must  produce  pauperism  and  crime, 
and  it  is  as  much  the  duty  of  the  State  to  prevent  these  as  it  is  its  duty 
to  repel  a  hostile  invasion. 

You  ask  whether  woman  should  be  paid  the  same  wages  as  man 
when  she  does  the  same  work.  To  this  there  can  be  but  one  answer. 
If  she  does  the  same  quantity  and  quality  of  work  under  the  same 
conditions  as  a  man,  simple  justice  requires  that  she  should  be  paid 
the  same  wages.  To  deny  her  this  is  to  deny  her  justice. 

In  answer  to  your  question:  "Are  not  the  wages  in  many  lines 
of  protected  manufacturing  and  mining  industries  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  the  profits  of  the  employers?"  I  will  simply  say  that  I  do 
not  wish  to  discuss  the  tariff  here,  but  the  exposure  just  made  by  the 
Times,  as  well  as  the  facts  now  being  brought  out  before  the  con- 
gressional committee  in  New  York,  added  to  what  was  already  known 
in  regard  to  the  importation  of  Italians,  Belgians,  Poles,  Hungarians, 
etc.,  in  the  manufacturing  and  mining  districts  of  the  East,  all  show 
conclusively  that  the  American  laborer  has  for  many  years  had  to 
compete  with  the  cheapest  kind  of  European  labor.  The  wages  in  the 
shops  and  in  the  factories  of  Chicago,  as  shown  by  the  Times,  were  in 
many  cases  not  fixed  with  reference  to  the  amount  of  protection,  but 
by  the  lowest  European  standard.  They  are  at  starvation's  edge,  and 
they  never  get  below  that  in  Europe.  For  example,  two,  three,  and 
four  dollars  per  week  and  board  one's  self  for  ten  hours'  toil  a  day. 
So  the  wages  paid  in  the  cigar  manufactories  and  other  establishments 
of  the  East,  as  shown  by  the  congressional  investigation  now  in 
progress,  are  below  what  it  is  possible  for  an  American  to  live  on. 
They  are  fixed,  not  with  reference  to  the  tariff,  but  by  the  people  that 
are  brought  over  here  from  Europe.  It  is  almost  the  lowest  European 
standard.  Establishments  that  used  to  pay  ten  dollars  a  week  to 
American  laborers  now  pay  three  and  four  dollars  to  imported  Euro- 
peans for  doing  the  same  work.  It  is  true  that  all  establishments  do 
not  employ  imported  laborers,  but  enough  do  to  fix  the  standard  of 
wages.  If  only  a  few  establishments  in  the  same  line  get  their  work 
done  for  four  dollars  a  week  by  foreigners,  this  will  become  the 
standard  all  along  the  line,  even  in  houses  employing  Americans,  for 
the  latter  cannot  pay  ten  dollars  and  compete  with  the  former ;  and  as 
it  has  been  shown  that  there  is  scarcely  a  line  of  industry  in  which 
these  imported  laborers  have  not  been  introduced,  it  follows  that  the 
standard  of  wages  has  been  largely  fixed  by  what  these  imported 
people  will  work  for, 


ANONYMOUS  JOURNALISM.  151 

For  years  we  have  heard  of  the  Italians,  Poles,  Hungarians,  etc., 
who  were  imported  constantly  into  Pennsylvania,  and  in  many  cases 
when  these  people  refused  to  submit  to  further  reductions  of  wages 
they  were  simply  discharged  and  their  places  filled  with  fresh  impor- 
tations. So  that  now  Mr.  Powderly  claims  that  almost  all'  American 
citizens,  both  native-born  and  naturalized,  have  been  driven  out  of 
the  mines  and  the  great  manufacturing  establishments  of  that  great 
State.  The  proprietors  have  been  protected,  but  the  laborers  have 
had  to  move  on,  and  that,  too,  in  many  cases  by  the  assistance  of  po- 
licemen's clubs  and  Pinkerton  rifles. 

I  see  that  the  investigation  in  New  York  disclosed  the  fact  that  our 
estimable  protectionist  townsmen  who  built  the  Texas  State-house 
sent  to  Scotland  for  most  of  their  skilled  labor,  and  employed  Texas 
convicts  to  do  the  unskilled  labor.  And  so  it  goes  all  along  the  line. 
There  seems  to  be  protection  for  everybody  but  the  laborer,  and  he  is 
gradually  getting  between  two  mill-stones — above  him  the  protective 
tariff  makes  him  pay  high  prices  for  the  necessaries  of  life,  while  below 
him  the  imported  laborer  is  steadily  and  surely  pulling  away  the  foun- 
dations on  which  he  stands.  If  this  process  is  not  arrested,  then,  like 
the  Indian,  the  American  laborer  must  wither  from  the  land,  as  he  is 
already  doing  in  Pennsylvania  and  in  some  sections  of  the  East.  Leg- 
islation, and  only  legislation,  can  arrest  this  process.  It  is  easy  and 
pleasant  to  talk  sympathetically  about  these  matters  and  to  advance 
beautiful  theories,  but  if  we  want  to  do  practical  work  we  must  face 
cold  facts.  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


ANONYMOUS  JOURNALISM  AND  ITS  EFFECTS. 
(Published  in  "Belford's   Magazine,"   October,  1889.) 

In  the  evolution  of  the  newspaper  from  the  occasional  news-letter 
of  the  seventeenth  century  to  the  great  journal  of  to-day,  the  press  has 
changed  from  a  passive  instrument,  dependent  upon  and  voicing  only 
the  sentiments  of  an  individual,  to  a  kind  of  self-conscious  entity  which 
is  bigger  than  any  individual ;  an  entity  which  Frederick  Knight  Hunt, 
nearly  forty  years  ago  in  England,  called  the  Fourth  Estate  of  the 
Realm. 

The  successive  stages  in  this  development  may  be  generalized  as, 
first,  personal  organs;  second,  party  organs,  and  lastly,  independent 
journals. 

In  the  first  two  stages  it  was  still  an  instrument  depending  upon 
the  editor;  but  in  the  third  it  is  an  institution  upon  which  the  editor 


152  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

depends.  When  the  paper  was  small  the  author  of  almost  every  article 
was  known  to  the  public.  The  editor  had  an  interest  in  the  paper,  if 
he  did  not  own  it  entirely.  His  name  appeared  at  the  head  of  its 
columns  as  its  editor;  and  he  wrote  most,  if  not  everything,  that 
appeared  in  it.  In  fact,  he  held  himself  individually  responsible  for 
everything,  and  was  personally  known  to  nearly  all  who  read  the 
paper.  There  were  exceptions,  but  I  speak  of  the  rule. 

Thus  when,  near  the  close  of  the  last  century,  the  National  Ga- 
zette persistently  attacked  Hamilton  and  the  Federal  party,  the  coun- 
try turned  to  the  editor,  Philip  Freneau.  When  Horace  Greeley  wrote 
most  of  the  matter  that  went  into  the  Morning  Post  and  the  Log 
Cabin,  and  when  he  subsequently  founded  and  edited  the  New  York 
Tribune,  the  public  looked  to  Greeley.  When  Thurlow  Weed  pub- 
lished the  Albany  Evening  Journal,  its  articles  were  accepted  or  re- 
jected according  to  the  confidence  had  in  Weed. 

So  of  the  country  newspapers  of  to-day ;  the  personnel  of  the  edi- 
tors, who  are  generally  also  publishers  and  men-of-all-work,  is  known 
almost  co-extensively  with  the  circulation  of  their  papers,  and  they 
are  more  influential  in  the  community,  as  citizens,  than  are  the  writers 
on  great  city  journals. 

This  consciousness  of  the  editor,  that  his  identity  is  fully  known 
to  the  public,  creates  a  sense  of  responsibility  which,  in  time,  strength- 
ens and  develops  the  man.  If,  in  moving  among  his  fellow-men,  he 
feels  that  they  know  exactly  what  he  has  said  and  done,  he  will  be 
more  candid;  he  will  learn  to  look  men  in  the  face;  he  will  be  more 
apt  to  stick  to  the  truth  and  hold  to  what  is  right ;  he  will  be  more 
ready  to  acknowledge  his  error  when  wrong;  he  will  be  more  apt  to 
keep  within  the  range  of  the  sympathy  and  good  opinion  of  his  fel- 
lowmen.  Instead  of  being  simply  an  editor,  he  will  continue  to  be  a 
man  among  men.  The  man  will  grow  as  well  as  the  editor,  and  both 
will  become  greater  than  is  possible  where  there  is  only  a  one-sided 
development. 

Consequently  we  find  that  the  earlier  newspaper  writers  were 
prominent  public  characters.  In  fact,  in  the  end  they  became  greater 
in  the  public  eye  as  men  than  as  editors.  The  man  outgrew  the  edi- 
tor. Instead  of  his  being  lost  in  the  newspaper,  as  is  now  the  case,  the 
newspaper  was  merged  in  the  man.  Being  thus  greater  than  the 
newspaper,  he  survived  connection  with  it. 

Horace  Greeley  was  known  to  the  whole  American  people  as  a 
great  character.  Even  if  the  paper  he  founded  were  to  go  out  of 
existence,  the  memory  of  Greeley  could  not. 

Thurlow  Weed  became  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  and  influen- 


"ANONYMOUS  JOURNALISM.  153 

tial  politicians  in  the  United  States — not  as  an  editor,  but  as  a  man. 
The  paper  was  only  the  medium  through  which  he  expressed  his 
thoughts.  The  giant  could  not  hide  behind  his  sword.  How  many 
newspaper  editors  are  there  to-day  who  hide — and  successfully  too — 
behind  their  papers? 

In  1860  the  majority  of  the  men  who  were  prominent  in  national 
affairs  had  been  connected  with  newspapers.  There  are  not  so  many 
now ;  and,  as  a  rule,  the  newspaper  editor  who  is  in  public  life  to-day 
is  connected,  not  with  the  large  city  papers,  except  where  he  is  a 
proprietor,  but  with  some  smaller  paper  which  is  known  to  voice  only 
his  sentiments. 

What  is  said  above  applies  equally  to  the  great  public  men  of  the 
Old  World  who  were  newspaper  editors.  For  whether  fomenting  a 
revolution  in  France,  or  defending  libel  prosecutions  in  England,  they 
did  not  hide  behind  their  papers,  but,  as  a  rule,  stood  erect  "before 
all  Israel  and  the  sun ;"  and  while  their  papers  are  forgotten,  the  men 
are  not.  But  now  every  large  newspaper  is  an  institution  which,  in 
some  instances,  has  more  than  fifty  different  persons  who  contribute 
regularly  to  its  columns.  All  these  write  anonymously.  The  paper,  the 
institution  only,  is  seen  and  known.  The  name  of  the  man  claiming 
to  be  the  legal  owner  or  publisher  may  also  be  known ;  but  the  editors 
— the  authors  of  the  various  articles,  comments,  criticisms,  and  state- 
ments— are  not  known,  not  even  collectively ;  much  less  is  it  known 
who  is  the  author  of  any  particular  article,  statement,  or  comment.  So 
far  as  the  public  and  the  persons  directly  affected  by  anything  con- 
tained in  the  paper  are  concerned,  it  is  all  anonymous.  Now,  there  is 
a  universal  contempt  felt  for  the  man  who  writes  an  anonymous  letter 
and  sends  it  through  the  mail ;  and,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  no 
one  expresses  more  contempt  and  indignation  at  the  cowardice  and 
want  of  manhood  of  the  anonymous  letter-writer  than  the  average 
newspaper  editor,  who  not  only  makes  his  living  by  anonymous  writ- 
ing, but  who  would  not  be  willing  to  sign  his  name  to  one-half  of  the 
articles  he  publishes.  The  moral,  or  rather  the  immoral,  effect  of 
anonymous  writing  on  the  writer  himself  must  be  the  same  in  all  cases 
where  he  conceals  his  identity  because  of  an  unwillingness  to  be  known 
as  the  author  of  the  sentiments  expressed,  whether  he  publishes  them 
in  a  newspaper  or  sends  them  through  the  mail.  In  each  case  there 
is  a  hiding — a  standing  behind  a  hedge  and  throwing  missiles  at  people 
who  may  be  traveling  along  the  king's  highway ;  in  neither  case  will 
the  act  tend  to  develop  strength  of  character,  although  he  may  write 
ably  and  say  smart  things. 

When,  therefore,  the  editor  was,  so  to  say,  relieved  of  the  moral 


154  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

responsibility  which  comes  from  having  to  look  people  in  the  face, 
feeling  that  they  know  what  you  have  said ;  when  an  inducement  was 
almost  held  out  to  him  to  be  careless,  or  reckless,  or  to  give  play  to 
his  prejudices  and  vent  to  his  spleen;  when,  in  short,  he  was  put  in 
the  position  of  hiding  while  throwing  missiles,  and  kept  in  that  atti- 
tude from  one  year's  end  to  the  other,  then  the  period  in  which  great 
characters  were  developed  in  the  newspaper  offices  came  to  an  end. 
At  present  we  see  only  a  great  paper.  The  men — that  is,  the  edi- 
torial writers — are  neither  seen  nor  known.  They  may  be  changed 
with  almost  the  same  facility  as  the  type-setters,  and,  like  the  type- 
setters, they  acquire  no  individuality  by  which  they  are  known  to  the 
public.  They  are  not  even  forgotten,  because  they  are  never  known, 
although  the  proprietor  may  wield  even  greater  influence  than  for- 
merly. 

The  newspaper  men  of  to-day  have  as  much  natural  ability,  as  high 
aspirations,  as  much  common  honesty,  and  as  strong  an  inclination  to 
do  right  as  had  those  of  three-quarters  of  a  century  ago.  In  fact,  it 
must  be  said  of  the  rank  and  file  of  newspaper  men,  that  it  is  doubtful 
whether  any  other  calling  contains  so  large  a  percentage  of  young 
men  who  possess,  in  the  highest  degree,  the  attributes  necessary  to 
achieve  success  and  eminence  in  the  world.  As  a  rule,  they  are  in- 
telligent, industrious,  tireless,  plucky,  practical,  and  ambitious,  and,  in 
moral  character,  will  compare  favorably  with  the  devotees  of  any  other 
profession ;  and  if  the  conditions  of  newspaper  work  were  the  same 
now  as  they  were  earlier  in  the  century,  the  newspaper  fraternity 
would  develop  more  great  men  and  furnish  more  great  public  char- 
acters than  are  furnished  by  any  other  class.  But  the  blight — the 
weakening  influence — of  anonymous  writing  settles  upon  all,  especially 
those  connected  with  the  large  city  papers ;  and,  as  a  rule,  they  move 
along  comparatively  unknown,  and  die  unhonored  by  the  public,  never 
establishing  a  reputation  commensurate  with  their  ability  or  with  the 
great  amount  of  work  they  do — an  amount  of  work  which,  under  more 
favorable  conditions,  would  win  them  immortality. 

It  is  true,  there  are  a  few  newspaper  writers  in  the  United  States 
who  have  become  widely  known,  but  they  did  not  accomplish  this  by 
anonymous  writing;  on  the  contrary,  their  fame  is  in  exact  proportion 
to  the  extent  to  which  they  signed  their  names  to  their  articles. 

The  effect  of  this  anonymous  writing  is  to  give  us  what  is  prac- 
tically an  irresponsible  press.  To  be  sure,  theoretically,  the  owner 
or  publisher  of  the  paper  is  responsible  for  everything  that  appears  in 
it ;  but  practically,  as  all  the  world  knows,  this  amounts  to  but  little. 
If  the  facts  in  a  particular  matter  are  carelessly  or  incorrectly  stated, 


'ANONYMOUS  JOURNALISM.  155 

whereby  a  common  citizen  is  injured,  or  if  some  one  connected  with 
the  paper  maliciously  makes  insinuations  which  set  people  to  talking 
about,  and  thus  ruin,  the  character  of  a  private  person,  the  owner  of 
the  paper  is  theoretically  liable.  But  practically  this  amounts  to 
nothing ;  for  all  the  injured  party  can  do  is  to  commence  a  libel  suit. 
After  a  year  elapses  this  suit  is  brought  to  trial,  when  the  tables  are 
turned,  as  it  were,  and  in  order  to  see  what  damages,  if  any,  should 
be  given,  the  whole  life  of  the  complainant  is  overhauled ;  the  worst 
construction  possible  is  sought  to  be  put  upon  everything  he  has 
done.  Money  and  power,  with  all  the  agencies  they  control,  combine 
to  break  him  down ;  and  if,  after  going  through  this  ordeal,  a  verdict  is 
rendered  for  the  plaintiff,  the  case  is  carried  to  the  higher  courts  and, 
as  a  rule,  is  reversed  and  sent  back  to  be  tried  over.  In  most  cases, 
after  years  of  vexation  and  expense,  the  injured  party  gets  nothing. 
If,  however,  in  the  end  a  judgment  should  be  obtained,  it  will  not 
pay  for  the  vexation,  the  loss  of  time,  and  the  expense  occasioned 
by  the  suit.  So  that,  as  a  rule,  a  libel  suit  is  worse  than  a  farce  for 
the  injured  person.  It  is  a  remedy  which  kills  the  party  using  it  and 
inflicts  comparatively  little  injury  on  the  defendant.  The  malicious, 
the  mendacious,  and  the  reckless  have  practically  nothing  to  restrain 
them. 

Roscoe  Conkling  once  said :  "A  thief  breaks  into  your  house, 
steals  your  watch,  and  goes  to  Sing-Sing.  The  newspaper  man 
breaks  into  the  casket  which  contains  your  most  precious  treasure — 
your  reputation — and  goes  unscathed  before  the  law." 

It  may  be  said  that  publishing  a  newspaper  is  a  business  enter- 
prise, and  that  self-interest  will  induce  its  owners  to  see  to  it  that 
nothing  but  the  truth  is  told.  This  looks  plausible,  but  experience  has 
shown  that  it  is  not  true.  There  is  scarcely  an  issue  of  a  great  city 
newspaper  that  does  not  contain  an  article  which,  either  through  an 
imperfect  statement  of  facts,  or  an  insinuation  or  false  accusation,  in- 
jures some  private  citizen,  who  practically  has  no  remedy. 

A  writer  in  the  North  American  Review  recently  said :  "The  news- 
paper usurps  the  functions  of  judge,  jury,  and  executioner,  and  often 
adds  to  these  the  office  of  the  police  detective  and  prosecuting  attor- 
ney. .  .  .  The  glass  through  which  he  (the  newspaper  man)  peers 
is  anything  but  a  transparent  medium.  It  becomes  a  lens  that  dis- 
torts and  perverts  the  things  behind  it.  The  best  men  in  journalism 
are  not  proof  against  the  taint  of  its  bad  tendencies.  The  system  is 
the  criminal,  and  moulds  its  members.  All  that  can  be  generalized 
is  that  honorable  journalists,  on  the  whole,  try  to  practice  the  better 


156  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

side  of  the  profession,  and  that  the  unprincipled  avail  themselves  to 
the  full  of  its  dangerous  powers." 

Possibly,  when  all  things  are  considered,  it  is  best  that  libel  suits 
should  in  many  cases  be  abortive;  otherwise  a  newspaper  might  be 
overwhelmed  with  libel  suits  based  on  trivial  errors ;  or  might  be 
harassed  by  people  who  want  to  extort  money.  And  it  should  be 
added  that  no  measure  calculated  to  harass  or  cripple  the  press  can 
be  tolerated.  The  press  must  not  only  remain  free,  but  have  all  rea- 
sonable latitude.  But  the  public  is  entitled  to  fair  play,  as  well  as  the 
press ;  and  it  does  not  follow  that  because  one  remedy  does  not  seem 
well  suited  to  protect  the  public  that  therefore  the  public  is  not  en- 
titled to  any  protection.  Would  it  be  asking  too  much  to  require  a 
signature  to  everything  that  appears  in  a  newspaper,  so  that  the 
public  may  always  have  some  guaranty  of  good  faith,  and  know  who 
it  is  that  is  talking,  and  that  when  anything  is  said  against  a  man  it 
will  not  seem  as  if  an  irresponsible  institution  were  attacking  him  in 
the  dark? 

In  short,  while  discouraging  any  attempt  to  get  money  out  of  the 
newspaper  man's  pockets,  is  it  asking  too  much  to  require  him  to  do 
what  all  other  men,  except  criminals,  have  to  do,  and  that  is,  work  in 
the  light  of  day  ? — to  stand  up  and  be  known  and  seen  ? 

Of  course  some  of  the  newspaper  people  will  object — will  pro- 
nounce it  impossible — and,  as  usual,  predict  all  sorts  of  calamities 
as  the  result  of  such  a  requirement.  Especially  will  this  be  true  of 
those  who  "avail  themselves  to  the  full  of  its  dangerous  powers."  No 
class  exercising  a  dangerous  power  or  accustomed  to  an  unrestricted 
license  ever  looked  with  favor  on  a  proposition  to  restrict  that  license 
or  power. 

One  of  the  leading  dailies  of  Chicago,  in  discussing  the  proposi- 
tion to  require  a  signature  to  every  article  in  a  paper,  said :  "The 
power  of  the  press  is  not  a  dangerous  and  unrestrained  power;  the 
freedom  of  the  press,  like  the  freedom  of  the  winds,  corrects  and  puri- 
fies, because  it  is  free.  A  newspaper  pays  for  its  errors  and  blunders, 
and  is  subject  to  the  great  law  of  compensation  as  an  individual  is. 
It  has  created  here  in  this  country  a  higher  law,  to  which  it  is  itself 
subject  and  whose  penalties  it  cannot  escape.  In  this  free  land  of 
ours  it  comes  to  pass  that  there  is  a  public  opinion — that  sober,  slow 
verdict  of  the  people — that  is  over  all  of  us ;  parties  and  syndicates, 
great  statesmen  and  great  newspapers  as  well,  we  all  must  bow  to  it, 
and  because  of  its  freedom  we  all  do  bow  to  it." 

Here  are  the  old  arguments  that  have  been  repeated  for  centuries, 


ANONYMOUS  JOURNALISM.  157 

every  time  that  it  was  proposed  to  have  the  State  interfere  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  weak  against  the  assaults  of  the  strong. 

First.  "There  is  a  higher  law  to  punish  wrongdoing,  therefore 
leave  hands  off." 

Now  suppose  a  man  with  a  club  habitually  secretes  himself  in  a 
dark  place  and  batters  out  the  brains  of  every  unsuspecting  editor 
who  may  come  that  way.  There  is  a  higher  law  which  will  punish 
this  man,  but  will  the  living  editor  be  content  with  this  assurance,  or 
will  he  insist  that  at  least  an  effort  ought  to  be  made  to  discover  the 
identity  of  the  man  with  the  club  ? 

Second.  "It  is  not  necessary  to  do  anything ;  for  an  enlightened 
self-interest,  open  competition,  a  healthy  public  sentiment,  and  the 
knowledge  of  the  fact  that  wrong-doing  must  be  paid  for  and  will 
sooner  or  later  be  punished  are  alone  sufficient  to  regulate  the  whole 
matter." 

Look  at  this  a  moment.  Is  there  an  instance  in  all  human  experi- 
ence where  it  was  found  satisfactory  to  have  the  strong  alone — whether 
good  or  bad — say  how  far  they  should  go  in  dealing  with  the  weak? 
If  human  selfishness  always  has  gone  to  unreasonable  lengths  when  it 
had  a  chance,  why  expect  it  to  restrain  itself  in  this  case?  As  to  pub- 
lic sentiment,  in  cases  of  attacks  on  or  insinuations  against  individuals, 
the  newspaper  creates  all  the  sentiment  there  is ;  hence  this  will  not 
be  restraining. 

Further,  is  it  not  known  now  that  wrong-doing  must  be  paid  for 
and  will  be  punished  ?  And  if  this  knowledge  has  not  been  and  is  not 
now  sufficient  to  protect  private  individuals,  how  can  we  expect  it  to  do 
so  in  the  future  ? 

The  fifth  maxim  for  journalists,  recently  laid  down  by  Mr.  Dana, 
is :  "Never  attack  the  weak  or  the  defenseless,  either  by  argument, 
by  invective,  or  by  ridicule,  unless  there  is  some  absolute  public  neces- 
sity for  so  doing.", 

Without  inquiring  why  the  absolutely  defenseless  should  ever  be 
attacked,  and  admitting  that  some  journalists  do  not  do  so,  I  will  ask  : 
How  long  will  it  take  an  unprincipled  newspaper  man — and  there  will 
be  such  till  the  millennium — who  wanted  a  sensation  to  sell  his  paper, 
or  who  had  a  grudge  against  some  individual — how  long  would  it  take 
him  to  make  up  his  mind  that  the  public  necessity  existed? 

The  trouble  with  all  these  arguments  is  that  they  rest  on  a  wrong 
principle.  One  of  the  parties  affected  is  not  represented  or  given  a 
hearing ;  whereas  rules  to  regulate  the  conduct  between  individuals 
should  be  fixed  with  reference  to  the  interests  and  by  the  voice  of  both, 
and  not  by  the  whim,  caprice,  or  arbitrary  dictation  of  the  stronger. 


158  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Years  ago,  when  it  was  first  proposed  to  subject  the  railroads  to 
reasonable  regulation,  the  railroad  people  and  their  friends  scoffed  at 
the  idea.  The  most  considerate  of  them  argued :  "Railroads  are 
private  enterprises,  supported  by  private  capital,  with  which  the 
public  has  no  right  to  interfere.  Besides,  they  are  subject  to  the  laws 
of  competition,  which  alone  will  give  all  the  regulation  necessary. 
Further,  they  are  dependent  on  the  public  for  support,  and  an  in- 
telligent self-interest  will  insure  fair  dealing  with  the  public;  any 
interference  by  the  State  must  be  disastrous,"  etc.  And  they  asked : 
"Can  you  run  the  railroads  better  than  the  experienced  men  who  are 
now  running  them?" 

But  notwithstanding  these  arguments,  the  public  felt  that,  while 
railroads  were  a  necessity  and  must  be  protected,  and  while  they  ought 
not  to  be  harassed  by  unreasonable  interference,  yet  some  measure  of 
protection  for  the  public  was  necessary ;  and  the  answer  in  regard  to 
running  a  road  was :  "No,  we  don't  claim  to  be  able  to  run  a  road ; 
we  concede  that  you  can  do  that  better  than  we  can,  and  we  want  you 
to  do  it ;  we  simply  insist  on  some  measure  of  protection  against  the 
abuse  of  the  power  in  your  hands."  As  a  result,  measure  after  meas- 
ure was  passed,  ending  finally  in  the  Interstate  Law.  At  first  these 
acts  produced  little  effect,  as  is  nearly  always  the  case  with  new  legis- 
lation ;  but  at  present  they  are  beginning  to  be  respected,  and,  what 
is  more,  the  railroads  now  favor  reasonable  regulation. 

There  is  no  doubt  that,  if  every  person  writing  even  a  squib  for  a 
newspaper  had  to  sign  his  name  to  it,  there  would  be  greater  care 
taken  to  learn  the  facts  and  to  state  them  correctly.  Every  writer 
would  become  more  careful  and  read  his  articles  over  a  second  time 
before  printing  them,  thus  greatly  improving  the  character  of  news- 
papers by  making  them  more  reliable,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  would 
be  a  protection  to  the  private  individual. 

Certain  it  is  that  it  would  make  all  newspaper  writers  stand  on 
their  own  merit  with  the  public,  and  would  enable  those  that  have 
superior  abilities  to  get  credit  for  their  work,  which  they  do  not  get 
with  the  public  under  the  present  system  of  anonymous  writing. 

It  is  true  that  in  1850  a  law  was  passed  in  France  requiring  a 
signature  to  every  article  in  a  newspaper,  and  that  it  did  not  produce 
any  great  results.  But  this  signifies  little  under  the  circumstances, 
for  it  was  enacted  not  as  an  independent  measure  conceived  in  a 
spirit  of  fairness,  but  as  a  part  of  an  arbitrary  system  intended  to 
harass  and,  so  far  as  possible,  crush  the  press.  It  went  almost  hand  in 
hand  with  a  heavy  stamp  tax,  a  government  censor,  and  the  dungeon. 
Requiring  a  signature  only  made  it  easier  for  the  government  to  find 


'ANONYMOUS  JOURNALISM.  159 

the  writer  and  put  him  into  jail.  Therefore  it  was  natural  that  the 
whole  newspaper  fraternity  should  labor  to  defeat  the  law  by  the  use 
of  fictitious  names,  and  in  every  other  manner  possible.  In  addition, 
it  should  be  remembered  that  many  of  the  most  beneficial  measures 
in  the  world's  history  were  failures  when  first  tried. 

But  here  the  conditions  are  different.  Many  newspaper  men  al- 
ready admit  the  evil  effects  of  impersonal  journalism  and  urge  a  change 
in  that  regard.  The  Journalist  of  October  6,  1888,  had  a  strong  edi- 
torial advocating  a  signature  to  every  article.  Among  other  things  it 
said :  "Few  men  would  be  willing  to  send  out  statements  over  their 
own  signatures  which  they  knew  to  be  untrue,  a  temptation  which  is 
very  strong  when  the  writer  is  hiding  behind  the  cloak  of  anonymity. 
It  would  encourage  better  work.  If  a  man  is  certain  that  a  story  is 
to  be  known  as  his  work,  he  will  take  more  care  in  the  writing.  Again, 
if  a  writer  succeeds  in  making  a  reputation,  the  paper  gains  the  addi- 
tional eclat  of  having  such  a  man  in  its  employ.  The  best  work  is 
almost  always  done  by  men  who  sign.  Sporadic  cases  of  anonymous 
excellence  are  seen  in  every  paper,  but  the  men  who  sign  are  the  men 
whose  work  is  read,  and  who  make  an  impression  on  the  public  mind. 
This  is  not  altogether  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  the  work  of  men  who 
are  strong  enough  to  force  signature.  It  is  partly  because  a  man  who 
signs  feels  that  he  is  bound  in  duty  to  himself  to  keep  up  a  certain 
average  of  excellence  in  his  work.  He  is  the  proprietor  of  a  'brand,' 
and  his  goods  must  be  kept  up  to  sample,  or  the  future  value  of  his 
'brand'  is  gone.  The  question  of  signature  lies  largely  with  the  writers 
themselves.  If  there  were  a  general  insistence  upon  the  matter,  the 
papers  would  give  in,  and  once  the  custom  was  adopted  it  would  never 
be  abandoned." 

I  will  simply  add  that,  as  the  better  class  of  journalists  are  already 
in  sympathy  with  the  idea,  we  may  safely  assume  that  if  a  signature  be 
required  by  law  to  every  article — not  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the 
government  to  imprison  the  writer,  as  in  France,  but  simply  to  insure 
care  and  good  faith  on  the  part  of  the  writer  and  fair  play  to  the  public 
— there  will  be  but  little  opposition,  and,  instead  of  being  crippled,  the 
press  will  command  more  confidence  and  wield  more  influence  for 
good  than  now ;  and  editorial  writers,  instead  of  being  unknown  opera- 
tives, will  establish  a  reputation  equal  to  their  labor  and  ability,  while 
the  private  individual  will  feel  that  if  he  is  to  be  attacked,  it  must  be 
done  in  the  light  of  day.  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


160  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

THE  IMMIGRANT'S  ANSWER. 
(Published  in  the  "Forum,"  February,  1890.) 

The  questions  whether  immigration  shall  be  encouraged  or  re- 
stricted, and  whether  naturalization  shall  be  made  more  difficult  or 
not,  must  be  considered  both  from  a  political  and  from  an  industrial 
point  of  view ;  and  in  each  case  it  is  necessary  to  glance  back  and  see 
what  have  been  the  character,  the  conduct,  and  the  political  leaning 
of  the  immigrant,  and  what  he  has  done  to  develop  and  enrich  our 
country.  Has  he  been  law-abiding,  industrious,  and  patriotic,  and  is 
the  government  indebted  to  him  for  anything;  or  is  it  a  case  of  a 
spoilt  pauper  child  housed,  fed,  and  clothed  in  a  fine  Christian,  uniform, 
all  at  the  expense  of  native  Americans,  and  to  no  purpose? 

We  will  look  at  the  political  side  first,  and,  as  our  space  is  limited, 
we  will  go  back  only  to  1860,  calling  attention,  however,  to  the  fact 
that  up  to  that  time,  no  matter  from  what  cause,  the  immigration  had 
been  almost  entirely  to  the  Northern  and  free  States,  and  not  to  the 
slave  States,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  figures  about  to  be  given.  These, 
when  carefully  examined  in  connection  with  election  returns,  will  show 
that  but  for  the  assistance  of  the  immigrant  the  election  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  as  president  of  the  United  States  would  have  been  an  im- 
possibility, and  that  had  the  cry,  "America  for  the  Americans,"  pre- 
vailed at  an  earlier  period  of  our  history,  the  nineteenth  century  would 
never  have  seen  the  great  free  republic  we  see,  and  the  shadow  of 
millions  of  slaves  would  to-day  darken  and  curse  the  continent. 

I  will  cite  no  doubtful  authority,  but  will  take  as  a  basis  the  United 
States  census  of  1860.  The  total  population  of  the  States  was  31,183,- 
744,  of  whom  4,099,152  were  foreign  born,  and  of  the  latter  only  216,- 
730  were  to  be  found  in  all  the  eleven  States  which  seceded.  The  re- 
maining States  had  a  total  population  of  22,313,997,  of  whom  3,882,- 
422,  or  a  little  over  one  sixth,  were  actually  foreign-born.  To  these  we 
must  add  their  children,  who,  though  native-born,  yet,  as  a  rule,  held 
the  same  views,  were  controlled  by  the  same  motives  and  influences, 
spoke  the  same  language,  and  generally  acted  with  their  elders;  who,  in 
short,  for  all  practical  purposes, and  especially  for  our  purpose,  must  be 
treated  as  a  part  of  the  immigrant  population.  If  we  add  two  children 
for  each  foreign-born  person,  we  find  that  fully  one  half  of  the  popula- 
tion of  the  States  that  remained  true  to  the  Union  consisted  of  the 
foreign-born  and  their  children,  and  was  made  up  chiefly  of  Germans, 
Scandinavians,  and  Irish. 

The  Scandinavians  have  always,  nearly  to  a  man,  voted  the  Republi- 


THE  IMMIGRANT'S  ANSWER.  161 

can  ticket.  The  Germans,  likewise,  were  nearly  all  Republicans.  In 
fact,  the  States  having  either  a  large  Scandinavian  or  a  large  German 
population  have  been  distinguished  as  the  banner  Republican  States. 
Notably  is  this  true  of  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  and  Michigan, 
which  have  a  large  Scandinavian  population ;  and  of  Illinois,  Ohio,  and 
Pennsylvania,  which  have  a  very  large  German  population.  The  Irish 
more  generally  voted  the  Democratic  ticket,  but  were  not  united ;  and 
in  New  York,  where  they  were  most  numerous,  they  have  repeatedly 
given  the  Republican  ticket  substantial  aid.  Taking  the  States  in  de- 
tail, Iowa  had  a  total  population  of  674,913.  Of  these  106,077,  or  about 
one  sixth,  were  foreign-born,  and  nearly  all  were  Germans  and 
Scandinavians,  who,  to  a  man  voted  the  Republican  ticket.  The  total 
vote  cast  for  President  in  Iowa  in  1860  was  128,331,  of  which  Lincoln 
received  70,409,  giving  him  a  plurality  over  Douglas  of  15,298.  Now, 
if  simply  the  actual  foreign-born  vote  had  been  left  out,  it  would  have 
amounted  to  one  sixth  of  the  whole,  or  21,388.  These  would  nearly 
all  have  been  taken  from  Lincoln's  vote,  which  would  thus  be  reduced 
to  less  than  50,000,  leaving  to  Douglas  a  plurality  of  over  5,000;  and  if 
instead  of  subtracting  only  the  foreign-born  vote,  we  were  to  sub- 
tract the  vote  which  for  our  purpose  must  be  regarded  as  immigrant, 
Lincoln's  vote  would  be  reduced  to  less  than  40,000. 

Wisconsin  had  a  total  population  of  775,881.  Of  these,  276,967, 
or  a  little  over  thirty-five  per  cent.,  were  foreign-born,  nearly  all  Ger- 
mans and  Scandinavians,  and  they  supported  the  Republican  ticket. 
The  total  vote  of  Wisconsin  in  that  year  was  152,180,  of  which  Lincoln 
received  86, no,  giving  him  a  plurality  over  Douglas  of  21,089.  Now, 
if  the  foreign-born  vote  were  omitted,  the  total  vote  would  be  reduced 
by  about  thirty-five  per  cent.,  or  52,263 ;  and  nearly  the  whole  of  this 
would  have  to  be  deducted  from  Lincoln's  vote,  thus  not  only  wiping 
out  his  plurality,  but  giving  Douglas  a  plurality  of  nearly  30,000 — 
this  by  deducting  only  the  actual  foreign-born  vote,  and  not  the  ad- 
ditional vote,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  should  be  included. 

Michigan  had  in  that  year  a  total  population  of  749,113.  Of  these, 
149,093,  or  about  one  fifth,  were  foreign-born,  nearly  all  Scandinavians, 
Hollanders,  and  Germans,  and  almost  solidly  Republican.  The  total 
vote  of  Michigan  was  154,747,  of  which  Lincoln  received  88,480,  giv- 
ing him  a  plurality  over  Douglas  of  23,423.  If  the  foreign-born  vote, 
amounting  to  about  one-fifth,  or  31,000,  be  left  out,  nearly  all  the  loss 
must  fall  upon  Lincoln's  vote,  giving  Douglas  a  plurality. 

Illinois  had  a  population  of  1,711,951,  of  whom  324,643,  or  almost 
one-fifth,  were  foreign-born.  Of  these,  87,573  were  Irish,  the  remain- 
der nearly  all  Germans  and  Scandinavians,  adherents  of  the  Republican 
ii 


1 62  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

party.  Of  the  total  vote  of  Illinois,  338,693,  Lincoln  received  172,161, 
giving  him  a  plurality  over  Douglas  of  11,946.  If  the  actual  foreign- 
born  vote  is  to  be  eliminated,  that  reduces  the  total  nearly  one  fifth, 
or  upward  of  66,000.  Supposing  the  Irish  foreign-born  vote  to  have 
been  solidly  Democratic,  which  it  was  not,  about  40,000  would  still 
have  to  be  deducted  from  Lincoln's  vote ;  this  would  not  only  wipe  out 
his  plurality,  but  would  give  a  very  large  plurality  to  Douglas. 

Ohio's  population  was  2,339,500.  Of  these,  328,249,  or  about  one 
seventh,  were  foreign-born,  76,826  being  Irish,  and  the  remainder 
mostly  Germans,  who,  as  a  rule,  were  Republicans.  The  total  vote  of 
Ohio  was  442,441,  of  which  Lincoln  received  221,610 — a  plurality  over 
Douglas  of  34,378.  If  the  foreign-born  vote  had  been  omitted,  the 
total  would  have  been  reduced  by  nearly  one  seventh,  or  about  63,200. 
Assuming  that  most  of  the  Irish  were  Democrats  and  voted  for  Doug- 
las, nearly  50,000  votes  would  still  have  to  be  deducted  from  Lincoln's 
total,  which  would  give  the  State  to  Douglas. 

These  five  States  alone  are  sufficient  to  demonstrate  the  situation ; 
for  if  Lincoln  had  lost  them  and  carried  the  other  States  in  the  Republi- 
can column,  he  would  have  had  only  129  electoral  votes,  while  he 
needed  151.  But  the  facts  are  that  in  every  State  carried  by  Lincoln 
there  was  a  large  foreign  population,  which  was  mostly,  and  in  some 
States  entirely,  Republican,  and  which  continued  to  be  Republican 
down  to  a  very  recent  date ;  and  if  the  vote  of  this  class  had  been 
omitted  in  1860,  it  would  have  reduced  Lincoln's  vote  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  defeat  him  in  most  of  the  States  that  he  carried.  I  am  speaking 
only  of  the  foreign-born  voters ;  but,  as  already  shown,  to  these  should 
be  added  a  large  percentage  of  the  people  who,  although  native-born, 
are  of  foreign-born  parentage,  and  must  be  considered  with  them  in 
viewing  the  general  political  course  of  immigrants.  It  is  an  indisput- 
able fact  that  the  vote  of  the  naturalized  citizen  and  of  his  son  has  been 
a  most  powerful  and  indispensable  factor  in  giving  the  Republican 
party  the  control  of  the  government;  and  even  to-day  its  power  and 
popularity  are  greatest  in  those  States  in  which  there  is  a  large  natur- 
alized vote. 

The  eleven  States  that  in  1861  hoisted  the  flag  of  secession  had 
a  population  of  8,726,644.  Of  these,  only  216,730,  or  about  two  and  a 
half  per  cent.,  were  foreign-born,  and  they  were  subsequently  found  to 
be  Unionists.  The  men  who  sought  to  destroy  our  institutions,  who 
proclaimed  the  principle  of  inequality,  who  insisted  that  the  strong 
have  a  divine  right  to  the  fruit  of  the  poor  man's  labor,  and  who  finally 
fired  upon  the  flag  of  the  Republic,  were  not  only  Americans,  but  they 
were  the  sons  of  Americans ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  heavy  Ger- 


THE  IMMIGRANT'S  ANSWER.  163 

man  population  of  northern  Kentucky  and  of  Missouri,  by  their  adher- 
ence to  the  Union,  turned  the  scale  and  prevented  two  great  States  from 
giving  their  powerful  aid  to  the  Confederacy.  The  great  majority  of 
those  that  were  Americans  and  sons  of  Americans  in  these  two  States 
were  in  favor  of  secession.  Then,  when  the  war  began,  those  Northern 
States  that  had  the  largest  foreign-born  population  furnished  the 
largest  quota  of  soldiers  to  the  Union  armies.  Even  Missouri  con- 
tributed nearly  200,000  men,  although  it  was  the  scene  of  repeated 
raids,  during  which  a  portion  of  its  population,  called  by  the  Southern 
leaders  "damned'  Dutch  Unionists,"  was  made  to  pay  dearly  for  its 
patriotism.  The  records  of  the  War  Department  show  that  of  the 
2,678,967  men  that  from  first  to  last  were  enlisted  in  the  Union  armies, 
494,900  were  entered  on  the  records  as  of  foreign  nationality.  No 
doubt  some  of  these  were  native  born,  but  not  very  many,  for,  as  a 
rule,  the  native-born  recruits  spoke  the  English  language  and  were 
booked  as  Americans.  How  many  of  these  there  were  we  cannot  tell 
exactly,  but,  considering  the  fact  that  nearly  half  the  population  was 
of  foreign  nationality,  and  that  recruits  generally  came  from  the  com- 
mon people,  there  is  no  question  but  that  one  half  of  the  men  who 
enlisted  in  the  Union  armies  were  either  foreign-born  or  of  foreign- 
born  parentage.  These  would  not  have  been  here  to  enter  our  armies 
but  for  immigration,  and  better  soldiers  never  marched  to  the  music 
of  war.  There  is  not  a  swamp  or  field  or  dark  ravine  where  treason 
made  a  stand,  but  is  covered  with  the  graves  of  Germans  and  Scan- 
dinavians who  died  for  the  principle  of  equal  rights.  Though  the 
Irish  more  generally  voted  the  Democratic  ticket,  yet  their  patriotism 
was  prompt  to  respond  to  the  call  of  their  adopted  country,  and  there 
is  not  a  battle-field  where  blood  was  shed  for  the  Union  that  has  not  the 
bones  of  Irishmen  rotting  upon  it. 

Again,  material  resources  are  as  necessary  for  the  prosecution  of 
a  great  war  as  are  men,  for  the  latter  can  do  nothing  without  equip- 
ment, food,  arms,  and  munitions  of  war.  When  the  Rebellion  collapsed, 
the  South  had  yet  large  armies  of  men,  but  its  resources  were  exhaust- 
ed. It  had  no  shoes,  no  food,  no  arms  for  its  soldiers.  It  had  not, 
within  all  its  boundaries,  sufficient  ammunition  to  fight  a  great  battle. 
The  North,  on  the  contrary,  had  yet  inexhaustible  resources,  for  which 
it  was  largely  indebted  to  the  sober,  steady,  intelligent  industry  and 
frugality  of  its  immigrant  population ;  for  those  States  in  which  this 
population  was  the  largest  were  found  to  possess  the  best  agriculture, 
the  finest  cities,  the  most  shops,  the  largest  factories,  and  the  fullest 
warehouses.  Further,  the  labor  of  building  the  great  railway  sys- 
tems of  our  land,  which  are  so  necessary  for  the  development  of  a 


164  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

country,  and  for  the  rapid  concentration  of  men  and  material  in  time 
of  war,  was  almost  entirely  done  by  these  people. 

Now,  if  Kentucky  and  Missouri  had  joined  the  Confederacy,  and 
if  the  Northern  States  had  not  possessed  the  incalculable  strength  in 
both  men  and  material  resources  that  they  got  through  the  naturalized 
citizen  and  his  children,  they  would  not  only  have  been  unable  to 
subdue  the  South,  but  they  would  have  been  unable  successfully  to 
resist  Southern  aggression ;  and  some  Southern  colonel  would  to-day 
be  calling  the  roll  of  his  slaves  fn  the  shadow  of  Bunker  Hill  monu- 
ment, for  the  country  could  not  permanently  have  remained  part  slave 
and  part  free. 

I  do  not  claim  that  the  foreigner  gave  to  the  country  new  ideas,  nor 
do  I  wish  in  any  manner  to  belittle  the  great  achievements  of  the 
native  Americans  of  the  North ;  I  am  simply  directing  attention  to  the 
fact  that,  standing  alone,  they  could  not  have  elected  Lincoln,  could 
not  have  successfully  resisted  Southern  aggression,  and  could  not 
have  put  down  the  Rebellion ;  and  that  it  was  the  naturalized  citizen 
and  his  children,  who,  by  joining  hands  with  them,  turned  the  scale 
in  favor  of  the  ideas  and  the  institutions  of  the  North,  and  thus  directly 
helped  to  shape  the  destiny  of  our  country. 

In  this  connection,  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  remarkable  his- 
torical fact  that  the  great  political  party  of  the  country  that  held  out 
a  friendly  hand  to  the  immigrant,  and  that  favored  and  secured  liberal 
naturalization  laws,  so  that  the  new-comer  could,  in  a  reasonable  time, 
become  a  citizen  and  voter,  has  been  all  along  opposed  and  repeatedly 
defeated  by  these  very  naturalized  voters ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
great  political  party — first  Federal,  then  Whig,  and  lastly  Republican 
— from  whose  ranks  has  always  come  the  opposition  to  a  liberal  natur- 
alization law  to  make  the  new-comer  a  voter,  and  from  whose  ranks 
to-day  comes,  with  increasing  frequency,  the  cry  of  "America  for  the 
Americans,"  is  the  very  party  which  has  all  along  received  by  far  the 
greater  portion  of  this  naturalized  vote,  was  enabled  by  the  aid  of  this 
very  vote  to  keep  control  of  the  government  for  over  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  and  to-day  is  in  power  by  the  aid  of  this  vote. 

The  one  political  party  can  truthfully  say  to  the  great  majority 
of  the  naturalized  voters:  "I  did  what  I  could  to  give  you  the  fran- 
chise, and  you  have  constantly  used  that  franchise  to  defeat 
me,"  while  the  other  political  party  might  truthfully  say  to  the 
same  people :  "From  my  ranks  has  come  all  the  opposition  to  you, 
and  it  is  from  my  ranks  that  to-day  comes  the  demand  for  restrictive 
naturalization  laws ;  and  in  return  for  this  treatment  you  have  stood 
faithfully  by  me,  have  kept  me  in  power,  and  have  given  office  and 


THE  IMMIGRANT'S  ANSWER.  165 

honors  to  some  of  the  very  men  who  opposed  and  slandered  you." 
It  is  incomprehensible  why  opposition  to  making  a  voter  of  the  immi- 
grant should  come  from  members  of  the  Republican  party. 

If  we  look  at  the  question  in  still  another  light,  it  will  be  found 
that  in  those  States  which  have  the  largest  naturalized  vote,  and  in 
which  this  has  been  a  potent  factor,  there  are  more  churches,  more 
libraries,  more  schools,  better  schools,  and  more  general  intelligence 
than  are  to  be  found  in  those  States  where  the  people  are  not  only 
American-born,  but  are  the  children  of  American-born  parents.  As  a 
rule,  the  poor  among  the  immigrants  are  more  frugal,  are  more  indus- 
trious, and  are  more  used  to  continuous  hard  work  than  are  the  poor 
among  native  Americans,  and  consequently  they  generally  succeed  in 
making  a  living,  while  the  latter  frequently  fail. 

It  has  been  charged  against  the  naturalized  citizen  that  he  has  at 
different  times  engaged  in  riots  and  disturbed  social  order ;  but  in  most 
of  these  cases  it  will  be  found  that  as  many  American-born  as  foreign- 
born  have  participated,  the  fact  being  that  nationality  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  matter,  but  that  the  disturbance  grew  out  of  industrial  or 
political  excitement!  But  even  if  this  were  not  so,  it  does  not  lie  in  the 
mouth  of  an  American  to  make  this  charge,  for  the  most  disgraceful 
acts  of  riot  and  mob  violence  that  stain  our  annals  were  committed, 
not  by  the  foreign-born  in  their  rags,  but  by  Americans  dressed  in 
broadcloth ;  and  that  not  in  a  Dutch  or  an  Irish  settlement,  but  in  the 
streets  of  Boston.  This  mob,  known  in  history  as  the  broadcloth  mob, 
was  diabolical  in  its  fury,  and  sought  to  tear  William  Lloyd  Garrison 
to  pieces,  not  over  a  question  of  starvation  wages,  not  to  avenge  an 
act  of  injustice  and  oppression,  but  simply  because  he  had  dared  to 
proclaim  that  no  man  can  have  a  right  of  property  in  another  human 
being.  If  there  have  been  mobs  and  riots  among  the  foreign-born  in 
our  country,  they  were  nothing  but  impotent  protests,  by  ignorant 
though  honest  people,  against  that  rapacious  greed  which  took  the 
bread  they  toiled  for  away  from  their  children's  mouths,  while  the 
broadcloth  American  Boston  mob  shrieked  for  the  life  of  the  man 
who  dared  to  advocate  human  freedom. 

I  have  been  speaking,  be  it  noted,  of  the  immigrant  who  came  of 
his  own  accord  to  our  shores,  with  the  purpose  of  renouncing  forever 
his  foreign  allegiance,  and  swearing  fealty  to  the  republic.  I  do  not 
include  assisted  paupers,  habitual  criminals,  or  laborers,  whether  yellow 
or  white,  brought  over  under  contract  to  supplant  and  drive  out  Ameri- 
can workmen,  both  native-born  and  naturalized.  Against  these  classes 
our  gates  should  be  closed. 

Coming  now  to  the  question,  Shall  naturalization  be  made  more 


166  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

difficult  ?  I  ask  :  Why  should  it  be  ?  Does  the  history  of  the  past  fur- 
nish any  reason  for  such  legislation?  If  yea,  what  is  it?  If  nay,  then 
why  begin  now  ?  If  these  people  are  to  live  here  they  should  be  a  part 
of  us,  and  should  be  made  to  feel  that  they  have  an  interest  in  public 
affairs.  To  have  a  large  foreign  population  among  us  and  to  deprive 
it  of  the  right  of  citizenship,  with  all  its  privileges,  would  be  to  create 
jealousies,  discontent,  and,  in  short,  the  conditions  which,  in  time, 
must  produce  disturbances,  and  in  a  critical  juncture  might  endanger 
our  political  existence.  We  have  seen  that  but  for  the  vote  and  the 
influence  of  the  naturalized  citizen  Lincoln  could  not  have  been  elected, 
and  that  the  destiny  of  our  country  must  have  been  different. 

But  suppose  this  were  not  so ;  if  the  laws  had  prohibited  a  foreigner 
who  had  made  his  home  among  us  from  becoming  a  citizen,  and  if 
the  millions  of  foreigners  in  this  country  that  had  accumulated  property 
and  acquired  local  influence  had  found  themselves  compelled  to  obey 
the  laws  and  to  pay  taxes  to  support  our  institutions,  while  they  had 
no  voice  in  making  those  laws,  in  levying  the  taxes,  or  in  managing 
those  institutions,  would  they  not  have  been  discontented  and  secretly 
hostile  to  the  government  which  thus  treated  them ;  and  is  it  at  all 
probable  that  when  that  government  was  attacked,  either  they  or  their 
sons  would  have  rushed  to  its  defense? 

The  idea  of  limiting  the  franchise  is  not  new.  Wherever  and  when- 
ever there  have  been  men  who  thanked  God  that  they  were  not  like 
their  fellows,  it  has  been  advocated,  and  wherever  it  has  been  tried  it  has 
been  a  failure.  It  is  simply  the  dying  echo  of  aristocracy,  and  is 
inimical  to  the  spirit  of  our  institutions.  Van  Buren  earned  the  grati- 
tude of  all  true  Republicans  by  striking  it  out  of  the  constitution  of 
New  York.  There  are  yet  a  few  States  in  which  a  vestige  of  it  remains ; 
but  it  will  be  found  that  these  States  march  not  in  the  van,  but  with  the 
lumber  wagons  of  civilization. 

It  is  frequently  said  that  the  people  who  come  here  are,  as  a  rule, 
ignorant,  and  know  nothing  about  our  institutions,  and  therefore 
should  not  be  permitted  to  vote  after  a  residence  of  only  five  years ; 
that  they  cannot  act  intelligently,  and  will  simply  be  tools  for  crafty 
politicians  to  use  at  the  expense  of  good  government.  Now,  if  the 
premises  were  true,  the  conclusions  might  seem  plausible ;  and  were  it 
a  matter  of  speculation  only,  they  would,  perhaps,  be  accepted.  But 
the  premises  are  false.  Besides,  this  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  argument. 
We  have  had  a  century's  experience  and  this  must  decide  the  ques- 
tion. If  the  vote  of  these  people  has,  in  the  main,  been  marked  by 
ignorance  and  been  cast  against  beneficial  measures  and  good  govern- 


THE  IMMIGRANT'S  ANSWER.  167 

ment,  then  the  charge  must  be  accepted  as  true;  on  the  other  hand, 
if  their  vote  has,  in  the  main,  been  on  the  side  of  right  and  justice  and 
good  government,  then  the  charge  must  be  treated  as  being  not  only 
groundless,  but  a  slander.  We  have  already  seen  that  the  great  major- 
ity of  these  votes  has  steadfastly  been  cast  for  the  men  and  the  measures 
which,  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  have  shaped  the  destiny  of  this  nation ; 
surely  no  voice  from  the  Republican  party  will  declare  that  they  were 
wrong.  This  being  so,  no  Republican  should  be  permitted  to  make 
the  charge  of  ignorance  against  a  class  of  voters  who  helped  to  support 
these  men  and  these  measures,  and  without  whose  support  the  success 
of  the  latter  would  have  been  impossible. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  so-called 
scholar  is  not  the  most  intelligent,  the  most  reliable,  or  the  safest  guide 
in  public  affairs.  The  great  Selden  was  not  joking  when  he  affirmed  that 
"no  man  is  wiser  for  his  learning,  and  no  fool  is  a  perfect  fool  until 
he  learns  Latin ;"  and  Wendell  Phillips  was  in  dead  earnest  when  he 
said: 

"Book  learning  does  not  make  five  per  cent,  of  that  mass  of  common 
sense  that  runs  the  world,  transacts  its  business,  secures  its  progress,  trebles 
its  power  over  nature,  works  out  in  the  long  run  a  rough  average  justice, 
wears  away  the  world's  restraints,  and  lifts  off  its  burdens.  Two-thirds  of 
the  inventions  that  enable  France  to  double  the  world's  sunshine,  and  make 
old  and  New  England  the  workshops  of  the  world,  did  not  come  from  colleges 
or  from  minds  trained  in  the  schools  of  science,  but  struggled  up  from  the 
irrepressible  instinct  of  untrained  natural  power.  Her  workshops,  not  her 
colleges,  made  England  for  a  while  the  mistress  of  the  world,  and  the  hardest 
job  her  workmen  had  was  to  make  Oxford  willing  he  should  work  his  wonders. 
.  .  .  Liberty  and  civilization  are  only  fragments  of  rights  wrung  from  the 
strong  hands  of  wealth  and  book  learning;  almost  all  the  great  truths  relating 
to  society  were  not  the  result  of  scholarly  meditation,  but  have  been  first  heard 
in  the  solemn  protests  of  martyred  patriotism  and  the  loud  cries  of  crushed 
and  starving  labor.  When  common  sense  and  the  common  people  had  stereo- 
typed a  principle  into  a  statute,  then  book  men  came  to  explain  how  it  was 
discovered."  * 

I  will  add  only  that  years  ago,  when  the  book  men  both  North  and 
South  were  learnedly  demonstrating  that  slavery  was  a  divine  institu- 
tion, these  common  people  from  foreign  shores  simply  said,  "It  is 
wrong  for  one  man  to  get  another  man's  labor  for  nothing,"  and  then 
took  sides,  not  with  the  powerful  and  wealthy,  but  with  the  party  that 
was  then  the  object  of  ridicule,  because  it  dared  say  that  slavery  was 
wrong.  The  history  of  this  country  demonstrates  that  the  common 
people  are  swayed  by  a  patriotic  instinct  or  impulse  in  favor  of  the  right 

*  Wendell  Phillips  on  "The  Scholar  in  the  Republic." 


168  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

— something  which  cannot  be  said  of  the  wealthy  or  of  the  book 
men. 

I  know  that  occasionally  the  local  government  of  a  large  city  is  cited 
to  prove  the  ignorance  of  the  naturalized  voter ;  but  only  a  superficial 
observer  will  make  this  assertion.  This  question  has  been  examined 
by  some  of  the  ablest  men  of  America  and  Europe,  and  they  all 
agree  that  the  cause  of  bad  government  at  times  in  cities  is  partisanship 
and  the  saloon.  And  the  saloon  owes  its  power  to  the  fact  that  it  is 
courted  by  the  local  leaders  of  both  political  parties ;  each  political 
party  is  ready  and  eager  to  make  any  combination  which  will  enable 
it  to  defeat  its  opponent. 

When  the  rich  and  the  educated  divide  themselves  up  almost  equally 
between  the  two  great  parties,  and  one  half  vote  the  Democratic  ticket 
and  the  other  half  vote  the  Republican  ticket ;  if  then  the  naturalized 
voters,  or,  if  you  please,  the  common  people,  come  along,  and  part 
vote  the  Republican  ticket,  the  remainder  the  Democratic  ticket,  it  is 
both  nonsensical  and  dishonest  to  say  that  the  result,  no  matter  what 
it  is,  is  due  to  the  ignorance  of  the  voters.  Such  a  charge  could  be  truth- 
fully made  only  if  substantially  all  the  well-informed  and  the  property- 
holding  classes  were  to  range  themselves  on  one  side,  and  the  ignorant 
people  on  the  other,  and  the  latter  were  to  carry  the  day  and  run  things 
badly.  But  so  long  as  the  rich  and  the  educated  partisan  in  the  Repub- 
lican party  will  resort  to  any  means  to  carry  an  election,  and  will  stand 
in  line  with  all  classes  of  voters  on  that  side,  while  the  Democratic 
partisan  does  the  same  thing  on  the  other  side,  the  result  must  be 
attributed  to  a  party  and  not  to  a  class.  There  never  was  a  dishonest 
government  in  any  city  in  this  country  that  did  not  come  into  power 
by  the  assistance  of  a  large  class  of  voters  who  not  only  were  intelli- 
gent, but  who  boasted  of  American  ancestry.  And  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  there  never  will  be  one ;  for  partisan  feeling  seems  to  blind  men 
who  are  otherwise  intelligent,  fair,  and  honest,  so  that  four  out  of  five 
of  the  prominent  and  intelligent  men  in  each  political  party 
will  rather  see  their  party  win  with  men  who  are  dishonest 
and  unfit  than  see  the  opposite  party  win  with  honest 
and  competent  men.  And,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  man  who  comes 
to  the  polls  in  his  carriage  is,  as  a  rule,  more  narrow  and  more  bigoted 
than  the  poor  man  who  has  to  lose  half  a  day's  wages  in  order  to  vote. 

There  is  an  objection  to  further  immigration  that  at  first  blush 
seems  plausible,  namely,  that  it  increases  the  competition  among  the 
unskilled  laborers,  who  already  find  it  impossible  to  maintain  their 
families  in  a  manner  becoming  even  the  humblest  American  citizen. 
Ocean  travel  has  become  cheap,  safe,  and  speedy,  and  many  European 


THE  IMMIGRANTS  ANSWER.  169 

countries  are  over-populated.  These  people  are  aware  that  in  from  two 
to  three  weeks  they  can  go  from  the  place  of  their  birth  to  almost  any 
part  of  the  United  States.  They  have  heard  of  this  country  and  have 
an  exaggerated  idea  of  its  advantages ;  and  the  question  naturally 
suggests  itself :  If  these  people  are  permitted  to  come,  will  not  that 
reduce  the  unskilled  laborer  to  the  condition  of  the  European  laborer ; 
and,  to  avoid  this,  would  it  not  be  better  to  prevent  any  more  people 
from  landing  upon  our  shores?  To  a  man  who  sympathizes  with  the 
American  unskilled  laborer,  whether  native-born  or  naturalized,  in 
his  hopeless  condition,  this  argument,  I  repeat,  at  first  seems  plausible ; 
but  aside  from  the  impossibility  of  enforcing  such  an  exclusive  policy 
along  our  sea-coast  and  four  thousand  miles  of  border  crossed  every- 
where by  railroads,  there  are  insurmountable  objections  to  it.  First, 
it  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  to  the  law  of  human  develop- 
ment and  the  highest  civilization,  which  require  the  freest  intercourse 
possible,  not  only  between  men,  but  between  nations ;  and  no  people 
ever  yet  profited,  in  the  long  run,  by  pursuing  a  policy  at  variance 
with  this  law.  Secondly,  it  could  be  but  a  temporary  expedient  of 
such  doubtful  character  that  any  great  nation  must  hesitate  to  adopt 
it.  Thirdly,  it  would  be  so  decidedly  narrow  and  provincial  that,  aside 
from  its  effect  upon  ourselves,  we  cannot  take  such  a  position  in  the 
face  of  the  world.  The  truth  is  that  the  labor  question  is  becoming 
more  urgent,  and  the  condition  of  the  laborer  is  improving  as  fast  in 
Europe  as  in  this  country ;  and  the  laborer's  only  hope  for  the  future 
lies  in  united  action,  not  alone  in  one  country,  but  throughout  the 
civilized  world.  This  united  action  will  be  brought  about  much  more 
quickly  by  unity  of  interest,  free  intercourse,  and  friendly  co-opera- 
tion, than  would  be  possible  if  we  were  to  isolate  ourselves.  In  fact, 
it  is  only  by  this  intercourse  that  the  laboring  masses  can  be  so  edu- 
cated as  to  enable  them  to  stand  together,  and  by  united  action  secure 
justice  for  themselves  and  their  children ;  while  isolation  would 
prevent  the  spread  of  intelligence,  make  united  action  impossible,  and 
thus  put  any  great  achievement  out  of  the  question. 

Besides,  the  American  laborer  does  not  suffer  very  much  from 
competition  with  the  immigrant  who  comes  of  his  own  volition.  The 
latter,  coming  here  to  improve  his  condition  and  that  of  his  family, 
soon  joins  his  American  brother,  and  asks  wages  which  will  at  least 
enable  him  to  do  this.  But  the  condition  of  the  laborer  has  been  made 
deplorable  by  the  importation  of  shiploads  of  men  under  contract. 
These  do  not  come  with  the  motives  or  with  the  ambition  of  the  class 
we  have  been  considering ;  they  have  no  thought  of  becoming  citizens, 
but  are  practically  slaves,  who  will  work  for  wages  upon  which  the 


1 70  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

American  laborer  cannot  exist.  Agents  for  large  corporations  are 
constantly  importing  them.  Steamship  companies,  to  get  the  passage 
money  paid  by  American  employers,  bring  them  over  by  the  thousands, 
so  that  many  great  centers  of  industry  in  the  East  have  been  filled 
with  them,  and  the  American  laborer  is  being  crowded  out.  Both 
the  native-born  and  the  naturalized  laborer  have  been  almost  driven 
out  of  the  great  State  of  Pennsylvania  by  these  importations.  True, 
there  is  a  law  against  such  contracts,  but  it  is  a  dead  letter ;  so  that 
we  have  in  this  country  the  strange  spectacle  of  the  government  keep- 
ing up  the  price  of  a  great  many  articles  by  shutting  out  foreign  com- 
petition, and  at  the  same  time  permitting  the  manufacturers  of  these 
articles  to  import  the  pauper  laborers  of  Europe  to  produce  them. 

But  this  is  not  natural  immigration ;  and  whether  the  people  thus 
brought  be  Chinese,  Hungarian,  Polish,  or  British  paupers,  they  should 
be  excluded;  but  natural  immigration  should  not  be  interfered  with. 
Free  circulation  of  the  blood  is  necessary  to  a  healthy  growth,  whether 
of  an  individual  or  of  a  nation,  and  any  restriction  of  the  natural  pro- 
cesses arrests  development  and  enfeebles  both  body  and  mind.  Thou- 
sands of  years  ago  the  cry,  "China  for  the  Chinese,"  prevailed  and 
became  a  law  in  one  of  the  richest  quarters  of  the  globe,  among  a 
people  that  had  already  a  high  civilization.  From  that  time  their  faces 
have  been  turned  backward,  and  they  have  simply  been  worshiping 
the  shades  of  their  father ;  and  yet  there  are  in  this  age  and  in  this  coun- 
try men  who  would  have  us  practice  Chinese  statesmanship. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


THE  EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT. 

(An  Address  delivered  before  the  Brotherhood  of  United  Labor,  at  the  Armory 
in  Chicago,  February  22,  1890.) 

Mr.  President  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

On  March  5,  1867,  there  was  enacted  in  Illinois  a  statute  of  which 
Section  i  reads  as  follows:  "On  and  after  the  first  day  of  May,  1867, 
eight  hours  of  labor  between  the  rising  and  the  setting  of  the  sun 
in  all  mechanical  trades,  arts,  and  employments,  and  other  cases  of 
labor  and  service  by  the  day,  except  in  farm  employments,  shall  con- 
stitute and  be  a  legal  day's  work,  where  there  is  no  special  contract  or 
agreement  to  the  contrary."  A  number  of  other  States  about  that 
time  enacted  similar  laws.  In  1868  a  like  act  was  passed  by  Congress, 
which  was  to  apply  to  all  works  carried  on  by  the  Federal  govern- 
ment, and  soon  thereafter,  General  Grant,  then  President,  gave  the 
measure  the  influence  of  his  great  name  by  directing  that  the  same 


THE  EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT.  ifl 

wages  should  be  paid  for  eight  hours'  work  that  had  been  paid  for 
ten.  Since  that  time  there  has  been  more  or  less  continuous  agitation 
upon  this  subject ;  we  have  had  many  widespread  and  serious  industrial 
and  social  disturbances,  as  well  as  destructive  if  not  ruinous  strikes, 
growing  out  of  an  attempt  to  introduce  the  eight-hour  system. 

And  now,  after  twenty-two  years  of  legislation,  after  many  years  of 
agitation,  and  long  after  the  movement  has  had  the  sanction  of  some 
of  the  ablest  and  best  men  of  the  land,  we  have  met  to  consider  the 
feasibility  of  extending  this  system,  acknowledging  by  our  very  pres- 
ence here  that  the  difficulties  in  the  way  have  thus  far  refused  to  suc- 
cumb to  legislation,  to  agitation,  or  to  the  personal  influence  of  great 
men.  And  I  will  say  here  that  I  come  not  as  a  prophet  or  a  leader ; 
I  bring  you  neither  a  new  religion,  a  new  light,  nor  a  new  remedy ; 
I  propose  to  talk  to  you  as  I  would  to  a  brother,  and  to  view  the  situa- 
tion, with  the  difficulties  it  presents,  in  the  light  we  now  have. 

We  will  first  see  what  has  been  done  toward  shortening  the  hours 
of  labor.  About  1820  there  began  in  England  an  agitation  in  favor 
of  reducing  the  number  of  hours,  especially  in  factories,  from  twelve, 
and  even  fourteen,  to  ten,  and  it  was  not  until  1847  that  this  resulted 
in  a  ten-hour  law.  The  basis  for  this  class  of  legislation,  or  rather 
the  ground  for  State  interference,  is  that  the  State  is  interested  in  the 
physical  well-being  of  its  citizens  and  has  a  right  to  prohibit  whatever 
weakens  their  vitality.  After  the  passage  of  that  law,  reducing  the  hours 
to  ten,  the  agitation  was  continued  until,  in  many  lines  of  industry, 
they  have  been  reduced  to  nine,  and  in  a  few  cases  to  eight. 

After  the  reduction  in  England  the  agitation  proceeded  in  this 
country,  and  in  1853  the  managers  of  the  manufactories  in  Lowell  and 
Lawrence  and  Fall  River  voluntarily  reduced  the  hours  of  labor,  first 
to  eleven  and  then  to  ten  hours  per  day.  And  in  1874  Massachusetts 
passed  a  law  making  ten  hours  the  limit  for  females  and  males  under 
eighteen  years.  And  it  made  this  law  compulsory — treating  it 
as  a  police  regulation  for  the  protection  of  the  health  and  the  lives  of 
the  operatives  named. 

About  thirty  years  ago  the  eight-hour  system  was  introduced  into 
Victoria,  or  South  Australia,  and  has  prevailed  there  ever  since  in  the 
trades,  factories,  and  mines.  It  was  introduced  there  not  by  legislation 
nor  by  any  violent  measures,  but  by  mutual  concessions  between  the 
employer  and  employe.  In  1886  the  large  establishment  at  the  stock 
yards  tried  the  eight-hour  day  for  five  months,  at  the  end  of 
which  time  the  strong  public  sentiment  in  its  favor  having  some- 
what abated,  the  employers,  by  a  concert  of  action,  succeeded  in 
re-introducing  the  ten-hour  day :  but  it  is  to  be  said  for  them 


172  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

that  as  the  large  competing  establishments  in  other  cities  did  not 
adopt  the  eight-hour  system,  the  Chicago  packers  were  placed  at  a 
disadvantage,  and  they  are,  therefore,  not  to  be  greatly  blamed. 
The  eight-hour  system  has  also  prevailed  for  a  number  of  years  in 
most  of  the  large  cities  of  this  country  in  what  are  called  the  building 
trades — among  masons,  carpenters,  painters,  plasterers,  etc.  The 
arguments  offered,  pro  and  con,  on  this  question  are  familiar  to  most 
of  you.  They  are  not  new,  excepting  the  results  of  experience — no- 
body can  to-day  lay  claim  to  much  originality  in  connection  with  them. 
They  all  were  made  in  England  early  in  this  century,  when  it  was  pro- 
posed to  reduce  the  working  day  to  ten  hours,  and  later,  when  the 
working  day,  in  many  cases,  was  successfully  again  reduced  to  nine 
hours;  and  they  all  were  repeated,  with  more  or  less  vehemence,  in 
the  New  England  States  of  this  country  between  1840  and  1870  during 
the  agitation  for  a  reduction  in  the  hours  of  labor  from  twelve,  and 
even  fourteen,  to  ten,  which  resulted  successfully,  and  they  have  again 
been  frequently  repeated  in  late  years  in  connection  with  the  eight-hour 
movement.  In  brief,  it  is  urged  in  favor  of  shorter  hours : 

First.  That  labor-saving  machinery  has  so  greatly  increased  pro- 
duction that  the  same  amount  of  labor  is  no  longer  required  to  supply 
the  world  with  the  necessaries,  the  comforts,  and  the  luxuries  of  life, 
and  that  the  laborer  should  share  with  the  rest  of  the  world  the  benefit 
which  this  machinery  has  conferred  upon  mankind ;  that  while  it  is 
true  that  it  has  also  increased  the  wants  of  men  so  that  all  the  work 
performed  by  machinery  cannot  be  considered  as  clear  gain  in  point 
of  saving  manual  labor,  it  yet  has,  to  a  much  greater  extent,  increased 
production,  and  has,  to  a  much  greater  extent,  supplanted  human  la- 
bor ;  and  that  as  the  total  quantity  of  labor  to  be  performed  by  hand  is 
reduced,  the  hours  of  labor  should  be  proportionately  shortened  and 
the  laborer  given  time  for  healthful  recreations  and  mental  and  social 
improvement. 

Second.  That  this  labor-saving  machinery  has  so  far  supplanted 
human  labor  that  there  are  now  more  than  a  million  of  men  in  this 
broad  land  in  enforced  idleness,  it  being  claimed  by  seemingly  com- 
petent judges  that  there  are  in  Chicago  alone  from  50,000  to  60,000 
men,  to  say  nothing  of  many  women  who  work  for  a  living,  who  can 
get  nothing  to  do ;  that,  if  the  hours  of  labor  were  reduced  from  ten  to 
eight,  the  labor  of  all  these  people  would  again  be  required,  they  could 
again  be  employed,  and  thus  be  saved  from  the  fearful  consequences, 
morally  and  physically,  that  follow  absolute  destitution.  That,  unless 
this  is  done,  labor-saving  machinery  will  be  a  curse  instead  of  a  blessing 
to  mankind. 


THE  EIGHT-HOUR   MOVEMENT.  173 

Third.  That  at  present,  as  a  rule,  the  workmen,  and  especially 
women  and  boys,  are  kept  in  a  state  of  physical  and  nervous  exhaus- 
tion, so  that  great  intellectual,  social,  or  even  moral  improvement  is 
retarded,  and  in  many  cases  made  impossible ;  that  this  exhausted  and 
worn  condition  not  only  stupefies,  but  that  it  creates  a  demand  in  the 
system  for  stimulants  and  therefore  naturally  produces  drunkenness 
with  its  accompanying  evils. 

Fourth.  That  while  the  foregoing  is  true  of  adults,  the  effects  are 
still  more  marked  upon  their  children;  that  in  time,  under  our  present 
system,  the  children  of  the  laborers  not  only  become  incapable  of  doing 
the  best  kind  of  work,  but  they  make  a  low  grade  of  citizens,  become 
inferior  men  and  women,  physically,  mentally,  and  morally,  and  that 
society  at  large,  that  is,  the  State,  and  in  the  end  the  employer,  suffers 
from  this  condition ;  that  at  present,  as  a  rule,  the  boyhood  and  girlhood 
among  the  laboring  classes  terminate  at  fifteen,  that  at  thirty-five  to 
forty  they  break  down  with  rheumatism  and  the  ailments  that  follow 
in  the  wake  of  exhaustion,  toil,  and  exposure,  and  at  fifty  too  many  of 
them  are  in  their  graves.  In  1874  Governor  Washburne,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, who  had  previously  opposed  the  movement  for  shorter  hours, 
declared  in  his  official  address  that,  "It  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
strength  of  mill  operators  is  becoming  exhausted,  and  they  are  becom- 
ing prematurely  old  and  losing  the  vitality  requisite  to  the  healthy 
enjoyment  of  social  opportunity." 

Fifth.  That  when  one  class  of  people  is  confined  to,  and  is  exhaust- 
ed by,  manual  labor,  and  another  has  the  advantages  of  intellectual 
training,  the  former  class  will  soon  be  absolutely  in  the  power  of  the 
latter.  A  man  who  returns  to  his  home  exhausted  is  in  no  condition 
to  engage  in  intellectual  exercise.  The  mind  sympathizes  with  the 
body,  and  when  the  physical  faculties  are  prostrated  with  fatigue,  it  is 
impossible  for  him  to  employ  his  mind  so  as  to  win  for  himself  a  fair 
position  in  the  social  scale.  He  has  no  opportunity  to  circulate  among 
his  fellow-citizens,  and  take  part  in  current  events,  and  thus  in  time 
a  feeling  of  antagonism  and  discontent  is  engendered — he  becomes  nar- 
row and  selfish,  and  a  social  friction  is  created,  which  in  the  end  is 
injurious  to  all. 

Sixth.  That  before  the  division  of  labor  and  the  extensive  intro- 
duction of  machinery,  each  laborer,  as  a  rule,  made  an  entire  thing, 
so  that  his  mind  was  occupied  and  the  work  not  so  fatiguing.  Now  all 
is  changed ;  he  works  on  a  single  process,  frequently  on  a  very  minute 
object,  the  effect  of  which  on  the  mind  is  most  unfavorable  when  long 
continued ;  the  constant  concentration  of  the  mind  upon  one  thing 
in  time  narrows  it  to  that  thing,  the  laborer  becomes  like  the  machine, 


I74  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

his  nervous  system  is  weakened,  his  mind  dwarfed,  and  his  body  stunt- 
ed. That  when  the  laborer  worked  by  hand  he  could  rest  when  he  was 
tired — quit  an  hour  earlier  if  he  were  not  well — but  now  he  must  work 
while  the  machine  works,  and  that  this  constant  and  regular  draft  on 
the  nervous  system  causes  him  to  wear  out  with  the  machine  and  in 
many  cases  sooner — for  human  muscle  and  nerve  cannot  compete  with 
steel  unless  given  plenty  of  time  to  rest  and  recuperate. 

Seventh.  It  is  urged  that  if  the  hours  were  reduced  the  laborer 
and  his  children  would  be  in  better  condition  physically,  mentally, 
socially,  and  morally,  and  therefore  not  only  would  become  better 
citizens,  but  would  do  better  work,  and,  in  the  long  run,  much  more 
work ;  that  it  would  add  from  fifteen  to  twenty  years  to  the  average 
life  of  the  laborer.  In  short,  that  it  would  place  the  whole  laboring  class 
upon  a  higher  plane,  and  thus  benefit  the  State  and  the  employer ;  that 
long  hours  mean  comparatively  low  wages,  low  wages  mean  cheap 
men,  and  cheap  men  mean  low  civilization.  On  the  other  hand  it  is 
urged : 

First.  That  shorter  hours  mean  reduced  production ;  that  the 
world  needs  all  the  production  we  are  now  capable  of,  and  that  if  there 
is  a  reduction  in  the  product  of  the  world  there  must  be  consequent 
suffering,  and  that  the  poor  will  suffer  most,  and  the  world  will  retro- 
grade instead  of  advancing. 

To  this  it  is  replied  that  it  cannot  be  shown  that  there  will,  in  the 
end,  be  less  production.  On  the  contrary,  that  under  shorter  hours, 
the  laborers  will  have  increased  vigor  and  higher  intelligence,  feel  more 
interest  in  their  work — and  will,  in  the  end,  accomplish  not  only 
as  much  work,  but  a  higher  grade  of  work.;  that,  in  fact,  this  is  no 
longer  an  open  question,  it  having  been  settled  by  experience ;  that 
when  in  England  the  reduction  was  made  from  twelve  and  fourteen 
hours  to  ten,  as  soon  as  things  had  adjusted  themselves  to  the  new  con- 
ditions it  was  found  that  there  was  not  only  as  much  work  done  in  the 
ten  hours  as  had  been  in  the  longer  hours,  but  that  it  was  a  higher 
grade  of  work,  and  that  when,  subsequently,  a  further  change  was 
made  from  ten  to  nine,  while  there  was  some  falling  off  at  first,  yet, 
owing  to  the  introduction  of  better  machinery  and  the  improved  con- 
dition of  workmen,  the  product  soon  increased  to  what  it  had  been,  and 
that  when  in  the  New  England  States,  about  the  middle  of  this  century, 
the  manufacturers  voluntarily  reduced  the  hours  of  labor  to  ten,  there 
was  scarcely  any  falling  off  in  the  production  after  the  new  system 
was  in  full  operation,  while  the  condition  of  the  laborers  and  their  fam- 
ilies greatly  improved  in  every  respect.  When  the  eight-hour  day  was 
tried  at  the  stock  yards,  there  was  a  slight  falling  off  in  the  production, 


THE  EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT. 

but  not  in  proportion  to  the  reduction  in  hours.  One  of  the  large 
employers  who  opposed  the  movement  stated  that  had  the  hours  been 
nine  instead  of  eight  the  men  would  have  accomplished  as  much  as 
they  formerly  did  in  ten.  But  if  this  were  not  so,  the  objection  would 
not  be  valid,  because  at  present  there  are  multitudes  for  whom  there  is 
no  work,  and  if  as  many  hours  of  actual  labor  are  required  as  are  now 
devoted  to  it,  then,  by  reducing  the  number  of  hours  which  each  shall 
work,  all  could  be  employed  ;  and  that,  if  this  were  done,  the  production 
would  'be  greater  than  at  present.  Further,  that  there  would  then  be 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  years  added  to  the  life  of  the  laborer,  and  that, 
consequently,  the  total  production  would,  in  the  end,  be  very  much 
greater  than  at  present. 

Second.  That  if  the  laborer  were  to  accept  eight  hours'  pay  for 
eight  hours'  work,  then  he  would  have  less  money  to  spend  than  he  has 
now,  and  consequently  be  worse  off ;  and  that  if  he  were  to  be  paid  ten 
hours'  pay  for  eight  hours'  work  there  would  necessarily  be  a  great 
increase  in  the  cost  of  production ;  and  that  as  the  laboring  classes 
themselves  consume  the  greater  part  of  what  is  produced,  they  must 
suffer  from  the  increased  cost  of  production,  that  the  things  which  they 
need  will  be  made  clearer,  while  they  will  have  no  more  money  than 
they  have  now,  and  that,  consequently,  they  would  still  be  sufferers. 

To  this  it  is  answered  that  the  question  of  wages  must  be  left  to 
regulate  itself ;  it  being  in  a  measure,  at  least,  independent ;  that  it  is 
true  if  they  got  only  eight  hours'  pay  for  eight  hours'  work  some  of 
them  would  get  less  money  than  they  get  now,  but  all  would  then  be 
employed,  the  laboring  class  would  get  as  much  as  they  get  now,  and 
none  of  them  would  be  driven  to  the  point  where  they  must  either  beg 
or  steal.  But  the  assumption  that  if  there  were  to  be  ten  hours'  wages 
paid  for  eight  hours'  work  and  a  consequent  increase  in  the  cost  of 
production,  the  laborers  would  be  worse  off  than  they  are  now  is  at 
variance  with  all  experience.  Plausible  as  the  reasoning  may  at  first 
blush  seem,  it  is  not  correct.  I  will  simply  direct  attention  to  the  fact 
that  everywhere,  and  in  all  times,  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  when 
wages  were  high,  the  working  classes  prospered,  when  wages  were  low 
they  suffered.  In  fact,  high  prices  and  good  times  have  gone  hand  in 
hand,  while  low  prices  and  hard  times  have  always  been  twin  brothers, 
and  the  people  who  always  suffer  most  when  prices  are  low  are  the 
laboring  people.  Low  wages  and  low  prices,  as  a  rule,  mean  black 
bread  and  no  meat  for  the  man  who  toils  with  his  hands,  and,  in  many 
cases,  it  means  the  poor-house,  the  police-station,  and  the  bridewell 
for  his  children. 

Third.    That  while  the  time  will  come  when  eight  hours  will  con- 


LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

stitute  a  day's  work,  yet  we  are  not  ready  for  it  now ;  that  the  laboring 
classes  are  not  yet  sufficiently  advanced,  that  they  haven't  sufficient 
strength  of  character,  that  they  were  yet  too  ignorant  and  too  unruly 
and  too  much  inclined  to  dissipate  to  make  the  change,  and  that  we 
must  wait  until  they  have  reached  a  higher  development. 

Now,  to  this  I  answer  that  once  it  was  urged  in  England  that  people 
should  not  be  given  their  political  freedom  until  they  had  become  fitted 
for  it,  until  there  was  no  danger  of  their  abusing  it ;  and  Lord  Macaulay 
replied  that,  "If  men  are  to  wait  for  freedom  until  they  have  become 
good  and  wise  in  slavery,  they  will  wait  forever."  That  observation 
answers  this  objection. 

Fourth.  That  there  ought  to  be  no  unity  of  action  among  the 
laborers,  for  if  there  was  the  liberty  of  each  laborer  to  work  as  many 
hours  as  he  pleased  would  be  taken  away,  and  that  the  dearest  thing 
that  the  laborer  could  cherish  is  his  liberty  to  work  as  long  as  he 
wishes. 

Now,  it  is  a  remarkable  and  a  sad  fact,  that  when  we  find 
a  class  of  people  in  a  condition  where  they  are  absolutely  helpless, 
where  they  are  absolutely  in  the  power  of  a  stronger  class,  where  they 
are  the  slaves  of  adverse  circumstances,  and  where  individual  action 
can  accomplish  absolutely  nothing,  that  there  should  always  be  found 
persons  who  try  to  keep  them  in  that  condition,  and  who  resort  to  any 
sophistry  which  may  serve  this  purpose.  And  I  will  say  that,  as  a  rule, 
these  persons  are  not  the  employers  themselves — employers  usually  are 
men  of  brains ;  generally,  too,  they  have  hearts,  and  while  they  may 
allow  what  they  consider  to  be  their  interests  to  carry  them  too  far, 
still  they  are  rarely  heard  advancing  such  an  argument.  Arguments 
of  this  character  are  made  by  a  class  of  men  who  can  be  designated  as 
"hangers-on,"  men  who  want  to  bask  in  the  smiles  of  the  rich  and  of 
the  employers ;  men  who,  in  some  capacity,  either  socially  or  financially, 
are  dependent  upon  the  patronage  of  the  rich.  This  class  of  men  will 
resort  to  methods  and  measures  to  hinder  reform  and  to  defend  abuses 
which  would  make  employers  blush.  By  way  of  contrast,  I  wish  here 
to  quote  a  few  words  from  Governor  Washburne,  of  Massachusetts,  in 
his  message  to  the  legislature ;  he  said  :  "The  fact  that  there  is  unrest 
and  dissatisfaction  when  man  is  confined  to  unremitting  toil  is  one  of 
the  brightest  and  most  healthy  omens  of  the  times.  It  is  an  indication 
that  his  better  nature  is  struggling  for  emancipation ;  it  is  a  hopeful 
sign  of  finer  and  nobler  manhood  in  the  future.  Such  efforts  for  im- 
provement should  never  be  discouraged,  but  always  encouraged." 

Fifth.  Again,  it  is  urged  that  shortening  the  hours  of  labor  simply 
means  increased  idleness,  increased  drunkenness,  increased  vice ;  that 


THE   EIGHT-HOUR   MOVEMENT.  177 

the  extra  time  given  the  men  would  not  be  put  to  a  good  purpose,  and 
that,  therefore,  the  existing  condition  should  continue. 

Now  I  will  say  in  answer  to  this,  that  if  it  were  true  it  would  apply 
alike  to  all  mankind.  Human  nature  is  pretty  much  the  same,  and 
if  it  is  true  that  you  should  not  give  men  the  opportunity  to  improve 
because  it  might  be  abused,  then  there  is  no  hope  of  improvement. 
Besides,  it  is  a  question  of  justice  and  right;  eternal  justice  requires 
that  every  man  should  do  his  share  of  the  work  required  to  be  done  to 
supply  the  world  with  what  is  necessary,  and  if  some  are  now  dofng 
more  than  their  share  they  have  a  right  to  a  change,  and  if  the  men  have 
a  right  to  a  reduction  as  a  matter  of  justice,  they  are  entitled  to  it  even 
if  they  should  abuse  their  leisure.  One  set  of  men  have  no  right  to  set 
themselves  up  as  judges  of  their  fellows,  and  deprive  the  latter  of  rights 
which  they  enjoy  in  common  with  all.  We  all  abuse,  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent,  the  privileges  and  blessings  conferred  upon  us,  yet  this  is 
no  reason  why  we  should  be  deprived  of  them  by  our  fellow-men.  Take 
the  rich  and  the  sons  of  the  rich  :  they  enjoy  privileges  and  advantages 
which  were  never  enjoyed  before.  All  art,  all  literature,  and  all  science 
are  open  to  them,  and  a  field  for  doing  good  such  as  was  never  before 
seen ;  yet  nobody  will  say  that  they  are  making  a  fair  use  of  these  priv- 
ileges. Will  it,  therefore,  be  claimed  that  they  should  be  deprived  of 
them?  It  is  no  doubt  true  that  if  a  large  class  were  suddenly  given 
more  leisure  time,  in  the  first  reaction  after  the  long  strain  there  would 
be  some  dissipation,  but  it  would  be  only  the  effect  of  a  sudden  relaxa- 
tion, and  it  would  not  last  long.  It  may  be  true  that,  for  a  short  time 
after  the  four  million  slaves  in  the  South  had  been  granted  their  free- 
dom, they  were,  if  anything,  worse  off  than  they  were  while  they  were 
slaves ;  but  will  any  intelligent  man  to-day  claim  that  therefore  they 
ought  to  have  been  kept  in  slavery?  However,  we  are  not  left  merely 
to  surmise  or  to  speculation.  At  every  reduction  of  hours  in  England 
there  followed  an  improvement  in  the  physical,  mental,  moral,  and 
social  condition  of  the  laborers.  In  Victoria,  or  South  Australia,  the 
eight-hour  system  has  been  in  operation  for  over  thirty  years,  in  all 
lines  of  industry,  including  mining  and  manufacturing,  and  instead 
of  producing  demoralization,  it  is  not  only  prosperous,  but  is  called 
the  happy  home  of  working-men,  and  the  American  consul  reports  that 
"the  moral  and  physical  condition  of  the  people  is  sound  and  healthy." 
In  1871,  Mr.  William  Gray,  in  writing  on  the  effects  of  the  reduction 
from  twelve  to  ten  hours  in  the  New  England  factories,  said :  "The 
testimony  of  all  impartial  persons,  including  original  opponents  of  the 
ten-hour  act,  goes  to  show  that  the  manufacturing  masses  have  proved 
themselves  worthy  of  the  boon  conferred  on  them.  They  have  not 
J? 


1 78  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

abused  the  gift.  Their  intelligence  has  increased,  their  habits  have 
improved,  their  social  happiness  has  advanced ;  they  have  gained  all, 
and  more  than  all,  they  expected  from  the  legislation.  The  intelligence, 
the  general  tone,  the  bearing  of  the  operatives  have  kept  pace  with  the 
advancement  of  the  age.  It  would  be  scarce  too  much  to  say  that  the 
humble  factory  worker,  in  securing  just  legislation,  has  been  the  civil- 
izer  and  moralizer  of  his  employer."  One  of  the  largest  employers  in 
Chicago,  who  opposed  this  movement  in  1886,  stated  to  me  that  after 
the  system  was  once  started  he  could  not  notice  any  increased  drunk- 
enness or  disorder  of  any  kind ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  the  men  seemed 
well-behaved,  and  attended  faithfully  to  business.  It  is  also  a  fact  that 
the  condition  of  the  artisans  in  the  building  trades,  and  of  their  families, 
has  greatly  improved  since  the  adoption  of  the  eight-hour  system  by 
them. 

I  quote  from  another  author,  whose  words  should  be  seriously 
pondered :  "There  is  nothing,  perhaps,  more  to  be  regretted  than  the 
fact  that  extraordinary  commercial  prosperity  and  an  unprecedented 
accumulation  of  wealth  have  hitherto  done  so  little  to  shorten  the  work- 
man's hours  of  labor.  It  is  unreasonable  to  expect  that  the  moral 
qualities  in  man's  nature  can  be  duly  developed  if  life  is  passed  in  one 
unvarying  round  of  monotonous  work.  We  are  constantly  being  re- 
minded of  the  ennobling  and  elevating  influence  produced  by  contem- 
plating the  beauties  of  nature,  by  reflecting  upon  the  marvels  which 
science  unfolds,  and  by  studying  the  triumphs  of  art  and  literature. 
Yet  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  the  toiling  masses  are  reared  in  such 
ignorance,  and  surrounded  from  early  childhood  to  old  age  by  so 
much  squalor  and  misery,  that  life  could  be  to  them  scarcely  more 
dreary  or  depressing  if  there  were  no  literature,  no  science,  no  art, 
and  if  nature  had  no  beauties  to  unfold.  The  undue  length  of  time 
which  men  have  been  accustomed  to  work  represents,  so  far  as  many 
branches  of  industry  are  concerned,  a  thoroughly  mistaken  policy.  In 
many  instances  it  is  undeniable  that  men  would  not  only  get  through 
more  work,  but  would  do  it  more  efficiently,  if  they  had  more  oppor- 
tunity for  mental  cultivation  and  for  healthful  recreation.  No  small 
part  of  the  intemperance  which  is  laid  to  the  charge  of  laborers  is 
directly  to  be  traced  to  excessive  toil.  When  strength  becomes  ex- 
hausted, and  the  body  is  over-fatigued,  there  often  arises  an  almost 
uncontrollable  desire  to  resort  to  stimulants."  I  call  your  attention 
especially  to  the  last  few  lines,  in  which  he  says  that  over-fatigue  and 
physical  exhaustion  create  an  almost  uncontrollable  desire  for  stimu- 
lants, and  that  much  of  the  intemperance  laid  to  the  charge  of  laborers 
is  due  to  excessive  toil.  This  is  not  the  language  of  a  cheap  agitator, 


THE  EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT.  179 

it  is  not  the  language  of  a  sentimentalist,  but  it  is  the  language  of  Henry 
Fawcett,  who  for  many  years  has  occupied  the  chair  of  political  econ- 
omy in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  England — a  man  who  has  for 
many  years  been  a  member  of  the  English  Parliament,  a  man  who  has 
been  a  member  of  the  English  Cabinet,  having  been  for  some  time 
postmaster-general  of  the  British  Empire,  a  man  who  is  regarded  as 
one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  accurate  writers  on  social  and  industrial 
conditions  now  living. 

EVOLUTION  OF  THE  LABOR  CAUSE. 

Before  considering  the  practical  difficulties  immediately  in  the  way 
of  a  more  general  introduction  of  the  eight-hour  system,  it  is  important 
that  we  should  understand  the  history  and  the  nature  of  the  develop- 
ment of  labor.  It  is  important  to  know  whether  the  conditions  of 
labor  can  be  suddenly  and  arbitrarily  made,  or  whether  they  are  a  mat- 
ter of  growth,  a  matter  of  development,  requiring  time.  If  we  will  but 
glance  back  for  a  moment,  we  very  soon  see  that  the  labor  problem, 
like  all  other  problems  and  conditions  of  existence,  is  governed  by  the 
law  of  evolution,  has  grown  up  from  a  condition  of  wild  disorder,  to,  at 
least,  comparative  order. 

Scientists  tell  us  that  in  the  physical  world,  even  after  the  earth 
had  assumed  its  present  form,  it  required  long  ages  of  change  before 
there  was  such  a  thing  possible  as  a  peaceful  valley  or  a  green  meadow. 
In  religion  it  took  thousands  of  years  of  development,  from  a  period 
of  demons  and  supernatural  monstrosities,  from  bloody  sacrifices  and 
horrible  torture,  to  the  pure  and  simple  doctrines  of  Christ,  proclaiming 
peace  upon  earth  and  good-will  toward  men. 

In  politics  mankind  struggled  along  through  various  forms  and 
conditions  of  brute  force  to  near  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury before  there  could  be  proclaimed  to  the  world  that  all  men  were 
created  equal,  and  even  this  had  to  be  done  in  the  woods  of  America 
— an  out-of-the-way  place,  a  new  continent  outside  of  the  limits  of  what 
was  then  called  civilization. 

In  the  industrial  world  we  first  perceive  the  struggle  for  liberty 
and  for  justice  by  what  are  called  the  captains  of  industry — the  em- 
ployers ;  for,  mark  you,  they  are  only  a  little  ahead  of  the  wage-workers 
in  their  struggle  for  justice. 

In  ancient  times,  particularly  in  the  Roman  and  the  mediaeval 
world,  a  manufacturer  or  merchant,  though  his  ships  might  cover  the 
inland  seas,  though  thousands  of  men  might  be  doing  his  bidding, 
yet  he  had  no  voice  in  the  government,  was  not  considered  fit  for  a 
gentleman  and  patrician  to  associate  with,  had  no  voice  in  making  the 


i8o  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

laws  that  should  govern  him,  nor  in  determining  what  taxes  he  should 
pay ;  he  was  plundered  indirectly  by  means  of  taxation,  and  when  this 
did  not  suit  the  purpose  of  dissipated  and  rapacious  officialism,  he  was 
plundered  directly.  To  be  born  a  patrician,  to 'be  a  member  of  the 
priesthood,  or  a  successful  military  chieftain,  entitled  a  man  to  rule. 
The  man  who  supplied  the  world  with  necessaries  had  no  social  or 
political  standing,  and  this  continued  to  be  so  throughout  the  middle 
ages — continued  to  be  so  in  most  all  Europe  till  toward  the  end  of  the 
last  century,  and  is  to  a  great  extent  still  the  case  in  Russia  and  in  the 
Turkish  provinces  of  Europe.  It  is  true  that  in  a  few  Italian  cities  the 
conditions  were  different,  a  few  rays  of  the  coming  dawn  having  struck 
them  first ;  but  as  compared  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  they  were  so 
small  as  to  be  unworthy  of  notice.  In  England  the  employer  acquired 
his  rights  earlier,  and  has  for  some  time  had  a  voice  in  the  govern- 
ment. But  even  in  England  the  much  praised  Magna  Charta  was  not 
for  the  benefit  of  either  employer  or  workman,  but  simply  of  the  nobil- 
ity— the  idle,  who,  by  reason  of  the  accident  of  birth,  were  enabled  to 
appropriate  the  labor  of  others. 

But,  upon  the  whole,  the  employer  in  his  struggles  for  justice  is 
not  a  century  in  advance  of  the  class  we  to-day  call  the  wage-workers, 
and  they,  the  laborers,  were  in  ancient  and  later  times  practically  all 
slaves.  To  be  sure,  we  catch  here  and  there  in  ancient  literature  a 
phrase  about  the  laborer  being  worthy  of  his  hire,  but  when  we  examine 
into  the  actual  condition  of  the  toiling  masses  we  are  forced  to  treat 
such  utterances  as  the  emanations  of  fancy,  for  not  only  was  the  labor 
of  the  masses  at  the  absolute  disposal  of  the  master,  but  practically, 
and  in  every-day  experience,  their  lives  were  also.  True,  there  was  in 
most  countries  a  law  providing  that  the  master  should  not  kill  his  slave, 
but  if  the  master  did  so  he  generally  went  unwhipped  of  justice.  This 
continued  to  be  the  condition,  with  slight  exceptions,  throughout  all 
Europe  down  to  near  the  beginning  of  this  century.  For  unnumbered 
centuries  they  were  absolute  slaves,  belonging  to  individuals ;  then  they 
belonged,  as  it  were,  to  the  soil,  and  were  known  as  serfs  and,  in  time, 
in  England  they  may  be  said  to  have  belonged  to  the  county  or  shire. 
In  Russia  the  serfs  were  not  freed  until  the  middle  of  this  century, 
and  in  the  United  States  of  America  the  slaves  were  not  freed  until 
after  the  middle  of  this  century.  It  is  true* there  were  in  some  Euro- 
pean cities  organizations  of  skilled  workmen,  who  enjoyed  not  only 
their  freedom,  but  some  advantages  that  may  be  said  to  have  been 
ahead  of  their  time ;  but,  as  compared  with  the  great  mass  of  the  com- 
mon people,  they  were  so  insignificant  in  number,  and  their  situation 
was  so  exceptional  that  we  need  not  consider  them  further  than  to 


THE   EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT.  181 

call  attention  to  the  fact  that  they  developed  the  technical  skill  of  their 
members,  and  enforced  sobriety  and  honorable  conduct,  while  by 
means  of  their  meetings  and  discussions  they  became,  in  a  measure, 
educated,  and  thereby  reached  a  much  higher  plane  than  was  other- 
wise possible,  and  they  thus  wielded  a  powerful  influence  for  good. 

Thorold  Rogers,  in  his  great  book  on  wages,  would  have  us  believe 
that  three  or  four  centuries  ago  the  condition  of  some  workmen  in 
England  was  better  than  it  is  to-day,  and  no  doubt  he  found  reference 
to  isolated  cases  which  indicated  that  this  might  be  so.  But  we  should 
get  a  very  superficial  knowledge  of  the  condition  of  the  common  peo- 
ple of  England  if  we  were  to  take  this  as  being  in  any  sense  indicative 
of  their  status. 

In  1360,  during  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  it  was  provided  by  law 
that  if  a  laborer  refused  to  work  for  the  wages  fixed  by  law  or  by  the 
justices  of  the  county,  or  if  he  went  outside  of  the  county  he  was  to  be 
brought  back  by  the  sheriff,  was  to  be  imprisoned,  and  was  to  have 
the  letter  "F"  branded  with  a  hot  iron  upon  his  forehead  in  token 
of  his  falsity.  If  he  sought  by  any  manner  to  increase  the  rate  of  wages 
he  was  to  be  imprisoned.  Nay,  at  one  time,  if  he  accepted  more  he 
was  to  be  imprisoned ;  and  if  an  employer  agreed  to  pay  more  than  the 
fixed  rate,  he  was  to  forfeit  three  times  the  amount.  From  that  time  on, 
for  four  centuries,  the  legislation  in  England  is  of  uniform  kind,  pro- 
hibiting by  imprisonment  all  meetings  of  workmen,  and  providing  that 
the  justices  should  fix  the  wages  to  be  paid  in  their  county ;  that  if  any 
laborer  refused  to  work  for  the  wages  fixed  by  the  justices,  he  was 
to  be  put  in  the  stocks  ;  if  any  laborer  was  found  idle  and  did  not  apply 
himself  to  work,  he  was  to  have  the  letter  "Y"  branded  with  a  hot  iron 
upon  his  cheek,  and  was  to  be  sold  into  slavery  for  two  years,  his 
children  likewise  to  be  sold,  and  if  either  he  or  they  ran  away  they 
were  to  have  the  letter  "S"  branded  on  the  cheek  with  a  hot  iron,  and 
were  to  be  sold  into  slavery  for  life,  and  were  to  be  fed  on  bread  and 
water,  and  it  was  provided  by  law  that  they  were  to  be  made  to  work  by 
beating,  by  chaining,  etc.,  and  if  they  ran  away  again  they  were  to 
suffer  death.  Children  that  had  worked  at  husbandry  till  they  were 
twelve  years  old,  were  forbidden  ever  to  attempt  to  do  anything  else ; 
other  children  were  required  to  follow  the  occupation  of  their  parents  or 
be  imprisoned.  It  is  hard  to  conceive  of  a  condition  of  the  laboring 
classes  that  could  be  much  worse  than  that  of  the  English  during  these 
centuries. 

In  1562,  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  following  statute 
was  enacted :  "All  artificers  and  laborers  being  hired  for  wages  by  the 
day  or  week  shall  betwixt  the  midst  of  the  months  of  March  and  Sep- 


182  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

tember  be  and  continue  at  their  work  at  or  before  five  of  the  clock 
in  the  morning  and  continue  at  work  and  not  depart  until  betwixt  seven 
and  eight  of  the  clock  at  night,  except  it  be  in  the  time  of  breakfast, 
dinner,  or  drinking;  and  all  such  artificers  and  laborers  between  the 
midst  of  September  and  the  midst  of  March  shall  be  and  continue  at 
their  work  from  the  spring  of  the  day  in  the  morning  until  the  night 
of  the  same  day,  except  in  the  time  of  breakfast  and  dinner." 

I  will  simply  add  that  under  the  laws  of  England  during  all  these 
centuries  if  an  employer  violated  an  agreement  with  an  employe  he 
could  simply  be  held  in  damages,  but  if  an  employe  violated  his  agree- 
ment with  an  employer  he  could  be  fined  and  imprisoned,  and  it  was 
not  until  1875  that  the  law  was  changed  in  this  regard  so  as  to  hold 
the  employe  only  liable  in  damages  for  a  breach  of  his  contract  the 
same  as  an  employer,  and  Mr.  Disraeli,  who  was  then  prime  minister, 
remarked  that  "for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  country  the 
employer  and  employe  sat  under  equal  laws." 

From  this  rapid  glance  at  the  history  of  the  cause  of  labor  we 
perceive  that  it  is  a  plant  that  grows  and  that  cannot  be  arbitrarily 
made,  and  its  growth  is  dependent  upon  the  support  of  public  senti- 
ment ;  agitation  has  helped  it  along  by  educating  and  creating  a 
public  sentiment  in  its  favor. 

CAUSES    OF    FAILURE    AND    SUCCESS. 

Coming  now  to  the  practical  difficulties  in  the  way  it  seems  to  me 
that  the  main  reason  for  the  failure  of  the  eight-hour  movement  in 
some  cases  is  that  the  movement  was  not  coextensive  with  the  em- 
ployer's field  of  competition,  while  on  the  other  hand,  in  those  cases  in 
which  it  was  successful,  the  movement  was  coextensive  with  the  em- 
ployer's field  of  competition.  Let  me  illustrate :  Houses  and  large 
buildings  are  not  sold  on  board  the  cars  at  place  of  manufacture. 
Those  engaged  in  erecting  them  in  one  city  do  not  come  directly  in 
competition  with  those  engaged  in  erecting  them  in  another  city.  It 
is  true  that  the  workmen  will  go  from  one  city  to  another,  but  they 
do  not  do  this  on  a  scale  sufficiently  large  to  bring  the  artisans  in  the 
building  trades  in  one  city  so  directly  in  competition  with  those  in 
another.  Most  of  the  workmen  have  families,  which  they  cannot  move 
without  expense,  and  which  they  will  not  leave  to  seek  work  unless 
obliged  to,  so  that  in  the  building  trades  it  is  always  a  local  question, 
and  that  is  the  reason  why  the  short-hour  system  has  been  introduced 
successfully  in  this  line,  while  it  has  failed  in  others.  In  Victoria  there 
were  only  about  a  million  of  inhabitants,  with  the  ocean  surrounding 
them,  and  making  speedy  importation  of  laborers  impossible.  Now, 


THE   EIGHT-HOUR   MOVEMENT.  183 

Chicago  has  over  a  million  of  inhabitants,  yet  if  Chicago  stood  alone, 
and  if  its  manufacturers  did  not  have  to  come  in  competition  with  the 
rest  of  the  country,  it  would  be  a  very  easy  matter  to  have  the  system 
adopted  here.  In  England  the  movement  in  favor  of  the  reduction  of 
hours  was,  in  each  instance,  coextensive  with  the  field  of  competition 
among  employers.  It  is  true  it  embraced  vast  industries,  but  they 
were  in  a  small  territory,  and  all  those  carrying  on  the  same  business 
were  affected  alike,  hence  the  movement  was  successful.  In  New 
England  the  movement  for  shorter  hours  was  again  coextensive  with 
what  then  constituted  the  manufacturer's  field  of  competition,  all  of  the 
leading  mill-owners  acceded  to  the  movement,  and  they  were  all 
affected  alike,  and  the  movement  was  successful. 

In  1886,  when  the  eight-hour  system  was  adopted  at  the  Union 
Stock  Yards  at  Chicago,  it  was  not  adopted  by  the  large  competing 
establishments  in  the  East,  that  is,  the  movement  in  favor  of  shorter 
hours  was  not  coextensive  with  the  field  in  which  the  packers  had  to 
compete,  and  consequently  it  failed.  Manufactured  goods  are  generally 
sold  on  board  the  cars  at  place  of  manufacture,  and  owing  to  the  perfect 
facilities  for  transportation,  a  manufacturer  in  one  city  is  brought 
into  direct  competition  with  another  manufacturer  in  the  same  line 
a  thousand  miles  away.  Therefore,  in  my  judgment,  any  attempt  to 
introduce  the  eight-hour  system  into  the  manufacturing  world  must  be 
general,  and,  as  you  will  readily  see,  this  will  require  universal  and 
thorough  organization  on  the  part  of  the  laboring  classes ;  without 
thorough  organization,  no  movement  of  that  kind  can  succeed,  and 
the  organization  must  not  only  be  general,  but  it  must  embrace  all 
lines  of  labor ;  it  must  be  general  in  order  that  the  movement  may  be 
general ;  it  must  embrace  all  lines  in  order :  First,  so  that  they  can 
support  each  other ;  second,  that  there  may  be  concert  of  action ; 
third,  that  the  million  or  more  of  men  out  of  employment,  and  who 
are  hungry,  will  not  at  once  rush  in  and  maintain  the  old  system ; 
and,  what  is  still  more  important,  that  the  movement  may  be  con- 
trolled by  reason  and  moderation  and  kept  free  from  violence.  I  do 
not  believe  that  violence  can  accomplish  any  substantial  results.  On 
the  contrary,  it  has  repeatedly  injured,  if  not  defeated,  the  movement. 
I  sincerely  hope  that  the  day  of  strikes  is  over,  and  that  all  differences 
in  the  future  may  be  amicably  adjusted  on  the  basis  of  reason,  justice, 
and  common  sense,  and  I  thoroughly  believe  that  organization  is  one 
of  the  greatest  educational  agencies,  and  that  the  laborer  is  chiefly 
indebted  to  it  for  the  improvement  in  his  condition. 

Organization  by  means  of  agitation  helped  to  create  the  public 
sentiment  that  was  necessarv  to  effect  reform,  and  it  educated  the 


184  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

laborer,  by  teaching  him  discussion,  investigation,  consideration,  mod- 
eration, and  conservatism.  The  oldest  labor  organizations  in  the 
country  are  the  most  conservative.  They  have  all  taken  high  ground 
on  the  liquor  question,  they  refuse  to  permit  a  saloon-keeper  to  belong 
to  their  order,  and  in  times  of  violence  they  have,  as  a  rule,  been  found 
on  the  side  of  law  and  order — violence  has  in  nearly  all  cases  come 
from  the  rabble  and  those  outside  of  labor  organizations.  It  is  clear 
that,  if  the  movement  is  not  general,  then,  in  order  to  maintain  it  in 
certain  localities,  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  some  concession  in 
wages ;  and  it  is  possible  that,  if  the  movement  should  be  general,  in 
order  to  prevent  too  great  a  shock  to  business  and  a  loss  to  the  em- 
ployer there  might  have  to  be  temporary  concessions,  for  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  many  manufacturers  are  under  contracts  to  deliver 
their  products  for  some  time  in  the  future  at  fixed  prices,  and  as  they 
are  nearly  all  doing  business  on  a  very  small  margin,  even  a  slight  in- 
crease in  the  cost  of  manufacture  would  entail  a  loss  upon  them. 
Changes  adopted  by  mutual  concession  usually  produce  the  best 
results.  Questions  of  this  character  can  rarely  be  settled  by  those  who 
seek  to  get  the  highest  possible  wages  for  the  least  possible  work  on 
the  one  hand,  or  those  who  seek  to  get  the  greatest  possible  amount  of 
work  for  the  least  possible  wages  on  the  other  hand.  No  system  can 
be  permanently  established  unless  in  the  end  it  shall  prove  to  be 
beneficial  to  the  employer,  hence  it  is  important  to  consider,  from 
time  to  time,  what  the  employer  can  and  cannot  do. 

It  frequently  happens  that  a  number  of  employes  who  consider 
themselves  underpaid  see  their  employer's  carriage  drive  up  to  the 
office,  and  they  look  at  it  and  then  at  the  large  establishment,  and 
conclude  that  he  could  treble  their  wages  if  he  only  wanted  to,  when  the 
fact  is  that  even  the  wealthiest  men  engaged  in  business  are  usually 
so  spread  out,  that  is,  carrying  on  such  gigantic  enterprises  and  doing 
business  on  so  narrow  a  margin,  that  they  are  in  a  constant  strain ; 
and  there  are  many  who,  with  a  capital  of  only  a  thousand  dollars, 
expect  to  do  a  business  of  a  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  they  are 
generally  in  such  a  situation  that  a  slight  disturbance  seriously  affects 
them.  In  railroading  and  in  some  other  lines  of  industry  the  eight- 
hour  system  could  not  be  adopted,  but  the  day's  work  in  these  lines 
could  be  fixed  with  reference  to  the  new  standard,  just  as  it  is  at 
present  fixed  with  reference  to  the  ten-hour  standard.  Now,  in  con- 
clusion, I  believe  that  by  intelligent,  united,  and  well-directed  action 
on  the  part  of  the  laborers  of  this  country,  not  only  the  eight-hour 
system,  but  any  other  desirable  reform  can  be  successfully  established, 
and  it  cannot  be  in  anv  other  wav. 


GOVERNMENT  OF  CITIES.  185 

Let  me  say  that  the  nineteenth  century  is  the  only  century  that  has 
lent  a  smile  or  a  helping  hand  to  the  laborer.  All  the  prior  centuries 
struck  him  with  their  lash,  beat  him  with  their  clubs,  burned  him 
with  their  hot  irons,  and  let  him  rot  in  their  jails.  The  means  of 
advancement  in  this  century  has  been  the  spread  of  intelligence ;  and, 
aside  from  the  newspaper  press,  the  two  great  agencies  for  the  spread 
of  intelligence  among  the  laboring  classes  have  been  the  common 
schools  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  the  laborer,  and  organiza- 
tion for  the  education  of  the  fathers  of  these  children.  Organization 
taught  the  laborer  discussion,  investigation,  consideration,  moderation, 
and  it  taught  some  employers  that  justice  is  the  best  policy. 


GOVERNMENT  OF  CITIES. 

(An  Address  delivered  before  the  Sunset  Club  of  Chicago,  October  23,  1890.) 

To  effect  a  reform  we  must  know  what  the  conditions  are  which 
made  the  reform  necessary,  for  as  long  as  those  conditions  remain 
they  will  again  produce  the  same  result.  Simply  cutting  down  weeds 
does  little  good,  for  while  their  roots  remain  they  will  grow  again. 

Our  government  was  based  on  the  principle  of: 

First:     No  permanent  office-holding  class. 

Second:     An  independent  officer  for  every  important  position. 

Third:     Government  by  law,  and  not  by  caprice  of  individuals. 

Our  trouble  comes  from  a  violation  of  these  fundamentals. 

I. 

The  instances  are  rare  where  an  elective  executive  officer  who 
came  directly  from  the  people,  and  had  sole  charge,  was  a  defaulter, 
or  was  guilty  of  malfeasance  or  gross  neglect  during  the  first  years 
of  his  administration.  But  years  ago  there  gradually  grew  up  a  kind 
of  a  political  machine  in  each  party,  by  means  of  which,  and  of  the 
public  patronage,  shrewd  manipulators  were  enabled  to  keep  them- 
selves and  their  friends  almost  continuously  at  the  public  crib.  Then 
the  thought  of  a  re-election  seized  the  office-holder  and  weakened 
his  moral  courage.  He  became  all  things  to  all  men;  he  dared  not 
look  into  the  ways  of  favorites  too  closely,  because  they  would  hurt 
him  politically.  Everything  must  be  so  managed  that  he  would  lose 
no  friends ;  and  as  almost  every  abuse  was  source  of  profit  to  somebody 
who  had  more  or  less  influence,  it  became  almost  impossible  to  root 


1 86  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

it  up.     In  short,  there  grew  up  a  lack  of  thoroughness  in  the  public 
service,  and  from  this  come  many  of  the  evils  we  complain  of. 

Offices,  like  houses,  need  a  general  cleaning  now  and  then,  and 
the  only  way  this  can  be  done  is  by  putting  in  new  blood.  Physicians 
have  discovered  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  put  new  blood  into  old 
veins,  and  we  are  beginning  to  learn  that  it  is  hard  to  put  new  blood 
into  an  old  office-holder  or  to  teach  him  new  ways.  If  a  new  broom 
is  a  great  factor  in  the  kitchen,  it  is  of  much  more  importance  in  the 
office-holding  world.  The  necessity  of  periodical  house  cleaning  is  a 
discovery  of  the  nineteenth  century.  I\To  matter  how  fair  the  house 
and  furniture  may  look,  the  good  housekeeper  knows  that  under  the 
carpets  and  back  of  the  furniture  there  has  imperceptibly  and  noise- 
lessly collected  a  vast  amount  of  dust  and  dirt.  So  with  the  admin- 
istration of  office;  no  matter  how  fair  and  plausible  the  surface  may 
seem,  it  will  often  be  found  that  abuse,  neglect,  and  even  corruption, 
have  crept  in  noiselessly,  and  sometimes  without  the  knowledge  of 
the  head,  and  the  only  way  to  guard  against  this  is  by  a  periodical 
cleaning  up — or  more  correctly,  cleaning  out.  I  know  that  it  will  be 
said  that  by  this  method  some  good  officials  are  lost.  But  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  even  good  officials  have  friends  under  them 
who  are  not  as  good.  Besides,  there  are  just  as  good  men  in  the  ranks 
as  there  are  in  office.,  and  if  you  take  new  men  you  will  get  just  as 
large  a  proportion  of  good  as  you  had  before;  and  inasmuch  as  all 
will  come  directly  from  the  people,  their  administration  (for  a  time, 
at  least),  will  be  cleaner,  more  thoroughgoing  and  conscientious;  and 
if  they  feel  that  at  the  expiration  of  their  term  they  must  go  back  to 
private  life,  they  will  aim  at  excellence  of  administration  instead  of 
devoting  their  time  to  secure  a  re-election.  There  is  no  analogy  be- 
tween a  public  officer  and  an'  agent  or  employe  of  a  private  individual, 
for  in  the  latter  case  the  proprietor  supervises  the  business  and  exam- 
ines the  accounts  from  time  to  time;  while  in  the  case  of  a  public 
officer  no  thorough  examination  of  all  his  doings  can  be,  nor  is,  made 
until  there  is  a  change. 

II. 

There  should  be  an  independent  officer  elected  by  the  people 
for  every  important  position.  In  the  country  and  villages,  where 
there  is  little  to  do  and  the  public  is  posted,  a  board  or  a  council  may 
answer;  but  in  a  large  city,  where  the  public  is  not  posted  as  to  details, 
where  there  are  large  institutions  to  be  managed  and  public  enter- 
prises to  be  carried  on,  where  there  are  unlimited  opportunities  and 
strong  temptations  to  make  money  out  of  public  employment,  a  board 


GOVERNMENT  OF  CITIES.  187 

or  council  is  a  failure,  for  the  power  of  execution  is  weakened  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  who  are  to  decide.  One  man,  if  capable,  will 
execute  with  dispatch;  six  men  of  equal  ability  will  not  only  discuss, 
but  wrangle;  while  when  it  comes  to  sixty-eight  men,  life  is  simply  too 
short  to  do  business  with  them. 

Again,  a  board  or  council  must  execute  through  appointed  officers, 
and  it  is  under  these  that  the  worst  cases  of  abuse  have  been  found. 
The  chief  instruments  whom  Tweed  used  in  engineering  the  gigantic 
steals  in  New  York  were  appointed.  The  corruption  in  county  af- 
fairs which  has  repeatedly  aroused  the  indignation  of  our  people  grew 
up  under  the  administration  of  men  appointed  by  a  board.  The 
horrors  in  large  charitable  institutions  throughout  the  land,  as  exposed 
almost  weekly  for  several  years,  prevailed  under  the  administrations 
of  men  appointed  by  a  board.  The  rottenness  in  the  Department 
of  Public  Works  in  Cincinnati  (recently  exposed),  existed  under  and 
%vas  covered  up  by  men  appointed  by  a  board.  In  short,  thorough 
execution  and  careful  supervision  by  a  board  is  the  rarest  kind  of 
an  exception,  while  weakness  in  execution,  utter  neglect  of  super- 
vision, coddling  of  favorites,  and  winking  at  abuses,  is  the  almost 
universal  rule.  It  is  better  to  have  one  man  who  is  personally  respon- 
sible— even  though  known  to  be  dishonest — than  to  have  a  board 
which  is  known  to  be  honest  at  the  head  of  affairs. 

III. 

As  to  city  councils:  At  present  they  possess  so  broad  a  discre- 
tionary power  that  practically  they  can  prevent  almost  any  public 
enterprise  or  improvement  directly  affecting  the  convenience  and 
welfare  of  the  people.  A  body  with  such  powers  should  find  no  place 
among  republican  institutions.  If  Satan  framed  the  law  creating  city 
councils  with  such  broad  powers,  he  based  it  on  the  principle  of 
divide,  tempt  and  conquer,  for  division  of  responsibility  has  given  him 
his  opportunity.  Division  of  responsibility  and  broad  discretionary 
power  are  the  eggs  from  which  has  come  the  foul  odor  which  hangs 
over  the  government  of  large  cities,  both  here  and  in  Europe.  Here 
we  make  a  fuss  about  it — in  Europe  they  dare  not. 

Put  one  man  into  a  position  of  responsibility  and  he  will  make 
an  effort  to  appear  honest.  Join  nineteen  men  with  him,  and  then 
frequently  fourteen  of  them — enough  to  pass  a  measure  over  a  veto — 
will  brazenly  divide  up  a  corruption  fund  and  laugh  about  it.  There 
is  not  a  mayor  of  an  American  city  but  has  greater  opportunities  to 
further  dishonest  schemes  than  has  a  city  council;  yet  the  fact  that 
the  public  finger  can  be  put  on  him  helps  to  keep  him  reasonably 


i88  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

straight,  and  the  instances  are  rare  where  the  executive  of  a  city  has 
been  charged  with  corruption.  There  is  not  a  Governor  of  a  State 
but  has  opportunities  for  plunder  that  exceed  those  of  a  member 
of  the  Legislature;  yet  while  our  Legislatures  have  in  a  measure  lost 
the  confidence  of  the  American  public,  this  is  not  true  of  the  execu- 
tive. United  responsibility  has  saved  the  latter,  while  divided  respon- 
sibility has  partially  destroyed  the  good  name  of  the  former. 

The  business  of  governing  cities  is  executive,  not  legislative.  Why 
should  we  longer  keep  cumbersome  legislative  machinery  to  do  execu- 
tive work?  Why  not  substitute  law  and  certainty  for  discretion  and 
caprice?  There  was  a  time  when  the  Legislature  of  Illinois  acted 
upon  every  small  matter.  It  not  only  granted  divorces,  but  no  cor- 
poration could  be  organized  except  by  special  charter  from  the  Legis- 
lature; no  measures  of  any  kind,  requiring  co-operation,  could  be 
started  or  carried  on  except  by  special  act  of  the  Legislature,  until 
that  body  became  practically  made  up  of  agents,  each  of  whom  had 
some  private  enterprise  to  engineer  through,  out  of  which  he  or  some 
of  his  friends  expected  to  realize  handsomely.  Finally  this  abuse  was 
stopped  by  adopting  a  constitution  which  provided  that  all  these 
things  should  be  governed  by  general  laws;  if  parties  wanted  a  divorce 
they  were  to  go  into  the  courts  and  try  their  case;  if  parties  wanted 
to  form  a  corporation  they  had  simply  to  comply  with  a  prescribed 
form ;  if  they  wanted  to  build  a  railroad  they  could  organize  under 
the  general  laws  of  the  State,  and  go  to  work.  They  didn't  have  to 
lobby  for  six  months  or  a  year  to  get  the  privilege  of  going  to  work. 

At  present  most  of  the  matters  that  are  controlled  by  the  city 
council  could  be  regulated  by  general  law,  and  the  public  would  be 
very  much  better  off  if  they  were.  First,  because  of  the  slowness  of 
a  cumbersome  body  to  act;  second,  because  of  the  tendency  on  the 
part  of  some  city  councils  to  levy  toll  upon  almost  every  enterprise 
sought  to  be  carried  on  in  the  city.  What  is  the  use  of  compelling  a 
railroad  seeking  to  enter  the  city,  to  go  to  the  city  council?  Did  any 
man  ever  hear  of  a  railroad  wanting  in  dead  earnest  anything  of  a 
city  council  and  not  getting  it?  If  the  law  had  simply  provided  that 
in  order  to  enter  a  city  a  railroad  must  pay  not  only  for  the  private 
property  taken,  but  for  the  public  property — that  is,  the  streets  taken ; 
that  before  taking  a  street  a  certain  proportion  of  the  owners  of 
abutting  land  must  consent,  and  that  by  going  into  court  and  ascer- 
taining the  amounts  to  be  paid  to  the  owners  of  private  property  and 
the  amount  to  be  paid  to  the  public  for  the  loss  of  the  use  of  streets, 
and  that  by  paying  these  sums  the  company  could  proceed  with  its 
work,  would  not  the  public  be  a  great  deal  better  off  than  now — 


GOVERNMENT  OF  CITIES.  189 

especially  if  the  law  further  provided  that  the  corporation  should  for 
all  time  pay  a  certain  per  cent  of  its  earnings  into  the  treasury,  as  is 
now  done  by  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad?  Does  the  fact  that  a  rail- 
way has  to  pay  all  the  way  from  $50,000  to  $100,000,  or  more,  in 
cash,  to  city  aldermen,  by. way  of  blackmail  for  an  ordinance  permit- 
ting it  to  enter  a  city,  help  the  people  of  the  city?  Take  the  matter  of 
street  railroads:  In  Ohio  they  have  a  law  providing  that  one  street 
railway  may  use  a  certain  number  of  blocks,  amounting  to  about  half 
a  mile,  of  the  tracks  of  another  street  railway  where  necessary,  by 
paying  its  proportion  of  the  cost  of  such  tracks.  This  prevents  one 
company  from  getting  control  of  the  terminal  facilities.  Now,  sup- 
pose we  had  such  a  law  in  Chicago,  and  that  we  had  had  a  general  law 
which  simply  provided  that  in  order  to  build  a  street  railroad  you  must 
get  the  consent  of  the  owners  of  a  majority  of  the  frontage  on  any 
street,  as  is  now  the  case,  and  that  when  you  showed  the  Department 
of  Public  Works  that  you  had  that  frontage,  you  were  entitled  to  a 
permit  to  go  on  and  build  your  road,  and  didn't  need  to  go  to  the  coun- 
cil at  all — don't  you  suppose  that  instead  of  having  one  street  railway 
in  any  great  division  of  this  city,  there  would  have  been  half  a  dozen 
competing  lines?  And  if  we  had  had  competing  lines  would  not  the 
fare  long  ago  have  been  three  cents?  Did  the  fact  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  get  an  ordinance  from  the  city  council  in  order  to  build  a 
street  railway,  help  the  people  of  Chicago  any,  or  protect  them  in  any 
regard?  Nay,  when  one  corporation  got  a  line  established,  did  not 
the  very  fact  that  it  was  difficult  and  very  expensive  to  get  an  ordi- 
nance from  the  council  prevent  others  from  building  street  railways, 
and  thus  prevent  competition?  And  if  this  is  true,  would  it  not  have 
been  better  to  have  no  council  to  pass  upon  matters  of  this  kind? 

Take  the  matter  of  gas.  I  believe  this  city  should  furnish  its 
own  light  as  it  does  its  own  water;  still  it  has  not  done  so  in  the  past. 
If  there  had  been  a  general  law  to  the  effect  that  by  applying  at  the 
Department  of  Public  Works  any  responsible  party  could,  under 
general  regulations,  put  down  gas  pipes  and  supply  the  people,  would 
we  not  have  had  more  competition  and  cheaper  and  better  gas?  What 
earthly  good  have  the  people  of  Chicago  derived  from  the  fact  that  it 
was  necessary  to  get  an  ordinance  from  the  council  before  anybody 
could  furnish  gas?  If  nothing  were  required  of  a  corporation  except 
that  it  should  pay  a  certain  per  cent  of  its  earnings  into  the  treasury, 
would  not  that  be  better  even  than  franchise-selling,  which  is  now 
talked  of? 

Take  the  matter  of  improving  streets,  putting  in  sewer,  or  water. 
This  is  all  done  by  special  assessment.  Why  not  provide  by  general 


190  LIFE   QUESTIONS. 

law,  that  if  the  owners  of  a  certain  amount  of  the  frontage  on  a 
street  want  a  thing  done,  the  Department  of  Public  Works  shall  order 
it  done,  and  make  the  assessment?  What  good  does  an  ordinance 
by  the  council  do  in  the  matter?  Perhaps  it  is  true  that  for  purposes 
of  making  appropriations  there  should  be  a  board  of,  say,  three  or 
five  men;  for  when  it  comes  to  levying  taxes,  slowness  is  not  a  fault. 
Possibly  there  should  be  a  small  board  of  three  or  five  for  the  purpose 
of  passing  ordinances  within  a  limited  scope,  but  there  is  a  serious 
question  about  this,  for  a  general  law  can  be  so  framed  as  to  cover, 
substantially,  everything  that  is  now  covered  by  ordinance.  We 
want  less  machinery,  but  better  law  and  better  execution. 

I  wish  to  say  of  the  council  of  this  city,  that  there  are  men  in  it 
who  are  as  able  and  as  conscientious  as  any  to  be  found.  It  is,  per- 
haps, true  that  they  have  not  been  in  the  majority.  If  any  one  of 
them  were  to  take  charge  of  the  whole  business  now  done  by  the  city 
council,  it  would  be  done  much  more  expeditiously  and  more  satis- 
factorily than  it  is  possible  to  do  it  by  sixty-odd  men. 

I  have  been  unable  to  discover  where  any  American  city  has 
derived  any  benefit  from  having  a  governmental  body  without  whose 
consent  no  public  enterprise  could  be  carried  on,  and  whose  consent 
was  so  difficult  to  get  that  only  those  who  had  large  sums  to  spend 
corruptly  would  attempt  to  get  it. 

Therefore,  I  say,  to  get  thorough  municipal  administration,  pro- 
vide for  doing  as  much  as  possible  under  general  laws,  and  leave  as 
little  as  possible  to  the  discretion  of  officers.  Second,  have  a  separate 
officer,  elected  directly  by  the  people,  for  each  important  post.  Third, 
give  all  elective  officers  a  reasonably  long  term,  and  make  all  ineli- 
gible to  draw  any  salary  from  the  public  for  a  given  period  after 
holding  an  elective  office.  If  any  inspectors  are  needed  for  the  pub- 
lic institutions,  let  them  likewise  be  directly  accountable  to  the  people, 
and  not  be  the  creatures  of  the  men  who  are  interested  in  the  running 
of  the  institutions.  Fourth,  do  away  with  governing  boards  or  coun- 
cils with  their  division  of  responsibility,  and  have  one  man  at  the  head 
of  each  department  who  feels  that  he  is  accountable  to  the  people  for 
the  conduct  of  affairs.  And  while  there  would  not  be  a  perfect  ad- 
ministration under  such  a  regime  (for  nothing  done  by  human  hands 
is  perfect),  yet  on  account  of  the  frequent  house-cleaning,  or  office- 
cleaning,  if  you  please,  no  abuse  would  have  time  to  become  hoary- 
headed,  no  favorite  contractors  or  sly  go-betweens  could  build  up  a 
ring  for  the  spoliation  of  the  public,  no  corruption  could  take  any 
very  deep  root,  and  no  negligence  or  brutality  on  the  part  of  under- 
lings could  long  exist  before  being  swept  out  by  the  new  -broom. 


GOOD  ROADS.  191 

GOOD  ROADS. 
(Published  in  "Good  Roads"  Magazine,  December,  1892.) 

The  question  of  good  roads  is  one  of  the  most  important  that 
now  confronts  the  farmers  of  Illinois,  and  it  relates  to  a  class  of 
internal  improvement  that  the  State  will  have  to  take  hold  of  with 
a  resolute  spirit.  The  time  has  come  when  a  citizen  of  Illinois  should 
be  able  to  drive  from  one  end  of  his  State  to  the  other  with  a  team  at 
all  times  of  the  year.  We  have  astounded  the  world  in  the  building 
of  great  cities,  great  railroads,  great  shops  and  great  factories;  we 
have  built  up  a  splendid  agriculture,  and  have  pushed  the  develop- 
ment of  our  wonderful  resources,  and  the  attention  as  well  as  the 
energies  of  the  people  have  been  directed  towards  these  ends;  but  we 
find  that  nothing  has  been  done  toward  the  making  of  highways  that 
shall  be  passable  the  year  round,  consequently  there  are  months  in 
every  year  in  which  it  is  impossible  for  the  farmer  or  the  merchant  to 
drive  his  team  twenty-five  miles  with  even  half  a  load;  in  short,  we 
have  made  no  practical  progress  toward  the  improvement  of  our 
roads.  Both  the  inconvenience  and  the  actual  loss  resulting  from 
this,  falls  mostly  upon  the  farmer,  though  to  some  extent  it  is  shared 
by  the  whole  community.  As  a  result  of  impassable  roads,  the 
farmer  is  frequently  prevented  from  taking  his  grain  and  other  prod- 
ucts to  market  at  a  time  when  they  would  bring  the  best  prices,  while 
at  other  times  the  railroads,  being  driven  beyond  their  capacity  by 
the  glutted  freight  and  store  houses,  when  the  roads  are  good  enough 
to  permit  of  the  grain  and  other  products  being  brought  to  market, 
are  liable  to  be  short  of  cars,  and  having  to  do  the  whole  business 
in  a  kind  of  irregular  way,  will  keep  the  freight  charges  up  to  a  higher 
point  than  would  be  necessary  if  the  country  roads  were  good  enough 
to  insure  a  more  uniform  supply,  and  thus  give  the  railroads  some- 
thing like  an  even  business.  '  With  better  wagon  roads  less  rolling 
stock  would  then  be  required  to  fill  the  demands  of  the  carrying 
trade,  and,  upon  the  whole,  the  railroads  would  be  subject  to  less  ex- 
pense. Then,  again,  attempting  to  team  in  the  mud  wears  out  not 
only  the  wagon  and  the  harness,  but  tends  to  exhaust  and  break  down 
the  horses;  so  that  one  day's  teaming  in  the  deep  mud  will  some- 
times cause  more  loss  to  a  farmer  in  these  respects  than  a  whole 
month's  teaming  on  good  roads.  Again,  the  people  in  the  cities  and 
the  villages  are  subject  to  inconvenience,  and  sometimes  to  extra 
expense,  because,  owing  to  impassable  roads,  produce  cannot  be 
brought  to  market.  In  view  of  these  considerations,  and  for  other 
excellent  reasons  which  might  be  multiplied  to  great  length,  the  time 


I92  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

has  come  when  a  great  and  proud  State,  like  that  of  Illinois,  greater 
and  grander  than  any  of  the  ancient  empires  of  the  earth,  and  one 
of  the  richest,  most  powerful-  and  most  wonderful  States  in  the  civil- 
ized world  of  to-day,  should  have  highways  from  one  end  of  her  bor- 
ders to  the  other,  which  can  be  traveled  with  comfort  every  day  of  the 
year.  Years  ago  the  State  had  something  like  an  internal  improve- 
ment system.  I  believe  the  greater  part  of  the  Chicago  &  Alton 
Railroad  was  built  by  the  State.  Other  great  enterprises  that  were 
calculated  to  develop  the  resources  of  the  State,  to  bind  the  people 
together  and  give  them  rapid  means  of  transportation,  were  aided 
and  carried  out  by  the  patronage  of  the  State  government.  The  time 
seems  now  to  have  come  when  the  State  must  again  take  up  this 
subject  of  internal  improvement,  especially  in  so  far  as  it  relates  to 
the  making  of  new  roads,  and  it  should  be  done  upon  a  comprehensive 
system,  so  as  to  insure  something  like  uniformity  from  one  end  of  the 
State  to  the  other;  otherwise  we  might  have  cases  where  one  county, 
or  perhaps  one  township,  would  build  a  good  road  and  then  the 
adjoining  township  or  county  would  not,  and  thus  a  kind  of  frag- 
mentary improvement  would  result'. 

DIVISION   OF   EXPENSE. 

As  to  how  the  expense  should  be  borne  is  a  matter  of  detail  that 
will  require  a  good  deal  of  examination.  It  is  possible  that  in  most 
cases  a  part  of  the  expense  could  be  levied  in  the  form  of  an  assess- 
ment upon  land  along  the  route,  that  derived  some  special  benefit 
from  the  road,  and  that  another  part  of  the  expense  could  be  paid 
by  the  county;  and  it  is  possible  and  perhaps  proper  that  in  some 
instances  the  State  should  contribute  something.  I  will  not  attempt 
to  go  into  the  details  of  this,  but  when  once  taken  hold  of  in  a  resolute 
way,  the  problem  of  expense  can  be  readily  solved. 

MATERIAL   TO   BE   USED. 

As  to  the  material  with  which  to  build  improved  roads,  some  dif- 
ference of  opinion  exists.  Some  engineers  claim  that  a  good  quality 
of  clay  can  be  found  at  no  great  depth  all  over  the  State.  Assuming 
this  to  be  true,  this  clay  might  be  dug  up  at  different  points  along  the 
road  where  it  is  needed  and  burned  right  there  into  hard,  irregular 
fragments;  that  is,  instead  of  attempting  to  mould  it  into  bricks,  or 
regularly  shaped  blocks,  it  could  be  so  burned  in  small,  irregularly 
shaped  chunks,  as  to  become  hard  as  stone,  and  thus  could  be  used 
to  make  a  "macadamized''  road.  It  is  claimed  for  this  system  that 
clay  thus  burnt  would  make  even  a  better  road  than  stone,  and  that 


GOOD  ROADS.  193 

by  reason  of  the  small  cost  of  hauling,  the  road  could  be  made  with- 
out very  great  expense.  Other  engineers  advocate  the  making  of 
macadamized  roads  out  of  crushed  stone,  and  claim  that  a  road-bed 
wide  enough  to  provide  for  the  passage  of  four  teams  abreast  could 
be  built  at  a  cost  ranging  from  $2,500  to  $3,000  a  mile.  They  also 
urge  that,  inasmuch  as  the  State  owns  large  quarries,  the  State  con- 
victs, instead  of  being  "hired  out"  at  a  few  cents  a  day  to  work 
for  contractors,  who  thus  enhance  their  own  private  fortunes,  should 
be  set  to  work  breaking  stone  to  be  shipped  to  various  points  and 
used  in  building  roads.  This  plan  has  a  great  deal  to  recommend  it, 
and,  I  must  say,  strikes  me  favorably.  I  do  not  say  that  all  convicts 
should  be  set  at  this  work,  but  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  them 
should  be.  It  is  further  urged  in  favor  of  this  plan,  that  as  the  rail- 
roads would  get  their  freight  to  carry  with  more  regularity  after 
good  roads  were  built,  and  would  thus  be  able  to  operate  their  roads 
more  cheaply,  they  could  well  afford  to  make  very  reasonable  rates 
for  the  haulage  of  this  crushed  stone  from  the  penitentiary  to  points 
near  where  it  may  be  needed  on  the  road. 

LOCATION    OF    ROADS. 

Again,  some  gentlemen  who  have  given  this  subject  much  con- 
sideration, have  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that,  as  the  public  roads 
now  generally  run  on  section  lines  and  make  right  angles  around 
quarter  sections  of  land,  while  the  railroads  generally  run  direct  from 
one  point  to  another,  so  that  the  distance  by  railroad  between  towns 
is  generally  considerably  less  than  it  is  by  wagon  road,  and  as  the 
railroads  generally  run  to  what  may  be  called  "centers,"  it  would  be 
a  good  plan  when  constructing  new  roads  to  follow  the  railroad  so 
far  as  was  practicable;  that  in  this  way  the  distance  would  be  short- 
ened, that  the  new  roads  in  all  cases  would  then  lead  direct  to  central 
points,  and  that  the  material  for  making  the  roads  could  in  this  way 
be  hauled  on  the  cars  right  along  from  place  to  place  and  left  at  the 
exact  spot  where  needed,  thus  saving  the  hauling  of  the  material 
from  the  cars  to  points  more  or  less  distant,  as  would  be  necessary  in 
the  improvement  of  the  roads  already  located.  There  is,  of  course, 
the  objection  to  this  plan,  that  in  many  instances  there  would  be 
danger  of  horses  becoming  frightened  at  the  passing  trains;  but  all 
these  questions  are  matters  of  detail.  It  may  be  that,  when  the  sub- 
ject is  once  taken  hold  of  in  earnest,  an  entirely  new  plan  can  be 
devised,  differing  from  anything  that  has  yet  been  discussed,  and 
leading  to  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  whole  problem.  However  this 
may  be,  the  time  has  about  come  for  the  mud  road  to  go. 
13 


194  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

SHOULD  JUDGES  USE  PASSES? 
(From  the  Chicago  Daily  News.) 

Members  of  the  bar  and  citizens  generally  may  congratulate  them- 
selves that  some  of  the  judges  do  not  look  upon  the  accepting  of 
passes  as  being  proper.  Judge  Altgeld  not  only  refuses  to  accept 
them,  but  believes  that  the  entire  system  is  radically  wrong.  A  re- 
porter for  the  Daily  News  asked: 

"Judge,  do  the  railroads  send  you  many  passes?" 

"No,  not  now,"  was  the  reply.  "Several  years  ago,  when  I  went 
onto  the  bench,  they  sent  me  more  than  a  dozen  for  myself  and  wife." 

"May  I  ask  what  you  did  with  them?" 

"I  sent  them  all  back." 

"Why  did  you  send  them  back?" 

"Well,  on  principle.  I  do  not  believe  in  accepting  something 
for  nothing,  and  then  I  do  not  think  that  a  judge  should  accept  favors 
from  parties  who  either  are  or  may  become  litigants  in  his  court, 
and  who  would  not  offer  him  a  pass  if  he  were  not  judge.  Even  if 
it  did  not  influence  him,  it  tends  to  make  the  public  and  even  the  bar 
feel  a  little  distrustful,  and  to  that  extent  weakens  his  usefulness.  If 
a  livery  stable  keeper,  who  had  cases  in  court,  were  to  offer  a  judge 
the  free  use  of  his  horses  and  buggies,  a  judge  would  feel  that  he 
could  not  accept  it;  for  in  offering  him  something  which  was  not 
offered  to  the  public,  it  was  fair  to  assume  that  there  was  a  special 
motive  for  the  act,  and  the  same  rule  will  apply  to  railroads — at  least 
the  public  think  so — and  to  make  the  administration  of  justice  effec- 
tive, it  is  necessary  that  the  public  should,  at  least,  have  confidence 
in  its  integrity  and  impartiality." 

"Then  you  don't  use  passes,  Judge." 

"No,  sir;  I  have  always  paid  my  way,  just  like  other  people  have 
to  do." 


SHOULD  JUDGES  WEAR  GOWNS? 

(Published   in    Chicago    Globe,    March    16,    1891,    in   answer   to   questions   by 

the  Editor.) 

No  man  ever  added  a  cubit  to  his  stature  by  dress.  No  robe  ever 
enlarged  a  man's  brain,  ripened  his  wisdom,  cleared  his  judgment, 
strengthened  his  purpose,  or  fortified  his  honesty.  If  he  is  a  little 
man  without  a  robe,  he  is  contemptible  in  a  robe.  If  a  man  is  large 
without  a  robe,  he  is  simply  ludicrous  in  one. 


SHOULD   JUDGES    WEAR  GOWNS?  195 

A  robe  used  as  an  insignia  of  office  is  a  relic  of  barbarism,  a  relic 
of  the  age  when  tinsel,  glitter  and  flummery  were  thought  to  be  neces- 
sary to  overawe  the  common  people.  And  the  robe  can  now  perform 
no  other  function  than  that  of  humbugging  the  people.  A  court 
which  is  worthy  of  the  name,  needs  no  such  flimsy  and  ridiculous 
assistance  in  order  to  command  the  confidence  and  the  respect  of  the 
community,  and  a  court  which  cannot  command  the  respect  and  the 
confidence  of  the  people  without  resorting  to  shams  of  this  kind,  is 
incapable  of  doing  any  good,  is  incapable  of  protecting  the  weak  from 
being  trampled  down  by  the  strong,  and  should  be  wiped  out  of 
existence. 

This  age  and  the  American  people  do  not  want  mediaeval  shams. 
They  want  light;  daylight,  electric  light,  sunlight.  They  want  reali- 
ties; they  want  character;  they  want  learning;  they  want  good  judg- 
ment; they  want  independence,  and  they  want  these  free  from  both 
barbaric  and  aristocratic  subterfuges.  It  is  only  weak  minds  that 
lean  upon  this  kind  of  bolstering. 

Our  age  is  superior  to  the  middle  ages  only  in  so  far  as  it  has 
progressed  beyond  sham  and  formalism,  lofty  pomp  and  hollow  and 
dull  dignity,  and  asks  now  to  be  shown  things  just  as  they  are. 

"You  may  say,"  said  the  Judge,  with  very  decided  emphasis,  "that 
I  am  opposed  to  pretense  and  humbug,  no  matter  whether  found  in 
high  stations  or  in  low,  and  in  my  opinion,  if  the  American  people 
ever  reach  a  point  where  they  must  put  robes  upon  their  judges  or 
any  other  officers  in  order  to  have  the  highest  respect  for  them,  then 
republican  institutions  will  be  at  an  end  in  this  country;  for  men  who 
can  be  inspired  by  a  gown  are  but  little  removed  from  those  who  can 
draw  inspiration  from  a  wooden  god,  and  neither  are  fit  to  either  enjoy 
or  defend  true  political  liberty." 

The  strong,  masculine  and  liberty-loving  element  of  the  bar  does 
not  favor  these  handmaids  of  fraud  in  a  temple  of  justice.  It  is  the 
fawning  and  the  hanging-on  element,  the  element  which  flatters  and 
seeks  a  rear  door  entrance  to  the  judge,  that  favors  them.  Instead  of 
adding  dignity  to  a  court  it  shows  a  weakness ;  for  every  time  a  judge 
puts  on  a  gown  he  confesses  that  he  needs  this  extraneous  help;  he 
confesses  that  he  must  resort  to  humbug  in  order  to  make  an  im- 
pression. In  the  past  gowns  have  not  prevented  judicial  murders, 
wrongs  and  outrages,  the  infamy  of  which  reaches  to  hell.  So  long 
as  we  tolerate  in  this  country  any  tribunals  that  find  it  necessary  to 
wear  this  insignia  of  mediaeval  conditions,  just  so  long  must  we  confess 
that  we  have  not  reached  a  high  state  of  development. 


196  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 


A  PROTEST  AGAINST  POLICE  BRUTALITY. 

(Note. — Early  in  November,  1891,  the  police  of  Chicago  made  two  raids — 
one  at  Turner  Hall  on  a  Wednesday  night,  and  the  other  at  Greif's  Hall  on 
the  next  night,  under  the  circumstances  set  out  below.) 

Chicago,  November  14,  1891. 
Maj.  R.  W.  McClaughry, 

Chief  of  Police  of  Chicago: 

Dear  Sir:  I  trust  that  you  will  pardon  me  for  entering  a  protest 
against  the  arbitrary,  high-handed  and  illegal  acts  of  some  of  your 
police  inspectors  during  this  week.  They  have  been  guilty  of  con- 
duct which  is  subversive  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  our  gov- 
ernment, and  which  must  tend  to  bring  the  fair  fame  of  our  gre'at 
city  into  disrepute,  and  if  persisted  in,  or  repeated  often,  must  foster 
a  spirit  of  revenge  and  hatred,  and  ultimately  result  in  bloodshed, 
if  not  anarchy.  I  write  this  protest  to  you  because  until  recently  you 
have  shown  a  determination  to  put  a  stop  to  arbitrary,  brutal  and 
lawless  acts  of  men  wearing  the  uniform  of  a  policeman  and  drawing 
a  salary  from  the  public  treasury.  Nobody  has  a  higher  regard  for 
the  great  body  of  the  police  force  of  Chicago  than  I  have.  I  know 
that  there  are  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  honest,  conscientious  and 
faithful  officers  on  the  force,  who  do  their  duty  quietly,  without  any 
effort  at  dramatic  effect,  and  who  do  not  find  it  necessary  to  violate 
the  law  in  order  to  do  their  duty.  They  are  gentlemen — just  the  kind 
of  men  that  the  law  contemplated  its  guardians  should  be — protectors 
of  the  weak  and  poor  and  of  good  order.  For  these  men  I  have  the 
highest  praise.  It  is  asserted  by  some  that  this  class  of  men  have  in 
the  past  "been  kept  in  the  background  because  they  did  not  possess 
political  influence,  and  that  there  had  been  promoted  to  the  higher 
positions  a  class  of  men  many  of  whom  were  brutal  by  instinct,  lacked 
common  honesty,  and,  frequently,  were  simply  bullies  in  uniform, 
some  of  them  levying  blackmail  upon  unfortunate  women,  and  when 
the  blackmail  was  not  paid,  raiding  them  and  dragging  them  into  the 
police  station,  while  others  did  not  hesitate  to  violate  the  law  in  dif- 
ferent ways.  You  have  already  weeded  a  number  of  this  class  of  men 
out  of  the  force,  and  the  good  people  of  Chicago,  without  reference 
to  party,  all  unite  in  commending  your  action.  Xow,  among  the  class 
last  described,  there  were  some  men  who,  for  several  years,  have 
managed  to  get  a  little  notoriety,  and  sometimes  newspaper  applause, 
by  periodically  making  a  discovery  of  anarchists.  Nothing  came  of 
these  discoveries,  but  they  seemed  to  be  renewed  as  often  as  it  was 


PROTEST  AGAINST  POLICE  BRUTALITY.        197 

necessary  for  some  detective,  who  never  won  any  laurels  in  detecting 
crime,  and  who  thirsted  for  notoriety,  to  attract  some  attention.  Sev- 
eral of  these  men  have  been  dropped  from  the  force  for  the  good  of 
the  city,  but  it  seems  there  are  others  anxious  to  emulate  them.  On 
Wednesday  night  last  there  was,  at  Twelfth  Street  Turner  Hall,  a 
meeting  of  people  who,  so 'far  as  anything  to  the  contrary  has  ap- 
peared, were  working  people  holding  a  meeting  at  which  there  was 
no  breach  of  peace  and  no  call  for  police  interference  of  any  kind. 
Yet  at  this  meeting  Police  Inspector  Hubbard  forcibly  entered  with  a 
squad  of  officers,  and  in  a  dramatic  manner  stopped  the  proceeding  of 
the  meeting,  ordered  those  assembled  to  go  and  get  an  American  flag, 
declaring  that  unless  they  did  so  he,  the  inspector,  would  adjourn  the 
meeting,  indulging  in  other  threats,  terrorizing  those  assembled  so 
far  as  he  could,  and  practically  breaking  up  the  meeting.  Having 
covered  himself  in  this  way  with  glory,  the  brave  inspector,  who  had 
once  been  chief  of  police  of  the  city,  and  had  failed  to  win  laurels  in 
the  detection  and  punishment  of  real  criminals,  took -his  squad  of  men 
and  retreated.  The  newspapers  report  you  as  commending  his  action. 
As  a  friend,  and  as  a  man  who  has  admired  your  course  here,  and  who 
has  the  highest  personal  regard  for  you,  I  hope  you  are  not  correctly 
reported.  If  there  was  any  violation  of  the  law  at  the  meeting  on 
Wednesday  night,  if  any  crime  was  committed  there,  then  you  cer- 
tainly will  admit  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  officers  there  to  have 
arrested  those  guilty  of  the  crime;  to  have  seen  that  complaint  was 
properly  lodged  against  the  offenders,  and  that  they  were  punished 
according  to  the  law.  Any  officer  failing  to  do  this  would  have  been 
promptly  disciplined.  Yet  nothing  of  this  kind  was  done.  Not  a 
single  man  was  arrested  or  prosecuted,  although  the  inspector  was 
hunting  for  anarchists  and  was  looking  for  even  a  pretext  to  arbi- 
trarily interfere.  No  crime  having  been  committed,  the  act  of  the 
inspector  in  interfering  with  the  meeting  was  an  outrage — was  a  clear 
violation  of  law — for  which  he  should  have  been  promptly  dismissed 
from  the  force.  The  law  guarantees  to  every  person  liberty  of  speech, 
the  protection  of  the  person  and  the  protection  of  property;  one  is  no 
more  sacred  than  the  other.  In  fact,  among  all  liberty-loving  nations 
of  Europe  and  America  the  right  of  free  speech  and  the  right  of  im- 
munity from  personal  molestation  is  regarded  as  being  more  sacred 
and  of  a  higher  order  than  the  right  of  property.  Yet,  if  some  poor 
wretch  steals  an  overcoat  worth  $30,  we  send  him  to  the  penitentiary. 
But  when  a  so-called  officer  of  the  law,  drawing  pay  from  the  city 
treasury,  violates  the  right  of  free  speech  and  the  right  of  person; 
when  an  officer  of  the  law  commits  a  crime  which  is  more  serious 


198  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

than  the  stealing  of  a  thousand  overcoats,  he  is  applauded  and  is  said 
to  be  commended  by  his  chief,  because  the  people  whose  rights  he 
violated  were  poor  wretches  whom  he  could  abuse  at  pleasure.  Look 
at  the  case  a  moment:  Where  do  you  find  a  law  authorizing  a  bully, 
whether  in  uniform  or  in  rags,  to  break  up  a  meeting  of  any  kind, 
whether  of  preachers,  of  bankers  or  politicians,  or  even  anarchists, 
because  they  do  not  have  the  American  flag  on  the  stage;  or  giving 
him  the  right  to  demand  of  them  that  they  shall  put  it  there,  under  a 
threat  that  he  will  adjourn  the  meeting  if  they  do  not?  Let  me  say 
to  you,  that  neither  you  nor  your  police  force  are  the  sole  custodians 
of  admiration  for  the  American  flag.  No  man  holds  it  in  higher 
regard  than  I  do,  and  it  is  because  I  feel  that  the  proceedings  which 
I  have  described  are  an  insult  to  the  American  flag,  and  must  tend 
to  foster  a  spirit  of  hatred  toward  it;  it  is  because  I  feel  that  wrong 
never  makes  right,  and  as  human  nature  is  constituted  it  is  impossible 
to  inspire  love  by  the  application  of  brute  force;  and  it  is  because  I 
feel  that  if  our  flag  ever  ceases  to  be  that  emblem  of  freedom  which 
has  secured  it  the  friendly  greeting  of  all  mankind,  it  will  be  due  to 
just  such  proceedings  as  I  have  described,  that  I  complain.  But  In- 
spector Hubbard,  having  thus  dramatically  and  in  a  moment  achieved 
a  degree  of  glory  which  he  had  never  been  able  to  attain  by  the 
exercise  of  his  legitimate  powers  and  duties  as  a  police  officer,  In- 
spector Lewis,  of  the  adjoining  district,  resolved  not  to  be  outdone. 
If  lording  it  over  a  few  dozen  wretches,  who  are  described  as  smell- 
ing of  beer,  could  win  glory,  he  was  determined  to  have  his  share 
and  to  out-do  Hubbard.  So  on  the  following  night,  instead  of  a 
small  detachment,  he  takes  one  hundred  officers  to  Grief's  building, 
where  there  was  a  meeting  of  laboring  people,  and  where  there  had 
been  no  breach  of  the  peace,  and,  so  far  as  the  evidence  has  yet  shown, 
no  crime  committed  of  any  kind  or  character;  and  finding  that  he 
could  not  get  free  access  to  the  meeting  he  broke  down  the  doors,  not 
only  to  the  hall,  but  to  different  private  apartments,  entered  with  his 
officers,  and  ordered  the  inmates  in  the  hall  and  rooms  to  throw  up 
their  hands,  proceeded  to  club  all  who  did  not  do  so,  and  then  searched 
everyone  present — about  two  hundred;  and  all  who  objected  to  this 
arbitrary  and  illegal  process  were  pronounced  disorderly,  and  were 
placed  under  arrest  and  marched  to  the  station  and  locked  up  in  cells. 
Twenty-three  men  were  in  this  way  dealt  with.  The  whole  proceed- 
ing had  been  without  any  warrant  and  without  any  evidence  that  a 
crime  had  been  committed.  During  the  search  revolvers  were  found 
on  the  persons  of  four  of  them ;  although  there  were  nearly  two  hun- 
dred present  only  four  had  pistols.  You  must  have  been  surprised 


PROTEST   AGAINST  POLICE  BRUTALITY.        199 

not  to  find  more,  for  the  proceeding  on  the  previous  night  was  cer- 
tainly calculated  to  make  men  get  arms  if  they  did  not  already  have 
them,  yet  there  were  not  as  many  pistols  found  as  could  be  found  at 
a  meeting  of  half  that  many  people  held  anywhere  else  in  the  city. 
At  the  police  station  these  men  were  put  on  trial  for  disorderly  con- 
duct and  carrying  concealed  weapons.  Think  a  moment,  now,  of  this 
farce:  Having  gone  so  far  as  to  break  down  doors  and  break  up  a 
peaceable  meeting,  and  arrest  these  men  and  bring  them  to  the  sta- 
tion, the  officers  felt  that  they  must  swear  to  something,  and  having 
nothing  else  in  the  whole  criminal  code  to  charge,  they  fell  back  on 
the  blanket  charge  of  disorderly  conduct;  and  in  trying  to  name 
something  which  in  their  judgment  constituted  an  offense,  they  swore 
before  Justice  Woodman  that  different  men  at  the  meeting  had  used 
abusive  language,  had  spoken  abusively  of  the  government,  and  had 
called  the  mayor  a  fool  and  a  dude,  and  had  abused  the  police  force. 
This  is  the  substance  of  the  evidence  given.  The  charge  that  these 
men  were  anarchists  not  only  fell  to  the  ground  but  was  entirely  dis- 
proven.  But  suppose  they  had  been  anarchists.  There  was  no  law 
authorizing  this  ruffianly  bullying,  and  certainly  no  course  could  have 
been  pursued  that  was  more  calculated  to  confirm  fanatical  people  in 
their  error,  and  elevate  them  to  the  plane  of  martyrs,  than  that  of  your 
officers.  Yet,  and  what  is  far  more  serious,  no  course  could  have 
been  pursued  that  would  so  certainly  make  converts  to  the  cause  of 
anarchy  among  ignorant  men,  for  a  thousand  loud-talking  agitators 
could  not  sow  as  much  anarchial  seed  in  a  year  as  your  officers  have 
done  in  a  week.  Now,  look  at  this  a  moment:  When  a  murder  or  a 
robbery,  or  any  heinous  crime,  is  committed,  we  find  the  machinery 
of  the  law  ample  for  the  case.  There  is  a  charge;  the  offender  is  ar- 
rested on  a  specific  charge  and  is  prosecuted  and  punished.  There  is 
no  dramatic  or  spectacular  performance  found  necessary  in  any  of 
these  cases — no  violation  of  law  by  the  officers  is  found  necessary. 
But  when  some  laboring  men,  described  as  being  ragged  and  smelling 
of  beer,  get  together  in  a  room  and  simply  use  language  which  ordi- 
narily is  thought  nothing  of  when  coming  from  other  men,  a  hundred 
officers  are  at  once  on  hand,  there  is  a  spectacular  display,  doors  are 
broken  down  and  people  subjected  to  outrage,  and  it  is  announced 
that  the  good  fame  of  the  city  and  the  success  of  the  Columbian  Ex- 
position is  in  danger.  This  blundering  farce  and  criminal  act  on  the 
part  of  the  police  will  hurt  the  city's  good  name  more  than  all  the 
anarchists  could  have  done  in  a  century.  Why,  if  a  crime  had  been 
committed  there,  the  offenders  could  have  been  brought  to  justice 
without  subjecting  two  hundred  people  to  outrage.  You  are  reported 


200  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

as  saying  that  you  did  not  believe  that  they  (the  people  arrested)  had 
contemplated  any  violent  outbreak,  and  that  it  was  only  talk  that 
they  had  intended  to  indulge  in.  Now,  the  law  guarantees  freedom  of 
assemblage,  freedom  of  speech  and  freedom  from  personal  molesta- 
tion, as  well  as  the  right  of  property.  Having  done  this,  the  law  then 
holds  men  responsible  for  what  they  do  in  exercising  these  rights, 
and  if  a  crime  is  committed  the  law  provides  an  orderly  and  a  reason- 
able procedure  for  bringing  the  offenders  to  justice.  Freedom  of  as- 
semblage means  undisturbed  assemblage,  free  from  the  presence  of  all 
who  are  not  wanted;  and  freedom  of  speech  means  the  right  to  say 
anything  the  speaker  sees  fit  to  say,  he  remaining  responsible  for  his 
utterance;  and  it  is  an  axiom  of  the  law,  that  mere  talk,  no  matter 
how  abusive,  does  not  constitute  a  crime.  The  highest  tribunals  of 
the  land  have  repeatedly  decided  that  language  alone,  no  matter  how 
abusive,  if  unaccompanied  by  overt  acts,  can  not  constitute  treason  or 
any  offense  against  the  government.  The  statutes  of  Illinois  define  a 
criminal  offense  as  follows:  "A  criminal  offense  consists  in  a  viola- 
tion of  a  public  law,  in  the  commission  of  which  there  shall  be  a  union 
or  joint  operation  of  act  and  intention  or  criminal  negligence."  There 
must  be  some  overt  act,  some  deed.  The  law  takes  notice  only  of 
acts,  of  deeds,  and  not  of  talk.  Mere  talk  can  be  considered  only  in  so 
far  as  it  tends  to  throw  light  upon  or  explain  the  motives  for  deeds, 
and  no  further. 

Of  course,  loud  or  abusive  talk  on  the  streets  where  it  would  col- 
lect a  crowd  and  disturb  the  peace,  is  governed  by  a  different  principle. 
But  the  meetings  that  were  broken  up  this  week  were  not  held  on  the 
street,  they  were  held  on  private  premises;  and  it  has  not  even  been 
pretended  that  there  was  loud  or  abusive  talking  or  a  breach  of  the 
peace  at  either  of  them,  until  your  officials  provoked  it.  So  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  evidence  of  your  own  officers,  there  had  been  nothing 
done  at  either  of  the  meetings  that  the  law  took  any  notice  of — noth- 
ing that  could  be  construed  into  a  violation  of  law;  while  the  over- 
whelming weight  of  the  evidence  shows  that  the  meeting  at  Greif's 
hall  was  simply  an  assemblage  of  small  labor  organizations  that  were 
holding  a  regular  meeting,  and  were  simply  transacting  routine  busi- 
ness in  a  quiet  and  orderly  way.  No  doubt  there  were  some  there 
who  felt  exasperated  at  the  bullying  to  which  they  had  been  subjected 
the  night  before  at  Turner  hall,  and  no  doubt  most  if  not  all  present 
were  indignant  and  resentful  at  the  outrage  of  having  their  meeting 
forcibly  broken  into  and  being  ordered  to  hold  up  their  hands,  and 
then  being  compelled  to  submit  to  having  their  persons  searched  and 
be  jostled  around  and  clubbed  by  ruffians  in  uniform.  Do  you  think 


PROTEST  AGAINST  POLICE  BRUTALITY.      201 

it  strange  that  they  should  use  abusive  language  under  these  circum- 
stances? Would  any  man  be  worthy  of  American  citizenship  if  he 
could  supinely  bear  this?  What  would  you  have  said — yea,  and  have 
done,  if  subjected  to  a  like  outrage?  Supposing  the  proceedings  to 
have  been  legal,  do  you  consider  this  the  right  way  to  inspire  love 
for  our  flag,  or  respect  for  our  institutions?  But  they  were  not  only 
illegal  but  un-American;  they  are  tolerated  only  in  Russia,  and  are 
failing  in  their  purpose  there.  The  American  people  are  not  prepared 
to  substitute  government  by  police  ruffians  for  government  by  law, 
and  we  cannot  for  one  moment  admit  the  principle  that  a  policeman 
or  any  other  officer,  be  he  president  or  constable,  can,  without  trial 
and  without  legal  process,  deprive  men  of  their  rights  on  the  pretext 
that  if  he  did  not  do  so  they  might  commit  an  offense.  We  can  not 
for  a  moment  admit  that  by  simply  applying  an  unpopular  or  oblo- 
quious  name  to  men,  whether  that  name  be  anarchist  or  socialist,  capi- 
talist or  vagabond,  republican  or  democrat,  an  officer  can  be  justified 
in  depriving  men  of  rights  guaranteed  by  the  fundamental  law,  and 
can  break  up  their  meeting,  can  club,  search  and  imprison  them,  not 
for  what  they  have  done,  but  for  what  he,  in  his  wisdom,  or  his  preju- 
dice, or  his  caprice,  fears  they  might  do.  If  this  principle  were  once 
admitted,  there  is  no  limit  to  its  application.  While  it  is  sought 'to 
apply  it  to  one  class  to-day,  it  could  be  applied  to  any  other  class 
to-morrow,  and  a  precedent  made  in  one  case  would  be  sure  to  be 
cited  and  acted  on  in  another,  and  a  political  party,  for  the  time  being 
in  power,  could  prevent  its  opponents  from  meeting  and  put  them 
in  jail,  not  for  what  they  had  done,  but  for  what  it  was  feared  they 
might  do.  During  the  last  city  campaign  there  were  meetings  of 
men  who  denounced  Mayor  Cregier  and  his  administration,  using 
terms  a  great  deal  more  offensive  than  that  of  being  a  fool  or  a  dude. 
Suppose  Mayor  Cregier  had  attempted  to  send  a  police  inspector  with 
a  hundred  men  to  each  of  these  meetings,  and  the  inspector  had 
attempted  to  dictate  to  the  meeting  just  how  far  they  could  go  in 
their  abusive  language  without  his  declaring  the  meeting  adjourned, 
would  the  proceeding  have  been  tolerated  for  one  moment? 

I  do  not  know  any  of  the  men  who  were  at  those  meetings  on 
Wednesday  and  Thursday  nights,  or  who  were  clubbed  and  arrested; 
never  saw  any  of  them,  never  spoke  to  any  of  them;  nobody  ever 
spoke  to  me  concerning  any  of  them,  and  I  have  no  interest  in  them. 
But  I  will  ask  you,  can  you  think  of  anything  more  calculated  to 
create  a  thirst  for  revenge  in  the  minds  of  ignorant  men;  can  you 
think  of  anything  more  calculated  to  plant  the  seeds  of  hatred  and 
even  of  murder  in  the  hearts  of  men ;  can  you  think  of  anything  more 


202  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

calculated  to  make  them  hate  the  flag  that  floats  above  them  and 
pray  for  the  destruction  of  the  government  that  thus  bullies  them, 
than  the  conduct  of  your  police  officers  during  the  past  week?  If  that 
conduct  does  not  inspire  the  feelings  I  have  just  named,  will  you 
kindly  tell  me  what  kind  of  conduct  will  do  so?  In  the  spring  of  1886 
we  had  some  extensive  strikes  and  labor  troubles  on  the  West  Side. 
At  that  time  there  were  meetings  of  labor  people,  and  the  Police 
Department  then  pursued  the  course  which  your  officers  have  just 
been  pursuing;  when  there  was  no  trouble  meetings  were  broken  up, 
men  were  clubbed  to  the  right  and  to  the  left  without  any  provocation, 
and  this  was  kept  up  for  weeks,  until  finally  some  wretch,  whose  name, 
if  they  knew  it,  the  police  have  never  been  willing  to  make  public, 
threw  a  bomb  at  a  squad  of  police  who  were  in  the  act  of  dispersing 
another  peaceable  meeting — a  meeting  which  the  Mayor  had  attended 
and  pronounced  peaceable — and  the  result  was  the  killing  and  maim- 
ing of  a  large  number  of  policemen,  most  of  them  officers  who  were 
simply  obeying  the  orders  of  their  superiors,  and  were  not  responsible 
for  the  brutal  bullying  done  by  other  officers.  If  the  course  which 
your  force  has  started  in  to  pursue  shall  long  continue,  can  you,  in  all 
reason,  expect  any  other  result  to  follow  than  bloodshed?  Even  a 
worm  will  sometimes  turn  and  sting  the  heel  that  tramps  on  it. 

You  are  reported  as  having  said  you  will  continue  to  break  up 
meetings  which  do  not  meet  with  your  approval,  designating  in  this 
class  meetings  in  which  the  speakers  use  abusive  language  and  de- 
nounce the  government.  Now  let  me  ask  you  again,  since  when  has 
it  been  the  law  that  a  policeman  can  attend  a  meeting  of  citizens  and 
prescribe  what  may  and  what  may  not  be  said  at  that  meeting?  As 
a  citizen  and  a  tax-payer,  as  a  man  who  loves  our  country  and  be- 
lieves our  government  to  be  the  best  on  earth;  as  a  lover  of  liberty,  of 
law  and  of  order;  as  a  man  who  is  proud  of  our  great  city  and  who 
does  not  want  its  fair  fame  clouded  by  this  dramatic  and  farcical  police 
demonstration,  I  protest  against  these  unlawful  acts,  and  I  will  say  to 
you  that  it  will  be  an  evil  day  for  our  country  when  the  poor  and  the 
ignorant,  misguided  though  they  may  be,  shall  feel  that  a  bullet  is 
the  only  minister  of  justice  which  can  right  their  wrongs,  and  the 
conduct  of  your  officers  now,  like  the  conduct  of  certain  officers  in  the 
spring  of  '86,  will  certainly  tend  to  create  that  feeling  and  to  accelerate 
its  growth,  and  thus  tend  to  endanger  the  lives  and  property  of  our 
people.  Very  respectfully, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

Note. — The  cases  were  tried  before  Police  Magistrate  Woodman,  who  held 
his  position  as  such  magistrate  from  Mayor  Washburn.  Everybody  expected 


ORIGIN  OF  TRUSTS.  203 

Woodman  to  do  whatever  the  city  administration  wanted  done  in  the  cases. 
After  the  writing  of  the  above  letter  Mr.  Greif's  daughter,  who  was  lying  dan- 
gerously ill  in  her  father's  house  at  the  time  Inspector  Lewis  battered  down 
the  doors,  died,  her  death  being  hastened  if  not  actually  caused  by  the  shock. 
In  the  meantime  public  sentiment  began  to  be  aroused,  and  the  police,  as  well 
as  the  administration,  were  censured,  until  the  latter  felt  that  it  must  have 
some  sort  of  vindication.  Then  was  enacted  one  of  the  most  farcical  proceed- 
ings, following  on  the  heels  of  a  tragedy,  ever  witnessed  in  this  country. 
Magistrate  Woodman  rendered  his  decision  and  proceeded  to  find  all  of  the 
men  guilty  of  disorderly  conduct.  The  moment  he  had  concluded  and  before 
the  defendants  had  time  to  stand  up  and  pray  an  appeal,  Mr.  Douglas,  the  city 
prosecutor,  who  had  spent  nearly  a  week  prosecuting  the  cases,  jumped  up 
and  asked  that  the  fines  be  suspended  in  all  the  cases,  and  the  magistrate  very 
complacently  suspended  all  the  fines,  against  the  protests  of  the  defendants, 
who  insisted  on  their  right  of  appeal,  claiming  that  a  principle  was  involved, 
and  they  did  not  want  the  matter  dropped  in  that  farcical  way,  but  wanted 
their  rights  vindicated  in  a  higher  tribunal.  The  city  prosecutor  simply  replied 
that  as  the  fines  had  been  suspended  there  was  nothing  to  appeal  from.  Now, 
sentence  is  sometimes  suspended  on  motion  of  the  defendants  when  it  appears 
that  there  were  mitigating  circumstances  and  there  is  a  promise  of  better 
conduct  for  the  future.  But  the  idea  of  arresting  men,  clubbing  them,  locking 
them  up,  spending  a  week  in  prosecuting  them,  and  then,  against  their  protest, 
suspending  the  fines  and  telling  them  to  go  home  when  they  insisted  on  carrying 
the  litigation  farther,  has  never  been  heard  of  before.  Of  all  the  travesties 
that  were  ever  enacted  in  so-called  courts  of  justice,  none  ever  had  so  comical 
an  ending.  It  showed  that  the  city  authorities  felt  they  were  in  the  wrong, 
but  had  not  the  manliness  to  confess  it,  and  they  resorted  to  this  boy's  play, 
hoping  to  get  out  of  a  bad  scrape. 

Subsequently,  at  the  request  of  the  city  authorities,  there  were  conferences 
held  between  the  mayor  and  chief  of  police  on  the  one  hand,  and  some  of  the 
men  who  were  arrested  at  Greif's  Hall  and  their  friends,  on  the  other,  in  which 
conferences  both  the  mayor  and  the  chief  tried  to  appease  the  men  by  prom- 
ising reparation  for  the  wrong  done,  the  chief  saying  that  he  would  pay  for 
the  property  belonging  to  some  of  the  societies,  and  which  had  been  destroyed 
by  the  police. 


ORIGIN  OF  TRUSTS. 
(Interview,  "Chicago  Herald,"  January  n,  1891.) 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  formation  of  trusts  is  contrary  to 
both  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  the  law.  Their  effect  is  to  arbitrarily 
make  prices  and  to  cut  down  the  wages  of  the  employe.  Whenever 
they  have  been  brought  before  the  courts  and  their  true  character  has 
been  shown,  the  courts  have  held  them  illegal.  The  sugar  trust  has 
been  declared  illegal  by  the  New  York  courts,  and  the  gas  trust  here 
has  suffered  similarly.  But  they  evade  and  ignore  all  adverse  deci- 
sions, and  frequently  find  judges  who,  while  not  holding  that  trusts 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

are  legal,  will  yet  help  them  out.  The  sugar  trust  goes  right  on  as  if 
nothing  had  happened,  and  the  price  of  gas  in  Chicago  is  just  where 
the  gas  trust  put  it. 

IT   IS   A   GREAT  QUESTION. 

The  question  of  trusts  is  a  greater  one  than  many  people  imagine, 
and  it  is  a  problem  for  which  it  appears  difficult  to  provide  a  solution. 
Trusts  are  the  product  of  our  development,  and  the  line  upon  which 
they  have  come  goes  beyond  the  mere  formation  of  trusts.  They 
are  the  legitimate  offspring  of  the  concentration  of  wealth  in  a  few 
hands.  This  started  soon  after  the  close  of  the  war,  and  has  acquired 
an  accelerated  motion  as  it  has  progressed.  Its  first  effects  were 
noticeable  in  the  crowding  out  of  the  small  merchant,  the  small  manu- 
facturer and  the  small  farmer.  The  stronger  of  these  prevailed,  so 
that  after  a  time  there  were  fewer  merchants,  fewer  manufacturers  and 
fewer  farmers  in  proportion  to  population.  A  few  manufacturers,  es- 
pecially in  the  iron  and  machinery  line,  drove  out  of  business  the  con- 
cerns with  less  capital,  and  thus  monopolized  the  market.  It  was 
soon  found  that  by  enlarging  the  establishments  and  concentrating 
capital  the  cost  of  running  in  proportion  to  the  business  done  was 
greatly  reduced,  so  that  the  stronger  could  undersell  the  weaker  and 
thus  drive  the  latter  out  of  business.  The  protective  tariff  was  an- 
other cause  of  the  concentration  of  vast  wealth  into  a  few  hands.  Big 
establishments  were  built  upon  the  lines  of  protection,  and  in  time 
these  were  enabled  to  reach  over  into  unprotected  fields  and  drive  out 
small  manufacturers  there.  Having  done  this,  they  put  prices  up  to 
suit  themselves.  Another  thing  which  greatly  facilitated  this  move- 
ment was  the  granting  of  special  freight  rates  to  large  dealers,  giving 
them  an  advantage  over  small  competitors  which  in  many  cases 
amounted  to  a  fair  profit. 

When  the  process  of  development  had  gone  so  far,  and  the  weaker 
concerns  in  the  various  lines  had  been  crushed  out,  there  were  left 
only  the  strong  and  powerful.  The  crushing  out  process  now  had  to 
cease,  and  to  avoid  a  ruinous  competition  they  formed  combinations 
and  fixed  prices  which  all  agreed  to  observe,  both  as  to  the  goods  to 
be  sold  and  the  wages  to  be  paid,  leaving  each,  however,  to  compete 
for  all  the  business  it  could  get.  Then  a  still  further  development 
came.  They  saw  the  advisability  of  limiting  their  output  in  order  to 
maintain  prices.  This  could  only  be  done  by  bringing  all  concerned 
into  one  common  pool.  Then  the  trust  was  born,  and  generally  it 
has  resulted  very  profitably  to  its  parents,  for  in  this  way  they  were 
enabled  to  still  further  reduce  the  cost  of  manufacturing  their  goods 


UTILIZE   THE  LAKE  FRONT.  205 

and  putting  them  upon  the  market  by  dispensing  with  the  services  of 
a  great  many  intermediate  men. 

TENDING   TOWARD    CONSOLIDATION. 

In  spite  of  the  law  these  organizations  seem  to  thrive,  and  while 
the  law  is  based  upon  common  justice,  it  is  apparent  to  the  most 
casual  observer  that  the  tendency  of  modern  times  is  toward  consoli- 
dation. In  governments  of  the  world,  the  little  principalities  and 
kingdoms  are  disappearing.  In  the  commerce  of  the  world  larger 
ships  are  in  use.  In  the  mercantile  world  we  have  larger  stores.  In 
the  railroad  world,  larger  railroads;  in  the  agricultural  world,  larger 
farms,  and  in  the  manufacturing  world,  larger  factories.  Wherever 
we  see  the  comprehensive  intelligence  of  the  nineteenth  century  ac- 
tively at  work  there  seems  to  be  a  tendency  to  concentration  and  con- 
solidation, to  simplify  and  to  enlarge.  It  is  so  easy  for  these  power- 
ful combinations  to  evade  the  law  that  it  is  very  doubtful  whether 
their  growth  can  be  arrested.  It  is  a  question  whether  there  is  any 
other  way  of  preserving  an  equilibrium  in  our  institutions  than  by 
organization  and  concentration  of  the  counter-balancing  forces. 


UTILIZE  THE  LAKE  FRONT. 

LET    THE    WORLD'S    FAIR    DIRECTORS    USE    IT,    BUT    DON'T 

GIVE   IT   AWAY. 

(From  the  "Sunday  Herald.") 

Editor  of  the  "Chicago  Herald." 

Sir:  I  am  asked  to  state  what  I  think  of  the  project  of  the  city's 
turning  the  Lake  Front  Park  over  to  the  South  Side  Commissioners, 
and  thus  parting  with  the  control  of  it.  As  this  would  be  a  great 
wrong  to  the  people  of  Chicago,  and  as  it  would  benefit  only  a  few 
individuals,  I  say  it  ought  not  to  be  done.  I  do  not  know  just  what 
the  legal  status  of  the  title  to  the  Park  is,  nor  does  it  matter  much, 
for  the  title  must  be  either  in  the  Federal  Government,  the  State  Gov- 
ernment, or  the  city,  or  in  all  three,  and  if  the  city  needs  any  further 
legislation,  either  Federal  or  State,  to  give  an  absolute  title  to  this 
land,  it  can  get  it.  If  the  people  of  Chicago  once  decide  that  they 
want  legislation  from  any  source,  I  repeat,  they  will  get  it. 

The  Park  was  originally  intended  for  the  pleasure  of  the  people 
of  Chicago.  So  long  as  it  was  suited  for  a  park  and  Chicago  was 
comparatively  small,  it  served  this  purpose.  But  for  a  number  of 


206  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

years  the  people  of  Chicago  have  derived  absolutely  no  benefit  from  it, 
because  it  was  no  longer  suited  for  a  park,  and  its  location  made  it 
practically  inaccessible.  The  West  Side,  having  more  than  half  the 
population  of  the  city,  gets  absolutely  no  benefit  from  it.  The  North 
Side  derives  no  benefit  from  it  whatever.  Not  one  in  a  thousand  of 
the  people  of  the  South  Side  derives  any  benefit  or  pleasure  from  it 
at  all,  nor  would  they  if  the  ground  were  turned  over  to  the  South 
Park  Commissioners.  In  the  first  place,  the  South  Park  Commis- 
sioners have  not  money  enough  to  improve  the  grounds  they  already 
have  as  they  should  be  improved.  In  the  second  place,  as  already 
stated,  a  little  park  in  the  business  center  of  a  city  amounts  to  noth- 
ing, and  it  is  safe  to  say  that,  even  if  the  South  Park  Commissioners 
had  the  money,  they  could  not  so  improve  the  park  as  to  make  it  a 
resort  for  a  very  large  number  of  the  people  of  Chicago;  it  would 
always  be  what  it  has  been  for  the  last  ten  years,  a  more  or  less  un- 
sightly place  with  constant  railroad  annoyances  on  one  side  and  busi- 
ness on  the  other.  Now,  in  order  that  the  whole  people  of  Chicago, 
to  whom  it  belongs,  may  derive  any  benefit  from  it  in  the  future,  it 
is  necessary  that  it  should  be  so  utilized  for  all  time  to  come  as  to 
derive  an  annual  revenue  from  it,  which  the  city  could  use  to  make 
parks,  build  libraries,  build  art  institutes,  make  streets,  build  bridges, 
and  make  improvements  of  every  character.  I  believe  in  parks,  but 
want  them  where  the  masses  of  the  people  can  enjoy  them.  And  to 
show  what  an  enormous  annual  revenue  could  be  derived  from  this 
ground,  I  will  say  that  I  will  take  a  lease  of  it  and  pay  one  million 
dollars  annually  into  the  city  treasury,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  that  is 
not  half  its  value.  I  am  satisfied  that,  if  the  title  is  once  perfected,  it 
can  be  leased  for  business  purposes  on  ten  or  twenty  year  leases,  pro- 
viding for  re-valuation  every  ten  years,  on  a  basis  that  will  pay  the 
city  annually  anywhere  from  two  to  three  million  dollars.  This  would 
again  benefit  all  of  the  people  of  Chicago. 

If  it  is  turned  over  to  the  South  Park  Commissioners,  nobody 
will  derive  any  benefit  from  it,  except  the  few  people  who  have  prop- 
erty fronting  on  Michigan  Avenue  opposite  this  park.  So  it  is  a 
question  whether  the  people  of  Chicago  should  part  with  an  annual 
revenue  of  from  two  to  three  millions  of  dollars  for  the  sake  of  bene- 
fiting a  few  dozen  property  owners,  who  were  fortunate  enough  to 
buy  on  Michigan  Avenue.  It  is  said  that  the  park  having  been  laid 
out,  the  owners  of  property  on  Michigan  Avenue  have  an  easement  in 
the  light,  etc.,  to  be  derived  from  the  park.  I  would  say  that  there 
is  perhaps  some  doubt  about  that.  But  if  that  be  true,  the  revenue 
which  would  be  derived  from  the  ground  in  one  year  will  pay  the 


MONEY  IN  UNITED  STATES.  207 

damages  for  taking  this  easement  ten  times  over,  and  leave  a  surplus. 

I  am  opposed  to  any  scheme  whereby  the  city  shall  part  with  the 
Lake  Front.  I  am  absolutely  opposed  to  selling  it,  for  if  this  were 
done  the  money  would  soon  be  gone  and  we  would  have  nothing  left. 
I  am  opposed  to  turning  it  over  to  the  Park  Commissioners,  for  the 
great  masses  of  Chicago  will  get  nothing  out  of  it  if  this  is  done. 

It  should  be  handled  as  our  school  property  is  handled.  Some  of 
the  most  valuable  property  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  notably  the  ground 
on  which  the  Tribune  Building  and  buildings  immediately  south  of  it 
stand,  and  others  which  could  be  mentioned,  is  leased,  as  I  under- 
stand, on  ten  year  leases;  that  is,  the  lease  provides  for  a  re-valuation 
every  ten  years,  the  lessees  doing  their  own  building  and  owning  the 
buildings.  The  Lake  Front  property  can  be  handled  in  the  same 
manner  and  produce  the  revenue  I  have  stated.  And  for  the  common 
council,  with  or  without  the  consent  of  the  mayor,  to  part  with  this 
and  get  practically  nothing  in  return,  will  be  robbing  the  people  of 
Chicago.  Keeping  it  in  control  and  using  it  as  I  have  suggested, 
means  that  during  the  next  generation  the  city  will  get  one  hundred 
millions  of  dollars,  which  it  can  use  for  purposes  I  have  indicated. 

If  the  World's  Fair  Commissioners  need  the  park  from  now  until 
after  the  Fair,  let  them  have  it;  give  them  every  privilege  they  need  and 
every  facility  possible  to  use  it.  All  of  the  people  of  Chicago  are  inter- 
ested in  the  World's  Fair,  and  will  give  the  use  of  that  or  any  other 
park  for  it.  Therefore,  I  say,  let  the  council  pass  an  ordinance,  giving 
the  World's  Fair  Commissioners  the  right  to  use  it.  In  the  mean- 
time get  what  legislation  may  be  necessary  to  perfect  the  title,  then 
run  streets  from  Michigan  Avenue  to  the  lake,  divide  the  ground  into 
lots,  and,  in  order  to  avoid  even  a  suspicion  of  "boodle,"  rent  these 
lots  to  the  highest  bidder  on  ground  leases,  with  a  provision  for  a  re- 
valuation, say,  every  ten  after  the  first  fifteen  years. 

July  5th,  1890.  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


VOLUME  OF  MONEY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
(Published  in  the  "St.  Louis  Republic,"  Oct.  21,  1893.) 

REPORT    OF    DIRECTOR    OF    MINT    VS.     REPORT    OF    COMP- 
TROLLER OF  CURRENCY. 

On  page  46  of  the  report  of  the  Director  of  the  Mint  for  1892, 
there  are  some  tables  purporting  to  give  the  volume  of  money  in  this 
country.  In  particular  this: 


208 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 


The  following  table  exhibits  approximately  the  stock  of  gold,  silver  and 
uncovered  paper  money  in  the  United  Kingdom,  France,  Germany  and 
the  United  States: 


Total 
rVnintr;<               Popula-       Gold              Silver        Uncover'd    metallic  st'k 
tion.        Stock.           Stock.          Notes.       anduncVd 
paper. 

United  Kingdom  .... 

38,000,000 
39,000.000 
49,500.000 
65,000,000 

$550,000,000 
800.000,000 
600,000,000 
654,000,000 

$100,000,000 
700,000,000 
210,000.000 
575,000,000 

$50,000,000 
81,402,000 
107,000,000 
405,790,000 

$700,000,000 
1,581,402,000 
917,000,000 
1,634.790,000 

United  States  

Per  Capita. 


Countries. 

Gold. 

Silver. 

Paper. 

Total. 

.    $14   47 

$2   63 

$1    \2 

$l8  42 

2O    52 

17  05 

2   OO 

4O    ^6 

12    12 

'  y5 
4  26 

2    l6 

18  54 

United  States  

10  06 

8  85 

6  24 

25  15 

These  figures,  coming  from  such  a  high  source,  have  been  gener- 
ally relied  on  and  quoted  to  show  that  the  amount  of  money  in  this 
country  was  large. 

Turning  now  to  the  reports  of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency, 
we  find  that  for  several  years  he  has  been  making  inquiries  of  all  the 
banks  in  the  country — national,  state  and  private — as  to  the  amount 
of  money  of  all  kinds  which  they  held  at  the  close  of  business  on  a 
given  day  of  each  year.  He  tells  us  that  substantially  all  of  the  banks 
in  the  United  States  reported.  On  page  86,  of  the  Comptroller's 
report  for  1892,  he  gives  the  following: 

Statement  showing  the  amount  of  gold,  silver,  etc.,  held  by  National  Banks 
on  July  12,  1892,  and  by  other  banking  institutions  on  or  about  the  same 
date: 


Classification. 

National 
Banks. 
(3759) 

Other  (5579) 
Banking 
Institutions. 

Total. 

Gold  Coin  

.  .  .  $96,723,083 

$8,889,370 

$105.612.453 
85,530,100 
8,498,000 

14.971,085 

25.523.399 
21.325,840 
160.727.708 

23,115,000 
939.383 
22,119,226 
1  18,042,009 

8c  C7n  inn 

Gold  (Clearing  House)  Certificates      8,498,000 
Silver    dollars   7^66.506) 

1,925,187 

Silver   fractional  

5,579,302  ( 

21  325  840 

Legal  Tender  Notes 

113  915  016 

*46,8i2,6g2 

U.  S.  Certificates  of  Deposits 
Legal   Tenders    

for 
...     23,115.000 

Specie  not  classified          .  . 

' 

22,119,226 
118.042.909 

Cash    not  classified  

Total    

.  .  .$388.615,719 

$197.789.384 

$586.405.103 

*  Including  National  Bank  Notes  and  Coin  Certificates. 


MONEY  IN  UNITED  STATES.  209 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  national  banks  classified  the  money  they 
held,  while  the  state  banks  reported  most  of  their  holdings  as  unclassi- 
fied; but  the  total  of  all  the  money  held  by  all  the  banks  in  this  coun- 
try at  the  close  of  business  on  July  12,  1892,  was  only  $586,405,103. 
To  this  sum  must  be  added  the  amount  then  in  the  United  States 
Treasury  over  and  above  the  gold  and  silver  certificates  outstanding. 
This  sum,  according  to  the  tables  on  page  44,  report  of  Director  of 
Mint,  for  1892,  was  $303,281,685.  Add  this  to  the  total  amount  then 
in  the  banks,  and  it  makes  $889,686,788  as  the  total  amount  of  money 
in  the  United  States,  except  what  there  was  then  in  the  pockets  of  the 
people. 

There  is  no  way  of  ascertaining  exactly  how  much  this  was  on 
July  12,  1892.  Competent  judges  who  have  lived  among  all  classes 
of  people  insist  that,  as  the  entire  country  was  already  thoroughly 
banked — there  being  a  bank  in  almost  every  large  village  which  paid 
interest  on  deposits — as  merchants  deposit  daily,  and  as  nearly  all 
money  held  by  treasurers  was  already  in  the  banks ;  and  further,  as 
there  was  at  that  time  no  alarm  among  the  people  and  no  general 
withdrawal  of  the  funds  from  the  banks,  there  being,  in  fact,  one  hun- 
dred millions  more  in  the  banks  then  than  on  the  corresponding  day 
of  the  previous  year;  that  this  was  a  time  of  year  when  farmers  had 
no  money,  and  when  money  was  supposed  to  be  in  the  banks;  that 
when  all  these  things  are  considered,  an  average  of  $5  to  a  family 
would  be  a  large  average  and  when  we  include  the  colored  people  of 
the  South  and  the  poor  all  over  the  country,  that  the  majority  of 
families  would  not  have  more  than  75  cents  to  $2.  If  we  accept  this 
estimate,  it  would  make  $65,000,000  as  the  amount  of  money  then  in 
the  pockets  of  the  people.  But  suppose  we  double  this  sum.  Let  us 
assume  that  on  July  12,  1892,  there  were  on  an  average  $10  in  the 
pockets  of  every  family  in  the  United  States,  including  the  colored 
people  and  the  poor  generally,  as  well  as  the  Western  settlers,  who 
usually  have  no  money.  Yet  this  would  make  only  $130,000,000  as 
the  total  amount  of  money  among  the  people  outside  of  the  banks 
and  the  United  States  Treasury.  Adding  this  sum  to  $889,686,788, 
the  amount  in  the  banks  and  the  treasury,  and  it  makes  $1,019,686,788, 
and  from  this  must  be  deducted  $25,596,167,  being  the  sum  deposited 
to  redeem  national  bank  notes  which  will  go  out  of  circulation,  leav- 
ing $994,091,621  as  the  total  amount  of  money  in  the  United  States  of 
America  on  that  day,  being  but  little  over  half  the  amount  named  in 
the  report  of  the  Director  of  the  Mint. 

\Yhat,  then,  causes  the  discrepancy  between  this  sum  and  the 


210  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

amount  given  by  the  Director.     An  examination  of  his  reports  and 
those  of  the  Comptroller  clears  the  matter  up. 

FIRST  AS  TO  COIN. 

On  page  42  of  the  report  for  1892,  the  Director  says:  "It  may 
be  proper  to  repeat  here  that  the  basis  of  the  annual  tabulations  of 
the  stock  of  gold  coin  in  the  United  States  was  the  actual  amount  of 
gold  coin  in  the  treasury  and  in  national  banks  on  June  30,  1872, 
with  an  addition  of  $20,000,000  as  an  estimate  of  the  minimum  amount 
of  gold  coin  in  circulation  in  the  States  of  the  Pacific  Slope." 

Since  that  date  the  official  estimates  presented  from  year  to  year 
have  been  compiled  by  adding  to  the  actual  visible  stock  June  30, 
1872,  the  coinage  of  the  mints  (less  re-coinage  of  our  coins)  and  the 
gain  (or  loss)  by  import  and  export  of  our  own  coin  as  registered  at 
the  custom  houses,  with  an  annual  allowance  for  melting  of  United 
States  coin  for  use  in  the  industrial  arts,  based  upon  three  censuses 
taken  by  the  bureau  of  the  mint  of  the  jewelry  trade. 

In  the  case  of  silver,  the  stock  of  silver  dollars  is  estimated  to  be 
the  coinage  since  March  i,  1878,  together  with  an  estimate  of  the 
amount  in  the  country  at  that  date  of  $5,000,000,  the  stock  of  subsidi- 
ary silver  coin,  the  annual  gain  or  loss  (import  and  export)  and  an 
annual  allowance  for  melting  in  the  industrial  arts,  as  in  the  case  of ' 
gold. 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  strange  assumption  is  made 
that  every  dollar  of  coin-  that  went  into  circulation  in  this  country 
since  June  30,  1872,  and  whose  exportation  is  not  registered  at  the 
custom  house,  is  not  only  still  in  circulation,  but  is  in  circulation  in 
this  country. 

No  deduction  is  made  for  the  money  lost  and  never  found  during 
twenty  years,  nor  for  coin  used  in  the  arts  by  the  thousands  of  gold- 
smiths, who  make  no  report  of  what  they  use.  No  deduction  is  made 
for  what  the  Chinamen  have  sent  home  in  twenty  years,  nor  for  what 
has  been  carried  in  men's  pockets  over  our  northern  border  or  our 
southern  border,  nor  for  what  was  carried  away  in  the  pockets  of 
traders  who  brought  goods  to  our  markets  and  did  not  register 
the  gold  they  took  away;  nor  was  any  deduction  made  for  the  vast 
amounts  carried  to  Europe  by  American  travelers  during  those  years. 

On  page  38,  report  of  the  Director  of  the  Mint  for  1891,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  vast  sums  of  American  coin  carried  out  of  the  country  in  the 
then  previous  year,  the  Director  says: 

"The  gold  carried  out  of  this  country  to  meet  the  expenses,  by 
sea  and  land,  of  Americans  spending  their  summers  abroad,  must  have 


MONEY  IN  UNITED  STATES.  211 

nearly,  if  not  quite  equaled  the  year  of  the  Paris  Exposition,  when 
such  expenditures  were  estimated  at  over  $92,000,000." 

Whether  the  Director  means  that  this  sum  was  carried  out  by 
American  travelers  over  and  above  the  money  they  paid  for  letters  of 
credit,  etc.,  and  which  was  registered  at  the  custom  house,  is  not 
clear;  but  we  will  assume  that  a  part  of  the  above  was  registered  at 
the  custom  house  when  it  left  this  country,  and  was  therefore  in- 
cluded in  the  exports  already  deducted.  Still  a  very  large  part  of  it 
was  carried  out  of  the  country  in  the  pockets  of  American  travelers, 
and  was  therefore  not  registered  anywhere,  although  it  was  com- 
pletely lost  to  this  country,  or  if  it  came  back  it  was  imported  and 
registered  and  formed  a  part  of  the  stock  given  by  the  Director. 
The  European  travel  on  the  part  of  Americans  has  been  very  heavy 
every  one  of  the  twenty  years  since  1872,  so  that  during  this  time 
there  must  have  been  several  hundred  millions  of  coin  carried  abroad 
in  this  channel  alone  without  being  registered,  and  which  was  there- 
fore not  included  in  the  deductions  made  for  exports.  When  this  and 
the  other  channels  through  which  coin  has  been  flowing  from  us  for 
twenty  years  without  being  registered  are  considered,  it  becomes  at 
once  apparent,  even  if  there  were  no  other  source  of  information,  that 
there  is  not  much  over  half  of  the  coin  now  in  this  country  that  is 
claimed. 

In  determining  the  amount  of  paper  money  outstanding,  the  de- 
partment assumes  that  all  the  paper  money  that  was  issued  since  1862 
is  still  in  circulation,  unless  it  has  been  returned  to  the  department  for 
cancellation.  No  allowance  is  made  for  loss  by  destruction,  nor 
for  money  that  was  lost  and  never  found.  The  Comptroller  of 
the  Currency,  in  his  report  for  1892,  page  57,  shows  that  from 
the  time  the  national  banking  system  was  created,  nearly  thirty 
years  ago,  to  the  present,  the  national  banks  have  issued  $1,693,- 
501,685  of  currency,  consisting  of  214,563,922  separate  bills  of  different 
denominations.  Of  this,  $1,521,437,753,  consisting  of  193,281,997  sep- 
arate bills  have  been  presented  at  the  Treasurer's  office  and  canceled 
or  redeemed,  and  the  department  assumes  that  the  difference  between 
the  amount  issued  and  the  amount  canceled  is  still  in  circulation.  Just 
what  the  loss  would  be  during  nearly  thirty  years — from  destruction 
and  from  money  that  was  lost  and  never  found  by  anybody — on  these 
national  bank  issues  it  is  impossible  to  tell,  but  when  the  length  of  time 
and  the  volume  which  was  issued  from  first  to  last  is  considered,  it 
is  apparent  that  the  loss  must  have  been  large. 

The  Treasury  Department,  from  time  to  time  since  1862,  issued 
large  volumes  of  United  States  notes  under  the  different  acts  author- 


212  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

izing  such  issues,  and  then  proceeded  to  redeem  the  larger  part.  Ac- 
cording to  the  report  of  Mr.  Windom,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  for 
1890,  the  total  amount  of  money  thus  issued  was  nearly  three  billions 
of  dollars,  which  has  all  been  called  in  and  canceled,  except  about  four 
hundred  and  fifty  millions,  and  it  is  assumed  that  every  dollar  of  this 
is  still  in  circulation.  It  is  impossible  to  tell  how  much  of  this  vast 
amount  was  lost  and  destroyed  during  nearly  thirty  years.  But  when 
the  large  volume  issued  and  the  long  time  is  considered  it  must  be  a 
large  sum. 

Again,  during  the  same  time  the  government  has  issued  over  two 
billions  of  gold  and  silver  certificates,  and  has  redeemed  all  but  about 
four  hundred  and  seventy  millions.  How  much  of  this  large  volume 
was  lost  we  cannot  tell,  but  a  considerable  sum  must  have  been.  To  be 
sure  the  gold  and  silver  against  which  these  certificates  were  issued  is 
still  supposed  to  be  in  the  treasury,  but  so  long  as  the  certificates  are 
not  presented  the  coin  must  be  held  to  redeem  them,  and  therefore 
cannot  go  into  circulation. 

Taking  the  national  bank  notes  and  all  the  paper  money  issued  by 
the  United  States  Treasury  during  the  last  thirty  years,  it  amounts 
to  more  than  six  and  a  half  billions  of  dollars.  That  there  was  annual- 
ly a  large  sum  of  this  lost  and  destroyed  is  certain,  yet  the  department 
assumes  that  every  dollar  is  still  in  circulation  unless  it  was  canceled 
at  the  treasury. 

If  we  had  no  other  source  of  information,  the  facts  above  given 
relating  to  the  annual  loss  of  coin  and  destruction  and  loss  of  paper 
money  for  thirty  years  would  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  we  cannot 
have  much  more  than  half  the  amount  of  money  now  in  circulation  in 
this  country  that  is  claimed  in  the  tables  given  by  the  Director  of  the 
Mint.  And  this  is  simply  confirmed  by  the  report  of  the  Comptroller 
of  the  Currency,  showing  the  exact  amount  of  money  in  the  banks.  It 
may  be  claimed  by  some  that  I  have  estimated  the  amount  of  money 
in  the  pockets  of  the  people  too  low;  that  there  were  more  than  ten 
dollars  on  an  average  in  the  pockets  of  each  family  in  the  United 
States.  This  claim  will  hardly  come  from  any  one  who  has  lived 
among  the  farming  and  laboring  classes  of  this  country,  and  who 
knows  how  very  little  money  is  usually  to  be  found  among  them.  But 
if  it  were  even  to  be  conceded  that  there  were  fifteen  dollars  instead 
of  ten  on  an  average  in  the  pockets  of  each  family  in  the  United  States, 
including  the  negroes  of  the  South  and  all  the  laboring  and  poorer 
classes,  at  the  close  of  business  on  July  12,  1892,  it  would  add  only 
sixty-five  millions  of  dollars,  which  would  hardly  bring  the  whole  sum 
up  to  two-thirds  of  the  amount  that  is  claimed  to  be  in  circulation. 


THE   SILVER    QUESTION.  213 

THE  SILVER  QUESTION 

AND 
THE  SHERMAN  LAW. 

(Note. — On  July  Jist,  last,  the  New  York  Herald  asked  my  opinion  on 
the  silver  question  and  the  sentiment  of  the  State  on  the  repeal  of  the  Sherman 
Law.  Below  is  my  answer,  which  the  Herald  refused  to  publish.) 

The  bankers  and  brokers  of  the  large  cities  and  the  large  daily 
papers  favor  repeal.  I  believe  the  general  sentiment  of  the  State  wants 
something  satisfactory  substituted  in  case  the  law  is  repealed.  Under 
the  Sherman  act  nearly  fifty  million  dollars  per  annum  are  added  to  the 
circulating  medium  of  this  country,  and  to  this  limited  extent  it  helps 
to  keep  up  prices.  The  idea  that  the  Sherman  act  is  the  cause  of  our 
trouble  is  ridiculous.  The  present  difficulty  lies  much  deeper.  It  is 
not  local  to  this  country,  but  extends  over  the  world.  Mr.  Goshen, 
the  great  ex-chancellor  and  banker  of  England,  was  right  when  he  told 
an  association  of  bankers  some  years  ago  that,  as  the  country  was  al- 
ready well  banked  and  the  credit  system  could  not  be  much  extended, 
therefore,  to  prevent  the  shrinkage  in  values  there  should  be  an  annual 
increase  in  the  volume  of  money ;  first,  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of 
population;  second,  increase  of  territory  over  which  business  was 
done;  and,  third,  increase  in  the  general  industries  of  the  world.  At 
present  93  per  cent,  of  the  business  of  the  country  is  done  on  the 
credit  system,  and  rests,  like  an  inverted  pyramid,  on  the  seven  per 
cent,  of  money.  The  base  being  so  small,  a  slight  disturbance  will 
destroy  the  great  superstructure.  Up  to  1871  and  1873,  the  two  metals 
had  done  the  business  of  the  world.  It  is  true  the  English  government 
demonetized  silver  in  1816,  but  this  made  no  impression  so  long  as 
the  rest  of  the  world  used  it.  In  1873  Germany,  by  law,  stopped  the 
use  of  silver  and  threw  four  hundred  million  dollars  upon  the  market. 
Denmark  and  some  smaller  countries  allied  with  Germany  also  by  law 
stopped  the  use  of  silver.  The  same  influence,  that  is,  the  money  pow- 
er, that  secured  this  law  in  Germany  got  France  and  the  countries  of  the 
Latin  Union  to,  by  law,  stop  coining  silver,  and  got  the  United  States 
at  the  same  time  to,  by  law,  demonetize  silver,  so  that  the  great 
commercial  nations  of  the  world  by  law  stopped  the  use  of  silver  and 
threw  the  entire  burden  of  the  business  of  the  world  onto  gold.  This 
legislation  was  secured  by  the  moneyed  classes.  Some  years  after 
that,  in  the  address  referred  to,  Mr.  Goshen  told  the  bankers  of  Lon- 
don that  the  effect  of  thus  increasing  the  burden  of  gold  and  making 


214  LIFE   QUESTIONS. 

it  alone  do  the  work  formerly  done  by  both  metals,  would  be  to 
enhance  its  value  and  correspondingly  reduce  the  prices  of  com- 
modities. He  also  showed  that  the  annual  production  of  gold,  in- 
stead of  being  on  the  increase,  was  at  a  standstill  or  decrease,  and 
that  the  amount  consumed  in  the  arts  was  increasing.  Since  then  the 
population  of  the  world  has  steadily  increased,  making  more  money 
necessary;  the  area  over  which  business  was  to  be  done  has  increased, 
making  more  money  necessary;  the  industries  and  exchanges  of  the 
world  have  increased,  making  more  money  necessary,  while  there  has 
been  no  appreciable  increase  in  the  volume  of  gold — even  much  of  the 
gold  that  is  coined  is  soon  used  in  the  arts — and  recently,  Austria  has, 
by  law,  attempted  to  make  gold  the  sole  currency.  Russia  is  calling 
for  gold,  and  India  has,  by  law,  stopped  coining  silver,  so  that,  while 
there  should  have  been  an  enormous  increase  of  the  volume  of  money 
of  the  world  every  year,  in  order  to  keep  prices  at  a  standstill  and  have 
neither  inflation  nor  depression,  there  has  been  a  practical  reduction 
in  the  volume  of  money  and  a  consequent  shrinkage  in  values  all 
over  the  world.  This  has  been  going  on  for  a  number  of  years; 
stringency  getting  worse  every  year  and  prices  falling  as  the  strin- 
gency increased.  The  Sherman  act  is  merely  a  small  surface  irritation 
of  a  disease  that  is  constitutional  and  must  receive  constitutional  treat- 
ment, or  a  long  period  of  general  bankruptcy  must  follow.  I  am  not 
prescribing  a  remedy  but  am  only  giving  the  origin  of  the  trouble. 
CJIpney  in  the  business  world  and  blood  in  the  body  perform  similar 
functions  and  seem  to  be  governed  by  similar  laws.  When  the  quan- 
tity of  either  is  reduced  the  patient  becomes  weak  and  what  blood  or 
money  is  left  rushes  to  the  heart,  or  center,  while  the  extremities  grow 
cold.  Before  the  circulation  of  the  blood  was  understood,  volumes 
were  written  upon  its  functions  and  bleeding  was  the  universal  treat- 
ment. When  a  patient  was  already  weak  the  doctor  at  once  bled  him. 
So  with  our  money  doctors.  When  the  world  is  suffering  because 
the  volume  of  money  is  insufficient  for  the  increased  growth,  all  the 
remedies  these  learned  doctors  can  prescribe  is  to  take  a  little  more 


blood  out  of  the  patient. 


NECESSITY  OF  ORGANIZATION  AMONG  LABORERS. 
(Interview,  "Morning  News,"  April  28.  1890.) 

"It  comes  with  ill  grace  from  those  who,  to  a  greater  or  less  ex- 
tent, hold  not  only  their  own  employes  but  the  whole  community  by 
the  throat  by  means  of  their  organizations,  to  refuse  to  recognize  the 


ORGANIZATION   AMONG   LABORERS.  215 

right  of  others  to  organize."  Judge  John  P.  Altgeld  made  this  reply 
to  a  question  concerning  his  views  on  the  existing  deadlock  between 
the  striking  carpenters  and  the  bosses. 

Judge  Altgeld  was  not  interviewed  because  of  his  high  position 
as  a  jurist.  He  has  made  a  deep  study  of  the  labor  question,  and 
has  been  frank  and  outspoken  in  expressing  his  views.  His  con- 
clusions, if  they  require  it,  obtain  added  weight  from  the  fact  that 
during  the  last  year  he  has  built  five  large  blocks  of  buildings,  costing 
over  $500,000.  Judge  Altgeld  thus  occupies  the  position  of  an  em- 
ployer, and  his  views  on  the  labor  question  appear  to  have  been  ar- 
rived at  regardless  of  his  personal  or  private  interests. 

THE   POINT    AT    ISSUE. 

The  point  at  issue  between  the  striking  carpenters  and  the  bosses 
has  dwindled  and  narrowed  until  it  is  now  less  a  question  of  Hours 
and  pay  than  it  is  of  the  question  of  union.  The  carpenters  are 
organized  in  a  solid,  compact  body.  They  spent  years  at  the  work  of 
perfecting  and  recruiting  their  organization.  But  for  this  organiza- 
tion their  strike  could  not  be  maintained  over  night.  It  is  all  that 
enables  them  to  make  their  demands  effective. 

The  bosses  say  they  will  arbitrate.  They  will  make  concessions. 
They  will  do  this,  that  and  the  other  thing.  But  they  demand  a  con- 
cession of  the  carpenters.  This  union  that  has  enabled  the  carpenters 
to  make  their  demands  felt  must  be  abandoned.  The  bosses  are  organ- 
ized, and  speaking  through  a  single  executive  head,  refuse  to  recognize 
the  same  right  of  organization  among  the  carpenters — refuse  to  do 
business  with  the  head  of  the  carpenters'  organization.  The  bosses 
are  unwilling  to  concede  to  the  men  the  same  right  of  organization 
that  they  themselves  utilize  to  make  their  acts  effective. 

THE   BOSSES   UNREASONABLE. 

In  opening  the  interview  with  Judge  Altgeld  yesterday,  he  was 
asked  what  he  thought  of  the  demands  of  the  bosses  that  the  carpenters 
abandon  their  organization.  He  replied:  "The  objection  that  the 
men  should  be  dealt  with  as  individuals,  and  not  as  an  organization, 
it  seems  to  me,  under  existing  conditions,  is  not  well  taken.  Fifty 
years  ago  it  would  have  been  different.  But  at  present  there  is  the 
most  perfect  organization  among  all  lines  of  large  employers,  whether 
mining,  manufacturing  or  building.  These  organizations  settle  all  ques- 
tions relative  to  the  policy  to  be  pursued,  and  very  frequently,  also, 
questions  of  prices  and  wages  to  be  paid  by  them.  Now,  an  individual 
employe  confronting  one  of  these  organizations,  is  not  only  absolutely 


216  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

at  its  mercy,  but  is  almost  too  insignificant  to  secure  thoughtful  at- 
tention to  his  demands." 

"But  how  can  this  condition  be  met?"  was  asked. 

"The  only  way  in  which  these  organizations  can  be  prevented  from 
abusing  their  power  is  by  counter-organization.  All  experience  in 
this  country  has  shown  this  to  be  so.  The  condition  of  many  of  the 
laborers  has  greatly  improved  in  the  last  twenty  years,  and  in  not  a 
single  instance  has  this  been  brought  about  by  individual  effort.  In 
every  case  it  was  accomplished  by  the  force  of  organization.  This 
being  so,  the  men  are  right  when  they  insist  on  having  their  organiza- 
tion recognized.  It  is  vital  to  them,  and  it  comes  with  an  ill  grace 
from  those  who,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  hold  not  only  the  employes, 
but  the  community,  by  the  throat  by  means  of  their  own  organization, 
to  refuse  to  recognize  organization  and  thereby  practically  deny  the 
right  to  organize  on  the  other  side.  And  if  the  men  can  only  better 
their  condition  and  that  of  their  families  by  means  of  organization, 
then  it  is  but  natural  that  they  should  want  to  keep  their  members 
together  in  order  to  secure  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number. 
It  is  but  natural  that  they  should  discourage  the  idea  of  individual 
employes  treating  with  the  bosses  just  at  a  critical  time  in  a  labor 
movement,  and  thus  perhaps  defeating  the  efforts  and  injuring  the 
welfare  of  all  laborers,  themselves  included." 

MISTAKE    OF    NON-UNION    MEN. 

"But  what  of  the  men  who  are  not  members  of  the  union?" 
"It  is  worthy  of  note  that  if  the  so-called  'scabs'  or  non-union  men, 
would  just  keep  hands  off  for  a  few  days,  or  at  most  a  few  weeks,  a 
movement  in  favor  of  shorter  hours  or  more  pay,  or  in  favor  of  any 
measure  founded  on  justice,  would  easily  succeed,  and  they  themselves 
would  be  the  gainers,  even  though  they  had  done  nothing  to  bring  it 
about.  They  themselves  would  have  a  better  prospect  for  work  in 
the  future.  They  would  gain  the  benefit  of  the  shortened  hours  of 
labor.  By  rushing  in  and  offering  to  work  at  a  critical  moment 
they  really  do  what  they  can  to  defeat  the  movement.  So  while  it  is 
to  be  regretted,  yet  it  is  but  natural  that  laboring  men  should  have  a 
bitter  feeling  against  those  of  their  class  who  in  their  eyes  are  the 
enemies  of  the  common  cause  and  of  the  best  interests  of  their  own 
families  as  well.  This  being  so,  the  carpenters  of  Chicago  are  to 
be  highly  commended  for  their  self-restraint  and  orderly  demeanor 
during  the  pending  strike." 

"What  do  you  think  of  the  argument  in  favor  of  'individual  free- 
dom,' made  by  some?" 


'ORGANIZATION  AMONG  LABORERS.  217 

"A  noticeable  thing  is,  that  this  argument  in  favor  of  the  individual 
freedom  of  each  workman  is  made  almost  exclusively  by  the  class 
who,  either  by  instinct  or  interest,  are  antagonistic  to  the  laboring  men. 
The  great  body  of  the  laboring  men  will  never  make  that  argument.  As 
isolated  individuals  they  can  accomplish  nothing.  The  future  welfare 
of  themselves  and  their  children  depends  upon  organization,  and  even 
the  so-called  scabs  do  not  attempt  to  defend  their  action  upon 
any  high  ground.  As  a  rule  they  admit  that  their  action  is  injurious 
to  the  cause  of  labor  generally.  They  defend  their  conduct  only  on 
the  ground  of  present  necessity;  that  they  are  needy  and  want  to  get 
a  little  money.  In  order  to  get  it  they  are  willing  to  defeat  what  in 
the  long  run  would  have  been  to  the  best  interests  of  themselves  and 
their  families.  The  talk  about  individual  freedom  is  heard  only  among 
employers  and  their  friends  and  also  among  a  class  of  people  who 
may  be  called  the  parasites  of  employers." 

MAKING    FALSE    PRETENSES. 

"How,  in  your  judgment,  will  the  present  strike  of  the  carpenters 
terminate?" 

"So  far  as  the  success  of  the  present  strike  is  concerned,  I  am 
convinced  that  if  the  boss  carpenters  will  act  honestly  in  their  efforts 
to  get  new  men  to  come  here  we  will  have  no  trouble.  By  this  I 
mean  that  where  they  advertise  all  over  the  country,  as  some  of  them 
are  now  doing,  for  carpenters,  they  should  state  that  there  is  a  strike 
in  Chicago  and  that  the  carpenters  advertised  for  are  wanted  to  take 
the  places  of  strikers.  This  they  are  not  doing  now.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  are  inducing  hundreds  of  men  to  come  here  who  would 
not  come  if  they  knew  all  the  facts.  Some  of  the  men  who  come  here 
claim  to  have  been  induced  to  come  under  false  pretenses.  I  will 
say  further  that  the  effect  of  bringing  raw  carpenters  from  the  country 
villages  must  in  the  long  run  be  injurious  to  the  best  interests  of  Chi- 
cago. First,  because  as  a  rule  the  new-comers  are  not  skilled  work- 
men ;  and,  second,  because  after  the  strike  is  over  there  will  be  a  sur- 
plus of  men.  The  ranks  of  the  unemployed  will  be  greatly  increased 
and  those  conditions  which  produce  pauperism  and  crime  will  be 
greatly  intensified." 

"What  do  you  consider  an  adequate  remedy  for  the  condition  of 
things  you  depict?" 

"In  my  judgment  the  State  should  step  in  and  protect  the  non- 
combatants.  The  whole  community  should  not  suffer  every  year  be- 
cause certain  individuals  or  classes  of  individuals  have  a  dispute.  As 
society  is  now  organized  there  is  a  kind  of  interdependence  of  all  in- 


218  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

terests,  so  that  no  two  interests  can  keep  up  a  warfare  without  injuring 
the  rest.  The  State  has  just  as  much  power  to  require  the  employer 
and  the  employed  to  submit  their  differences  to  a  competent  tribunal 
as  it  has  to  require  individuals  who  have  a  dispute  over  property  to 
submit  it  to  the  decision  of  a  court,  and  not  to  disturb  the  welfare 
or  good  order  of  society  by  attempting  to  fight  it  out  among  them- 
selves. In  fact,  there  is  more  reason  for  letting  these  latter  fight  out 
their  disputes,  because,  as  a  rule,  they  do  not  affect  the  whole  com- 
munity. Disputes  between  employer  and  employed,  if  sufficiently 
protracted,  tend  to  paralyze  our  whole  industrial  system." 

THE  EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT. 

"What  do  you  think  of  the  prospect  for  the  eight-hour  demand  gen- 
erally?" 

"There  is  no  reason  why  the  demand  should  fail  if  it  is  properly 
sustained.  With  such  trades  as  the  building  trades  it  is  merely  a 
local  problem.  Each  city  or  community  can  have  different  hours, 
and  there  will  be  no  unsatisfactory  results.  Houses  built  in  Chicago 
by  eight-hour  labor  will  not  have  to  compete  with  houses  built  in 
other  cities  by  ten-hour  labor.  Thus  the  Chicago  building  trades 
can  have  the  eight-hour  day  without  regard  to  what  the  same  trades 
have  in  other  cities.  But  with  other  trades  it  is  widely  different. 
The  manufacture  of  boots  and  shoes,  for  example,  presents  a  problem 
that  is  not  local.  The  building  trades  problems  are  bounded  by 
geographical  lines.  In  the  manufacture  of  boots  and  shoes  geo- 
graphical lines  do  not  limit  the  problem.  It  is  limited  by  com- 
mercial boundaries.  The  influence  of  a  ten-hour  factory  extends 
wherever  its  goods  are  shipped.  This  makes  the  entire  shoe  making 
industry  in  the  United  States  a  problem  by  itself.  In  this  view  of  the 
case  it  can  be  seen  that  if  the  non-union  men  do  not  prevent  it  the 
carpenters  or  building  trades  can  settle  the  strike  in  Chicago  without 
regard  to  what  is  done  in  other  cities.  Manufactories  that  are  located 
in  different  cities  that  have  a  co-extensive  trade  throughout  the  coun- 
try will  be  among  the  hardest  to  deal  with." 

"But  will  not  the  winning  of  reduced  hours  by  one  trade  have  a 
tendency  in  favor  of  reduced  hours  in  all  the  trades?" 

"It  certainly  will  if  the  carpenters  stand  firmly  together.  If  they 
win  the  fight  in  Chicago  they  will  drive  an  entering  wedge  that  will 
be  felt  everywhere  in  every  industry." 


REPLY  TO   CONGRESSMAN  HOPKINS.         219 

REPLY  TO  CONGRESSMAN  HOPKINS. 
("Chicago  Mail,"  May,  1892.) 

John  P.  Altgeld,  Democratic  candidate  for  Governor,  was  asked  by 
a  reporter  for  the  Chicago  Mail  for  his  views  on  the  speech  of  Con- 
gressman Hopkins,  temporary  chairman  of  the  Republican  State  Con- 
vention. The  Judge  smiled  and  incidentally  remarked  that  the  speech 
was  most  remarkable  for  what  it  didn't  contain.  He  talked  freely  on 
Mr.  Hopkins'  utterances,  and  among  other  things  he  said: 

"The  speech  of  Mr.  Hopkins,  the  temporary  chairman  of  the  Re- 
publican Convention  at  Springfield,  was  an  illustration  of  the  sublime 
confidence  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  have  in  the  gullibility 
of  the  American  public.  During  the  last  fifty  years  great  strides  have 
been  made  in  the  industries  of  the  world,  owing  to  invention,  to  a 
quickening  ingenuity,  to  division  of  labor,  to  improved  machinery, 
and  improved  methods.  Consequently  many  of  the  useful  articles  of 
life  can  be  made  for  less  than  one-quarter  what  they  formerly  cost. 
This  progress  has  been  made  in  spite  of  the  American  prohibitory 
tariff.  Mr.  Hopkins  had  the  assurance  to  tell  the  assembled  Repub- 
licans that  the  tariff  had  been  a  blessing  to  the  workingman  and  to  the 
farmer  of  this  country,  and  he  pointed  to  the  fact  that  some  things 
were  made  cheaper  now  than  they  were  twenty  years  ago;  but  he  took 
good  care  not  to  tell  them  what  those  things  could  be  bought  for 
now  if  the  tariff  were  removed. 

"He  told  a  story  to  illustrate  the  difference  between  theory  and 
practice.  Now  the  trouble  with  the  tariff  is  that  it  is  only  in  theory 
that  it  confers  any  benefits.  Practically  it  has  injured  both  the  work- 
ingman and  the  farmer,  because  it  compels  them  to  pay  a  higher  price 
for  everything  they  have  to  buy,  and  it  does  not  in  the  least  protect 
the  workingman's  wages,  while  it  deprives  the  farmer  of  the  markets 
of  the  world.  If  Hopkins  had  wanted  to  tell  the  Republicans  at 
Springfield  the  whole  truth,  he  should  have  told  them  that  we  have 
had  the  most  absolute  free  trade  in  labor  since  1860;  that  the  purpose 
of  the  tariff  was  to  enable  the  manufacturer  to  sell  his  goods  at  a 
higher  price,  and  that  is  the  effect  of  it.  If  this  were  not  so  there 
would  be  no  need  of  a  tariff.  Manufacturers  would  not  give  from 
$10,000  to  $50,000  toward  raising  a  corruption  fund  with  which  to 
carry  an  election  in  order  to  elect  a  man  like  Mr.  Hopkins  to  maintain 
the  tariff  laws.  They  expect  to  get  their  money  back  through  these 
tariff  laws.  Not  only  so,  but  they  expect  to  get  large  fortunes  in 
addition  back  through  the  tariff.  Now,  these  fortunes  are  made  out 


220  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

of  the  increased  price  at  which  they  can  sell  their  goods  over  what 
they  would  get  if  there  was  no  tariff  and  they  had  to  sell  their  goods 
at  the  same  price  that  the  Englishman  and  the  German  and  the 
Frenchman  sell  theirs. 

"But  while  they  are  thus  protected  in  their  prices  they  import  the 
labor  they  want  from  the  pauper  labor  fields  of  Europe,  so  that  every 
hour  during  which  the  protective  tariff  has  been  in  existence,  the 
laboring  man  has  had  to  compete  with  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe; 
not  only  the  labor  that  came  here  in  the  way  of  honest  immigration, 
but  the  very  men  who  contributed  millions  of  dollars  to  maintain  the 
tariff  violated  the  laws  and  imported  ship-loads  of  European  pauper 
laborers  under  contract,  so  that  according  to  so  high  an  authority  as 
T.  V.  Powderly,  both  the  American  born  and  the  naturalized  Amer- 
ican laborer  have  been  driven  out  of  the  great  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  their  places  filled  by  Huns,  Poles,  Italians  and  others,  brought 
under  contract,  in  violation  of  law.  If  Hopkins  had  wanted  to  tell 
the  whole  truth,  he  would  have  told  the  Republicans  at  Springfield 
that  the  billion  dollar  Congress  which  enacted  the  McKinley  law,  in- 
creasing the  tariff  from  forty  to  sixty  per  cent.,  had  scarcely  adjourned 
when  upward  of  300  manufacturing  establishments,  that  were  to  be 
benefited  by  this  tariff,  reduced  the  wages  of  their  workingmen,  so 
that  while  the  McKinley  law  increased  the  price  of  everything  the 
workingman  had  to  buy,  it  permitted  his  wages  to  be  cut  down. 
Hopkins  should  further  have  told  his  audience  that  there  are  nearly 
forty  of  the  leading  establishments,  which  were  built  up  under  the 
tariff,  chief  among  them  being  Mr.  Carnegie's,  employing  upward  of 
50,000  men,  that  have  banished  organized  labor  from  their  shops  and 
filled  its  place  with  labor  imported  from  Europe.  Hopkins  should 
further  have  told  his  audience  that,  while  the  tariff  keeps  up  the  price 
of  everything  which  the  farmer  has  to  buy,  it  has  tended  to  rob  us 
of  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  that  for  ten  years  farms  and  farm 
products  have  been  declining  in  value.  Hopkins  should  have  told 
the  convention  that  all  of  the  continental  countries  of  Europe,  as  well 
as  the  countries  of  Asia,  from  which  the  pauper  labor  comes,  have  not 
only  high,  but  in  many  cases  prohibitory,  tariffs,  and  have  had  for 
hundreds  of  years,  and  that  it  was  under  these  tariffs  that  this  pauper- 
ism grew  up,  and  that  the  higher  the  tariff  is  in  any  country  the  more 
abject  is  the  condition  of  the  common  people. 

"Hopkins  should  have  told  his  audience  that  while  upward  of 
50,000,000  of  people  were  being  taxed  by  a  tariff  law  to  enable  Mr. 
Carnegie  to  accumulate  upward  of  $50,000,000,  and  while  Carnegie 
was  spending  his  time  preaching  to  the  American  people  what  a  Chris- 


PROTECTION  AND  PINKERTONISM.  221 

tian  gentleman  should  do  with  his  millions,  the  farmers  of  America, 
from  whose  sweat  these  millions  were  made,  found  the  mortgages  on 
their  farms  growing  larger,  and  the  laboring  men  of  America  found 
that  they  were  harder  and  harder  driven  by  imported  pauper  labor. 
The  Republican  party  has  given  the  American  laborer  and  the  Ameri- 
can farmer  the  kind  of  protection  which  the  elephant  gave  to  the  part- 
ridges. When  walking  through  the  woods  he  ran  across  some  part- 
ridges that  had  lost  their  mother  and  were  in  deep  distress.  His  heart 
was  moved  with  compassion;  tears  rolled  down  his  proboscis,  and  he 
said  to  them:  'Come,  get  yourselves  together  now,  and  I  will  be  a 
mother  to  you.'  They  got  themselves  together  and  he  sat  down  upon 
them  and  covered  them." 


PROTECTION  AND  PINKERTONISM. 
(Interview  in  "Quincy  Journal,"  1892.) 

''What  effect  is  the  Homestead  trouble  going  to  have  on  the  cam- 
paign?" 

"As  far  as  I  can  notice  it  seems  to  be'having  the  effect  of  associat- 
ing or  connecting  protection  and  Pinkertonism  in  the  minds  of  Amer- 
ican laborers  so  that  they  come  to  regard  protection  and  great  trusts 
and  Pinkertonism  as  being  children  of  the  same  mother.  Without 
stopping  to  reason  it  out,  they  feel  that  Pinkertonism  has  always  been 
their  sworn  enemy.  They  believe  that  many  of  their  number  have  been 
killed,  and  their  own  children  have  often  gone  without  bread,  because 
of  Pinkertonism.  Whether  right  or  wrong,  they  have  come  to  look 
upon  the  Pinkertons  as  armed  ruffians,  willing  to  shoot  clown  the 
laborer  if  somebody  will  pay  them  for  it,  and  having  this  impression 
the  laborer  naturally  will  oppose  that  policy  and  those  institutions  that 
support  the  Pinkertons. 

"They  have  also  noticed  that  the  Congress  which  passed  the 
McKinley  bill  had  scarcely  adjourned,  when  over  300  of  the  large 
protective  establishments,  that  were  especially  benefited  by  the  Mc- 
Kinley act,  reduced  the  wages  of  their  employes,  and  when  the  men 
threatened  to  strike  these  same  establishments  employed  the  Pinker- 
tons  to  fight  the  men." 


222  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

DEMOCRATS  AND  EDUCATION. 
(Interview,   Chicago  "News-Record.") 

Judge  Altgeld  was  interviewed  by  a  News-Record  reporter  re- 
garding his  views  on  the  school  question.  He  was  asked:  "Am  I  to 
understand  that  the  Democracy  does  not  believe  in  controlling  the 
education  of  children  in  the  State?" 

"The  Democrats  believe  in  compulsory  education,"  was  the  reply. 
"They  believe  that  every  child  should  be  educated,  and  that  if  not 
otherwise  provided  for  should  be  educated  at  the  expense  of  the  State. 
The  public  schools  of  the  State  should  be  controlled  by  the  State  and 
should  be  free  from  sectarian  teaching.  They  should  not  be  utilized 
by  any  one  religious  sect  to  impress  its  particular  doctrines  upon  the 
impressionable  minds  of  youthful  scholars." 

"But  what  about  parochial  schools?"  was  asked  by  the  inter- 
viewer. 

"Theoretically  the  State  school  system  is  for  the  purpose  of  taking 
care  of  all  those  children  whose  parents  cannot  or  do  not  choose  to 
send  their  children  to  private  schools.  There  was  a  time  in  the  history 
of  the  world  when  there  were  no  common  schools.  Every  learner  had 
to  purchase  teaching  of  some  private  tutor  or  school.  But  the  public 
school  system,  well  managed,  backed  by  the  immense  resources  of  the 
State,  has  practically  superseded  in  the  business  of  education,  especial- 
ly in  the  primary  or  grammar  grades,  the  instruction  by  private 
schools.  But  the  parochial  school  system,  being  an  adjunct  of  a 
church,  an  auxiliary  of  religious  teaching,  has  survived  along  with  a 
church  religion.  At  the  time  they  were  established,  the  church,  wisely 
thoughtful  of  the  welfare  of  its  youth,  provided  a  combination  of 
secular  and  religious  instructions  by  one  and  the  same  set  of  tutors. 
Thus  the  parochial  school,  being  a  part  of  the  church  as  much  as  the 
Sunday  school  is  a  part  of  the  English  Protestant  churches,  cannot 
justly  be  assailed.  There  is  nothing  in  the  common  school  system, 
or  in  the  fundamental  theory  upon  which  it  rests,  which  prompts  the 
belief  that  it  should  be  forced  upon  people  who  are  unwilling  to 
accept  it.  As  already  explained,  it  is  maintained  to  supply  a  diffi- 
ciency  and  not  to  wrench  the  control  of  the  education  of  children  from 
parents." 

"Do  the  Democrats  believe  in  compulsory  education?" 

"They  do  most  emphatically.  They  believe  that  no  child  should  be 
permitted  to  grow  up  neglected,  but  they  are  opposed  to  State  inter- 
ference with  parents  who  do  educate  their  children." 


DEMOCRATS  AND   EDUCATION.  223 

"Can  the  State  accept  as  legal  such  education  as  provided  in  a 
parochial  school  over  which  it  has  no  control?" 

"If  it  could  be  assumed  that  the  State  is  more  regardful  and  more 
tender  of  the  welfare  of  its  children  than  the  parents  of  those  same 
children,  then  this  point  might  be  open  to  discussion.  But  we  all 
know  that  while  parents  make  mistakes  concerning  the  management 
of  their  children  in  educational  as  well  as  other  matters,  still  the  in- 
tentions of  parents,  being  admittedly  good,  no  sensible  man  will  argue 
that  the  State  should  intercede  and  dictate  to  the  parent  a  particular 
course  of  treatment  or  discipline  for  the  child." 

"Should  the  State  exercise  control  over  the  parochial  schools?" 

"No;  for  the  State  contributes  nothing  to  maintain  them.  If 
these  schools  do  anything  or  teach  anything  contrary  to  law,  the  State 
can  stop  it.  When  it  became  obvious  that  the  railroads  were  making 
unjust  discrimination  between  their  patrons,  the  State  stepped  in  and 
undertook  to  rectify  the  abuse  of  power.  Likewise,  if  it  were  shown 
that  the  parochial  schools  were  teaching  doctrines  contrary  to  the 
welfare  of  the  State,  or  if  they  were  mistreating  the  scholars,  or  in 
any  way  violating  the  law,  then  the  State  ought  to  step  in  and  stop 
the  wrong.  But  I  have  never  heard  that  any  such  charge  is  made 
even  by  the  most  virulent  enemies  of  the  parochial  schools.  It  is 
admitted  that  they  are  good  from  an  educational  point  of  view." 

"Should  the  State  inspect  them  and  see  to  it  that  they  have  no  ob- 
jectionable features?" 

"No.  Upon  the  same  ground  the  State  may  not  inspect  the  man- 
agement of  the  home  circle  in  order  to  see  that  a  parent  does  not 
maltreat  his  children,  or  that  a  husband  does  not  misuse  his  wife.  The 
presumption  of  the  State  is,  that  where  complaint  is  not  made  no  abuse 
exists.  Thus,  the  schools  need  not  be  inspected,  because  there  is  no 
presumption  of  an  abuse.  If  there  is  anything  wrong  and  anybody 
knows  it,  complaint  should  be  made.  The  same  is  true  of  the  mis- 
treatment of  children  by  parents  or  guardians. 

"There  is  another  feature  which  is  vastly  more  important,  and 
that  is  this :  The  State  assumes  the  work  of  education.  Certain  per- 
sons, generally  adherents  of  churches,  do  not  wish  to  avail  them- 
selves of  this  privilege  of  the  State  schools.  The  State  acquiesces,  and 
is  thus  relieved  of  a  financial  burden.  Now,  then,  suppose  the  State, 
tracking  the  children  into  the  private  schools,  demands  that  teaching 
in  these  schools  shall  be  done  thus  and  so,  and  that  the  parochial  or 
private  school  must,  in  fact,  be  made  a  public  school.  If  that  is  done, 
the  State  becomes  at  once  a  partner  or  participant  in  the  parochial 
school  system.  If  the  State  goes  that  far,  the  parochial  school  au- 


224  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

thorities  are  justified  in  asking  for  money  out  of  the  State  fund  to  help 
sustain  the  school;  certainly  for  enough  to  pay  for  those  particular 
features  which  the  State  required  to  be  added  to  the  parochial  school 
curriculum.  This,  of  course,  could  not  be  granted." 

"Why  could  it  not  be  done?" 

"Because  the  Constitution  forbids  the  recognition  of  any  church  by 
the  State.  For  the  State  of  Illinois  to  investigate  the  parochial 
schools,  and  then  have  the  inspector  nail  up  over  the  door,  'Inspected 
and  accepted  as  a  school  by  the  State  of  Illinois,'  would  be  to  accept 
and  recognize  the  authority  and  power  behind  the  school — a  church 
or  a  religion.  Control  of  parochial  schools  is  the  first  step  toward 
the  recognition  of  a  church." 

"What  about  the  teaching  of  foreign  languages  in  the  parochial 
schools?" 

"There  is  not  a  parochial  school  in  all  Illinois  but  gives  instruction 
in  the  English  language.  All  the  children  are  taught  English.  The 
idea  that  the  parochial  school  can  overthrow  the  English  language  is 
absurd,  and  nobody  believes  it.  Among  the  Germans  it  is  pride  to 
have  the  children  speak  the  parent  tongue.  If  it  is  to  be  the  purpose 
of  the  State  to  prevent  the  teaching  of  a  foreign  language  to  the 
children,  the  State  officers  will  have  to  go  into  the  family  circle,  where, 
in  many  instances,  the  English  language  is  not  allowed  to  be  spoken, 
in  order  that  the  children  may  be  forced  to  speak  the  parents'  tongue. 
This,  and  the  teaching  of  the  foreign  language  as  the  language  of  in- 
struction in  the  parochial  schools,  indicate  simply  that  the  parents  and 
teachers  realize  that  without  such  instruction  the  children  cannot  be 
made  to  learn  and  use  the  language  of  the  parents,  while  they  all  learn 
the  English  language  without  trouble." 


LUTHERANS  AND  EDUCATION— PERSONAL  LIBERTY. 
(Interview  in  "Quincy  Journal.") 

"Judge,  what  do  you  uhderstand  the  position  of  the  Lutherans  to 
be  with  reference  to  the  compulsory  school  law?"  he  was  asked. 

"The  Lutheran  people,"  he  replied,  "are  among  our  most  intelli- 
gent and  substantial  citizens.  Instead  of  being  opposed  to  educa- 
tion they  are  its  strongest  advocates,  and  instead  of  being  opposed  to 
a  compulsory  school  law,  they  are  strongly  in  favor  of  it.  They  do 
not  believe  that  any  child  should  be  absolutely  neglected. 

"They  cheerfully  assist  in  supporting  our  public  school  system, 


LUTHERANS   AND   EDUCATION.  225 

and  then,  in  addition  to  that,  they  pay  out  of  their  own  pockets  to 
maintain  their  own  private  schools. 

"They  maintain  their  private  schools  as  a  matter  of  conscience. 
They  believe  that  their  children  will  receive  a  degree  of  religious  in- 
struction in  their  private  or  church  schools  that  they  will  not  get  in  the 
public  schools,  and  they  oppose  the  existing  compulsory  law  because 
it  recognizes  the  right  of  the  State  to  supervise — and  if  it  can  supervise 
then  it  also  can  destroy — the  private  school,  toward  which  the  State 
contributes  nothing,  and  they  oppose  it  because  it  interferes  with  the 
right  of  the  parent  to  determine  how  and  where  his  child  should  be 
educated. 

"They  oppose  it  because  it  seems  to  be  the  beginning  of  an  at- 
tempt to  have  States  regulate  the  church,  for  they  consider  their  school 
as  a  part  of  their  church.  It  is  the  principle  involved  in  the  present 
compulsory  law  that  the  Lutheran  people  are  opposed  to,  and  not 
to  the  idea  of  compulsory  education.  They  look  upon  the  existing 
law  as  being  a  part  and  parcel  of  that  legislation  that  has  grown  com- 
mon of  late  years,  which  interferes  with  the  personal  liberty  of  the 
citizen." 

"What  is  the  difference  between  the  two  parties  on  this  question?" 

"The  Democratic  party  is  opposed  to  all  legislation  that  interferes 
with  the  liberty  of  the  citizen.  It  also  has  been  the  strongest  sup- 
porter of  our  public  school  system.  The  Democrats  oppose  the  ex- 
isting law  for  the  same  reasons  that  the  Lutherans  opposed  it.  They 
are  opposed  to  the  principles  upon  which  it  rests. 

"The  Republican  party,  on  the  other  hand,  has  supported  that 
whole  line  of  legislation  which  interferes  with  the  personal  liberty  of 
the  citizen,  and  the  Republican  party  of  this  State,  at  the  last  session 
of  the  Legislature,  after  the  obnoxious  features  of  the  existing  com- 
pulsory law  had  been  pointed  out,  and  after  many  good  citizens  had 
been  prosecuted,  or,  rather,  persecuted  under  the  provisions  of  that 
law,  still  insists  on  maintaining  it,  and  offers  to  make  only  an  insignifi- 
cant modification  of  the  right  of  the  State  to  interfere  with  the  edu- 
cation of  the  child  against  the  wishes  of  the  parents,  and  even  when 
the  parent  is  educating  the  child. 

"In  short,  the  Republican  party  fought  in  the  last  Legislature  to 
maintain  those  principles  which  are  the  most  obnoxious  in  the  present 
school  law. 

"The  recent  change  of  base  of  the  Republicans  on  this  question  is 
simply  a  vote-catching  maneuver,  so  that  we  have  the  Democrats  op- 
posing the  existing  law  from  principle,  and  the  Republicans  pretend- 
ing also  for  the  present  to  oppose  it,  but  simply  with  a  view  of  carry- 


226  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ing  the  fall  elections,  so  that  the  difference  between  the  parties  is  the 
difference  between  principle,  on  one  hand,  and  a  kind  of  demagogic 
pretension  on  the  other." 


SPEECH  OF  ACCEPTANCE. 
Delivered   at   the  Democratic   Convention   at   Springfield,   April  27,    1892. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: 

I  would  be  more  than  human  if  I  were  not  moved  by  this  expres- 
sion of  confidence  on  your  part.  As  soldiers  consider  it  an  honor  to 
be  selected  for  hard  fighting,  so  I  appreciate  the  honor  which  you 
have  conferred  upon  me,  for  I  am  aware  that  you  are  here  to  attend 
to  serious  business.  You  have  surveyed  the  field  and  the  peculiar 
character  of  the  situation,  and  you  are  endeavoring  to  make  such  dis- 
position of  your  forces,  as  in  your  judgment,  will  be  the  most  advan- 
tageous in  the  coming  campaign.  Were  it  otherwise,  there  are  hun- 
dreds of  grand  Democrats  in  this  State  who  must  needs  have  been 
selected  before  me.  I  see  around  me  men  who  have  been  fighting 
the  battles  of  Democracy  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century;  men 
who  have  won  glory  upon  the  field;  men  who  have  won  renown  in 
the  councils  of  the  State  and  of  the  Nation;  men  distinguished  as 
jurists;  men  eminent  in  the  varied  walks  of  life;  men  whom  we  de- 
light to  honor.  These  men  have  not  been  overlooked  by  you;  they  are 
not  relegated  to  the  rear;  you  will  assign  them  all  to  duty,  you  look 
to  them  with  as  much  confidence,  as  much  anxiety  and  as  much  hope 
as  ever;  and  you  believe  and  I  believe  that  you  will  not  be  disap- 
pointed. 

My  fellow  citizens,  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  while  standing  upon 
the  battle-field  of  Gettysburg,  the  great  Lincoln  said  that  the  question 
involved  in  that  battle  was  whether  any  nation  conceived  in  liberty  and 
dedicated  to  the  principle  that  all  men  are  created  equal  can  long  en- 
dure. In  the  campaign  upon  which  we  are  entering,  the  underlying 
question  will  be  whether  popular  government  shall  disappear  from 
among  the  children  of  men;  whether  we  shall  have  a  repub- 
lican government  in  fact,  or  whether,  while  preserving  the  forms 
of  republicanism,  we  shall  have  the  most  obnoxious  of  all  gov- 
ernments, an  oligarchy,  based  upon  corruption,  and  masquerading 
under  the  mantle  of  holiness;  whether  we  shall  continue  to  see  the 
spectacle  of  the  greatest  office  of  the  American  Republic  literally 
bought  with  corruption  funds,  and  then  having  the  incumbent  of  the 
office  declare  that  divine  Providence  ordained  it  all. 

Only  a  few  years  ago  we  saw  the  spectacle  of  a  man  with  a  repu- 


SPEECH  OF  ACCEPTANCE.  227 

tation  for  piety  selected  as  the  agent  to  assist  in  frying  out  the  fat  of 
the  manufacturers,  the  agent  to  collect  a  large  corruption  fund  to  be 
used  for  the  holy  purpose  of  carrying  elections,  and  after  the  election 
had  been  carried  by  methods  that  did  not  bear  investigation — carried 
by  a  species  of  work  for  which  men  have  repeatedly  been  sent  to  the 
penitentiary — the  American  people  were  told  by  the  beneficiary  of  this 
great  crime  against  free  government,  that  it  was  the  finger  of  the 
Almighty  that  had  directed  the  result. 

Now,  I  am  not  the  keeper  of  the  secrets  of  the  Almighty,  but  I 
do  want  a  little  more  reliable  evidence  than  the  mere  statement  of 
Benjamin  Harrison  that  the  Almighty  was  a  partner  with  Dudley  in 
debauching  the  voters  of  Indiana  with  "blocks  of  five."  For  upward 
of  thirty  years  the  party  that  was  opposed  to  the  Democratic  party 
has  directed  the  affairs  of  both  State  and  Nation,  and  is  responsible 
for  all  legislation,  State  and  National,  that  went  upon  the  statute 
books  during  that  time.  Being  the  legitimate  descendant  of  the 
Know-nothing  and  the  Federal  parties,  the  Republican  party  has  for 
thirty  years  been  carrying  out  the  principles  of  those  old  parties,  and 
the  American  people  are  now  reaping  a  harvest — a  harvest  of  trusts, 
of  monopolies  and  of  illegal  combinations ;  a  harvest  of  debt,  of  mort- 
gages, of  stagnant  industry  and  idle  labor;  a  harvest  of  taxation  and 
corruption;  a  harvest  of  tramps  on  one  hand  and  millionaires  on  the 
other — millionaires  made  rich  by  governmental  machinery;  a  harvest 
of  farmers  finding  the  mortgages  on  their  farms  growing  larger,  of 
mechanics  who  find  it  harder  to  pay  for  their  homes,  and  of  laborers 
who  find  it  harder  to  get  bread  for  their  children;  a  harvest  of  laws 
which  interfere  with  the  most  sacred  rights  of  the  individual. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  period  we  had  almost  the  greatest  com- 
merce upon  the  earth,  and  the  American  flag  was  seen  floating  from 
American  ships  upon  all  the  waters  of  the  globe.  After  thirty  years 
of  monopolistic  rule  there  is  scarcely  an  American  ship  upon  the  seas, 
and  the  American  flag  is  not  to  be  found  upon  the  ocean  flying  from 
the  top  of  an  American  mast.  And  to  pacify  us  we  are  to  be  enter- 
tained with  a  farce-comedy  which  they  christen  "Reciprocity."  The 
reciprocity  of  nature,  that  grows  out  in  God's  sunlight — in  the  great 
garden  of  commerce — has  been  destroyed ;  and  in  its  stead  we  are  to 
have  a  little  rear-parlor,  swallow-tail  reciprocity;  not  with  the  great 
nations  of  the  earth,  but  with  some  obscure  nations  whom  "Boss" 
Reed  described  as  "people  some  of  whom  do  wear  shirts  on  Sundays." 

Turning  to  the  financial  world,  we  find  that  instead  of  an  even  and 
steady  spirit  we  have  for  years  been  in  a  continuous  fever,  continually 
on  the  brink  of  a  panic.  When  we  look  to  the  condition  of  things 


228  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

in  our  State  we  find  that  the  same  spirit  has  been  shaping  things  to- 
ward the  same  end  here.  We  find  upon  our  statute  books  here  a  law 
which  interferes  with  the  most  sacred  right  known  to  the  parent,  that 
is  the  right  to  educate  his  child  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  con- 
science; a  law  creating  a  State  inquisition  over  schools  to  which  the 
State  contributes  nothing;  a  law  which  puts  every  parent  at  the  mercy 
of  a  local  school  board,  in  the  matter  of  educating  his  child;  a  law 
growing  out  of  the  aristocratic  principle  that  the  few  have  the  right  to 
legislate  for  the  many.  This  law,  while  in  harmony  with  the  principles 
of  the  Republican  party,  is  antagonistic  to  the  principles  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  and  we  demand  that  this  law  be  wiped  off  the  statute 
books,  because  it  is  undemocratic  and  tends  to  bring  our  public  school 
system  into  disrepute.  We  glory  in  our  common-school  system;  we 
glory  in  the  fact  that  over  a  century  ago  Thomas  Jefferson,  while  a 
member  of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  secured  the  enactment  of  laws, 
and  the  first  law  in  that  State,  creating  a  common-school  system,  a 
system  of  free  libraries,  and  laying  the  foundation  of  a  university.  He 
recognized  the  fact,  as  we  do,  that  universal  education  of  the  masses  is 
an  absolute  necessity  to  the  permanence  of  democratic  institutions. 

We  demand  the  enactment  of  a  law  which  will  secure  to  every 
child  the  rudiments  of  an  education  and  fit  it  for  citizenship  without 
doing  violence  to  democratic  principles.  It  is  announced,  with  seem- 
ing authority,  that  the  Republican  party  of  this  State,  at  its  conven- 
tion to  be  held  here  next  week,  will  declare  in  favor  of  the  repeal  of 
the  law  which  they  not  only  put  on  the  statute  books,  but  to  main- 
tain which,  in  its  most  offensive  form,  they  have  fought  with  bitter- 
ness. Gentlemen,  such  a  declaration  will  do  them  no  good.  It  will 
deceive  nobody;  it  will  be  insincere  and  will  be  regarded  as  a  mere 
vote-catching  maneuver.  The  spirit  which  enacted  the  alien  and  sedi- 
tion laws,  the  spirit  which  actuated  the  "Know-nothing"  party,  the 
spirit  which  is  forever  carping  about  the  foreign-born  citizen  and 
trying  to  abridge  his  privileges,  is  too  deeply  seated  in  the  party. 
The  aristocratic  and  know-nothing  principle  has  been  circulating  in 
its  system  so  long  that  it  will  require  more  than  one  somersault  to 
shake  the  poison  out  of  its  bones. 

Now,  gentlemen,  the  coming  campaign  is  not  to  be  a  mere  scramble 
for  office.  Were  the  getting  of  an  office  all  that  there  is  involved 
many  of  you  would  not  be  here — most  of  us  would  feel  that  the  game 
was  not  worth  the  pursuit — but  it  is  to  be  a  contest  between  prin- 
ciples. It  is  to  be  an  effort  on  our  part  to  bring  the  American  people 
back  to  the  fundamental  principles  upon  which  our  government  is 
based,  to  make  it  truly  republican  and  to  arrest  the  course  in  which 


SPEECH  OF  ACCEPTANCE.  229 

we  have  been  drifting  now  for  years  toward  oligarchical  institutions, 
an  effort  to  point  out  the  iniquities  of  the  present  tariff;  to  show  the 
American  laborer  that  instead  of  being  protected  he  is  being  robbed ; 
to  show  the  American  farmer  that  instead  of  his  being  benefited  his 
prosperity  is  blighted.  I  believe  if  we  go  out  to  the  people  of  this 
State;  if  we  make  it,  as  far  as  possible,  a  campaign  of  education;  if 
we  make  these  things  as  clear  as  we  can,  that  there  will  be  no  doubt 
about  the  result.  Democracy  implies  independence  of  thought,  and 
where  there  is  independence  of  thought  there  must  be  a  divergence 
of  views  upon  many  questions,  and  it  follows  of  necessity  that  in  our 
great  party  there  will  exist  different  views  concerning  many  minor 
questions,  but  if  we  are  agreed  upon  the  great  question,  the  vital 
question  of  democracy  as  against  oligarchy,  then  it  behooves  us  to 
put  aside  differences  of  opinion  upon  minor  questions  and  to  unite  in 
one  great  unbroken  phalanx  to  restore  popular  government.  At  the 
beginning  of  a  famous  battle  Lord  Nelson  ran  up  the  inscription: 
"England  expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty,"  and  the  result  was  a 
great  victory.  Gentlemen,  free  institutions  and  popular  government 
call  to  every  lover  of  freedom  to-day  to  do  his  duty,  and  if  we  all 
respond  there  will  be  a  victory  such  as  Lord  Nelson  never  dreamed  of. 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  am  not  known  to  your  constituents  as  well  as 
I  ought  to  be.  You  will  be  asked  about  your  candidate  and  you  will 
have  to  answer  questions.  Tell  your  people  that  your  candidate  for 
Governor  was  reared  on  a  farm  in  Ohio  and  was  taught  to  work  from 
daylight  until  dark,  and  to  do  the  chores  afterward.  In  1864,  when 
sixteen  years  old,  he  went  into  the  Union  army,  and  for  some  months 
carried  a  gun  around  in  the  swamps  below  Richmond.  He  did  not 
bleed  and  did  not  die,  but  was  there;  always  reported  for  duty,  always 
on  deck,  never  shirked  and  never  ran  away.  Afterward  he  taught 
school,  and  for  five  years  held  forth  in  the  little  red  scWool-house. 
Tell  your  people  that  he  believes  in  the  school-house.  Afterwards  he 
studied  law,  practiced  law,  was  city  attorney  and  State's  attorney. 
Then  he  moved  to  the  great  city  of  your  State,  one  of  the  wealthiest 
cities  of  the  world;  there  practiced  law,  and  for  five  years  had  the 
honor  to  preside  over  the  Superior  Court  in  that  city,  where  it  was 
his  daily  business  to  uphold  and  enforce  the  law. 

In  short,  gentlemen,  my  life  has  been  spent  in  enforcing  and  up- 
holding the  dignity  and  the  majesty  of  the  law.  I  do  not  believe  that 
because  I  have  been  a  little  more  fortunate  than  some  who  once  toiled 
with  me  that  therefore  I  should  now  put  my  heel  upon  their  necks. 
It  is  true,  I  believe,  that  the  man  who  toils  with  his  hands  should  have 
justice  done  him;  it  is  true  that  I  have  a  profound  sympathy  with  the 


230  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

man  who  tries  by  honest  labor  to  support  his  family  and  to  educate 
his  children,  and  it  is  true  that  I  have  endeavored  in  all  my  acts  to  see 
to  it  that  the  man  who  toils  shall  receive  just  what  law  and  justice  give 
him — neither  more  nor  less.  I  made  it  a  rule  when  acting  in  official 
capacities  to  know  neither  friend  nor  foe,  to  endeavor  to  do  what  the 
law  required  at  my  hands,  to  do  what  I  believed  to  be  my  duty,  and  to 
do  it  fearlessly,  promptly  and  thoroughly;  and  if  I  shall  be  elected 
to  the  high  office  for  which  you  have  nominated  me  here,  I  shall  fix 
my  eye  upon  the  star  of  duty,  and  endeavor  to  steer  straight  toward  it, 
and  to  vigorously  and  fearlessly  enforce  the  law;  for  I  believe  that  a 
State  which  hesitates  about  enforcing  the  law  soon  becomes  pusil- 
lanimous and  unworthy  the  respect  of  free  men. 

Let  me  say  a  word  about  our  State  institutions.  For  years  the 
machine  which  has  ruled  this  State  has  been  creating  new  offices  and 
new  places  for  its  henchmen.  Boards  and  agencies  and  comrrtissions 
without  number  have  been  created  to  provide  places  for  worn  out  poli- 
ticians, to  enable  them  to  live  off  the  public.  Many  of  these  places  are 
merely  sinecures,  are  entirely  unnecessary,  and  should  be  abolished. 
Then  our  great  public  institutions,  that  cost  the  State  annually  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  have  been  utilized  as  homes  for  political  mendicants. 
Their  extravagance  is  burdening  our  people,  while  they  are  in  many 
cases  not  meeting  the  high  purpose  for  which  they  were  created. 
They  need  a  thorough  overhauling;  they  need  new  blood,  and  I 
promise  you  that  if  elected  Governor  these  institutions  shall  be  run 
upon  strictly  business  principles  and  the  era  of  waste  and  extravagance 
brought  to  an  end. 

FOURTH  OF  JULY  ADDRESS  AT  LASALLE. 
(Delivered  July  4,  1892.) 

We  have  met  to-day  as  American  citizens.  We  come  from  our 
homes,  from  the  fields,  from  the  mines,  from  the  workshops,  from  the 
counting  room.  We  come  from  the  vexations  and  annoyances  of 
daily  life,  from  the  heat  of  partisan  discussion,  to  gather  around 
the  stars  and  stripes,  all  proud  of  our  country  and  of  its  history;  come 
to  celebrate  an  event  which  has  been  momentous  in  shaping  the 
destinies  of  nations.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  Fourth  of  July  cele- 
brations have  lost  their  interest.  This  can  never  be  until  civil  and 
religious  liberty  cease  to  be  cherished  by  mankind.  But  for  the 
events  which  we  to-day  commemorate,  those  of  you  who  were  born 
under  a  foreign  flag  would,  in  all  probability,  not  be  here,  and  instead 
of  being  surrounded  by  the  comforts,  the  prosperity  which  distinguish 


ADDRESS  AT  LA  SALLE.  231 

our  land,  you  would  still  be  amid  the  miseries  and  the  poverty  that  are 
the  fruit  of  ages  of  despotism;  and  you,  my  fellow  citizens,  who 
boast  of  a  long  line  of  American  ancestry,  were  it  not  for  the  events 
of  1776,  you  would  not  be  American  citizens,  but  you  would  still  be 
British  subjects,  and  instead  of  governing  yourselves  and  making 
and  unmaking  Governors,  Congressmen  and  Presidents,  instead  of 
retiring  to  private  life  officials  high  and  low,  when  they  do  not  carry 
out  your  wishes,  you  would  be  humble  suppliants  at  the  throne  of 
Great  Britain — you  would  be  humbly  petitioning  at  the  bar  of  the 
British  Parliament — and  that  Parliament,  not  having  been  taught  the 
salutary  lessons  which  the  Colonists  taught  it,  would  still  be  the 
rapacious,  unjust  and  tyrannical  body  that  it  was  a  century  ago, 
seeking  only  the  enrichment  and  aggrandizement  of  the  aristocracy 
of  England,  and  the  American  continent  would  to-day  be  but  little 
more  than  another  edition  of  Ireland  or  of  India.  It  is  natural  for  us, 
when  rinding  ourselves  surrounded  by  all  that  makes  up  a  high  civili- 
zation, rinding  the  affairs  of  the  world  moving  day  by  day,  to  imagine 
that  things  have  always  been  so,  and  that  it  required  no  great  effort  or 
suffering  to  bring  them  into  existence;  but  a  brief  glance  at  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  soon  shows  us  how  greatly  we  err.  Every  mile- 
stone that  marks  the  path  of  religious  liberty  is  wet  with  the  tears 
and  the  blood  of  martyrs,  and  every  footstep  along  the  path  of  civil 
liberty  is  red  with  the  blood  of  patriots.  Let  us  glance  at  the  condi- 
tions which  led  up  to,  and  the  results  that  followed,  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  some  of  the  lessons  which  we  may  draw  from 
them. 

Attempts  had  been  made  at  different  times  to  found  colonies  on  the 
American  continent.  The  motive  generally  was  love  of  gain — of  gold 
— in  some  cases  love  of  adventure.  But  in  the  meantime  there  had 
been  developing  in  Europe,  slowly  but  surely,  the  idea  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty,  and  there  had  finally  grown  up  in  England  a  band 
of  earnest  men  and  women — not  of  the  rich  or  powerful,  not  of  the 
fashionable  or  great,  but  of  the  common  people — to  whom  the  privi- 
lege of  worshipping  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  con- 
science was  more  than  country  or  home  or  friends;  who,  when  driven 
from  that  country,  rested  for  a  brief  interval  on  the  shores  of  Holland, 
and  then  embarked  upon  a  wintry  sea  for  a  home  in  the  American 
wilderness,  not  to  win  gold  or  fortune,  but  to  have  peace.  Before 
they  landed  they  adopted  a  form  of  government,  and  asked  the  bless- 
ings of  the  Almighty  upon  it.  They  landed  upon  the  shores  of  New 
England,  and  there,  in  a  fierce  climate,  on  a  sterile  soil,  amid  savage 
beasts  and  more  savage  Indians,  they  made  their  home  and  laid  the 


232  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

foundation  of  future  greatness.  They  were  a  serious  people;  they 
were  fearfully  in  earnest;  they  were  industrious  and  frugal;  they  were 
actuated  by  stern  morality  and  a  strict  adherence  to  principle — qual- 
ities which  lie  at  the  bottom  of  all  human  greatness.  They  soon 
prospered.  They  were  educated  and  they  cherished  the  cause  of  edu- 
cation. They  founded  schools;  they  built  churches.  Their  very 
situation  taught  them  to  meet  in  council  together  to  work  for  the  com- 
mon interests  of  the  community.  In  short,  it  taught  them  the  art 
of  self-government.  When,  in  1755,  there  had  sprung  up  a  number 
of  Colonies,  the  French  and  Indian  war  broke  out,  the  necessity  of 
the  situation  brought  the  Colonies  to  act  together  in  their  own  com- 
mon defense,  thus  laying  the  foundation  for  a  subsequent  union  of  the 
Colonies,  and  at  the  same  time  enabling  them  to  drive  the  French 
from  the  American  continent — an  event,  the  far-reaching  consequences 
of  which  no  man  can  calculate — wresting  a  great  portion  of  the  con- 
tinent from  the  Latin  races  and  giving  it  over  to  the  Anglo-Saxons. 

Finally  came  the  conflict  with  the  mother  country.  The  British 
aristocracy  and  government,  actuated  by  the  same  motives  which 
have  in  all  times  and  in  all  countries  shaped  the  actions  of  aristoc- 
racies, could  not  rise  above  the  idea  of  utilizing  the  Colonies  for  per- 
sonal aggrandizement  and  enrichment;  and,  devotedly  as  the  Col- 
onies were  attached  to  the  mother  country,  they  felt  the  injustice  that 
was  being  done  them.  Again  and  again  they  petitioned  Parliament 
and  the  throne  for  redress,  but  in  vain,  and  when  it  was  finally  at- 
tempted to  tax  them,  without  giving  them  the  right  of  representa- 
tion, they  resorted  to  force,  but  still  in  the  hope  of  a  compromise. 
The  British  Government  in  its- attempt  to  force  the  Colonies  into  sub- 
mission sent  over  an  army,  and  on  June  i7th,  1775,  was  fought  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  While  the  Colonists  were  not  united,  while 
there  prevailed  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  wisest  course  to  take ; 
yet  step  by  step  the  majority  were  driven  to  demand  independence 
and  on  July  2d,  1776,  the  Continental  Congress  adopted  a  resolution 
in  favor  of  severing  the  ties  with  the  mother  country,  and  on  July  4th, 
1776,  the  Declaration  of  Independence  as  we  now  have  it,  which  had 
been  drafted  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  of  Virginia,  was  adopted  and  pro- 
mulgated to  the  world.  If  this  Declaration  of  Independence  had  been 
simply  the  throwing  off  of  a  foreign  yoke  and  the  bending  of  the  neck 
to  a  new  master,  it  would  have  been  unworthy  of  remembrance,  it 
would  simply  have  been  one  of  the  thousand  cases  in  the  history  of 
mankind  where  there  was  a  change  of  masters,  but  no  improvement 
in  the  condition  of  the  people,  and  no  new  principle  given  to  the 
world.  But  this  declaration  contained  two  clauses,  it  enunciated  two 


ADDRESS  AT  LA  SALLE.  233 

principles, — one  that  "All  men  are  created  equal,"  and  the  other  that 
"Governments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned." These  were  new  to  the  world.  While  they  had  been  broached 
in  the  speculations  of  philosophers  they  had  never  been  carried  into 
practice.  It  was  looked  upon  as  a  dream.  Kings  jeered  and  courtiers 
sneered  at  the  idea.  Fashionable  society  throughout  Europe  and 
even  in  the  States  of  America  made  sport  of  the  whole  matter.  Let 
me  say  that  the  rich  and  the  fashionable  are  always  on  the  side  of 
power.  It  was  insisted  by  all  the  great  influences  of  society  and 
especially  by  the  governing  classes,  that  no  country  could  exist  with- 
out a  standing  army,  that  it  could  not  repel  invasion,  that  it  could  not 
suppress  domestic  insurrection,  that  it  could  not  preserve  order  when 
conflicting  interests  met  for  settlement,  and  that  without  an  estab- 
lished church  men  must  relapse  into  barbarism;  that  man  produced 
the  best  results  with  a  yoke  around  his  neck  and  a  strong  hand  on 
him.  Our  fathers  believed  that  the  world  had  been  governed  too 
much,  that  instead  of  helping  men  it  tended  to  cow  them;  that  it 
prevented  the  development  of  the  faculties  and  defeated  the  highest 
achievement  possible.  They  believed  that  the  country  needed  no 
standing  army,  that'it  was  a  menace  to  the  liberty  of  the  citizens;  that 
a  State  Church  -was  a  weight  and  hindrance  to  the  development  of  the 
loftier  religious  sentiment,  and  that  if  the  strong  hand  of  the  govern- 
ment and  a  State  Church  were  taken  off  the  neck,  the  conscience  and 
the  mind  of  man  would  rise  to  moral  and  intellectual  heights  that  he 
had  yet  never  attained.  While  the  world  doubted,  they  were  deter- 
mined to  make  the  experiment.  They  spoke  of  it  as  an  experiment — 
they  hoped  it  would  succeed — they  asked  the  blessings  of  the  Almighty 
upon  it.  Under  these  circumstances  the  young  Republic  started  upon 
its  career.  I  will  not  recount  the  incidents  of  the  war,  the  heroic  en- 
durance of  the  Colonists  and  the  friendly  aid  of  the  French,  you  are 
familiar  with  all  this. 

In  1812  we  had  another  conflict  with  the  mother  country,  for  al- 
though England  had  recognized  our  independence,  she  had  never 
respected  our  government  or  our  flag,  but  persisted  in  the  practice  of 
insolently  boarding  American  ships  on  the  high  seas  and  forcibly 
taking  from  them  all  sailors  which  she  claimed  were  Englishmen.  A 
free  people  could  not  submit  to  this  and  the  result  was  another  war. 
Our  government  had  no  army,  it  had  no  navy,  it  had  no  money  in  its 
treasury.  The  English  landed  three  armies,  one  near  the  entrance  of 
the  great  lakes,  one  in  the  extreme  south,  another  at  the  entrance  of 
Chesapeake  Bay.  They  captured  Washington,  burned  the  capitol. 
One  would  suppose  that  a  government  thus  situated  must  succumb, 


234  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

but  it  had  the  love  and  the  patriotism  of  its  people  to  fall  back  on.  It 
raised  armies,  it  filled  its  treasury,  it  built  navies  and  it  drove  the 
English,  defeated  and  humiliated,  from  our  shores. 

From  1812  to  1860  as  far  as  our  internal  affairs  were  concerned 
was  a  period  of  peace.  During  this  time  the  Nation  grew  and  the 
country  developed  as  no  Nation  or  country  had  done.  The  achieve- 
ments of  reality  far  surpassed  the  dreams  of  fiction.  We  grew  in 
everything  that  tends  to  make  a  people  great.  The  energies  of  men 
left  unfettered  and  unrepressed  leaped  forth  upon  a  career  of  inven- 
tion, a  career  of  development,  of  manufacture  and  of  education  that 
astounded  the  world.  School  houses  sprang  up  everywhere  and  never 
was  there  seen  such  a  general  diffusion  of  intelligence.  Instead  of  re- 
lapsing into  barbarism  for  want  of  a  State  Church,  there  was  no 
country  upon  earth  where  so  many  church  steeples  pointed  to  the 
ever-living  God  and  where  on  Sunday  morning  so  many  church  bells 
tolled  over  the  hills,  calling  man  to  commune  with  his  Maker. 

In  1860  came  the  struggle  with  the  slave  power.  Surrounded 
by  enlightenment  and  the  spirit  of  freedom,  it  could  not  long 
exist  without  a  struggle.  Strange  as  it  may  seem  to  us,  the 
Southern  people  regarded  slavery  as  an  inslitution  that  was  sanctioned 
by  Divine  Providence,  regarding  their  slaves  as  property  and  deter- 
mined to  fight  to  maintain  their  property  rights.  Here  again  most  of 
the  rich  and  fashionable  of  the  entire  country  sympathized  with  the 
South,  that  being  the  side  of  power.  The  North  felt  that  to  permit 
separation  of  the  Union  was  to  arrest  and  to  a  great  extent  destroy 
the  prosperity  and  the  development  of  the  country,  that  we  were  in- 
separably bound  together,  that  our  interests  were  common -and  united, 
that  we  must  either  remain  united  or  drift  into  anarchy.  Then,  again, 
we  had  no  army,  we  had  scarcely  any  navy,  we  had  no  money  in  the 
treasury,  we  had  nothing  to  fall  back  on  except  the  patriotic  senti- 
ment of  the  people,  but  this  sufficed.  We  filled  the  treasury,  we  built 
a  navy  that  stretched  from  Chesapeake  Bay  around  to  the  Cape  of 
Florida,  and  from  there  on  around  to  the  coast  of  Mexico — 2,400 
miles  of  sea-coast ;  and  instead  of  one  army  we  equipped  many  armies, 
and  instead  of  operating  on  a  small  territory  and  conducting  one 
campaign,  as  had  been  the  case  with  the  great  military  chieftains  of 
other  countries,  we  conducted  a  number  of  campaigns  simultaneously, 
carried  on  military  operations  that  stretched  over  half  the  continent. 
Then  was  presented  to  the  world  one  of  the  grandest  spectacles  ever 
beheld.  A  navy  guarding  2,400  miles  of  sea-coast,  a  million  men  in 
the  field,  all  actuated  by  one  common  purpose,  all  stepping  to  the 
same  music,  all  moved  by  one  motive,  not  of  plunder,  not  of  conquest, 


ADDRESS  AT  LA  SALLE.  235 

not  of  aggrandizement,  but  the  one  lofty  sentiment:  "This  Union 
Forever."  No  monarchial,  no  aristocratic  government  ever  presented 
such  a  spectacle  to  the  world. 

The  Union  was  maintained,  and  when  the  war  was  over  one  of  the 
most  difficult  problems  was  presented,  namely,  how  to  deal  with  the 
subdued  South.  To  govern  a  people  subdued  by  military  operations 
has  always  been  a  most  difficult  task;  in  this  case  it  was  rendered  more 
difficult  by  the  fact  that  there  were  four  million  people  who  had 
formerly  been  slaves  added  to  the  citizenship  and  given  the  right  of 
suffrage.  They  were  to  be  citizens,  standing  on  the  same  plane  with 
their  former  masters.  In  other  countries  this  condition  of  affairs 
would  have  been  impossible.  Russia  maintained  order  in  Warsaw, 
after  the  conquest  of  Poland,  but  it  was  the  order  of  death — to  shoot 
down  men,  women  and  children,  and  let  them  lie  in  heaps  upon  the 
street,  was  the  only  method  of  preserving  order  that  military  despotism 
could  devise.  But  we  relied  upon  the  principles  of  self-government. 
We  withdrew  our  armies;  we  asked  these  people  to  govern  themselves, 
and  they  have  succeeded  to  a  degree  which,  under  other  conditions, 
would  have  been  impossible.  To  be  sure  there  were  outrages,  there 
were  isolated  cases  of  violence,  but  year  by  year  the  conditions  were 
improving.  The  principle  of  self-government  is  triumphing  again. 
Other  countries  had  found  the  disbanding  of  a  great  army  a  source 
of  danger.  Soldiers  who  had  been  fighting  for  plunder  or  aggrandize- 
ment did  not  hold  high  ideas  of  citizenship.  We  disbanded  a  million 
of  men.  The  generals  laid  down  their  swords;  the  privates  laid  down 
their  muskets.  They  returned  to  their  former  occupations — to  their 
shops,  to  their  counting  rooms,  to  their  offices;  yea,  to  their  pulpits, 
and  began  again  to  make  their  living  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow. 
There  was  no  disturbance,  no  disorder.  The  principle  of  self-govern- 
ment solved  the  question. 

Our  fathers  prepared  a  government  for  three  millions  of  people, 
scattered  along  the  Atlantic  coast.  To  them  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains were  far  in  the  West.  They  thought  that  in  the  course  of 
centuries  the  people  might  reach  the  mountains.  They  stood,  as 
it  were,  upon  the  threshold  of  a  new  continent,  a  new  century  and  a 
new  era.  They  could  not  see  the  wonderful  and  the  rapid  develop- 
ment of  either.  Could  they  return  to-day  and  stand,  not  on  the 
Atlantic  coast,  but  on  the  great  mountains  that  seemed  so  far  west 
to  them,  and  gaze  out  over  the  great  Mississippi  Valley,  see  it  covered 
with  States  any  one  of  which  is  greater,  in  all  that  goes  to  make  a  na- 
tion, than  any  of  the  empires  of  the  past :  could  they  see  the  wonderful 
cities,  the  vast  extent  of  railroads,  the  school  houses,  the  churches, 


236  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

the  colleges;  could  they  see  all  the  agencies  of  this  civilization;  could 
they  see  how  far-reaching  have  been  the  principles  which  they  pro- 
mulgated, of  equality  and  of  government  by  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned, reaching  out  not  only  over  the  whole  Western  Hemisphere,  but 
stirring  up  the  nations  of  the  Old  World,  they  would  be  speechless 
with  amazement. 

Now,  my  fellow  citizens,  after  the  Revolution  there  continued  a 
tide  of  immigration  from  the  countries  of  the  Old  World.  The  im- 
migrants who  came  were  not  of  the  nobility,  not  of  the  rich,  but 
they  were  of  the  poor,  whose  lot  had  been  made  hard  by  the  opera- 
tions of  despotism.  They  came  in  great  numbers  to  our  shore.  They 
did  not  settle  in  the  Southern  States,  but  sought  homes  in  the  North- 
ern free  States.  These  people  brought  with  them  many  of  the  quali- 
ties and  characteristics  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  They  were  indus- 
trious; they  had  .strong  arms  and  great  endurance;  they  were  frugal 
in  their  habits;  they  were  accustomed  to  observe  law  and  order;  they 
were  honest  and  loved  liberty;  they  came  over  here  to  better  their 
condition,  to  make  homes  for  themselves  and  their  children;  and  it 
is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  development,  the  prosperity  and  the 
greatness  of  the  different  States  of  the  Union  is  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  immigrants  that  settled  in  them. 

It  is  in  these  States  that  we  find  the  largest  cities,  the  most  splendid 
architecture,  the  most  railroads,  the  greatest  factories,  the  greatest 
development  of  nature's  resources,  the  most  schools,  the  best  schools, 
the  most  churches,  the  most  libraries,  the  most  printing  presses.  It 
is  in  these  States  that  we  find  the  highest  development  of  our  civiliza- 
tion, and  those  States  which  have  few  or  no  immigrants  have  the  least 
development  and  are  behind  in  everything  that  makes  a  great  State; 
and  in  the  great  struggle  for  the  Union,  the  men  who  fought  to  main- 
tain the  institution  of  slavery,  and  the  men  who  fired  upon  the  Amer- 
ican flag — who  sought  to  destroy  our  government — were,  almost  with- 
out exception,  not  only  Americans,  but  the  sons  of  Americans;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  nearly  one-half  of  the  men  who  fought  to  maintain 
the  Union — who  defended  our  flag  in  the  days  of  its  peril,  and  who 
helped  to  perpetuate  free  institutions,  were  either  foreign-born  or  were 
the  sons  of  foreign-born  parents.  One-half  the  men  who  filled  South- 
ern graves  because  they  cherished  freedom  and  abhorred  slavery, 
were  of  foreign  origin.  Fifty  years  ago  there  was  a  cry  of  "America 
for  Americans,"  a  cry  directed  against  the  foreign-born  citizens.  It 
failed  of  its  purpose.  Now  we  hear  it  renewed,  and  strangely  enough, 
it  comes  from  among  the  ranks  of  one  of  the  great  parties  that  has 
been  kept  in  power  by  these  foreign-born  citizens.  Need  I  say  that 


ADDRESS  AT  LA  SALLE.  237 

this  cry  must  fail  again  in  its  purpose?  For  no  honest  patriot  and 
no  liberal  man  can  read  the  history  of  this  people  without  being  con- 
vinced of  the  injustice  of  such  a  cry.  It  comes  from  a  set  of  men 
who  boast  of  no  great  deed  done  for  their  country — men  who  avoid 
the  sun  and  hide  under  the  mask  of  secrecy. 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  the  lessons  we  gather  from  this  brief 
survey  of  our  history  are,  first,  the  necessity  for  universal  intelligence. 
Resting  upon  the  patriotism  and  the  good  judgment  of  the  people 
it  is  indispensable  that  they  should  be  intelligent  and  well  informed, 
and  our  very  existence  depends  upon  the  maintenance  of  our  schools 
and  of  all  the  agencies  that  tend  to  enlighten  or  elevate  mankind. 
We  learn  further  to  respect  opposing  opinions.  At  every  stage  in  the 
career  of  our  country  there  have  been  differences  between  men  equally 
honest,  equally  patriotic.  Generally,  coming  generations  accepted 
a  part  of  the  theory  of  each  and  rejected  a  part  of  the 
theory  of  each.  For  example:  After  the  Revolutionary  War, 
when  it  was  sought  to  establish  a  permanent  government,  there 
were  two  schools  of  men.  There  was  the  school  of  Hamilton,  leaning 
toward  a  monarchy,  believing  in  aristocracy,  having  no  confidence  in 
the  people,  believing  that  the  people  were  incapable  of  self-govern- 
ment, and  holding  that  the  Union  between  the  States  was  one  and 
inseparable.  There  was  the  school  of  Jefferson,  which  believed  in  the 
people,  which  abhorred  kings  and  aristocracy,  believing  that  the  peo- 
ple were  capable  of  self-government,  and  holding  to  the  theory  that 
the  Union  was  a  mere  compact  between  the  States,  from  which  any 
State  could  withdraw. 

Subsequent  generations  have  accepted  a  part  of  the  theory  of  each. 
They  have  said  to  Hamilton:  "We  repudiate  your  monarchial  and 
aristocratic  leaning,  we  repudiate  your  distrust  of  the  people,  but  we 
accept  your  doctrine  that  the  Union  is  one  and  inseparable."  They 
have  said  to  Jefferson:  "We  repudiate  your  theory  of  the  right  of 
secession,  but  we  accept  with  all  our  hearts  your  doctrine  that  the 
people  can  be  trusted  and  are  capable  of  self-government."  When 
Abraham  Lincoln  said  that  the  government  should  be  "Of  the  people, 
for  the  people  and  by  the  people,"  he  virtually  added  another  line  to 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  as  drafted  by  Jefferson,  and  when 
Lee  surrendered  at  Appomattox  there  died  forever  the  doctrine  of  the 
right  of  secession. 

We  learn  further,  that'  to  reach  the  highest  intellectual  and  moral 
development  the  government  should  leave  its  hands  off  the  neck  of 
the  citizen.  There  should  be  no  interference  with  the  private  affairs 
of  the  individual;  that  to  attempt  to  interfere  with  the  private  affairs 


238  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

of  the  citizen  and  his  personal  rights  is  not  a  step  forward  but  a  step 
backward.  It  is  going  back  to  the  condition  of  things  that  existed 
centuries  before  the  birth  of  the  Republic.  And  we  learn  to  have 
confidence  in  the  continuity  of  our  government,  in  the  perpetuity  of 
our  institutions.  Institutions  which  have  come  up  through  such  trials 
and  tribulations,  possess  a  vitality  that  will  not  succumb  before  ordi- 
nary difficulties.  Again,  we  learn  that  great  reforms,  great  principles  re- 
lating to  the  uplifting  of  humanity,  great  social  movements  that  bene- 
fit mankind  never  come  from  the  rich,  the  fashionable  or  the  powerful, 
but  always  from  the  common  people.  They  come  not  from  the  clouds 
but  from  the  earth.  The  Savior  of  the  world  came  not  of  the  great 
but  of  the  lowly.  The  upper  classes  of  America  were  Tories  in  1776 
and  were  ready  to  tolerate  slavery  in  1860.  Gladstone  recently  said 
that  the  leisure  classes  of  England  always  voted  on  the  wrong  side. 
This  country  has  gained  little  from  swallow-tail  coats  or  big  shirt 
fronts,  from  lofty  platitudes  or  after-dinner  patriotism,  but  it  has  always 
been  able  to  rely  on  the  good  sense,  the  love  of  country  and  the  sturdy 
character  of  the  masses,  and  whatever  reforms  may  be  needed  will 
have  to  come  from  the  common  people.  And  we  learn,  lastly,  the 
necessity  of  toil  and  of  endurance.  Our  people,  our  young  men, 
must  learn  to  patiently  endure;  must  learn  that  it  is  only  by  heroic 
toil  and  endurance  and  a  sturdy  adherence  to  lofty  principle  that  they 
can  reach  the  high  places  of  this  universe  and  those  golden  mountain 
tops  where  dwell  the  spirits  of  the  dawn. 


SPEECH  AT  A  SOLDIERS'  REUNION. 
(Delivered  at  Olney,  III.,  1892.) 

About  thirty  years  ago  there  was  seen  one  of  the  grandest  and  most 
awful  spectacles  ever  witnessed  upon  the  earth;  one  of  the  largest 
navies  ever  known  stretched  along  and  blockaded  over  two  thousand 
miles  of  sea-coast.  At  the  same  time  upwards  of  a  million  men, 
divided  into  great  armies,  formed  an  almost  unbroken  line  from  Chesa- 
peake Bay  across  the  continent  down  to  the  shores  of  Mexico.  The 
men  comprising  this  great  navy  and  forming  these  great  armies 
stepped  to  the  same  music.  They  were  moved  by  one  common  impulse, 
one  sentiment  actuated  them  all;  not  plunder,  not  adventure,  not 
aggrandizement,  not  conquest,  but  the  cry  of  "This  Union  Forever." 
But  one  resolve  ran  through  these  lines  as  they  stretched  along  and 
across  the  continent,  and  that  was,  that  the  flag  that  floats  above  us 
must  be  protected.  Who  were  these  men  and  whence  came  they? 


SPEECH  AT  A   SOLDIERS'   REUNION. 

They  were  not  janizaries,  they  were  not  slaves,  they  were  not  hirelings, 
they  were  not  adventurers.  They  were  freemen  and  sons  of  freemen, 
they  were  American  citizens,  and  if  it  was  once  the  greatest  of  honors 
to  be  a  Roman  citizen,  it  was  a  far  greater  honor  to  be  a  citizen  of  the 
greatest  Republic  on  earth.  These  men  came  from  the  occupations 
of  freemen,  came  from  the  homes  of  freemen,  came  from  the  shops, 
the  fields,  the  stores,  the  school  houses,  the  mines  and  the  pulpits  of 
the  land.  Two  and  a  half  millions  from  first  to  last  marched  from  the 
North  to  the  South.  No  State  in  the  Union  gave  the  flower  of  its 
youth  and  the  strong  arm  of  its  men  more  freely  than  did  the  State  of 
Illinois,  and  this  is  especially  true  of  this  section  of  this  State.  They 
left  their  homes,  left  everything  that  was  dear  upon  earth,  and  marched 
to  the  scene  of  war,  and  the  numerous  soldiers'  monuments  that  I 
find  all  over  this  country,  rearing  their  heads  toward  heaven  as  though 
silently  guarding  the  field  of  fame  and  watching  over  the  graves  of 
patriots,  proclaim  to  the  world  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  those 
who  went  have  not  returned  and  will  return  no  more  forever.  They 
lie  in  the  fields,  they  rest  in  the  pine  groves,  they  moulder  in  the 
swamps  and  dark  ravines  of  the  South,  they  care  for  neither  friend  nor 
foeman,  neither  the  hand  of  man  nor  the  kiss  of  woman,  they  sleep 
the  sleep  that  knows  no  breaking,  they  dream  of  battlefields  no  more, 
of  days  of  danger  and  nights  of  waking.  Wrapped  in  pale  elysian 
mists  they  will  sleep  on  while  time  endures.  When  they  were  falling 
victims  to  disease  and  to  bullets  of  the  enemy,  and  as  from  time  to 
time  the  messages  reached  the  homes  in  the  North,  stating  that  all 
was  over,  how  many  were  there  all  over  this  land,  who  in  the  anguish 
of  their  souls  cried  out:  "All  my  heart  is  buried  with  him,  all  my 
thoughts  go  onward  with  him?"  Now  you  lived  to  return  to  your 
homes  and  your  former  occupations,  you  lived  to  see  the  day  dawn, 
you  lived  to  see  the  glow  of  a  new  era  on  the  eastern  sky,  you  lived 
to  see  this  great  country  take  a  forward  bound  in  education,  in  intelli- 
gence, in  manufacture,  in  railroad  building,  in  the  development  of 
cities,  in  everything  that  makes  a  country  great,  such  as  had  never 
been  witnessed  before.  You  lived  to  see  a  Republic  greater  than  man 
ever  dreamed  of.  You  have  lived  to  see  the  shackles  stricken  from 
four  millions  of  slaves,  yea,  you  have  lived  to  see  new  troubles  arise, 
that  may  be  more  difficult  of  solution  than  was  the  slave  question. 
Economic  and  industrial  difficulties  have  arisen,  of  so  serious  a  char- 
acter, that  there  are  good  citizens  who  feel  gloomy  over  the  outcome, 
who  are  in  doubt  whether  we  shall  have  in  this  country  a  plutocracy 
created  largely  by  governmental  aid,  haughty,  unreasonable,  domineer- 
ing and  protected  by  the  bayonet,  or  whether  we  shall  have  anarchy, 


240  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

bloodshed  and  general  destruction  and  ruin,  or  lastly,  whether  we  may 
yet  find  a  way  and  a  will  to  subject  both  the  plutocrat  and  his  victim 
to  the  reign  of  law;  whether  the  law  will  rise  superior  to  and  above 
every  difficulty,  guarding  and  conserving  the  accumulations  and  the 
civilization  of  centuries  on  the  one  hand,  and  protecting  the  poor, 
the  weak  and  the  helpless  on  the  other.  It  may  be  a  sore  trial  for 
republican  institutions,  but  I  have  hopes — I  believe — the  good  sense 
and  the  intelligence  of  the  American  people,  those  whom  we  may 
call  non-combatants,  will  be  equal  to  the  emergency,  and  instead  of 
sinking  into  despotism  on  the  one  hand,  or  drifting  into  civil  strife 
on  the  other,  the  Republic  may  take  a  new  bound  forward  and  reach 
yet  higher  planes  of  greatness.  But  these  are  chiefly  questions  for  the 
younger  generation  to  settle.  You  did  your  work  well.  The  result 
of  your  work  was  the  establishment  of  liberty  for  all,  and  let  us  hope 
that  the  coming  generation  will  be  equally  happy  in  its  efforts.  The 
idea  of  those  who  marched  side  by  side  in  the  great  conflict,  who  in 
common  endured  the  hardships  and  faced  the  perils  of  war,  and 
who  yet  survive,  I  say  the  idea  of  their  getting  together  annually 
in  social  reunion,  reviving  old  memories,  talking  over  old  times, 
grasping  the  hands  of  comrades  whom  they  love,  is  a  beautiful  one. 
I  can  think  of  nothing  that  will  give  an  old  veteran  more  pleasure 
than  in  this  way  to  meet  his  old  comrades.  I  know  something  about 
the  exposure  incident  to  a  soldier's  life.  I  have  seen  men  fall  down 
in  their  tracks  from  exhaustion ;  I  have  seen  them  wasting  away  in  the 
hospitals;  I  have  seen  them  sleeping  in  swamps;  I  have  seen  them 
subjected  to  almost  every  kind  of  exposure,  where  they  contracted 
diseases  which  they  carry  with  them  for  life  and  which  must  shorten 
their  days;  and  I  also  know  something  of  the  sacrifices  which  these 
men  made  when  leaving  home,  and  I  feel  that  they  should  have  justice 
done  them. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  the  government  needed  money,  and 
in  order  to  raise  it  issued  bonds  which  it  sold  to  the  moneyed  classes 
at  a  little  over  sixty  cents  on  the  dollar,  and  when  the  war  was  over 
it  was  decided  that  the  honor  of  the  government  would  require  that 
these  bonds  should  not  only  be  paid  in  full,  but  should  be  paid  in 
gold ;  and  I  say  that  if  the  honor  of  the  government  required  that  those 
rich  men,  who  had  loaned  the  government  money  with  which  to  prose- 
cute the  war,  should  be  paid  nearly  two  dollars  for  each  one  they 
loaned,  and  should  be  paid  that  in  gold,  then  the  honor  of  the  govern- 
ment, as  well  as  good  faith,  justice  and  equity,  required  that  those 
men  who  had  left  their  homes  and  imperiled  their  lives  in  order  that 
the  government  might  be  saved  so  that  it  could  pay  anything,  should 


SPEECH   AT   A    SOLDIERS'   REUNION.          241 

have  at  least  dollar  for  dollar;  and  some  years  ago  the  publishers  of  a 
soldiers'  newspaper  requested  me  to  publish  my  views  on  the  pension 
question,  and  I  did  so,  considering  the  question  from  the  standpoint 
of  what  justice,  fair  dealing  between  man  and  man  and  between  gov- 
ernment and  man  required,  and  insisted  that  the  soldier  should  be 
made  whole;  that  if  practicable  to  do  so,  he  should  have  dollar  for 
dollar  for  the  actual  loss  he  had  sustained  in  money,  in  limb  or  in 
health;  that,  while  the  government  cannot  pay  for  patriotism;  that 
while  patriotism  cannot  be  estimated  in  dollars  and  cents,  and  is 
above  all  money  considerations;  that  while  the  government  cannot 
pay  for  the  anguish,  the  heartaches  incident  to  going  into  the  war; 
while  it  cannot  pay  for  the  spirit  of  patriotism  which  promptly  drops 
all  private  affairs  and  private  business,  and  responds  to  the  call  of 
the  country  and  marches  to  the  field  without  promise  of  reward,  not 
knowing  whether  he  will  ever  return,  the  government  can  pay  and 
should  pay  for  those  losses  that  can  be  estimated  and  ascertained  in 
dollars  and  cents;  that  when  property  is  taken  by  the  government  it 
always  makes  compensation;  when  money  is  loaned  it  not  only  pays  it 
back  but  pays  a'  large  bonus.  Therefore,  when  the  highest  kind  of 
service  is  rendered,  service  which  requires  the  greatest  possible  sacri- 
fices known  to  man,  the  government  should  extend  the  proper  recog- 
nition. These  were  my  views  then,  they  are  my  views  now.  The 
publication  containing  them  was  circulated  over  the  country  and  was 
used  before  Congress.  When  the  gallant  Capt.  Wallace  Foster,  of 
Indianapolis,  Ind.,  was  making  his  fight  for  justice  to  the  deaf  and 
dumb  soldiers,  I  repeatedly  gave  him  what  assistance  I  could  before 
the  National  Congress.  It  may  surprise  some  of  you  to  know  that 
until  a  few  years  ago  a  man  who  was  deaf  and  dumb  received  but  $13 
a  month  pension,  although  if  thrown  out  upon  his  resources  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  make  a  living.  Now,  I  wish  to  say  that  the 
old  soldiers  owe  me  nothing.  I  have  no  claim  upon  them. 

What  I  did  was  done  in  the  cause  of  justice  and  fair  dealing,  and 
work  thus  done  creates  no  debt,  no  obligation.  I  simply  recognize 
the  great  service  done,  the  great  suffering  endured  by  the  soldiers.  I 
am  satisfied  that  these  organizations  not  only  give  a  great  deal  of 
pleasure,  but  they  have  been  the  means  of  extorting  more  equitable 
treatment  from  the  hands  of  Congress,  and  if  they  are  kept  up  for  the 
purpose  for  which  they  were  created,  a  social  reunion,  they  will  con- 
tinue to  be  both  pleasant  and  mutually  protective  in  their  character; 
but  if  the  time  should  come  when  they  are  used  for  political  pur- 
poses, when  they  are  run  by  men  who  have  been  described  as  being 
invisible  in  war  and  invincible  in  peace,  men  who  never  saw  the 
16 


242  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

enemy,  who  followed  the  baggage  train  of  the  American  armies;  or, 
if  they  shall  be  controlled  by  a  few  men,  who,  although  they  did  see 
actual  service,  are  now  forever  rehearsing,  with  a  view  of  getting  the 
old  soldiers  to  help  them  to  fat  offices,  then  the  usefulness  of  the 
order  ceases.  Men  who  are  brave  usually  do  not  talk  much,  and  the 
great  majority  of  the  old  veterans  who  are  carrying  rebel  lead  in  their 
bodies  or  suffering  from  incurable  wounds  are  not  making  great  noises. 
The  men  who  are  engaged  in  doing  that  are  men  who  found  it  profit- 
able to  do  so.  Now  I  will  say  to  you,  go  on  with  your  reunions, 
enjoy  the  days  that  are  left  you,  keep  your  organization  above  the 
domain  of  politics,  and  you  will  have  not  only  the  respect  but  the 
good  will,  the  good  wishes  and  the  God-bless-yous  of  all  good  people. 


SPEECH    TO    OLD    SETTLERS. 
(Delivered  at  Cedarville,  near  Freeport,  August  31,  1892.) 

It  seems  to  me  that  on  an  occasion  like  this,  whetj  the  old  settlers 
come  out  to  have  their  annual  picnic — their  annual  social  reunion — 
the  principal  object  should  be  to  have  a  good  time,  to  interchange 
reminiscences,  interesting  experiences  and  cultivate  good  fellowship. 
In  short,  it  should  be  a  picnic,  a  social  reunion,  and  not  a  solemn 
occasion.  But  it  appears  there  has  grown  up  a  custom  of  having,  at 
each  of  these  reunions,  something  like  a  short  set  speech,  and  it  is 
in  pursuance  of  this  custom  that  it  has  fallen  to  my  lot  to  address 
you  to-day.  As  I  am  not  an  old  settler  myself,  as  I  cannot  recall  the 
day  when  the  wild  Indian  galloped  his  pony  over  the  prairie,  and  when 
herds  of  wild  buffalo  grazed  almost  undisturbed  along  our  streams; 
as  I  was  not  an  actor  in  the  events  which  have  become  memorable 
in  this  section  of  the  State ;  as  I  may  be  said  to  belong  to  the  following 
generation,  I  cannot  entertain  you  with  any  personal  experiences,  but 
must  view  you  and  your  career  as  a  friendly  new-comer,  who  finds 
the  structure  already  built  and  ventures  to  make  observations  in  regard 
to  some  of  its  features.  In  this  light  we  will  glance  briefly  at  some 
parts  of  your  career  and  the  character  of  the  work  you  have  done,  in 
so  far  as  it  regards  the  laying  of  the  foundations  of  society,  the 
founding  of  institutions,  and  the  building  up  of  a  great  State. 

Up  to  the  year  1832,  when  Mr.  Waddams  settled  in  Stephenson 
county,  there  do  not  appear  to  have  been  any  permanent  white  settlers. 
From  that  year  up  to  1836,  and  in  fact,  from  then  on,  there  was  a 
rapid  influx  of  people,  coming  from  different  countries,  speaking  dif- 
ferent languages  and  professing  different  religions.  History  t«Jls  us 


SPEECH  TO  OLD  SETTLERS.        243 

they  were  American,  German,  English  and  Irish,  and  some  of  other 
nationalities.  While  they  all  professed  the  Christian  religion,  some 
were  Catholics,  and  some  belonged  to  the  different  Protestant  denomi- 
nations. The  population  that  subsequently  moved  into  this  section 
may  be  said  to  have  been  of  the  same  general  character.  As  a  rule, 
they  were  industrious,  they  were  frugal  and  they  were  honest,  and 
they  all  loved  liberty.  Many  of  them,  perhaps,  did  not  possess  much 
education,  but  they  possessed  a  hardy  manhood  and  a  spirit  of  ad- 
venture, which  no  education  could  give.  All  possessed  a  spirit  of 
tolerance,  and  they  were  democratic  in  their  habits.  They  respected 
law  and  endeavored  to  maintain  order,  and  believed  that  that  govern- 
ment was  best  which  interfered  least  with  the  private  affairs  of  indi- 
viduals. They  believed  in  education  and  they  believed  in  allowing 
every  man  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  conscience. 
This  was  the  condition  of  affairs  at  that  time.  The  Black  Hawk  war 
was  over. 

In  1837  the  Legislature  created  the  county  of  Stephenson.  The 
development  of  the  country  after  that  was  more  rapid.  The  little 
school,  with  which  Miss  Goodhue  had  struggled  so  valiantly  in  the 
early  years,  had  been  followed  by  many  others.  The  country  having 
thus  begun  to  develop,  the  nature  of  this  development  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  institutions  that  were  to  follow,  were  chiefly  determined  by 
the  character  and  the  wisdom  of  these  early  settlers.  There  are  places 
in  the  United  States  where  there  was  no  advance  and  where,  two  cen- 
turies after  the  first  settlement,  the  conditions  remained  the  same ; 
but  this  was  not  true  in  Northwestern  Illinois.  The  early  settlers  here 
recognized  the  hard  conditions  of  existence  and  that  excellence  is  only 
to  be  attained  by  hard  labor,  and  they  believed  that  the  influence  of 
the  church,  when  properly  directed,  is  beneficial  to  mankind,  even 
here,  to  say  nothing  of  the  hereafter.  They  made  hard  labor  a  condi- 
tion of  existence,  and  began  by  tilling  the  soil.  There  soon  sprang 
up  as  good  a  system  of  agriculture  as  was  to  be  found  anywhere. 
School  houses  were  built,  churches  were  built.  Not  only  was  the 
school-master  seen  abroad  in  the  land,  but  it  is  related  the  traveling 
preachers  were  among  the  first  comers.  In  this  way  the  start  was 
made.  It  was  not  long  before  there  had  grown  up  an  intelligent  and 
influential  community.  Courts  were  established  and  with  them  came 
the  lawyers,  who  have  exerted  such  a  powerful  influence  upon  the 
history  of  America,  having,  as  a  rule,  drafted  the  constitutions  of  the 
States  and  shaped  most  of  the  legislation  of  the  country.  Some  of  the 
men,  who  have  become  great  in  the  annals  of  America,  spent  their 
early  days  in  this  section  of  the  State. 


244  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Simultaneously  with  the  coming  of  the  early  settlers,  came  politics. 
It  was  necessary  to  have  government,  and  this  brought  with  it  the 
necessity  of  selecting  those  who  should  govern,  and  as  men  were  not 
any  more  inclined  to  agree  than  they  are  now,  there  at  once  arose 
differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  men  to  be  selected  and  the  policy  to  be 
pursued,  and  it  was  in  the  neighboring  city  of  Freeport  where  was 
held  one  of  those  great  debates  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  debates 
which  then  attracted  the  attention  of  the  entire  American  people, 
which  now  are  read  all  over  the  domain  of  the  English  language,  and 
which  form  a  part  of  the  basic  political  literature  of  our  country.  Then 
came  the  great  civil  war,  and  history  records  that  the  sons  of  the 
Northwest,  Democratic  and  Republican,  rallied  by  the  thousand  to 
support  the  flag,  and  the  different  soldiers'  monuments  that  I  find  in 
this  section  of  the  State,  that  seem  to  be  solemnly  and  silently  guard- 
ing the  camping  ground  of  fame,  proclaim  to  the  world,  that  many, 
very  many,  of  those  who  went  forth  to  battle,  of  those  who  went  forth 
to  the  swamps,  the  pine  forests  and  the  dark  ravines  of  the  South, 
never  returned. 

During  all  this  period  there  arose  from  time  to  time  questions  of 
public  policy  in  regard  to  schools,  in  regard  to  public  improvements, 
the  building  of  railroads,  in  regard  to  public  institutions,  which  had 
to  be  decided  and  which  were  decided  as  they  arose,  and  every  such 
decision  had  something  to  do  with  shaping  the  destiny  of  the  country. 
Standing  here  to-day,  looking  back  over  these  sixty  years  that  have 
elapsed  since  the  first  settlement  in  this  county,  viewing  the  results 
of  your  work  during  that  time,  I  feel  that  it  has  been  a  momentous 
period  and  has  produced  marvelous  results.  It  was  the  formative 
period  of  our  State,  for  the  same  conditions  which  I  have  described 
as  existing  here  in  this  section,  were  to  be  found  almost  all  over  the 
State.  All  moved  along  the  same  line  to  practically  the  same  end. 
There  are  men  here  to-day  who  have  witnessed  it  all,  who  have  not 
only  stood  by  and  seen  grown  up,  but  who  have  actually  helped  to 
build  up  one  of  the  greatest  States  of  the  civilized  world.  At  no 
other  era  has  such  a  privilege  been  given  to  man.  I  say  it  was  the 
formative  period,  the  period  during  which  the  foundations  were  laid, 
during  which  the  course  was  determined  upon,  during  which  the  insti- 
tutions were  formed  and  their  character  formed,  during  which  our 
civilization  was  moulded,  and  given  not  only  a  forward  but  an  upward 
impetus;  a  period,  during  which  the  mind  of  man,  left  unhampered  by 
superstition  and  uncowed  by  the  iron  hand  of  tyranny,  unfolded  and 
leaped  forward  to  a  career  of  discovery,  a  career  of  invention,  a  career 
of  improvement,  mental  and  physical,  a  career  of  development  of  the 


SPEECH  TO  OLD  SETTLERS.        245 

country,  a  career  of  education,  a  career  of  industry  in  the  arts,  in  the 
sciences,  in  agriculture,  in  architecture,  in  everything  that  goes  to 
make  a  people  great ;  and  it  did  this  in  spite  of  governmental  policies 
that  bore  hard  on  agricultural  communities.  So,  to-day,  when  we 
look  over  the  State  of  Illinois,  we  find  a  splendid  agriculture,  the  finest 
cities  under  the  sun,  the  most  complete  architecture  yet  conceived  by 
man,  the  largest  factories,  the  most  numerous  and  the  most  wonderful 
machines  and  inventions,  the  most  perfect  system  of  railroads,  the 
finest  schools,  the  most  newspapers,  the  most  churches  to  be  found 
anywhere. 

I  have  recently  been  practically  all  over  the  State,  in  its  cities, 
through  its  shops,  over  its  prairies,  have  met  all  classes  of  its  people, 
and  I  say  to  you,  that  few  of  us  to-day  have  any  conception  of  the 
greatness  of  this  State  of  Illinois,  which  has  formed  and  practically 
grown  up  within  the  last  sixty  years.  No  ancient  monarch  ever  con- 
ceived of  such  a  State,  neither  Mede  nor  Persian,  neither  Egyptian  nor 
Carthagenian  ever  dreamed  of  such  a  country.  With  them  a  despot 
ruled  barbarism,  with  us  an  independent  people  rules  itself.  Neither 
Greece  in  her  glory  nor  Rome  in  her  power  ever  gazed  upon  such 
an  empire  as  this  State  of  Illinois. 

This,  let  me  say,  is  a  brief  sketch  of  the  work  you  have  done  and  of 
the  fabric  you  have  reared,  not  perfect,  not  free  from  serious  economic 
errors,  yet  when  I  gaze  upon  this  fabric,  human  though  it  is,  with 
many  imperfections,  I  am  so  impressed  with  its  greatness  that  I  bow 
in  reverence  before  the  men  who  reared  it.  You  settled  the  questions 
that  arose  from  time  to  time — upon  the  whole  you  settled  them  well. 
You  are  fast  retiring  from  the  field.  Your  faces  are  set  westward, 
and  you  leave  this  great  State  to  the  care  of  the  following  generation. 
You  had  dangers  to  face  in  your  day  and  difficult  questions  to  settle, 
and  such  is  the  character  of  human  affairs  and  such  the  ever  changing 
nature  of  conditions,  that  every  day  brings  new  dangers  to  be  met, 
every  day  new  questions  to  be  settled.  Our  development  has  been  so 
rapid,  and  new  methods  of  transportation  and  communication  have  so 
transformed  our  society,  that  difficulties  which  are  novel  and  very 
serious  in  their  character  are  presenting  themselves,  and  in  assuming 
to  follow  in  your  footsteps  and  to  protect  and  conserve  the  institutions 
which  you  have  founded,  the  generation  which  follows  you  has  a 
serious  and  most  difficult  task,  and  while  your  experience  will  be  a 
lamp  to  guide  our  feet  in  some  things,  there  are  others  which  are  so 
new  in  character,  that  we  can  get  no  aid  from  those  sources,  and  must 
deal  with  them  as  original  questions  and  settle  them  as  best  we  can. 


246  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

We  learn  from  your  history  that  that  government  is  best  which  inter- 
feres least  with  the  private  affairs  of  the  people ;  that  it  is  not  good  for 
either  the  State  or  the  church  to  interfere  with  the  freedom  of  con- 
science or  the  personal  liberty  of  the  citizen ;  that  the  people  can  be 
trusted  to  govern  themselves;  that  while  sometimes  duped  for  years, 
yet  in  the  long  run  their  judgment  can  be  depended  upon  to  adopt 
the  right  and  detect  the  wrong,  and  that  their  honesty  and  their 
patriotism  can  be  depended  upon  to,  in  the  main,  pursue  the  right. 
We  also  learn  from  your  history  that  different  nationalities,  even  when 
they  profess  different  religions,  can  live  harmoniously  together  in  the 
same  community  and  become  a  prosperous,  happy  and  contented 
people ;  in  short,  that  a  spirit  of  toleration  and  a  broad  sentiment  of 
justice  and  fair  dealing  between  man  and  man  is  necessary  for  the 
government  of  a  great  people. 

Had  the  early  government  of  Illinois  indulged  in  class  legislation, 
or  been  guided  by  a  policy  by  which  one  class  attempts  to  lay  down  the 
law  against  another  class,  or  had  the  different  nationalities  that  settled 
in  the  country  here  indulged  in  and  kept  up  feuds,  had  the  different 
religious  sects  indulged  in  persecution,  the  history  of  Illinois  would 
have  been  different,  and  she  would  not  be  the  great  and  proud  empire 
to-day  that  she  is.  Consequently,  when  we  now  see  efforts  made  by  one 
class  of  people  to  force  their  views  upon  another  class  of  people  by 
means  of  legislation ;  when  we  see  efforts  made  to  have  the  State  inter- 
fere with  the  personal  liberty  of  citizens,  we  feel  it  is  an  unwise  pol- 
icy that  must,  if  successful,  in  the  end  belittle  instead  of  exalt  the  citi- 
zen ;  and  when  we  hear  the  cry  of  "America  for  Americans"  and  the 
cry  of  "Put  none  but  Americans  on  guard ;"  when  we  see  the  spirit 
of  Knownothingism,  which  reared  its  head  forty  years  ago  and  was 
then  squelched  by  the  American  people,  again  assert  itself,  we  know 
from  your  experience,  that  this  spirit  is  unwise  and  unpatriotic,  and 
that,  if  this  cry  were  to  be  successful,  it  must  result  in  the  formation 
of  classes,  must  result  in  breeding  discord  and  hatred  among  the  peo- 
ple ;  in  short,  that  it  would  be  a  step  backward  and  must  entirely 
change  the  nature  of  our  institutions,  narrowing  them  and  in  the  end 
endangering  their  very  existence. 

In  connection  with  this  question  we  also  see,  by  actual  observation, 
that  those  States  of  the  Union  which  have  the  greatest  immigrant 
population,  have  also  the  greatest  development  in  everything  that  goes 
to  make  a  great  nation  and  a  great  people,  while  those  States  of  the 
Union,  notably  the  Southern  States,  which  have  scarcely  any  immi- 
grant population,  are  more  than  a  century  behind  in  these  particulars : 


SPEECH  TO  OLD  SETTLERS.        247 

and  we  further  note,  that  of  the  men  who  made  up  the  Southern  army, 
the  men  who  fired  upon  the  American  flag,  almost  every  one  was  not 
only  native  born,  but  boasted  of  a  long  line  of  American  ancestry; 
while  of  the  men  who  went  forth  to  save  the  Union,  almost  one-half 
were  either  foreign  born  or  of  foreign  born  parents.  So  that  not  only 
good  policy  and  the  voice  of  patriotism,  but  the  cause  of  justice  must 
unite  in  condemning  this  resurrection  of  a  spirit  that  belongs  to  another 
era  and  a  less  civilized  country. 

But  other  questions  have  arisen  that  are  not  of  easy  solution  and 
that  embarrass  some  of  our  ablest  statesmen.  The  question  of  the 
relation  between  capital  and  labor  is  entirely  different  to-day  from 
what  it  was  fifty  years  ago.  Then  it  affected  a  few  individuals  only, 
now  it  affectstnot  only  entire  communities,  but  the  State.  Capital  is 
becoming  more  and  more  concentrated  into  a  few  hands,  and  by  means 
of  trusts  and  combinations,  which  have  grown  at  an  alarming  rate 
within  the  last  ten  years,  is  frequently  enabled  to  practice  extortion 
and  wrong  upon  the  entire  public.  Again,  the  policy  to  be  pursued 
toward  foreign  nations  in  relation  to  commerce  is  not  yet  settled. 
Whether  we  shall  by  means  of  legislation  try  to  exclude  the  foreign 
people  from  our  markets,  so  that  the  quantity  they  buy  and  sell  here 
is  insignificant  when  we  consider  the  vastness  of  our  resources,  or 
whether  we  shall  seek  to  have  free  commercial  intercourse  with  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  so  that,  if  the  products  of  the  factories  and  the 
farms  of  this  country  do  not  find  a  market  in  one  quarter,  they  can  try 
to  find  one  in  another,  is  a  question  yet  to  be  settled.  Other  questions 
are  already  appearing  above  the  horizon,  which  must  be  met  in  their 
time.  Fortunate  will  we  be  if  we  can  display  the  same  good  sense  and 
superior  judgment  in  settling  these  questions,  that  you  displayed,  and 
if  it  shall  be  followed  by  the  same  happy  consequences. 

Again,  the  young  men  of  to-day  can  learn  of  you  and  your  career. 
They  can  learn  that  the  conditions  of  life  are  hard — that  life  is  a 
struggle  and  not  a  frolic — and  that  nothing  can  be  accomplished 
without  severe  and  continuous  industry.  That  work  is  the  mother  of 
greatness ;  that  there  can  be  no  permanent  success  in  life  without 
continuity  of  purpose ;  that  they  must  keep  their  faces  toward  the 
sun,  for  nothing  great  ever  grows  in  dark  places.  Shams  and  hollow 
pretense,  fraud  and  deceit  are  the  dirty  children  of  a  blind  mother; 
they  drag  out  a  miserable  existence  and  die  unhonored. 

Now,  may  you  live  to  enjoy  many  of  these  reunions ;  live  to  meet 
each  other  often  around  the  social  board,  to  talk  over  the  days  that  are 
gone,  and  as  you  near  the  horizon,  as  your  day  grows  shorter,  and 
the  shadows  grow  longer,  as  you  gaze  back  over  the  work  you  did 


248  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

and  the  career  you  have  run,  may  you  have  that  peace  of  mind,  that 
sweet  comfort  that  grows  out  of  the  feeling  that  you  did  the  best  you 
could. 


ELGIN   LABOR   DAY  SPEECH. 
(Delivered  at  Elgin.  September  6,  1892.) 

The  invitation  which  you  extended  to  me  named  the  topic  which 
you  wished  me  to  discuss,  namely :  "What  does  the  party,  of  which 
I  am  a  candidate,  offer  as  a  remedy  for  the  present  unequal  distribution 
of  wealth  ?"  I  wisli  first  to  say  that  the  framer  of  that  question  labored 
under  the  mistaken  idea  that  a  political  party  is  a  fixed  entity,  re- 
maining the  same  from  year  to  year,  whereas,  in  reality,  it  is  simply 
a  collection  of  individuals  who,  while  disagreeing  in  most  things,  agree 
upon  some  important  principle  of  government,  and,  so  far  as  it  affects 
it,  act  together.  For  example :  Those  comprising  the  Democratic 
party  to-day  may  differ  as  widely  as  the  poles  on  many  important  ques- 
tions, some  being  radical  and  others  conservative,  but  they  believe  in 
democratic  government ;  a  government  based  upon  the  consent  of  the 
governed.  They  all  believe  that  that  government  is  best  which  least 
interferes  with  the  private  affairs  of  the  individual,  and  they  are  op- 
posed to  the  idea  of  the  government  attempting  to  favor  or  build  up 
one  class  at  the  expense  of  another.  Those  comprising  the  Republi- 
can party  likewise  differ  on  very  many  essential  points,  but,  as  a  rule, 
they  favor  the  policy  of  protecting  some  even  though  it  be  at  the 
expense  of  others.  They  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  Hamilton,  who 
promulgated  the  idea  that  the  government  should  take  care  of  the 
rich  and  let  the  rich  take  care  of  the  poor.  There  is  also  another 
element  found  in  the  Republican  party,  made  up  of  people  who,  as  a 
rule,  are  no  wiser,  no  more  patriotic,  no  more  honest  and  no  more 
intelligent  than  their  fellow  men,  who  yet  are  forever  striving  to  lay 
down  the  laws  for  their  neighbors  to  obey ;  who  want  to  force  every- 
body to  their  way  of  thinking  and  acting  by  law ;  who  favor  inter- 
ference by  the  government  with  the  personal  liberty  of  the  citizens. 
These  may  be  said  to  be  the  distinguishing  features  of  the  two  great 
parties  to-day.  I  say  the  two  great  parties,  for,  while  there  are  other 
parties  representing  a  great  deal  of  patriotism  and  intelligence,  they  are 
so  small  numerically  that  there  is  little  prospect  of  their  having  much 
to  do  with  shaping  the  affairs  of  government  for  the  present,  so  that 
every  citizen  will  be  obliged  to  act  with  one  or  the  other  of  the  two 
great  parties  if  he  wishes  to  assist  directly  in  shaping  the  policy  of 
the  countrv,  and  does  not  want  to  throw  awav  his  vote.  In  this 


'LABOR  DAY  SPEECH. 

country,  government  is  run  by  majorities,  and  if  a  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  country  should  favor  any  important  measure  in  the  fu- 
ture, even  though  neither  of  the  parties  advocate  it  to-day,  one  or  the 
other  of  them  would  then  espouse  it  and  carry  it  out ;  and  I  will  say 
here,  that  new  questions  of  vital  importance  have  already  arisen  that 
are  now  being  agitated,  and  will  have  to  be  settled  in  the  near  future. 
The  great  question  must  soon  be  determined  as  to  what  the  State 
can  do  to  prevent  industrial  strife,  and,  in  fact,  a  civil  war.  The 
question  of  protecting  the  noncombatants,  that  great  portion  of  the 
community  that  has  no  personal  interests  in  these  strifes,  that,  conse- 
quently, wants  them  either  entirely  avoided  or  speedily  adjusted,  is 
being  discussed.  It  is  a  question  whether  or  not  it  is  practical  to 
enforce  arbitration  in  these  cases  and  make  them  subject  to  law,  as  we 
do  every  other  dispute  between  individuals.  The  time  has  come  when 
we  can  no  longer  permit  a  civil  war  to  be  carried  on  between  employer 
and  employe.  The  law  must  step  in  promptly  and  protect  all,  and  see 
that  justice  is  done.  Teach  the  employer  that  he  is  not  above  the  law 
and  the  employe  that  he  is  not  beneath  its  notice. 

Coming  now  to  our  question,  I  will  endeavor  to  answer  it  as  can- 
didly as  I  can,  for  I  feel  that  I  am  dealing  with  honest  men  who  are 
endeavoring  to  find  what  is  the  best  policy  to  pursue.  It  is  a  momen- 
tous question,  that  strikes  at  an  evil  which,  if  unchecked,  will  destroy 
not  only  our  government,  but  our  civilization.  It  is  a  fact,  that  in  the 
last  twenty  years  there  has  been  such  a  rapid  concentration  of  wealth 
into  a  few  hands,  such  an  increase  of  millionaires,  and  such  a  multipli- 
cation of  those  who  have  no  homes  and  no  farms,  that  the  friends  of  the 
Republic  may  well  be  alarmed.  Mr.  Thomas  Shearman,  of  New  York, 
has  lately  published  some  statistics  on  this  subject,  which  must  arouse 
the  fears  of  even  the  most  hopeful ;  for  it  is  a  fact  that  great  concentra- 
tion of  wealth  into  a  few  hands  has  been  the  cause  of  the  downfall  of 
nearly  all  the  great  governments  of  the  earth  and  the  destruction 
of  their  civilization.  History  and  statistics  tell  us  that  when  Egypt 
went  down,  two  per  cent,  of  her  people  owned  ninety-seven  per  cent, 
of  her  wealth.  When  Persia  went  down,  one  per  cent,  of  her  popu- 
lation owned  all  the  land,  and  when  Rome  went  down  eighteen  hundred 
men  owned  all  the  known  world.  In  this  country,  in  1850,  the  capi- 
talists owned  thirty-seven  and  one-half  per  cent,  of  her  wealth.  To-day 
they  own  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  it.  Twenty-five  years  ago  five- 
eighths  of  our  people  owned  their  own  homes.  To-day  only  three- 
eighths  of  them  own  their  own  homes.  How  long  will  it  be  until  there 
will  be  less  than  one-eighth?  The  truth  is,  that  unless  the  present 
policy,  which  centralizes  wealth  in  a  few  hands  and  impoverishes  the 


250  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

great  masses,  can  be  arrested,  this  Republic  is  doomed.    In  consider- 
ing the  remedy,  it  is  also  necessary  to  discover  the  cause  of  the  trouble, 
and  generally  it  is  true  that  when  the  cause  is  removed  the  matter  soon 
rights  itself,  and  the  party  of  which  I  am  a  candidate  believes  this  to 
be  true  to  a  very  great  extent  now.    The  trouble  we  complain  of  is  not 
due  to  natural  causes.     It  has  been  brought  about,  to  a  very  great 
extent,  by  artificial  means,  by  interference  with  natural  laws,  and  it  is 
being  aggravated  to-day  by  those  means.    It  has  been  brought  about, 
to  a  very  great  extent,  by  the  policy  and  action  of  government.    Very 
few  men  would  accumulate  so  large  a  fortune  as  to  be  a  menace  to  the 
rest  of  the  community  if  left  to  their  own  efforts,  and  if  the  natural 
conditions  had  not  been  interfered  with  by  government,  there  would 
probably  be  little  cause  for  complaint.    This  government  existed  nearly 
a  century  before  we  heard  much  of  millionaires.     The  trouble  has 
arisen  out  of  a  change  of  policy  by  the  government,  out  of  the  fact  that 
for  thirty  years  the  government,  both  National  and  State,  has  pursued 
a  true  Hamiltonian  policy ;  that  is,  to  favor  a  few  at  the  expense  of  the 
many,  to  assist  the  rich  and  let  them  take  care  of  the  poor.     For 
example :   The  government  gave  to  the  Pacific  Railroad  builders  out- 
right, in  land  and  money,  almost  twice  as  much  as  was  needed  to  build 
and  equip  the  roads.    That  is,  the  government  took  up  a  dozen  or  more 
men  and  made  millionaires  of  them.     Not  only  this,  but  it  then  gave 
away  to  others  almost  the  entire  public  domain — millions  on  millions 
of  acres  that  should  have  been  reserved  for  actual  settlers.     Many  of 
the  gigantic  fortunes  of  this  country  were  made  in  this  way.     Their 
possessors  are  now  haughty  and  attempt  to  dictate,  not  only  to  labor, 
but  to  law-making  and  to  law-executing  power,  and  they  still  enjoy 
immunities  from  taxation — from  the  payment  of  their  just  debts  to  the 
government — which  other  individuals  do  not  enjoy.    The  government 
now  gives  $10,000,000  a  year  to  some  sugar  growers  in  Louisiana, 
because  they  complain  that  they  cannot  raise  sugar  at  a  profit  on 
account  of  foreign  competition.    Now  the  government  does  not  help 
you  or  the  farmer,  when  your  business  does  not  pay,  but  it  compels 
you  to  make  millionaires  of  the  sugar  men.    Let  these  immunities  be 
withdrawn ;   let  these  individuals  be  treated  as  other  citizens ;    force 
them  to  pay  their  share  of  taxes,  and  their  fortunes  will,  in  time,  melt 
away  or  be  divided,  and  the  waters  will  soon  find  their  level  again. 

PAUPER  LABOR. 

Then  for  twelve  years  or  more,  the  large  manufacturing  and  mining 
corporations  in  the  East  have,  through  the  aid  of  numerous  steamship 
companies,  been  enabled  to  import  laborers  under  contract  from  nearly 


LABOR  DAY  SPEECH.  251 

all  despotic  countries  of  Europe,  where  what  is  commonly  called  pauper 
labor  exists,  thus  bringing  over  a  set  of  men  who  do  not  come  to 
permanently  settle,  and  who  have  no  idea  of  becoming  American  citi- 
zens and  educating  their  families,  but  who  come  simply  to  get  a  little 
money  and  then,  instead  of  setttling  down  and  assimilating  with  our 
people,  return  to  their  own  country.  These  people  work  for  about 
one-half  of  what  is  necessary  to  pay  the  American  laborer,  both 
naturalized  and  native  born,  who  seeks  to  maintain  and  educate  his 
children.  Mr.  Powderly  tells  us  that  in  this  manner  almost  every 
native  born  and  naturalized  laborer  has  been  driven  out  of  the  great 
State  of  Pennsylvania  and  their  places  filled  with  this  pauper  labor 
brought  over  from  Europe.  Not  only  this,  but  when  these  last  named 
people  objected  to  a  reduction  of  wages,  they  were  simply  locked  out 
and  their  places  filled  with  fresh  importations  of  paupers,  who  worked 
under  the  protection  of  soldiers,  and  if  the  former  laborer  did  not 
tamely  submit,  he  was  simply  shot  down.  Now,  there  was  during  all 
these  years  a  law  upon  the  statute  book  prohibiting  the  importation  of 
pauper  labor,  but  Federal  authorities  have  winked  at  this  violation  of 
the  law  and  the  large  manufacturing  and  mining  corporations,  such 
as  the  Carnegie  institutions,  are  enabled  to  get  their  work  done 
for  little  more  than  one-half  of  what  they  otherwise  would  have  to 
pay,  and  in  this  way  were  enabled  to  amass  vast  fortunes.  Employing 
in  many  instances  thousands  of  men  who  thus  worked  at  starvation 
wages,  they  soon  became  rich  and  powerful,  and  then  assumed  not  only 
to  dictate  to  labor,  but  to  shape  legislation  in  their  own  interest,  and 
to  control  elections  when  necessary  for  this  purpose.  Now,  if  this  law 
against  the  importation  of  pauper  contract  labor  had  been  enforced, 
as  laws  governing  the  humble  citizen  are  enforced,  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  a  few  individuals  to  amass  vast  fortunes ;  the  laborers, 
instead  of  being  driven  out  of  that  great  State,  would  have  remained 
there,  receiving  living  wages,  would  have  educated  their  children  and 
maintained  their  families  in  comfort,  and  if  to-day  these  laws  were 
enforced,  it  would  not  be  very  long  until  in  the  natural  course  of  events 
these  fortunes  would  dissolve,  Carnegie  would  stop  building  castles  in 
Scotland,  he  would  stop  importing  pauper  labor,  and  would  stop  hiring 
a  private  army  to  shoot  down  working  men  at  so  much  per  day. 

TARIFF. 

Again,  under  the  false  and  deceiving  pretext  of  protecting  the 
American  laborer,  these  manufacturing  and  mining  corporations  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  the  government,  by  tariff  legislation,  to  relieve  them 
of  foreign  competition.  This  enabled  them  to  sell  their  goods  at  higher 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

prices,  there  being  at  present  an  average  tariff  of  sixty  per  cent.,  which 
entirely  shuts  out  some  lines  of  goods,  so  that,  while  they  were  enabled 
to  get  their  labor  cheap,  they  were  relieved  of  competition  and  thus  to 
get  higher  prices  for  their  goods.  While  the  American  laborer  found 
that  his  struggle  was  becoming  more  and  more  severe,  he  had  to  com- 
pete with  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe,  while  everything  he  had  to  buy 
was  made  dearer  by  reason  of  the  action  of  the  government.  I  do 
not  say  dearer  than  ever  before,  for  invention  has  cheapened  produc- 
tion all  over  the  earth,  but  dearer  than  they  would  be  if  there  were  free 
competition.  For  if  there  had  been  free  competition  in  goods  as  there 
was  in  labor,  he  could  have  bought  what  he  needed  for  but  little  more 
than  half  what  it  now  costs  him.  When  the  tariff  was  taken  off  of 
sugar  it  went  down  to  but  little  more  than  half  what  it  was  formerly. 
The  same  result  would  follow  if  it  were  taken  off  of  other  things.  It  is 
sometimes  insisted  that  it  is  impossible  to  keep  this  pauper  labor  out ; 
that,  as  the  steamship  companies  make  money  by  carrying  these  people 
here,  they  can  be  landed  in  spite  of  all  vigilance.  If  this  is  so,  if  the 
American  laborer  must  compete  with  all  the  world,  then  simple  justice 
requires  that  the  employer  should  do  the  same.  If  foreign  competition 
is  to  determine  his  wages,  then  the  laborer  should  be  permitted  to 
buy  his  tools,  his  household  goods,  and  the  clothing  for  his  family 
at  foreign  competition  prices. 

As  an  example  of  the  workings  of  this  whole  system,  let  us  take 
the  manufacturers  of  clothing  in  Chicago,  a  point  where  there  is  not 
that  direct  importation  of  pauper  labor  that  there  is  in  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York. 

I  find  that  Section  396  of  the  McKinley  Tariff  Law  provided  that 
the  duties  on  ready-made  clothing  and  articles  of  wearing  apparel 
of  every  description,  made  up  or  manufactured  wholly  or  in  part, 
and  composed  wholly  or  in  part  of  wool,  shall  be  sixty  per  cent,  ad  va- 
lorem, and  in  addition  thereto  there  shall  be  paid  on  each  pound  four 
and  one-half  times  the  duty  paid  on  a  pound  of  unwashed  wool  of  the 
first  class,  making  the  total  duty  on  some  lines  of  clothing  from  eighty 
to  one  hundred  per  cent.  This  is  nearly  twice  what  it  was  under  the 
law  of  1883,  and,  we  are  told,  for  the  protection  of  the  American 
laborer.  It  prevents  cheap  clothes  from  being  brought  in  from  other 
countries  and  necessarily  makes  clothing  higher  for  all  who  have  to 
buy  it,  including  the  laboring  man.  Now  let  us  see  what  he  is  paid. 

About  a  year  ago  public  attention  was  aroused  to  the  fact  that  there 
were  scattered  all  over  Chicago  what  were  called  sweating  shops, 
that  is,  shops  where  men,  women  and  children  were  sweating  their 
lives  out,  making  clothing  for  large  establishments  amid  sanitary  condi- 


LABOR  DAY  SPEECH.  253 

tions  that  must  breed  disease.  An  investigation  was  made  by  a  com- 
mittee, which  was  accompanied  by  some  of  the  high  city  officials. 
They  visited  a  great  many  of  these  places  and  found  everywhere  prac- 
tically the  same  conditions.  The  "Inter  Ocean,"  in  commenting  on 
what  the  committee  found,  said :  "The  condition  of  the  places  visited 
was  terrible.  Overcrowding,  long  hours,  and  low  pay  was  the  rule. 
Girls  of  ten  years  of  age  were  found  to  be  working  ten  and  twelve  hours 
a  day  for  eighty  cents  per  week.  Ten  girls  were  found,  none  being  over 
ten  years  of  age,  that  worked  ten  hours  a  day  for  seventy-five  cents  to 
$i  .20  per  week.  In  a  Dekoven  street  den  were  found  a  half  dozen  men 
working  eighteen  hours  a  day  for  from  four  to  nine  dollars  per  week. 
At  No.  1 68  Maxwell  street  were  found  ten  men  that  worked  sixteen 
hours  a  day  each  and  received  from  $6.50  to  $9.00  per  week.  They 
worked  on  cloaks  that  were  sold  to  J.  V.  Farwell  &  Co.  In  the  same 
place  were  six  girls  working  from  twelve  to  fourteen  hours  a  day, 
whose  weekly  pay  was  $3.00.  In  one  house  was  found  a  child  who 
worked  for  seventy-five  cents  per  week.  At  No.  455  South  Canal 
street,  a  girl  was  found  who  declined  to  tell  what  she  received,  fearing 
she  would  be  discharged,  and  discharge  meant  starvation.  At  No. 
69  Judd  street  the  wages  of  the  men  were  found  to  be  from  $5.00  to 
$9.00  per  week,  and  one  child  there  received  $1.00  per  week.  At  No. 
151  Peoria  street  is  a  cloak  finishing  establishment.  Here  the  women 
receive  one  and  a  half  cents  for  finishing  cloaks.  One  woman  was 
found  on  the  street  with  a  bundle  of  cloaks  she  had  finished.  She  said 
that  by  hard  work  she  finished  twenty  cloaks  a  day  and  earned  thirty 
cents.  This  supported  herself  and  two  babies.  The  place  at  No.  258 
Division  street  was  by  far  the  worst  visited.  Eleven  men  worked 
twelve  hours  a  day  and  received  from  $5.00  to  $9.50  per  week.  Twelve 
children  here  worked  twelve  hours  for  seventy-five  cents  per  week. 
The  place  was  terribly  crowded,  there  being  no  water  or  ventilation." 
While  the  tariff  was  doubled  wages  were  steadily  forced  down.  Other 
investigations  made  in  Chicago  at  different  times,  disclosed  the  same 
condition  of  affairs,  and  an  investigation  by  a  Congressional  commit- 
tee some  years  ago,  into  the  condition  of  labor  in  New  York  City, 
brought  out  the  fact  that  the  great  majority  of  both  the  men  and  the 
women  who  work  in  the  protected  industries  get  starvation  wages  and 
work  long  hours.  The  laborer  has  to  compete  with  the  labor  of  all 
the  earth.  It  is  the  employer  who  is  shielded  from  foreign  compe- 
tition. 

You  have  a  large  watch  factory  here,  which  is  said  to  be  one  of  the 
greatest  money  making  establishments  in  the  United  States.  I  am 
told  that  the  net  earnings  average  almost  forty  per  cent,  a  year.  A 


254  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

number  of  men  have  made  large  fortunes  out  of  it.  Under  the  law  of 
1883  there  was  a  tariff  of  twenty-five  per  cent,  on  watches  and  the 
McKinley  law  continues  this  tariff,  and  we  are  solemnly  told  that  this 
is  done  to  enable  this  watch  company  to  pay  high  wages.  Yet  I  learn 
that  wages  have  been  steadily  cut  down  from  year  to  year  until  men, 
who  fifteen  years  ago  received  $6.00  a  day,  do  not  get  half  of  that 
now  while  the  great  majority  do  not  average  $10.00  a  week,  n 
wages  have  been  forced  down  to  the  lowest  point  possible  without 
precipitating  a  strike.  Here  again  the  employes  have  had  to  compel 
with  all  the  world,  while  the  government  has  made  everything  they 
have  to  buy  dearer  than  it  would  have  been  if  there  were  free  compe- 
tition. 

There  is  at  present  a  tariff  which  varies  from  about  20  per  c 
on  some  things  to  upwards  of  100  per  cent,  on  others.    For  a  number 
of  years  it  was  sought  by  a  kind  of  sophistry  to  create  the  impres 
that  the  foreigner  pays  this  duty,  and  that  it  did  not  cost  the  consumer 
anything,  and  that,  therefore,  it  was  not  a  tax  on  the  American  people. 
Very  seldom,  now,  do  we  hear  this  claim  made,  but  occasionally  some 
one  is  found  who  has  a  sufficiently  low  estimate  of  the  intelligence  of 
the  public  to  still  make  such  an  assertion.    All  admit  that  if  the  tanfl 
paid  by  the  foreigner  at  the  custom  house  is  simply  added  to  the  price 
of  the  goods,  and  the  goods  sold  at  enough  to  cover  it,  the  consumer 
pays  for  it,  and  it  is,  in  fact,  a  tax.    Now,  let  us  analyze  the  question 
a  moment  and  see  the  actual  operation  of  the  tariff  law. 
tariff  is  now  about  80  per  cent,  on  woolen  goods  used  by  the  commor 
people     Let  us  take  blankets :    If  the  foreigner,  in  the  absence  of  a 
tariff  was  importing  blankets  and  selling  them  for  one  dollar  apiece, 
it  is  apparent  that  the  American  manufacturer  would  have  to  s< 
for  a  dollar  apiece,  because  foreign  competition  would  compel  him  to. 
But  he  manages,  no  matter  by  what  means,  to  get  Congress  to  impo: 
a  duty  of  say  80  per  cent.— that  is,  the  government  says  to  the  i 
eiener  "Here,  before  you  can  land  your  blankets  you  must  pay  eighty 
cents  each  at  the  custom  house  into  the  United  States  Treasury. 
Now  if  it  is  true  that  the  tariff  is  paid  by  the  foreigner,  then  the  for- 
eigner will  pay  this  eighty  cents  at  the  custom  house,  will  land 
blankets  and  still  sell  them  at  the  old  price;   that  is,  a  dollar  apiece. 
In  other  words,  he  pays  eighty  cents  duty  to  get  the  priv.lege  of  selling 
a  blanket  for  a  dollar,  which  he  sold  at  that  sum  before  when  he  pa. 
no  dutv     If  on  the  other  hand,  when  he  pays  the  eighty  cents  he  smiply 
adds  this  to  the  price  of  the  blanket  and  sells  it  to  the  consumer  at 
$i  80   then  it  is  clear  that  the  consumer  pays  this  tax. 
this  so,  but  he  pays  more  than  $1.80,  because  he  must  pay  a  profit  on 


LABOR  DAY  SPEECH.  255 

the  eighty  cents  that  was  invested.  Now,  at  this  step  the  American 
manufacturer,  although  paying  nothing  to  the  government  in  the  way 
of  tariff  duties,  puts  the  price  of  his  blanket  up  to,  we  will  say,  $1.70. 
This  seventy  cents,  you  will  observe,  is  clear  profit  to  him  in  excess 
of  what  he  got  before,  because  no  part  of  it  goes  into  the  Treasury. 
All  of  it  goes  into  his  pocket.  Yet  he  undersells  in  this  way  the  for- 
eigner by  ten  cents  on  the  blanket.  The  foreigner,  finding  that  he 
has  got  to  either  lose  ten  cents  on  every  blanket  he  sells  or  quit  trading 
in  this  country,  soon  decides  upon  the  latter  course,  and  having  done 
this  the  American  manufacturer  is  in  sole  possession  of  the  market. 
Having  in  this  way  driven  the  foreigner  out  and  gotten  so  mu^h  com- 
petition out  of  the  way,  and  having  only  the  other  American  manu- 
facturers to  compete  with,  he  soon  succeeds  in  making  a  combination, 
so  that  he  can  still  hold  the  price  of  his  blankets  up  to  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  $1.70,  and  every  time  a  blanket  is  sold  he  gets,  in  addition  to 
the  profit  he  got  when  he  had  to  sell  them  at  $i,  this  70  cents,  and 
this  is  paid  by  the  man  who  buys  the  blanket,  and  does  not  go  into 
the  Treasury  but  into  the  pocket  of  this  manufacturer.  It  is  in  this 
way  that  the  tariff  is  the  mother  of  trusts  and  combinations,  for,  by 
shutting  out  foreign  competition,  it  reduces  the  competitors  here  to 
a  small  number,  and  makes  it  comparatively  easy  to  effect  a  combina- 
tion and  found  a  monopoly. 

Again,  if  we  take  an  article  like  plate  glass  or  pearl  buttons,  upon 
which  the  tariff  is  upwards  of  140  per  cent.,  if  the  foreigner  brings  a 
thousand  dollars  worth  over  here,  he  has  to  go  to  the  custom  house 
and  pay,  say  $1,400,  before  he  can  land  his  goods.  Now,  if  he  sells 
these  goods  afterwards  for  the  same  price  that  he  did  before,  then  he 
will  have  paid  $1,400  for  the  privilege  of  selling  a  certain  quantity  of 
goods  for  $1,000.  Need  I  tell  you  that  he  will  not  do  this  long,  no 
matter  what  Major  McKinley  may  assert  upon  that  subject?  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  he  simply  adds  the  $1,400  to  his  former  price,  so  as 
to  sell  the  same  quantity  for  $2,400,  then  the  consumer  is  simply 
$1,400  more  out  of  pocket  than  he  would  have  been  had  there  been 
no  tariff.  Here,  again,  the  American  manufacturer  advances  the  price 
of  his  goods,  although  he  does  not  pay  one  cent  into  the  Treasury  more 
than  he  had  before.  Every  cent  that  he  advances  is  clear  gain  to  him  in 
addition  to  the  profit  he  made  before,  and  by  fixing  the  price  on  his 
goods  at  just  a  small  per  cent,  under  what  the  foreigner  must  get,  in 
order  not  to  lose  money,  he  is  enabled  to  drive  the  foreigner  out  of 
the  market  entirely,  and  to  supply  it  himself  at  a  figure  nearly  double 
what  he  would  otherwise  have  received.  This  is  a  short  outline  of  the 
manner  in  which  it  works.  The  foreigner,  finding  that  he  cannot  sell 


256  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

goods  in  our  market,  naturally  will  not  buy  what  we  have  to  sell  if  he 
can  get  it  at  some  market  where  he  can  also  dispose  of  his  goods.  He 
will  not  bring  his  ships  empty  to  our  shores  and  pay  us  cash,  if  he  can 
load  his  ships  with  his  goods  and  go  to  some  port  where  he  can  sell 
his  goods  and  at  the  same  time  supply  himself  with  what  he  wishes 
to  buy  in  return.  The  consequence  is,  that  foreigners  will  buy  of  us 
such  articles  only,  as  a  rule,  as  they  are  compelled  to  buy  of  us ;  in  other 
words  we  are  practically  shut  out  from  the  markets  of  the  world.  For, 
if  we  attempt  to  ship  our  own  articles  abroad,  we  have  got  to  bring 
our  ships  back  empty ;  or  else,  if  we  load  them  with  foreign  goods, 
have  got  to  pay  a  duty  on  those  goods  here,  which  we  cannot  possibly 
collect  back.  It  is  apparent  that  the  manufacturer,  being  thus  relieved 
of  foreign  competition,  can  get  very  much  better  prices  for  his  goods 
and  in  many  cases  get  almost  double  what  he  got  before ;  paid  by  the 
men  who  buy  the  goods,  and  not  a  dollar  going  into  the  Treasury. 
In  this  way  he  is  enabled  soon  to  accumulate  vast  fortunes,  which  he 
could  not  have  done  had  not  the  government  stepped  in  and  relieved 
him  of  foreign  competition.  In  order  to  relieve  himself  of  home  com- 
petition, he  effects  a  combination  or  a  trust  for  the  purpose  of  keeping 
up  prices,  fixing  and  even  reducing  the  price  of  labor,  all  of  which 
would  be  impossible  were  there  free  competition: 

It  is  the  men  who  have  been  made  millionaires  by  the  operation 
of  this  law,  who  are  haughty  and  dictatorial,  and  who  do  not  hesitate 
to  corrupt  Legislatures  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  their  advantage. 
It  is  clear  that  in  so  far  as  they  are  enabled  to  keep  prices  above  what 
they  would  be,  if  there  were  free  competition,  the  consumer  is  com- 
pelled to  pay  more  for  what  he  uses  than  he  otherwise  would  be. 
In  other  words,  the  government  compels  him  to  pay  from  20  to  50 
per  cent,  more  for  what  he  needs,  than  he  otherwise  would,  and  it  is 
remarkable  that  everything  which  the  laboring  man  and  the  farmer 
needs  is  in  this  way  taxed,  not  for  the  benefit  of  the  government,  but  for 
the  benefit  of  private  individuals.  The  clothes  they  wear,  the  tools  they 
use,  the  blankets  and  household  utensils  they  use,  all  cost  them  from 
one-third  upwards  to  two-thirds  more  than  they  would  have  to  pay 
if  the  government  left  its  hands  off  them.  This  system  is  maintained 
by  the  specious  plea  of  protecting  the  American  laborer,  that  is,  of 
securing  him  higher  wages  :  yet,  it  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  those  men 
who  work  at  industries  that  are  not  protected  get  the  largest  wages, 
namely,  bakers,  bricklayers,  carpenters,  masons,  plumbers,  black- 
smiths, iron  moulders,  etc.,  while  in  those  industries  which  are  pro- 
tected, such  as  workers  in  bar  iron,  steel  and  glass  goods,  steel  rails, 
woolen  goods,  pig  iron,  steel  blooms,  etc.,  wages  upon  the  whole  are 


LABOR  DAY  SPEECH.  257 

poorer  and  the  laborer  most  disturbed.  There  is  not  a  large  protected 
establishment  in  the  United  States  that  raised  the  wages  of  its  men 
after  the  McKinley  bill  was  passed. 

There  is  not  and  has  not  been  a  manufacturer  in  the  United  States, 
who,  after  the  passage  of  a  tariff  law,  went  into  his  shop  and  marked 
up  wages,  or  called  his  men  around  and  said  to  them:  "Now,  boys, 
the  government  relieves  me  of  foreign  competition,  I  can  now  get 
better  prices  for  my  goods,  I  can  combine  with  the  other  manu- 
facturers and  keep  the  prices  up,  and  as  the  government  did  this  for 
your  benefit,  I  will  raise  your  wages  from  thirty  to  eighty  per  cent." 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  in  the  protected  establishments  where  we  have 
had  the  strikes  and  the  most  serious  labor  disturbances  in  the  country. 
The  Congress  which  enacted  the  McKinley  law,  which  increased  the 
former  tariff  almost  forty  per  cent.,  had  scarcely  adjourned  when  up- 
wards of  three  hundred  of  the  large  protected  establishments,  instead 
of  raising  the  wages  of  their  men,  actually  reduced  them. 

I  am  aware  that  a  fellow  named  Peck,  who  claims  to  be  a  com- 
missioner of  some  sort  in  New  York,  has  recently  published  a  letter 
claiming  that  he  is  a  Democrat  and  held  a  position  nine  years  ago 
under  Governor  Hill,  and  that  he  has  collected  information  to  show 
that  more  wages  have  been  paid  since  the  enactment  of  the  McKinley 
law  than  before.  But  there  is  this  remarkable  fact  about  his  letter, 
he  claims  to  have  written  to  six  thousand  people,  but  he  did  not  write 
to  a  single  laborer  or  labor  organization  in  the  United  States.  He 
simply  wrote  to  some  establishments,  of  which  the  proprietors  were 
reaping  a  benefit  from  the  tariff,  he  allowed  them  to  fix  up  such 
answers  as  suited  them,  and  then  tells  us  that  he  cannot  give  their 
names  without  a  breach  of  confidence.  Now,  if  he  had  declared  him- 
self to  be  a  Republican,  his  letters  would  have  been  laughed  at  all  over 
the  country.  It  was  necessary  for  him  to  claim  to  be  a  Democrat  in 
order  to  get  any  notice  at  all.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  there  are  men 
in  this  country  who  make  money  out  of  politics,  and  who,  when  they 
have  found  which  party  will  pay  them  the  most  money,  always  claim 
to  belong  to  the  opposite  party,  in  order  that  their  statements  may 
carry  more  weight  and  command  more  cash.  Neither  is  it  necessary 
to  tell  you  that  occasionally  we  meet  men  who  remind  us  of  the  adage 
"Figures  don't  lie,  but  liars  can  figure." 

The  fact  is,  during  the  twenty  months  which  have  elapsed  since 
the  passage  of  the  McKinley  act,  there  have  been  473  cases  of  re- 
duction in  wages,  strikes  and  lockouts  in  the  large  protected  estab- 
lishments of  this  country,  the  most  serious  of  which  was  that  at  the 
Carnegie  establishment  at  Homestead.  This  Christian  gentleman,  who 
17 


258  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

had  just  induced  Congress  to  greatly  increase  the  duty  on  the  goods 
he  made,  in  order,  as  he  said,  that  he  could  pay  higher  wages  to  his 
men,  not  only  at  once  reduced  wages,  but  undertook  to  crush  organ- 
ized labor  in  America,  and  for  this  purpose  locked  out  the  men  whom 
he  had  imported  several  years  ago,  and  proceeded  to  fill  their  places 
with  a  fresh  collection  of  pauper  labor,  guarded  by  rifles  and  bayonets. 
While  all  this  was  going  on  he  was  rusticating  at  Cluny  Castle  which 
he  built  in  Scotland,  was  telling  the  American  people  how  a  cultivated 
gentleman  should  spend  his  millions  and  was  telegraphing  his  con- 
gratulations to  President  Harrison. 

No ;  the  effect  of  the  tariff  is  to  keep  out  foreign  competition,  thus 
making  it  possible  for  the  manufacturer  to  form  trusts  and  monopolies, 
and  its  next  effect  is  to  make  the  laborer  and  the  farmer  pay  more  for 
every  manufactured  article  they  need.  It  makes  living  dearer  for  them, 
while  it  adds  not  a  penny  to  their  wages;  and  as  to  the  farmer,  it 
simply  tends  to  deprive  him  of  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  compels 
him  to  sell  his  produce  at  a  very  much  lower  price.  For  example,  at 
present  he  is  selling  his  wheat  for  sixty-five  cents  a  bushel  and  other 
farm  products  in  proportion. 

As  a  further  illustration  of  what  may  be  expected  if  the  tariff  were 
greatly  reduced,  I  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  same  Congress 
which  passed  the  McKinley  bill  put  sugar  on  the  free  list ;  that  is,  it 
took  the  tariff  of  upwards  of  20  per  cent,  off  of  sugar,  and  the  result 
was  that  sugar  instantly  fell  from  an  average  of  about  eight  cents 
a  pound  down  to  an  average  of  five  cents  per  pound.  -Now,  the 
difference  between  five  cents  a  pound  and  what  it  formerly  cost  was 
paid  by  the  people  who  bought  and  used  the  sugar.  In  short,  the 
consumer  paid  it  and  not  the  foreigner ;  and  if  all  other  articles  now 
paying  a  duty  were  to  be  put  on  the  free  list,  there  would  follow  the 
same  reduction  in  price  to  the  consumer.  I  am  aware  that  the  absolute 
abolition  of  all  tariff  duties  at  present  would  be  impracticable,  for  the 
government  must  have  funds  to  pay  its  expenses.  The  process  must 
be  gradual,  but  the  present  iniquitous  tariff,  which  started  as  a  war 
measure,  and  then  kept  increasing  after  the  war  was  over,  until  to-day 
it  is  almost  double  what  it  was  when  the  government  was  in  the  throes 
of  war,  should  be  abolished,  for  it  does  not  put  much  money  into  the 
Federal  Treasury;  it  simply  puts  it  in  the  pockets  of  trusts  and 
monopolies.  If  the  present  prohibitory  tariff  were  abolished,  and  a 
moderate  tariff  for  revenue  substituted,  heavy  importations  would  at 
once  begin,  the  government  would  get  more  revenue,  we  would  again 
have  commercial  relations  with  the  nations  of  the  globe  and  our  farmers 
a  market  for  their  products,  while  both  they  and  the  laborers  could  buy 


LABOR  DAY  SPEECH.  259 

the  articles  they  need  for  about  two-thirds  of  what  they  now  pay.  In 
this  connection  let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  every  one  of 
the  so-called  pauper  labor  countries  of  Europe  has  a  high  protective 
tariff,  and  has  had  for  centuries,  and  the  tariff  has  had  the  same  effect 
there  that  it  is  having  here.  It  has  made  some  immensely  rich,  while  it 
kept  the  multitude  at  starvation  point.  We  sometimes  hear  a  reference 
made  to  England  and  the  wages  paid  there.  Now  let  me  tell  you  that 
until  about  forty  years  ago  England  had  a  high  protective  tariff,  and 
had  had  for  more  than  a  century ;  and  it  was  during  the  existence  of 
this  tariff  that  the  conditions  which  we  still  find  in  England  grew  up. 
About  forty  years  ago  it  was  abolished,  and  since  that  time  wages, 
although  still  low,  have  nearly  doubled.  All  lines  of  industry  have  been 
active,  and  her  commerce  has  become  the  greatest  on  earth.  In  the 
language  of  Mr.  Gladstone :  "Trade  is  five  times  as  great  as  formerly, 
population  has  doubled,  and  there  has  been  an  enormous  increase  and 
improvement  in  the  material,  moral  and  political  condition  of  the 
country." 

But  we  are  now  told,  that  if  the  present  tariff  were  abolished  the 
manufacturers  would  have  to  shut  down  and  the  country  would  go 
to  ruin.  This  is  not  a  new  cry ;  it  has  been  heard  for  many  centuries. 
Every  time  that  an  effort  was  made  to  correct  some  abuse,  or  put  an 
end  to  special  privileges  that  a  few  individuals  enjoyed,  the  cry  went 
forth  that  it  would  ruin  the  country.  When  it  was  proposed  to  abolish 
the  tariff  in  England,  all  of  the  privileged  classes,  including  the  aris- 
tocracy and  the  clergy,  raised  the  cry  that  it  would  ruin  England,  and 
that  it  would  destroy  the  British  Empire ;  but  when  the  tariff  was 
abolished  not  a  single  protected  industry  failed.  On  the  contrary,  the 
country  bounded  forth  on  a  career  of  prosperity  such  as  it  had  never 
seen  before,  and  the  greatness  of  England  to-day  is  largely  due  to  the 
abolition  of  her  tariff. 

In  this  country  all  of  our  manufacturing  establishments  were  run- 
ning seven  or  eight  years  ago,  and  were  prospering ;  yet  the  tariff  was 
but  little  more  than  half  then  what  it  is  now.  Can  they  not  run  on  the 
same  tariff  now  they  did  then?  When,  some  years  ago,  it  was  pro- 
posed to  take  the  tariff  off  of  quinine,  a  cry  went  forth  that  it  would 
ruin  all  who  were  engaged  in  that  business.  Well,  the  tariff  was 
taken  off,  and  instead  of  being  ruined,  the  men  engaged  in  that  busi- 
ness prospered  as  they  never  did  before.  But  says  some  one,  "You 
claim  that  if  the  tariff  were  abolished  the  prices  of  protected  goods 
would  be  much  lower.  If  this  is  so  can  these  manufacturers  go  on  and 
meet  the  new  competition?"  I  answer,  yes.  All  experience  has 
shown,  not  only  that  they  can,  but  that  they  enjoy  a  more  healthy 


260  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

prosperity  afterwards  than  before.  It  simply  compels  them  to  cut  loose 
from  the  government  and  rely  on  their  own  resources.  It  simply  takes 
them  out  of  the  hot-house  where  they  have  an  unnatural  growth  and 
are  always  delicate,  into  the  open  air,  out  into  nature's  fields,  where 
they  acquire  strength  and  endurance.  Instead  of  spending  their  time 
and  their  money  trying  to  carry  elections,  or  being  lobbyists  to  secure 
legislation,  they  will  attend  to  business;  they  will  study  the  condi- 
tions and  the  best  way  of  meeting  them.  Of  course,  there  will  be 
some  failures,  just  as  there  are  now  in  all  kinds  of  business ;  but  they 
will  come  from  a  want  of  capacity,  and  not  from  a  want  of  protection. 
At  present  our  protected  manufacturers  are  like  the  young  man  who 
got  his  father  to  start  him  in  business  and  give  him  sufficient  capital 
to  compete  with  others  already  established ;  but,  instead  of  relying  on 
himself,  he  simply  looked  to  his  father,  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  called 
for  more  money,  and  at  the  end  of  two  years  for  still  more  money, 
and  so  on,  until  he  got  all  the  old  man  had,  and  then  he  went  under. 
While  at  the  same  time  another  young  man,  who  relied  wholly  on  him- 
self— who  attended  to  business — who  studied  the  conditions  and  met 
them,  not  only  prospered  without  aid,  but  grew  rich. 

There  are  two  other  causes  which  have  operated  in  the  past  to 
centralize  wealth,  one  of  which  has  almost  spent  its  force,  but  the 
other  has  not.  The  first  of  these  was  railroad  building  and  other  en- 
terprises carried  on  by  corporations,  in  which  they  watered  the  stock 
as  well  as  bonds,  that  is,  issued  great  quantities  of  stock  and  of  bonds 
to  themselves,  for  which  they  paid  no  consideration  and  which  were 
subsequently  sold,  and  upon  which  the  public  has  now  to  pay  interest 
in  the  way  of  freight  and  passenger  charges.  The  issuing  of  this 
stock  and  these  bonds  was  frequently  done  by  methods  that  bordered 
on  fraud,  and  sometimes  by  methods  that  were  criminal.  At  the  same 
time  that  this  process  was  going  on,  there  was  a  system  of  railroad 
wrecking  carried  on  by  men  who  generally  held  the  position  of  trustee 
in  some  capacity,  and  whose  object  was  to  defraud  the  owners  of  the 
road  out  of  their  property.  The  methods  resorted  to  for  this  purpose 
were  such  as  would  have  sent  a  common  man  to  the  penitentiary.  I 
am  happy  to  say  that  this  practice  of  stock  watering  and  railroad 
wrecking  seems  to  have  about  spent  its  force,  and  most  of  the  great 
fortunes  made  in  this  way,  will  in  time  be  divided,  and  will  dissolve. 
The  element  of  fraud  which  taints  them  will  rot  them  and  their  pos- 
sessory to  the  ground.  The  second  cause  which  has  operated  to  build 
up  large  fortunes  is  what  has  been  called  the  unearned  increment,  that 
is.  the  holding  of  land,  which  has  been  made  exceedingly  valuable,  not 
by  anything  which  the  owner  did,  but  by  the  labor  and  the  enterprise 


LABOR  DAY  SPEECH.  261 

of  others.  There  are,  in  this  country,  very  many  people  who  have 
been  made  millionaires,  not  by  anything  which  they  did,  but  solely 
through  the  enterprise  and  labor  of  others.  They  simply  held  some 
land,  which  they  would  not  sell  and  would  not  improve.  Frequently 
they  were  an  obstruction  to  public  improvement  in  their  neighbor- 
hood, but  other  people  built  a  city  around  them  and  thus  made  their 
owners  immensely  rich,  without  any  effort  on  their  part,  and  once  rich, 
many  of  them  assumed  an  air  of  superiority  and  acted  as  if  they  felt  it 
their  duty  to  put  their  heels  upon  the  necks  of  the  men  who  made 
them  rich.  For  this  seeming  injustice  of  letting  one-man  have  the 
fruits  of  other  people's  enterprise,  no  satisfactory  remedy  has  yet  been 
offered.  Many  able  statesmen  have  considered  it,  but  could  not  see 
their  way  clear.  The  advocates  of  the  single  tax  system  believe  they 
have  a  remedy,  but  it  has  not  yet  secured  the  confidence  of  enough 
people  to  put  it  in  practice,  but  the  matter  is  being  discussed  by  able 
and  patriotic  men,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  time  will  come  when 
some  solution  of  the  problem  will  be  found,  which  will  do  justice  to  all. 
Again,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  party  of  which  I  am  a  candidate, 
not  only  believes  in  self-government,  but  it  believes  in  every  person,  so 
far  as  possible,  taking  care  of  himself,  always  keeping  within  the  pale 
of  the  law.  The  experience  of  the  world  is,  that  only  those  who  are 
in  a  position  to  take  care  of  themselves,  have  their  rights  respected 
or  their  feelings  regarded.  So  long  as  any  individual  has  to  depend  up- 
on the  liberality  or  the  good  will  of  another  individual,  just  so  long  will 
he  be  the  cuffed  dog  and  be  thrown  a  very  poor  bone  to  pick,  and 
just  so  long  as  one  class  of  people  have  to  depend  upon  the  good 
nature,  or  even  the  spirit  of  fair  dealing,  of  another  class,  just  so  long 
will  it  be  shivering  in  the  wind  and  eating  the  bitter  husks  of  disap- 
pointment and  injustice.  Selfishness  rules  the  earth,  and  the  only 
difference  in  its  working  in  the  different  conditions  of  society  is  simply 
one  of  refinement  of  method.  Its  nature  is,  in  all  cases,  the  same,  and 
it  generally  produces  the  same  results,  and  that  is,  the  swallowing  of  the 
substance  of  the  weak  by  the  strong.  Consequently  we  find  that  in 
all  ages  only  those  people  have  had  a  measure  of  justice  who  were  in  a 
position  to  compel  it.  In  this  age  everything  is  tending  towards  cen- 
tralization and  organization.  All  classes  are  organizing  on  the  theory 
that  in  unity  there  is  strength,  and  in  order  to  be  better  equipped  to 
hold  their  own  and  to  secure  justice  in  the  fierce  struggle  that  is  going 
on  in  the  world.  The  only  hope  of  the  laboring  man  in  this  country  lies 
in  organization.  Standing  alone  as  an  individual  against  the  mighty 
organized  forces  that  are  surrounding  him,  he  must  be  crushed  to 
powder,  and  his  children  in  time  reduced  to  a  condition  of  slavery — 


262  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

slaves  who  have  not  even  a  master  that  will  look  after  them  when  they 
are  sick,  or  give  them  a  decent  burial  when  they  die.  Organization 
educates ;  it  incites  to  reading  and  investigation ;  it  leads  to  discussion 
and  to  deliberation ;  it  tends  to  dispel  ignorance  and  to  remove  preju- 
dice, and  while  not  always,  it  yet  generally  results  in  the  adoption  of  a 
wise  and  conservative  course.  The  workingmen  of  this  country  are  in 
a  majority.  If  they  will  but  learn  to  organize,  learn  to  pull  together 
and  to  stand  together,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  they  can  materially  im- 
prove their  own  condition  and  that  of  their  children.  They  can,  with- 
out violence  and  without  revolution,  compel  the  payment  of  fair  wages ; 
can  compel  the  adoption  of  reasonable  hours  of  labor ;  can  enforce 
any  reasonable  and  fair  demand ;  can  thus  prevent  the  rapid  and  dan- 
gerous accumulations  of  vast  fortunes  by  a  few  individuals,  and  secure 
a  more  general  and  more  just  distribution  of  the  fruits  of  their  labor. 
It  will  be  an  evil  day  for  our  country  when  the  laborer  is  reduced 
to  the  condition  of  a  slave,  and  when  his  purchasing  power  is  de- 
stroyed. The  great  factories  and  the  great  railroads  of  the  country 
will  not  be  worth  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar  then,  and  not  half  the  men 
now  engaged  in  business  pursuits  will  then  find  occupation.  It  is  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  laborer,  the  fact  that  he  has  been  in  a  meas- 
ure able  to  surround  himself  and  his  family  with  the  thousand  little 
things  that  go  toward  making  up  the  comforts  of  life,  which  has  created 
and  to-day  makes  this  wonderful  home  market  that  keeps  manufac- 
turer, carrier  and  business  men  engaged.  Reduce  the  laborer  to  that 
condition  where  he  cannot  afford  to  buy  these  things,  where  it  takes 
all  that  he  can  earn  to  get  the  mere  rough  necessaries  of  life,  and  this 
home  market  will  vanish,  and  States  which  now  absorb  millions  upon 
millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  goods  per  annum,  will  be  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  some  of  the  Oriental  countries,  where  the  market  is  con- 
fined to  a  few  exceedingly  wealthy  people,  and  where  the  poor  buy 
only  some  coarse  food  and  still  coarser  and  cheaper  clothes. 


SPEECH    AT    JOLIET,    OPENING   THE    CAMPAIGN. 
(Delivered  September  13,  1892.) 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow  Citizens : 

We  have  in  this  State  some  of  the  largest  institutions — charitable, 
benevolent,  and  penal — that  are  to  be  found  in  America.  We  have 
asylums  for  the  insane,  homes  for  the  blind,  reform  schools  for  the 
youth,  besides  large  penal  institutions.  These  institutions  were  created 
for  the  most  noble  purposes,  and  the  people  of  the  State  of  Illinois 


SPEECH  AT  JOLIET.  263 

actually  pay  several  millions  of  dollars  yearly  to  keep  them  up.  They 
are  not  political  and  cannot  honestly  be  used  for  political  purposes. 
The  taxes  which  support  them  come  alike  from  Democrat  and  Republi- 
can. Yet  these  institutions  have  been  converted  into  the  most  shame- 
less political  machines,  in  order  to  secure  the  political  advancement  of 
the  present  Governor,  and  where  a  man  was  found  at  the  head  of  such 
an  institution,  who  declined  to  prostitute  it  for  such  a  purpose,  he  was 
removed. 

At  the  reform  school  at  Pontiac  a  most  able  and  competent  superin- 
tendent had  been  in  charge  for  years,  but  in  time  the  political  exigen- 
cies of  the  Governor  required  that  the  employes  of  this  institution 
should  secure  him  a  renomination.  The  superintendent  of  the  institu- 
tion, however,  insisted  that  that  did  not  come  within  the  line  of  his 
duties  for  which  the  people  paid  him.  The  result  was  that  he  was 
promptly  removed  and  a  more  pliable  man,  who  stood  ready  to  do 
political  jobs  of  any  character,  was  put  in  his  place. 

At  Anna  we  have  one  of  the  largest  hospitals  for  the  insane  to  be 
found  in  the  world,  and  it  had  been  for  a  number  of  years  in  charge  of 
a  man  who,  among  his  own  people,  was  at  least  regarded  as  honorable. 
The  Governor  wanted  a  delegation  from  that  county  to  support  him 
for  renomination,  but  the  people  from  that  county  preferred  another 
man.  The  result  was  that  the  former  superintendent  was  removed  and 
another  put  in  his  place  who  could  not  only  manipulate  the  Republican 
politics  of  that  county,  but  who  could  run  that  great  institution  for 
purely  political  purposes,  until  now,  I  am  informed,  it  attempts  to  dic- 
tate the  politics  for  that  whole  section  of  the  country,  and,  having 
nearly  twice  as  many  men  on  the  pay  roll  as  are  needed,  they  are 
enabled  to  give  the  better  part  of  their  time  to  politics. 

ARE    THEY    PAID    FOR    THIS? 

The  people  complain  to  me  at  points  sixty  miles  away  from  that 
institution,  that  the  employes  thereof  come  over  there,  not  only  to  run 
Republican  primaries  and  whip  unfriendly  Republicans  into  line,  but 
come  over  there  to  carry  elections,  and  for  this  purpose  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  employ  any  kind  of  means  and  resort  to  any  kind  of  device  in 
order  to  carry  their  point. 

The  penitentiary  at  Joliet  is  one  of  the  largest  institutions  of  that 
character  in  the  country.  During  the  early  part  of  the  present  State 
administration  there  was  a  man  in  charge  who  had  the  reputation  of 
being  conscientious,  but  there  came  a  time  when  the  political  exigen- 
cies of  the  Governor  required  that  a  friendly  delegation  should  be  sent 
from  Joliet  to  the  Republican  State  Convention.  The  Republicans  of 


264  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

Will  county,  however,  had  ideas  of  their  own  which  looked  in  another 
direction,  and  when  the  warden  of  the  penitentiary  declined  to  coerce 
them  or  whip  them  into  line,  he  was  promptly  removed  and  a  man 
put  in  his  place  who,  while  a  genial  and  shrewd  politician,  had  had 
absolutely  no  experience  in  the  management  of  prisons.  He.  knew 
nothing  about  penal  science,  but  he  was  a  graduate  in  the  art  of 
political  management.  He  was  a  past  grand  master  of  the  caucus. 
He  was  sent  to  Joliet  to  teach  the  Republicans  there  their  duty,  which 
he  at  once  proceeded  to  do ;  and,  although  the  citizens  of  Will  county 
had  plans  which  looked  toward  the  honoring  of  one  of  their  own 
prominent  and  honored  citizens,  they  were  soon  taught  that  they  were 
not  a  match  for  the  machinery  of  the  penitentiary.  They  found  that 
that  great  institution,  like  the  insane  asylum  at  Anna,  was,  in  violation 
of  the  spirit  of  the  law,  prostituted  to  low  political  purposes  and  used 
so  as  to  enable  a  small  band  of  politicians,  who  had  become  known 
in  the  State  as  "the  Bloomington  ring,"  to  override  the  wishes  of  the 
people  and  to  dominate  party  politics,  and  complaints  come  to  me  al- 
most daily,  that  many  of  the  men  who  are  on  the  pay  roll  of  this  great 
institution,  and  being  supported  by  the  State,  spend  most  of  their 
time  at  present,  not  in  the  institution  discharging  their  duty,  but  out 
at  different  points  in  Will  county,  and  even  adjoining  counties,  work- 
ing to  carry  the  election ;  so  that  we  have  to-day  the  entire  machine 
of  the  State  government,  especially  that  part  appointed  by  the  Govern- 
or, and  made  up  of  individuals  who  belong  to  what  has  been  designated 
as  the  "Bloomington  ring,"  and  consisting  of  Railroad  and  Warehouse 
Commissioners  and  their  employes ;  Penitentiary  Commissioners  and 
the  vast  number  of  their  employes ;  Canal  Commissioners,  Grain  In- 
spectors, and  others  occupying  minor  positions,  all  actively  at  work, 
not  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties,  but  in  trying  to  carry  the  election. 

HOMES    FOR    MENDICANTS. 

The  truth  is,  that  during  the  quarter  of  a  century  in  which  these 
institutions  have  been  under  the  control  of  one  political  party, 
they  have  been  converted  into  homes  of  political  mendicants,  homes 
for  the  politically  unfortunate,  so  that  there  is  not  now  a  crack  in  the 
wall,  a  knothole  in  the  floor,  or  a  corner  in  the  attic  of  any  of  them 
but  what  has  been  chucked  full  with  hungry  politicians,  and  their 
highest  notion  of  duty  is  to  securely  hold  on  to  that  job.  There  is, 
it  is  true,  some  analogy  between  them  and  the  people  for  whom  these 
institutions  were  built;  that  is  that  it  would  be  very  hard  for  them  t<> 
make  a  living,  if  they  were  driven  out,  and  that,  politically  speaking, 
they  are  totally  blind.  It  is  the  history  of  institutions  of  this  char- 


SPEECH  AT  JOLIET.  265 

acter  everywhere,  that  when  one  party  has  been  long  in  power  and  its 
favorites  collect  in  these  asylums  and  almost  fill  them  up,  not  only 
living  there  themselves,  but  bringing  their  sisters,  and  their  cousins, 
and  their  aunts  there,  it  frequently,  also,  becomes  corrupt,  and  the 
favorites  look  upon  the  whole  institution  as  having  been  erected  for 
their  benefit.  And  the  only  way  to  guard  against  this  is  to  have  an 
occasional  change — to  introduce  a  new  broom — for  the  new  broom  is 
not  only  a  great  factor  of  cleanliness  and  purity  in  the  kitchen,  but  of 
reform  in  the  public  service. 

Some  years  ago  an  evil  of  what  was  known  as  the  convict  contract 
system  became  so  great  as  to  arouse  the  people  of  most  of  the  North- 
ern States.  It  was  the  practice  of  hiring  hundreds  of  convicts  in  a 
prison  to  some  contractor,  or  rather  a  manufacturer,  at  an  insignificant 
price  per  day,  having  them  work  at  some  trade  that  could  be  carried 
on  in  the  prison,  where  they  came  in  direct  competition  with  free  labor 
outside.  As  a  rule  they  worked  at  shoemaking,  harness  making,  stone 
cutting,  coopering,  and  similar  trades,  and  the  price  paid  for  each 
convict  per  day  was  from  forty  to  fifty  cents ;  once  in  a  while  as  high 
as  sixty  cents  per  day  was  paid  for  a  few  men.  The  State  furnished  the 
building,  furnished  the  guards,  and  sometimes  even  the  machinery. 
There  were  at  times  in  the  neighborhood  of  75,000  convicts  in  all  of  the 
penitentiaries  of  the  Union.  Working  at  these  low  figures  the  State 
got  very  little  out  of  them,  but  the  contractors  in  many  cases  managed 
to  make  fortunes. 

Green  stone  houses,  brown  stone  houses,  and  large  business  blocks 
were  erected  by  the  men  who  had  these  contracts,  and  there  soon  grew 
up  around  the  penitentiaries,  in  which  labor  is  thus  hired  out,  what 
was  known  as  a  penitentiary  ring,  made  up  partly  of  prison  contractors 
and  partly  of  prison  officials  and  commissioners  and  of  smooth  go-be- 
tweens, or  men  with  political  influence,  all  managing  to  make  money 
out  of  the  State.  The  result  of  it  was  that  the  goods  made  by  the 
convicts  in  this  way  soon  came,  not  only  in  competition  with  the  goods 
made  by  free  labor  outside,  but  in  some  cases  drove  it  out  of  the  mar- 
ket. Mechanics  who  had  earned  $2  and  $3  per  day  and  been  enabled 
to  support  their  families  in  comfort,  found  they  could  not  compete 
with  the  prison  contractor,  who  had  no  rent  to  pay,  no  capital  invested 
in  buildings,  and  who  got  his  labor  at  about  fifty  cents  a  day. 

ABOLISHED    IN    THE    NORTH. 

As  a  result  most  of  the  Northern  States  adopted  laws  prohibiting 
the  hiring  out  of  convicts  by  contract  in  any  manner  whereby  they 
might  come  in  competition  with  free  white  labor.  In  Illinois  the  peo- 


266  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

pie  went  farther.  They  amended  their  fundamental  law ;  they  did  not 
trust  to  the  Legislature,  but  at  a  general  election  held  in  1886  they 
adopted  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  State  prohibiting  the 
contracting  for  the  "labor  of  convicts"  confined  in  our  penitentiaries. 
It  was  in  the  following  language :  "That  hereafter  it  shall  be  unlawful 
in  the  State  of  Illinois  to  let  by  contract  to  any  person  or  persons,  or 
corporations,  the  labor  of  any  convict  confined  within  said  institu- 
tions." This  was  in  the  fall  of  1886.  The  gallant  Gov.  Oglesby  did  what 
he  could  to  enforce  it,  but  went  out  of  office  before  anything  could  be 
clone.  It  was  soon  found  that  the  penitentiary  ring  that  I  have  spoken 
of  set  to  work,  in  all  of  the  States  where  steps  had  been  taken  to  stop 
the  hiring  of  convicts,  to  circumvent  and  defeat  the  law.  In  cases 
where  they  could  not  by  any  means  defeat  or  circumvent  it,  they  did 
their  best  to  make  it  odious.  In  Illinois  this  constitutional  amendment 
has  been  deliberately  disregarded  and  systematically  circumvented. 
This  was  done  by  the  commissioners  with  the  knowledge  and  tacit 
assent  of  the  Governor.  Since  this  amendment  became  a  part  of  the 
fundamental  law  of  the  State  of  Illinois  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Governor 
to  see  that  it  was  faithfully  carried  out.  The  people  having  adopted 
it,  it  was  no  longer  any  business  of  the  Governor's  to  say  whether 
it  was  wise  or  unwise.  Having  taken  the  oath  to  enforce  the  laws  of  the 
State  of  Illinois  as  he  found  them,  it  was  his  business  to  carry  it  out ; 
yet,  although  six  years  have  elapsed,  the  competition  of  convict  labor 
in  this  State  in  certain  lines  is  as  ruinous  to  free  labor  as  it  ever  was, 
and  the  law  has  not  only  been  systematically  but  boldly  defied  and 
disregarded.  The  commissioners  appear  to  stand  in  with  the  con- 
tractors in  this  matter,  and  ostensibly  set  the  prisoners  to  work  for 
the  contractors  on  what  was  known  as  the  piece-price  plan,  whereby 
they  contracted  to  work  at  so  much  a  piece  for  what  they  made. 

SUBTERFUGES   OF   THE   RING. 

This,  even  if  honestly  carried  out,  would  have  been  a  violation 
of  the  law,  for  the  law  prohibited  the  hiring  of  the  convict  labor.  Gov- 
ernor Oglesby  declared  the  piece-price  plan  to  be  a  violation  of  the 
Constitution.  In  some  cases  they  resorted  to  the  flimsy  subterfuge 
of  using  the  words  "Product  of  labor  on  the  labor  of  a  given  number  of 
convicts,"  instead  of  the  "labor."  Even  this  method  has  not  been  hon- 
estly carried  out :  they  did  not  go  to  work  on  the  piece-price  plan  in 
good  faith.  In  practice  they  have  gone  right  on  under  the  old  contract 
system,  while  ostensibly  working  by  the  piece.  They  managed  it  in 
this  way :  No  fixed  price  per  piece  was  agreed  upon  in  advance  be- 
tween the  commissioners  and  the  contractors,  as  would  have  been 


SPEECH  AT  JOLIET.  .  267 

necessary  had  they  been  acting  in  good  faith,  but  there  was  an  under- 
standing that  the  contractor  should  go  on  and  work  convicts,  and 
at  the  end  of  a  month  the  number  of  days  was  to  be  multiplied  by  the 
price  per  day  which  he  paid  under  the  old  contract  system,  being  gen- 
erally in  the  neighborhood  of  fifty  cents,  once  in  a  while  fifty-five  cents, 
and  this  sum  was  to  be  divided  by  the  number  of  pieces  the  convict  had 
made  during  the  month,  in  order  to  ascertain  what  each  piece  would 
have  cost  the  contractor  under  the  old  contract  system ;  and  having 
ascertained  that,  they  made  out  a  bill  at  the  end  of  the  month  against 
the  contractor,  charging  him  with  so  many  pieces  at  so  much  a  piece, 
which  bill  the  contractor  paid.  This  was  not  only  an  evasion  of  the  law, 
it  was  a  fraud. 

If  convicts  were  to  be  hired  out  to  work  by  the  piece,  some  price  per 
piece  should  be  agreed  upon  in  advance,  and  when  no  price  per  piece 
is  agreed  upon  in  advance,  and  the  amount  to  be  paid  by  the  contractor 
to  the  State  is  determined  at  the  end  of  the  month,  and  is  determined 
by  the  price  which  he  paid  under  the  old  contract  system,  it  is  farcical 
to  talk  about  the  convicts  being  hired  out  by  the  piece.  Yet  such  is 
the  intimate  relation  that  exists  between  the  present  contractors  and 
the  Penitentiary  Commissioners  of  this  State ;  that  they  not  only  all 
connive  at  violating  the  law,  but  at  practicing  a  fraud  upon  the  public. 
As  a  result,  some  lines  of  business,  particularly  the  cooperage  business 
in  Chicago,  has  been  totally  destroyed  by  convict  labor,  and' almost 
every  shop  in  Chicago  that  made  barrels  for  the  market  has  had  to 
shut  clown.  Tierces  which  free  labor  cannot  make  for  less  than  twenty- 
five  cents  apiece,  are  made  in  the  penitentiary  so  as  to  cost  the  con- 
tractor five  cents  apiece.  This  enabled  the  contractor  to  undersell 
the  work  made  by  free  labor  just  enough  to  drive  free  labor  clear  out 
of  the  market,  and  yet  leave  an  enormous  profit  for  the  contractor. 
There  are  in  Chicago  to-day  over  1,000  coopers  who  used  to  earn 
$3  a  day  at  their  trade,  but  are  now  working  on  the  street  at  $1.50  a 
day ;  and  some  of  the  proprietors  of  shops  have  been  ruined,  while  the 
penitentiary  contractors  are  amassing  fortunes.  The  coopers  of  Chi- 
cago have  to  furnish  their  building  and  machinery ;  that  is,  must  either 
pay  rent  or  interest  on  investment.  A  barrel  or  tierce  cannot  be  made 
by  free  labor  for  less  than  twenty-five  cents  apiece,  storage  costs  two 
cents  a  month  per  piece,  taxes  are  high  and  insurance  is  high. 

ROTTEN    METHODS    IN    THIS    STATE. 

An  investigation  of  the  penitentiary  discloses  the  fact  that  the  com- 
missioners hired  to  a  Mr.  Winterbottom  the  able-bodied  convicts  at 
about  fifty-seven  and  a  half  cents  a  day,  and  relieved  him  of  the  pay-' 


268  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ment  of  all  taxes  and  all  insurance,  and  furnished  him  not  only  a  com- 
plete plant,  but  all  the  guards,  buildings,  and  storage  room  he  wanted 
free  of  charge,  so  that  he  can  store  several  thousand  barrels  for  a  year 
without  costing  him  anything.  Up  to  a  little  over  a  year  ago  he  em- 
ployed fifty  convicts  there.  For  some  unexplained  reason,  the  com- 
missioners put  in  new  and  improved  machinery,  costing  the  State  up- 
ward of  $25,000,  and  then  they  gave  him  fifty  more  convicts,  so  that 
now  with  one  hundred  men  and  the  improved  machinery  he  makes 
1,100  to  1,200  tierces  or  barrels  per  day,  which  cost  just  five  cents  a 
piece  to  make,  and  I  understand  that  he  gets  from  the  penitentiary  at 
Michigan  City,  in  Indiana,  2,000  tierces  a  day,  and  consequently  is 
enabled  not  only  to  supply  but  to  overstock  the  market,  and  he  has 
succeeded  in  shutting  up  every  cooper  shop  making  the  same  line  of 
goods. 

By  thus  destroying  competition  and  creating  a  monopoly  he  is 
enabled  to  dictate  terms  to  the  men  who  furnish  cooperage  stock  and 
gets  his  staves  at  his  own  price.  Look  at  the  action  of  our  State  of- 
ficials a  moment.  In  spite  of  the  constitutional  amendment  they  hire 
out  the  convicts  at  old  contract  prices,  they  put  in  new  and  the  latest 
improved  machinery  for  the  contractor,  they  relieve  him  of  the  pay- 
ment of  taxes  and  insurance,  and  furnish  him  storage  room  free,  and 
then,  on  every  occasion,  they  go  out  of  their  way  not  only  to  shield  and 
assist  him,  but  to  perpetuate  the  infamy.  Is  there  any  other  conclusion 
possible  than  that  while  free  labor  is  being  ruined  the  State  is  being 
robbed? 

The  commissioners  having  all  the  buildings  and  machinery  could 
have  worked  the  convicts  themselves  and  limited  the  output,  and  then 
sold  the  product  at  prices  which  would.have  made  money  for  the  State 
and  at  the  same  time  would  not  have  ruined  free  labor. 

Besides  making  goods  to  be  used  in  other  State  institutions,  the 
convicts  could  have  been  set  to  work  in  the  stone  yards  of  the  State 
adjoining  the  penitentiary  to  prepare  material  for  macadamizing  the 
public  roads  of  the  State — a  question  upon  which  I  shall  have  more 
to  say  in  this  campaign,  for  the  question  of  good  roads  is  one  of 
the  most  important  that  confronts  the  farmer  of  the  State.  It  is  a 
question  upon  which  it  is  high  time  that  the  State  should  take  some 
decisive  action. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  of  the  whole  matter  is,  that  some  of 
the  Penitentiary  Commissioners,  who  are  paid  large  salaries  and  are 
supposed  to  have  no  personal  interest  in  the  matter,  have  been  especial- 
ly active  and  vigilant,  not  only  in  circumventing  and  defeating  the  law, 
but  in  lobbying  at  the  State  House  when  the  Legislature  was  in  ses- 


SPEECH  AT  JOLIET.  269 

sion,  doing  their  utmost,  in  every  manner  possible,  to  prevent  any 
investigation  or  any  action  by  the  Legislature  in  regard  to  the  matter 
of  any  kind  or  character.  One  of  the  commissioners,  in  particular, 
was  almost  as  regular  in  his  attendance  at  the  State  Capitol  as  any 
member  of  the  Legislature,  sometimes  going  onto  the  floor  of  the 
House  and  of  the  Senate  in  order  to  defeat  some  measure  or  some 
step  which  might  change  the  condition  of  things  in  the  penitentiary. 
Who  paid  him  for  this  I  do  not  know ;  his  duties  as  commissioner  called 
for  no  such  work,  and  in  view  of  the  seemingly  confidential  relations 
existing  between  the  penitentiary  contractors  and  the  commissioners 
appointed  by  the  Governor,  I  leave  you  to  judge  as  to  the  nature  of 
his  reward. 

GOVERNOR  NEGLECTS  HIS  DUTY. 

Now,  these  commissioners  are  appointed  by  the  Governor  and  can 
be  removed  by  him,  and  if  at  any  time  they  are  not  obeying  the  law, 
then  it  is  very  clearly  his  duty  to  remove  them,  especially  if  they  are  de- 
liberately disregarding  it.  Not  only  has  the  attention  of  the  Governor 
been  repeatedly  called  to  this  matter,  but  committees  and  delegations  of 
men  from  Chicago,  particularly  the  employing  coopers,  who  have  been 
ruined  by  this  condition  of  affairs,  have  repeatedly  waited  on  the  Gov- 
ernor and  directed  his  attention  to  the  matter,  but  never  got  any  satis- 
faction. They  were  met  first  with  one  quibble  and  then  another,  and 
finally  were  given  to  understand  that  nothing  would  be  done  for  them. 
The  penitentiary  ring  seems  to  be  absolutely  master  of  the  situation. 

Now,  gentlemen,  it  is  time  that  this  condition  of  affairs  were  ended ; 
it  is  time  that  the  law  was  enforced  in  the  penitentiary  as  well  as  out  of 
it,  and  it  is  time  that  these  rings  and  cliques  which  have  grown  up  in 
our  State  institutions  be  turned  out.  It  is  time  that  our  institutions 
were  run  again  on  purely  business  principles  and  according  to  law. 
It  is  the  history  of  all  parties  and  of  all  countries,  that  when  one  set 
of  men  remain  long  in  charge  of  public  institutions,  a  system  of  favorit- 
ism, whereby  the  friends  and  favorites  are  all  provided  for  and  quar- 
tered on  the  State,  grows  up,  and  by  and  by  a  species  of  corruption, 
whereby  these  favorites  attempt  to  enrich  themselves  at  the  expense 
of  the  public  grows  up,  and  for  this  purpose,  if  for  none  other,  it  is 
necessary  that  there  should  be,  at  reasonable  intervals,  a  thorough 
overhauling — the  application  of  a  new  broom.  This  management  of 
our  penitentiaries  is  another  illustration  of  the  State's  impoverishing  a 
large  number  in  order  to  enable  a  few  favorites  to  make  fortunes. 


270  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

TREATMENT    OF    LABOR. 

I  have  shown  you  that  the  Republicans,  instead  of  trying  to  help 
the  laborer,  resort  to  every  device  in  order  to  defeat  the  law  which  was 
passed  for  his  protection.  I  will  now  call  your  attention  to  what  the 
Democrats  did  in  the  last  Legislature  of  Illinois,  being  the  first  Legis- 
lature in  which  the  Democrats  absolutely  controlled  one  house  and  had 
an  actual  Democrat,  the  Hon.  Clayton  E.  Crafts,  for  Speaker. 

First — They  enacted  and  secured  the  passage  of  a  bill  introduced 
by  Mr.  Gill,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Mines  and  Mining,  and 
now  the  candidate  for  Lieutenant  Governor,  requiring  the  examination 
of  mine  managers,  so  that  the  lives  and  health  of  the  miners  should 
not  be  jeopardized  by  negligent  or  incompetent  mine  managers. 

Second — They  introduced  and  secured  the  passage  of  the  anti- 
trust law.  It  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Ferns,  a  Democrat.  Four  Re- 
publicans voted  against  it. 

Third — They  introduced  and  secured  the  passage  of  what  is  known 
as  the  "anti-truck-store  bill,"  which  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Arnold,  a 
Democrat.  It  has  since  been  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme 
Court,  but  it  showed  that  the  Democrats  had  the  disposition  to  protect 
the  employe  from  the  injustice  of  being  compelled  to  buy  goods  at 
exorbitant  prices  of  his  employer. 

Fourth — They  secured  the  passage  of  a  bill  providing  for  the  gross 
weighing  of  coal,  so  that  the  miners  should  not  be  wronged  by  the 
process  of  having  the  coal  screened  through  very  coarse  screens,  and 
weighing  only  that  which  did  not  pass  through,  while  most  of  that  that 
did  go  through  was,  however,  sold  in  the  market,  but  for  which  the 
miner  received  no  compensation. 

Fifth — They  enacted  and  secured  the  passage  of  a  bill  for  weekly 
payment  of  wages.  It  was  introduced  by  Senator  O'Connor,  a  Demo- 
crat. 

Sixth — They  introduced  and  secured  the  passage  of  a  bill  to  assist 
farmers  to  hold  county  institutes.  It  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Curtis,  3 
Democrat. 

Seventh — One  of  the  most  important  measures  of  the  session : 
They  secured  the  repeal  of  what  was  known  as  "the  conspiracy  law=" 
one  of  the  most  iniquitous  special  measures  that  has  ever  been  placsd 
upon  the  statute  book,  and  was  intended  to  crush  organized  labor. 
The  bill  to  repeal  this  measure  was  introduced  in  the  Senate  by  Sena- 
ator  Coppinger,  a  Democrat,  and  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on 
Judicial  Department,  of  which  Senator  Bacon  was  chairman.  The 
committee  reported  in  favor  of  having  this  bill  laid  on  the  table ;  that 


SPEECH  AT  JOL1ET.  571 

is,  they  reported  against  the  bill.  The  Republicans  had  a  majority 
in  the  Senate.  On  the  motion  to  table  this  bill  twenty-one  Republi- 
cans voted  in  favor  of  tabling  the  bill,  twenty-two  Democrats  and  four 
Republicans  voted  in  favor  of  the  bill ;  that  is,  all  of  the  Republicans 
but  four  were  against  the  bill,  while  all  of  the  Democrats  and  four 
Republicans  were  in  favor  of  it  and  against  tabling  it.  When  the  bill 
came  up  on  its  passage  in  the  Senate,  all  of  the  Democrats  and  four 
Republicans  voted  for  it,  while  twenty-one  Republicans  voted  against 
it.  When  it  went  to  the  House  Mr.  Craig,  a  Democrat,  moved  that  it 
pass.  Every  Democrat  voted  in  favor  of  this  motion  and  thirty-nine 
Republicans  voted  against  it.  In  other  words,  the  Democrats  in  the 
Legislature,  assisted  by  four  Republicans  in  the  Senate,  secured  the 
passage  of  this  bill,  while  all  of  the  Republicans  in  the  Legislature, 
with  the  exception  of  four,  voted  against  this  bill  and  in  favor  of  retain- 
ing upon  the  statute  books  the  infamous  conspiracy  act.  In  other 
words,  the  Republican  party,  so  far  as  it  could  place  itself  upon  record, 
voted  against  organized  labor  and  in  favor  of  maintaining  a  measure 
which  had  been  specially  enacted  to  crush  it. 

CHURCH    AND    SCHOOL. 

Another  question  which  is  local  to  Illinois,  but  which  is  of  far- 
reaching  importance,  because  it  strikes  at  one  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  free  government,  has  to  be  considered  by  our  people  in 
this  campaign.  It  is  the  question  as  to  how  far  the  government  can 
interfere  with  the  most  sacred  private  affairs  of  the  individual,  and 
how  far  it  can  interefere  with  affairs  pertaining  to  the  church.  This 
has  grown  out  of  an  attempt  to  engraft  upon  our  excellent  common 
school  system  an  un-American  exotic. 

We  have  in  the  State  of  Illinois  one  of  the  best  common  school 
systems  in  America ;  a  system  of  which  we  are  proud ;  a  system  which 
was  promulgated  and  embodied  in  a  law  in  Virginia  by  that  great 
apostle  of  Democracy,  Thomas  Jefferson,  a  century  ago,  and  which 
we  will  strive  to  still  further  improve  and  to  carry  to  the  highest 
degree  of  perfection  possible.  Indeed,  the  perpetuity  of  democratic  in- 
stitutions depends  upon  the  education  of  the  masses  and  the  universal 
dissemination  of  intelligence. 

We  have  at  the  same  time  a  large  number  of  private  and  also  a 
large  number  of  parochial  schools  maintained  at  private  expense.  The 
State  contributes  nothing  toward  the  support  of  these  schools,  and 
so  long  as  they  violate  no  law  the  State  has  nothing  to  do  with  them. 
The  State  has  no  right  to  interfere  with  them  any  more  than  it  has  a 
right  to  interfere  with  the  private  business  of  the  individual.  The 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

parochial  schools  generally  are  connected  with  some  church,  and  are 
in  fact  a  kind  of  branch  of  it,  and  some  parents  prefer  to  send  their 
children  there  at  least  a  part  of  the  time,  because  they  get  a  degree 
of  religious  education  there  which  they  do  not  get  in  the  public  schools. 
These  people  all  pay  their  taxes  and  support  the  public  schools  without 
a  murmur.  They  do  their  full  duty  as  American  citizens,  and  then 
they  pay  for  the  education  of  their  children  besides.  As  a  rule,  they 
are  patriotic,  conscientious,  and  intelligent,  and  generally  are  among 
the  most  substantial  and  industrious  of  our  people. 

THE   EDWARDS    LAW. 

Several  years  ago  it  was  discovered  that  in  some  sections  of  the 
State,  particularly  in  large  cities,  there  were  neglected  children  who 
were  not  receiving  the  rudiments  of  an  education,  but  who  were  grow- 
ing up  amid  conditions  which  did  not  fit  them  for  the  high  duties  of 
American  citizenship,  but  which  tended  to  prepare  them  for  a  career 
of  crime  or  of  pauperism ;  and  some  patriotic  citizens  of  Chicago  draft- 
ed a  bill  through  which  they  hoped  in  a  measure  to  correct  this  evil. 
It  was  sent  to  Springfield  for  the  consideration  of  the  Legislature, 
but  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  Dr.  Edwards,  as  I 
am  informed,  so  changed  the  bill  as  to  make  it  practically  a  different 
measure,  by  engrafting  upon  it  some  very  objectionable  and  very 
dangerous  features.  This  bill  became  known  as  the  "Edwards  Bill" 
and  was  passed  by  the  Legislature  and  signed  by  the  Governor. 

I  am  informed  that  many  members  of  the  Legislature  had  not  been 
advised  of  the  radical  changes  Dr.  Edwards  had  made  in  it,  and  voted 
for  it  under  the  impression  that  the  bill  was  substantially  as  it  had 
been  originally  drawn.  After  it  had  become  a  law  it  was  discovered 
that  it  took  away  from  the  parent  the  right  to  educate  his  child  ac- 
cording to  his  judgment  and  his  conscience ;  that  it  gave  almost  un- 
limited and  arbitrary  power  to  the  local  directors  of  each  school  dis- 
trict, enabling  them  in  many  cases  to  break  up  the  private  or  parochial 
schools.  It  provided : 

First — That  all  the  children  in  the  district  must  be  sent  to  school  a 
certain  number  of  months  in  the  year. 

Second — That  they  must  be  sent  to  some  school  in  the  district, 
so  that,  if  it  was  two  miles  to  the  public  school,  and  only  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  to  the  private  school,  they  could  not  be  sent  to  the  private  school 
without  the  approval  of  the  local  directors. 

Third — It  practically  made  private  and  parochial  schools  subject  to 
the  interference  of  the  local  directors,  so  that,  no  matter  how  ignorant, 
how  prejudiced  or  spiteful  they  may  be,  they  have  it  in  their  power  to 


SPEECH  AT  JOLIET.  273 

say  whether  a  parent  may  or  may  not  send  his  children  there,  and  thus 
have  it  in  their  power  to  break  up  the  school.  It  did  not  matter  what 
the  judgment  or  the  conscience  of  the  parent  might  dictate  to  him  as 
to  the  manner  of  educating  his  children,  this  local  directory  had  abso- 
lute power,  and  there  was  no  appeal  from  its  decision.  The  parochial 
schools  being,  in  many  cases,  a  part  of  the  church,  it  put  it  in  the  power 
of  these  directors  to  interfere  with  the  management  and  control  of 
the  children  by  determining  whether  the  children  of  the  church  mem- 
bers might  or  might  not  attend  the  educational  branch  of  the  church, 
and  there  was  no  appeal  from  their  decision. 

PERSECUTION    BEGINS. 

It  was  not  long  before  a  regular  system  of  persecution  was  begun 
under  this  law  in  the  different  sections  of  the  State — for  there  are 
always  men  who  want  to  not  only  lay  down  the  law  for  their  neigh- 
bor to  obey,  but  who  want  to  lord  it  over  him,  and  who  never  lose 
an  opportunity  to  assert  their  authority — consequently,  in  some  of  the 
localities,  some  of  the  most  substantial,  intelligent  and  law-abiding 
citizens,  who  helped  build  up  our  country,  who  pay  their  taxes  to 
maintain  our  public  school  system,  were  dragged  into  court,  were 
subjected  to  heavy  expenses,  were  systematically  not  only  prosecuted, 
but  persecuted,  under  this  law,  because  they  were  sending  their  chil- 
dren to  a  private  school  to  be  educated ;  and  this  was  done  generally 
at  the  instance  of  local  school  directors  who  were  not  distinguished 
for  anything  that  goes  to  make  up  good  citizenship,  but  who  happened 
to  hold  the  office  of  school  director,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  harass 
their  neighbors.  This  law  does  violence  to  the  principles  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  It  interferes  with  the  most  sacred  private  affairs  of  the 
individual.  It  seeks  to  enable  one  class  of  individuals  to  force  their 
views,  in  regard  to  private  and  personal  matters,  upon  another  class  by 
means  of  legislation.  It  is  an  attempt  by  the  State  to  mix  in  and  inter- 
fere with  the  affairs  towards  which  it  contributes  nothing,  and  where 
there  is  no  violation  of  law ;  and  further,  it  is  the  beginning  of  the  regu- 
lation of  the  church  by  the  State ;  for  if  the  State  can  destroy  so  im- 
portant a  feature  of  the  church  as  its  school,  it  can  destroy  every  other 
feature  of  it ;  if  it  can  regulate  or  interfere  with  so  important  a  feature 
of  the  church  as  its  school,  it  can  interfere  with  every  other  feature  of 
it,  and  if  this  law  is  permitted  to  stand  it  will  not  be  long  until  the 
same  fanatical  spirit,  which  is  forever  trying  to  legislate  over  others, 
will  be  attempting  to  interfere  with  the  management  of  the  various 
churches  of  this  country. 

Thus  far  only  those  churches  which  maintain  parochial  schools 


274  LIFE  Q  UESTIONS. 

have  been  directly  affected,  but  the  principle  involved,  if  once  admitted, 
will  embrace  every  feature  of  church  management.  For  li  the  so-called 
welfare  of  the  State  is  sufficient  constitutional  ground  to  sustain  a  law, 
it  will  not  take  a  fanatic  long  to  convince  himself  that  the  welfare  of 
the  State  requires  that  his  views  on  the  subject  of  religion  or  church 
management  should  be  enforced  by  law.  Giving  the  State  the  right 
to  interfere  with  the  running  of  an  institution  carries  with  it  the  im- 
plied duty  to  assist  in  the  paying  of  the  bills  of  that  institution.  In 
short,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  a  piece  of  legislation  which  has  in  it 
so  much  that  is  vicious,  and  that  must,  at  the  end,  be  destructive  of  free 
institutions. 

BELIEVE    IN    EDUCATION. 

Let  me  remark  here  that  the  Democratic  party,  and  even  these 
people  who  are  most  affected  by  the  present  law,  do  not  believe  in  per- 
mitting any  child  to  grow  up  in  neglect  and  without  receiving  any 
education,  but  they  do  believe  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  State  not  to 
interfere  in  cases  where  children  are  being  educated,  but  to  look  after 
those  children  who  have  the  care  of  no  one,  and  so  far  as  practicable 
be  a  parent  to  them.  Therefore  the  Democratic  party — from  prin- 
ciple, and  not  as  a  mere  political  expedient — demands  the  repeal  of  this 
law,  and  I  will  here  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Republican 
party  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  in  its  platform  adopted  at  Springfield,  in 
May  last,  declared  unequivocally  in  favor  of  the  repeal  of  this  law,  thus 
admitting  that  it  is  bad.  It  is  claimed,  however,  by  many  intelligent 
observers  that  this  declaration  of  the  Republican  party  is  not  made 
in  good  faith ;  that  it  is  intended  to  deceive ;  that  it  is  a  mere  vote- 
catching,  campaign-shift,  intended,  if  possible,  to  hold  the  allegiance 
to  the  party  of  that  class  of  citizens  who  have  been  most  affected  by  the 
law,  while  at  the  same  time  retaining  the  support  of  that  element  which 
favored  the  law,  and  still  favors  it ;  and  I  will  remark  here  that  while 
the  Republican  party  has  in  it  very  many  broad-minded,  patriotic, 
and  liberal  citizens,  it  has  also  in  it  a  very  large  element  of  the  nar- 
row, the  pharasaical  class,  a  class  which,  while  possessing  no  more 
virtue,  nor  patriotism,  nor  intelligence  than  other  people,  is  yet 
forever  pretending  to  it,  and  is  forever  trying  to  lay  down  the  law 
for  other  people.  It  seems  to  be  true,  that  this  element  dominates  the 
counsels  of  the  party  and  controls  the  policy  of  it  all  the  time  except 
during  a  campaign. 

Two  years  ago,  after  the  objectionable  features  of  the  law  had  be- 
come manifest,  the  party,  in  its  platform,  declared  itself  opposed  to 
State  interference  in  any  form  with  private  schools.  It  was  a  broad, 
unqualified  declaration,  but  after  the  elections  were  over,  and  it  was 


SPEECH  AT  JOLIET.  275 

sought  to  change  the  law  so  as  to  make  it  accord  with  that  declaration 
in  the  platform,  the  party  refused  absolutely  to  do  it,  and  the  leaders 
of  the  party  boldly  stated  to  the  representatives  of  the  Lutheran  people 
that  the  platform  was  not  binding  on  the  Republican  members  of  the 
Legislature,  but  under  the  pretext  of  wanting  to  see  that  the  English 
language  was  taught  in  these  private  schools,  insisted  upon  maintaining 
the  right  of  State  interference,  although  not  a  single  instance  was  cited 
of  a  private  or  parochial  school  which  did  not  give  instruction  in  Eng- 
lish ;  and  when  it  was  argued  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  this,  be- 
cause all  the  children  were  learning  the  English  language,  and  fur- 
ther, that,  even  if  they  were  not,  the  State  could  provide  for  examining 
the  children  at  stated  periods  to  see  whether  they  were  learning  English 
or  not,  and  could  do  this  without  interfering  in  the  control  of  either 
the  children  or  of  the  schools,  the  Republican  managers  replied  that 
that  did  not  suit ;  that  they  wanted  to  be  in  a  position  to  supervise  the 
schools  themselves. 

ADHERED   TO    STATE   INTERFERENCE. 

In  other  words,  under  one  pretext  or  another,  they  resolutely  ad- 
hered to  the  principle  of  State  interference,  and,  so  far  as  is  known, 
the  Governor  of  the  State  then  approved  of  that  decision.  Now, 
nothing  has  happened  since  that  time  to  change  the  character  of  the 
school  law.  The  same  men,  as  a  rule,  are  again  running  for  office 
throughout  the  State,  especially  the  leaders,  from  Governor  down  to 
the  members  of  the  Legislature.  It  would  be  violent  to  presume  that 
the  whole  crowd  should  have  undergone  a  conscientious  change  of 
sentiment,  especially  inasmuch  as  not  one  of  them  has  personally 
said  anything  to  indicate  it.  There  is,  therefore,  but  one  conclusion 
in  the  matter,  and  that  is  that  the  present  plank  in  their  platform, 
declaring  .in  favor  of  a  repeal  of  the  law,  is  a  mere  campaign  shift,  made 
by  the  same  people  who  two  years  ago  inserted  a  plank  against  State 
interference  with  private  schools,  and  after  the  election  shamelessly 
declared  that  it  had  no  binding  force,  and  who,  after  the  coming  elec- 
tion, will  again  declare  that  the  plank  in  their  present  platform  signi- 
fies nothing.  The  fact  is  that  this  Edwards  compulsory  education  act 
is  rather  in  harmony  with  the  latter-day  principles  of  the  Republican 
party ;  that  is,  for  the  few  to  rule  the  many,  and  for  those  who  possess 
nothing  but  a  lofty  pretension  to  force  their  views  upon  more  modest 

people. 

KNOW-NOTHING    ORDERS. 

Now,  my  fellow  citizens,  there  have  sprung  up  within  the  last 
few  years  several  branches  of  secret  Know-nothing  orders  that  seem 


276  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

to  fear  the  light  of  day.  One  of  them  is  known  as  the  United  Order  of 
Deputies ;  another,  which  is,  I  believe,  of  more  recent  formation,  is 
known  as  the  Patriotic  Sons  of  America,  and  I  believe  there  are  one  or 
two  more  known  by  different  names.  While  these  orders  differ  in  some 
slight  particulars,  they  are  practically  in  accord  in  opposing  every- 
body of  foreign  birth.  They  have  such  watchwords  as  "America  for 
Americans,"  "Put  none  but  Americans  on  guard,"  etc.  They  boast  of 
no  great  things  done  by  themselves,  they  point  to  no  country  which 
their  industry  and  their  wisdom  built  up  and  developed,  they  point 
to  no  cities  which  they  built,  no  great  institutions  which  they  founded, 
no  great  thing  of  any  kind  or  character  which  they  did,  and  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  it  is  in  those  States  where  we  have  the  greatest 
immigrant  population  that  we  find  the  highest  development  in  Ameri- 
ca, that  we  have  the  greatest  cities,  the  finest  architecture,  the  best 
agriculture,  the  most  railroads,  the  most  churches,  the  best  schools,  the 
most  libraries,  the  most  of  everything  that  goes  to  make  a  great 
Nation,  while  in  those  States  where  there  was  no  immigrant  popula- 
tion, especially  in  the  south  and  eastern  part  of  Maine,  the  country 
is  more  than  a  century  behind  in  all  of  those  particulars ;  and  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  when  the  country  was  in  peril,  almost  every 
man  who  pointed  a  rifle  at  the  American  flag  and  did  his  best  to  de- 
stroy the  government,  was  not  only  American  born,  but  boasted  of  a 
long  line  of  American  ancestry,  nearly  one-half  of  those  who  went 
forth  to  save  our  institutions  and  protect  the  flag,  were  either  foreign- 
born  or  were  children  of  foreign-born  parents ;  and  nearly  one-half  of 
those  who  to-day  fill  Southern  graves,  because  they  responded  to  the 
call  of  patriotism,  were  foreign-born  or  the  children  of  foreign-born 
parents.  I  say,  notwithstanding  all  these  facts,  these  Know-nothing 
orders  are  to-day  trying  to  proscribe  those  of  our  citizens  who  are  not 
born  on  American  soil,  no  matter  what  their  achievement,  no  matter 
what  sacrifices  they  made.  While  prostituting  the  great  word  "pa- 
triotic" in  endeavoring  to  give  themselves  a  name,  they  are  engaged 
in  a  most  unpatriotic  business.  If  they  were  to  be  in  any  degree  suc- 
cessful they  would  sow  the  seed  of  discord,  of  class  hatred,  of  religious 
feuds,  and  of  contention  between  the  people  of  different  nationalities ; 
for  every  effort  at  proscription  begets  a  counter  movement  and  sooner 
or  later  leads  to  open  conflict. 

These  orders  are  to-day  fighting  the  battle  of  the  Republican  party. 
Men  who  for  years  have  been  in  the  employ  of  the  Republican  com- 
mittee and  who  are  still  in  its  employ,  working  for  its  success,  are  trav- 
eling over  the  country  lecturing  to  these  orders  and  trying  to  form 
others.  In  short,  while  these  orders  do  not  march  directly  under  the 


SPEECH  AT  JOLIET.  277 

Republican  banner,  they  are  being  utilized  to  a  man  by  the  party  man- 
agers to  carry  this  election.  Now,  these  orders  have  declared  in  favor 
of  the  maintenance  of  the  Edwards  act,  and  Washington  Camp,  No. 
16,  of  the  Patriotic  Sons  of  America,  April  19,  1892,  issued  a  manifesto, 
in  which  they  said,  among  other  things,  in  regard  to  the  existing  com- 
pulsory law : 

"We  hereby  declare  ourselves  opposed  to  any  attempt  to  repeal 
said  law  by  any  party  or  organization,  or  to  the  making  of  any  material 
change  therein,  and  we  furthermore  pledge  our  unqualified  support  to 
the  retention  of  the  said  law  in  its  entirety. 

Wm.  D.  Towner,  President. 

James  A.  Cox,  Secretary." 

Subsequently,  the  State  Executive  Committee  of  the  State  Camp 
of  Illinois,  in  regard  to  the  above  resolution,  adopted  the  following: 

"The  State  Executive  Committee  of  the  State  Camp  of  Illinois 
most  heartily  indorses  this  resolution  and  pledge  our  unqualified  sup- 
port to  assist  in  promulgating  the  same  throughout  the  great  State  of 
Illinois.  We  want  the  assistance  of  every  individual  member  of  every 
camp  in  this  State  in  pushing  this  work  to  the  front,  thereby  showing 
any  political  party  or  organization  in  Illinois  that  we  are  uncompro- 
misingly in  favor  of  the  present  school  law  as  spread  upon  our  statute 
books. 

A.  E.  Garnet,  State  President. 

W.  A.  Saunders,  State  Secretary." 

I  have  been  informed  that  the  candidate  for  Lieutenant  Governor 
on  the  Republican  ticket  is  a  member  of  one  of  these  orders,  that  sev- 
eral more  of  the  candidates  on  the  State  ticket  are  members  of  these 
orders,  and  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  Governor  is  making  all 
manner  of  pledges  to  the  Lutherans,  promising  the  repeal  of  this  law, 
yet  every  member  of  these  orders  in  the  State  of  Illinois  is  actively 
working  for  him.  The  Lutherans  ask  for  the  repeal  of  the  law ;  the 
Republican  platform  promises  it  and  the  Governor  promises  it ;  the 
Patriotic  Sons  of  America  declare  themselves  uncompromisingly  op- 
posed not  only  to  the  repeal  of  the  law,  but  opposed  to 
any  material  change  in  it,  and  yet  they  are,  from  one  end  of 
Illinois  to  the  other,  working  for  the  re-election  of  the  Governor.  It 
is  asserted  that  they  have  a  perfect  and  thorough  understanding  with 
him,  that  this  particular  law  shall  not  be  molested  in  the  event  of  his 
re-election,  and  that  the  party  leaders  shall,  after  the  election  is  over, 


278  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

do  as  they  did  before,  simply  boldly  say  that  ylanks  in  the  glatform  and 
campaign  promises  are  not  binding. 

It  is  asserted  that  different  members  of  this  order,  for  the  purpose 
of  satisfying  themselves,  wrote  to  the  Governor  in  regard  to  this  mat- 
ter, and  received  answer  from  him  giving  them  the  most  positive  as- 
surances that  the  law  would  not  be  molested  or  materially  changed. 
I  do  not  know  whether  he  wrote  letters  giving  such  assurances  in  writ- 
ing or  not — it  is  immaterial  whether  he  made  them  in  writing  or  not — 
certain  it  is  that  the  action  of  the  Patriotic  Sons  of  America  through- 
out the  State,  in  declaring  that  they  would  not  support  anybody  who 
was  not  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  existing  law  without  material 
changes,  while  they  are  not  actively  working  for  his  re-election,  can 
only  be  explained  on  the  theory  that  the  Governor  has  given  them 
assurances  that  no  material  changes  will  be  made  in  this  law,  notwith- 
standing any  promises  or  pledges  he  may  make  to  the  Lutherans,  and 
notwithstanding  the  Republican  platform. 

The  Lutheran  people  are  in  earnest  on  their  side,  the  Patriotic  Sons 
of  America  are  fanatically  in  earnest  on  their  side — they  are  moving 
in  opposite  directions — certain  it  is  that  the  Governor  cannot  satisfy 
both  of  them,  and  one  or  the  other  of  them  will  certainly  be  disappoint- 
ed if  they  repose  confidence  in  him. 

A    REASONABLE    INFERENCE. 

When  we  consider  the  Governor's  original  position  on  this  ques- 
tion, considering  that  in  all  the  speeches  he  made  up  to  the  beginning 
of  this  campaign  he  expressed  himself  in  favor  of  the  law ;  considering 
the  position  the  party  leaders  took  in  the  last  Legislature  without  any 
protest  from  the  Governor;  considering  the  attitude  of  his  party  in 
this  State  and  in  Wisconsin  two  years  ago,  and  considering  the  fact 
that  the  Know-nothing  orders  are  now  supporting  him  with  all  their 
might ;  and  when  we  consider  the  fact  that  it  is  the  pharasaical  element 
of  the  Republican  party  that  dominates  its  councils  when  the  election 
is  over,  the  reasonable  inference  is  that 'it  would  be  the  Lutherans  who 
would  be  disappointed.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Democratic  party 
opposes  this  Edwards  act  from  principle.  It  declared  itself  opposed 
to  it  two  years  ago  in  Illinois  and  Wisconsin,  and  in  each  State  it  made 
good  its  promise ;  and  in  Wisconsin  not  only  repealed  a  similar  law, 
but  then  enacted  a  reasonable  law  for  the  care  and  education  of  neg- 
lected children;  a  law,  which,  so  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  is  satisfactory 
to  all  reasonable  people.  One  further  observation  in  regard  to  the 
position  of  the  Governor  with  reference  to  this  law.  In  one  of  his 
speeches  in  the  southern  end  of  the  State,  in  trying  to  apologize  to  the 


SPEECH  AT  JOLIET.  279 

Lutherans  for  having  signed  it,  he  stated  that  he  did  not  fully  under- 
stand its  character ;  that  when  it  was  brought  to  him  he  gave  it  only 
such  consideration  as  he  could  in  a  hurry,  and  that  within  half  an  hour 
after  it  was  brought  to  his  office  he  signed  it.  I  am  sorry  for  his  sake 
that  the  Governor  made  this  statement,  sorry  that  any  man  holding  so 
high  and  so  important  a  position  should  discharge  his  duties  in  such 
a  careless  manner.  The  Constitution  has  created  two  branches  of 
government  to  enact  legislation;  it  did  not  create  either  as  a  mere 
matter  of  form,  but  intended  that  each  branch  should  give  every 
measure  thorough  and  serious  consideration  before  enacting  it.  It 
calls  for  just  as  careful  an  examination  by  the  Governor  as  it  does  by 
the  Legislature,  and  if  the  Governor  discharges  his  duties  in  so  ex- 
ceedingly careless  a  manner  that  such  a  measure  as  the  Edwards  act, 
which  was  short,  and  which  struck  at  the  liberties  of  our  citizens  and 
involved  principles  that  are  dangerous  to  free  government,  can  have 
his  signature,  then  the  great  affairs  of  this  State  and  liberties  of  our 
people  are  in  unsafe  hands. 

AS   TO  THE   TARIFF. 

Before  entering  upon  the  discussion  of  the  American  tariff,  I  wish 
first  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  every  country  of  the  old 
world  where  the  so-called  pauper  labor  exists,  where  the  laborer  has 
been  reduced  to  the  condition  of  a  slave  without  even  a  master  to  give 
him  decent  burial  when  he  dies,  they  have  a  high  protective  tariff 
and  have  had  for  centuries,  and  the  conditions  which  the  tariff  has 
created  in  this  country — that  is,  the  concentration  of  .wealth  into  a 
few  hands,  the  building  up  of  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many — grew 
up  there  while  they  had  a  high  protective  tariff.  England  had  a  high 
protective  tariff  until  about  forty  years  ago,  and  had  had  one  for  cen- 
turies, and  it  was  during  the  time  that  England  had  a  high  protective 
tariff  that  the  unequal  conditions  that  still  exist  there — that  is,  the 
•concentration  of  great  wealth  into  a  few  hands  and  the  impoverishment 
of  the  many — grew  up. 

I  will  not  stop  here  to  examine  just  how  far  the  tariff  there  was 
responsible  for  these  conditions,  but  will  simply  call  attention  now 
to  the  fact  that  it  was  under  a  tariff  that  they  grew  up.  I  shall  later 
examine  the  question  as  to  how  far  the  tariff  is  responsible  for  these 
conditions  in  this  country.  While  wages  are  still  low  in  England,  they 
have  doubled  since  she  wiped  out  her  tariff — in  fact  since  the  abolition 
of  the  tariff  in  England  her  population  has  doubled,  wages  have 
doubled,  her  trade  with  foreign  nations  has  increased  five-fold,  her 
manufacturing  and  commercial  affairs  have  increased  more  than  five  - 


28o  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

fold,  and  the  moral,  political  and  intellectual  condition  of  her  people 
have  greatly  improved.  In  fact  the  greatness  of  Great  Britain  can 
almost  be  said  to  have  begun  with  the  abolition  of  her  tariff.  Her  in- 
dustries at  once  became  diversified,  the  energies  of  her  people  bounded 
out  along  almost  every  line  of  human  endeavor,  and  even  those  pro- 
tected interests,  which  had  had  a  kind  of  hothouse  existence,  and  had 
always  been  looking  to  the  government  for  help — just  as  some  young 
men  who  are  excessively  assisted  by  a  kind  father,  and  who  conse- 
quently never  become  self-reliant,  but  are  always  in  distress  and  always 
calling  for  more  help — these  interests,  thrown  out  on  their  own  re- 
sources and  compelled  to  study  the  conditions  which  are  necessary 
to  success,  soon  had  a  natural  growth,  acquired  a  strength,  and  a 
prosperity  which  they  never  could  have  done  under  a  tariff. 

DOES  NOT  HELP  THE  LABORER. 

It  is  a  further  noticeable  fact,  that  in  all  other  countries  of  the 
world  where  they  have  a  high  protective  tariff,  it  is  the  rich,  the  priv- 
ileged classes,  who  are  interested  in  maintaining  it.  In  none  of  them 
does  it  help  the  laborer,  because  the  laborer's  wages  have  long  been 
at  the  starvation  point ;  long  been  to  the  lowest  point  possible  without 
compelling  him  to  go  to  the  poor-house. 

In  this  country  we  have  had  tariff  legislation  for  about  a  century. 
It  is  not  necessary  here  to  name  the  different  tariff  acts  and  the  rates 
they  impose.  During  the  first  half  century  what  was  then  called  a 
high  tariff  alternated  with  a  revenue  tariff.  I  wish,  however,  to  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  what  was,  during  the  first  sixty  years  of  our 
career,  considered  a  high  tariff,  and  sufficient  to  protect  American 
industries,  was  not  equal  to  one-third  of  the  present  tariff.  In  other 
words,  those  who  have  been  advocating  the  principle  of  protection 
have  found  themselves  obliged  to  raise  the  tariff  every  time  that  they 
had  it  in  their  power.  They  now  have  a  tariff  that  is  nearly  four  times 
what  it  was  deemed  necessary  when  they  started ;  that  is,  nearly  double 
what  it  was  even  during  the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  when  they  enacted 
what  was  considered  an  excessively  high  tariff,  in  order  to  raise  rev- 
enue for  the  government — a  tariff  which  they  then  declared  to  be 
simply  a  war  tariff  and  which  would  be  reduced  when  the  war  was 
over,  but  which,  instead  of  reducing,  they  have  constantly  increased. 
Under  the  act  of  1883,  they  very  greatly  increased  the  war  tax,  and 
under  the  McKinley  act  they  again  increased  the  tariff  duties  of  1883 
by  an  average  of  nearly  forty  per  cent.,  so  that  to-day  we  have  an 
average  tariff  rate  of  over  sixty  per  cent.,  or  about  four  times  what 
was  deemed  necessary  when  they  started  in  to  protect  infant  industries 


SPEECH  'AT  fOLIET.  281 

and  build  up  manufacturing  interests  a  century  ago.  If  this  is  any 
criterion,  then,  if  the  Republican  party  again  revises  the  tariff,  it  will 
nearly  double  it,  for  every  successive  increase  since  the  war  has  been 
very  large. 

In  contradiction  to  this  let  me  call  attention  for  a  moment  to  the 
last  so-called  revenue,  or  free-trade  tariff,  enacted  in  1846,  and  in  force 
for  upward  of  ten  years  till  near  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  It  was  known 
as  "the  Walker  tariff,"  because  framed  in  accordance  with  the  views  of 
Robert  J.  Walker,  who  was  a  member  of  the  cabinet.  The  tariff  abol- 
ished the  high  duties  which  then  existed  and  imposed  only  moderate 
duties  to  secure  revenue  for  the  treasury.  It  was  enacted  in  1846,  and 
notwithstanding  that  the  Whigs  won  a  victory  in  1848  and  had  pos- 
session of  the  government,  they  did  not  disturb  it.  And  in  comment- 
ing upon  this  fact,  Mr.  Elaine,  in  his  "Twenty  Years  in  Congress" 
says:  "The  tariff  of  1846  was  yielding  abundant  revenue  and  the 
business  of  the  country  was  in  a  flourishing  condition  at  the  time  the 
administration  of  Gen.  Taylor  was  organized.  Money  became  very 
abundant,  large  enterprises  were  undertaken,  speculation  was  preva- 
lent, and  for  a  considerable  period  the  prosperity  of  the  country  was 
general  and  apparently  genuine.  The  principles  embodied  in  the 
tariff  of  1846,  seemed,  for  the  time,  to  be  so  entirely  vindicated  and 
approved  that  resistance  to  it  ceased,  not  only  among  the  peo- 
ple, but  among  the  protection  economists,  and  even  among  the  manu- 
facturers to  a  large  extent.  So  general  was  this  acquiescence  that  in 
1856  a  protective  tariff  was  not  suggested  or  even  hinted  by  any  of 
the  three  parties  which  presented  presidential  candidates." 

Certainly  this  cannot  be  said  to  be  the  judgment  of  a  biased  man. 
And  it  is  a  fact  that  during  this  period  not  only  did  the  manufacturers 
who  had  formerly  been  protected  prosper,  but  there  was  general  pros- 
perity throughout  the  country.  All  industries  thrived,  agriculture 
prospered.  The  business  of  the  country  prospered,  and  it  was  during 
this  comparatively  short  period  that  we  built  up  the  greatest  com- 
merce then  on  earth.  Mr.  Elaine  tells  us  that  our  tonnage  exceeded 
that  of  any  other  nation  on  the  globe.  There  was  not  a  sea  in  the 
world  upon  which  a  ship  could  float  but  what  it  had  upon  it  American 
ships  laden  with  American  products  and  flying  the  American  flag.  It 
was  during  this  period  that  our  industries  became  diversified  as  they 
never  had  before,  and  that  our  country  developed  so  as  to  enable 
it  to  successfully  cope  with  the  great  civil  war.  The  avowed  object 
and  principle  of  the  tariff  in  this  country  for  thirty-five  years  has  been 
to  keep  out  foreign  competition  on  what  was  styled  pauper  made 
goods,  and  to  enable  the  manufacturer  to  pay  higher  wages  to  his 


282  i/F£  QUESTIONS. 

men.  In  fact,  the  advocates  of  the  tariff  have  been  enabled  to  keep 
in  power  almost  solely  through  the  cry  of  protection  of  American 
labor. 

This  had  a  beautiful  sound,  and  we  shall  presently  see  that  it  has 
turned  out  to  be  a  cruel  deception,  by  means  of  which  both  the  laborer 
and  the  farmer  have  been  robbed  of  their  substance.  The  first  effect 
of  the  tariff  is  to  enable  the  manufacturer  to  sell  his  goods  at  higher 
prices  than  he  could  have  if  there  was  more  competition.  In  fact,  if 
this  were  not  the  object  and  effect  there  would  be  no  use  in  having  it. 
But  it  is  not  only  the  theoretical,  but  it  is  found  to  be  the  practical, 
effect  of  it.  It  is  true  that  for  a  while  there  were  men  who  argued  that 
the  importer  paid  this  tax  levied  by  the  government,  and  that  the  con- 
sumer did  not  pay  it. 

TIMES    HAVE    CHANGED. 

It  is  rare  that  we  now  meet  with  a  man  who  has  so  low  an  estimate 
of  public  intelligence  as  to  still  claim  that.  There  are  many  articles,  for 
instance,  plate  glass,  upon  which  the  duty  is  in  the  neighborhood  of 
one  hundred  and  forty  per  cent.,  depending  somewhat  upon  the  size 
of  the  pieces.  If  a  man  brings  $1,000  worth  of  it  over,  before  he  can 
land  it  he  must  pay  $1,400  tax  to  the  government.  Now,  if  it  were 
true  that  the  importer  pays  the  tax  and  the  consumer  does  not,  and 
that  it  costs  the  consumer  nothing,  then  we  should  have  the  spectacle 
of  a  man  paying  $1,400  in  cash  for  the  privilege  of  landing  goods 
which  he  would  sell  at  $1,000  when  he  had  landed  them.  This  illus- 
trates the  working  of  the  whole  system.  The  fact  is  that  the  importer 
simply  adds  the  amount  he  has  to  pay  to  the  government  to  the 
former  price  of  the  goods,  and  the  consumer  pays,  not  only  the  former 
price  of  the  goods,  but  the  tax  which  the  importer  has  paid,  together 
with  a  small  profit  again  upon  this  tax.  For  instance:  $1,000  worth 
of  plate  glass  will  cost  the  consumer  in  the  neighborhood  of  $2,600. 
So  with  articles  upon  which  the  tariff  is  lower. 

Take  an  article  upon  which  the  tariff  is  fifty  per  cent.  If  it  former- 
ly cost  $i  and  the  importer  has  to  pay  fifty  cents  before  he  can  land 
it,  then  he  is  obliged  to  get  $1.50  or  a  little  more,  because  he  must  have 
a  profit  on  the  fifty  cents,  and  this  sum  is  paid  by  the  man  who  finally 
buys  it,  that  is,  the  consumer.  So  that  the  tariff  simply  compels  the 
mechanic  and  the  farmer  to  pay  more  for  all  manufactured  articles 
which  they  have  to  buy  than  they  would  need  to  pay  if  there  were  free 
competition.  To  illustrate  the  workings  of  the  tariff  a  little  further. 
we  will  take  woolens,  blankets,  and  similar  goods  upon  which  the 
duty  is  in  the  neighborhood  of  80  per  cent.  So  long  as  the  importer 


SPEECH.   AT  JOL1E~T.  283 

paid  no  tariff  and  sold  his  blanket  for  $1  the  American  manufacturer 
was  obliged  to  do  the  same.  When  the  government  stepped  in  and 
said  to  the  manufacturer  that  he  must  pay  eighty  cents  apiece  on  his 
blankets  before  he  could  land  them,  the  importer  was  compelled  to 
mark  the  price  of  his  blankets  up  to  a  little  over  $1.80.  Then  the 
American  manufacturer  marked  his  blankets  up  to,  we  will  say,  $1.70, 
so  as  to  just  undersell  the  importer.  In  this  way  he  soon  drives  the 
importer  out  of  the  market.  The  importer  cannot  afford  to  sell 
blankets  at  $1.70  which  cost  him  $1.80.  The  result  is  that  the  Ameri- 
can manufacturer  soon  has  entire  control  of  the  market. 

The  importer  stops  bringing  blankets,  and  it  will  be  observed  that 
not  a  penny  of  the  seventy  cents  on  each  blanket  which  the  American 
manufacturer  sells  goes  into  the  public  treasury.  It  simply  goes  into 
his  pocket,  because  he  has  no  duty  to  pay.  He  does  not  have  to  go 
through  the  custom  house.  The  American  people  in  this  way  pay 
millions  of  dollars  annually  which  they  would  not  need  to  pay  if  there 
were  free  competition,  yet  very  little  of  this  goes  into  the  public  treas- 
ury ;  it  simply  goes  into  the  pockets  of  manufacturers,  of  trusts,  and  of 
combinations.  For,  when  the  manufacturer  finds  that  he  has  driven 
the  importer  entirely  out  of  the  market,  he  manages  to  combine  with 
the  other  American  manufacturers,  and  form  a  trust  or  combination, 
not  only  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  up  prices,  but  of  fixing  wages. 
It  is  in  this  way  that  the  tariff  is  the  mother  of  trusts.  It  makes  it 
possible  for  men  to  combine  and  prevent  competition  where  it  would 
not  be  possible  if  there  were  no  prohibitory  tariff. 

A  THEORY  THAT  IS  FALSE. 

It  was  one  of  the  theories  advanced  years  ago,  and  recently  reit- 
erated by  President  Harrison,  that  protection  in  the  end  cheapens 
production.  That  is,  that  by  governments  encouraging  certain  indus- 
tries, many  people  would  embark  in  those  industries,  and  very  soon 
there  would  be  created  such  a  competition  or  rivalry  that  the  price 
would  be  reduced  below  what  it  would  be  if  there  were  no  tariff  and 
free  competition.  Now,  it  is  to  be  observed  in  regard  to  this,  first, 
that  if  it  were  true,  then  the  moment  that  point  had  been  reached,  why, 
the  tariff  might  as  well  be  abolished,  because  it  would  be  no  longer 
needed.  If  our  manufacturers  who  have  been  coddled  and  fed  and 
petted  by  the  government,  got  to  a  point  where  they  can  make  goods 
cheaper  than  they  would  otherwise  be  made,  instead  of  from  time  to 
time  increasing  the  duties  on  those  goods,  the  tariff  ought  to  be  entire- 
ly abolished  as  to  them.  But  the  experience  of  the  last  ten  years  has 
demonstrated  to  the  American  people  that  this  theory  is  a  false  one, 


284  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

for  instead  of  this  competition  we  simply  have  trusts  and  com- 
binations, by  means  of  which  prices  are  kept  up.  Even  if  the  theory 
were  a  correct  one,  it  shows  the  tariff  to  be  a  monstrous  injustice  to  the 
consumers  in  the  country ;  for,  until  the  different  industrial  establish- 
ments have  been  so  far  developed  as  to  bring  about  this  theoretical 
competition,  the  American  people  are  compelled  to  pay  on  an  average 
of  nearly  60  per  cent,  more  for  the  manufactured  articles  they  buy  than 
they  otherwise  would  have  to  pay.  And  as  already  shown,  this  60  per 
cent,  does  not  go  into  the  treasury,  but  goes  simply  into  the  pockets  of 
the  proprietors  of  these  industrial  establishments,  and  as  we  have 
now  had  an  application  of  the  protective  principle  with  comparatively 
little  interruption  for  an  entire  century,  I  will  ask :  How  long  will  it 
be  until  this  home  competition,  that  President  Harrison  speaks  of, 
shall  bring  about  this  reduction  in  price?  It  is  apparent  that  the  la- 
borer has  had  to  pay  more  for  his  tools,  more  for  his  clothes,  more 
for  his  household  effects,  and  that  the  farmer  has  had  to  pay  more 
for  every  manufactured  article  that  he  buys  by  reason  of  this  tariff, 
and  thus  far  the  promised  local  competition  and  reduction  in  price 
has  not  come  about.  Instead  of  that,  the  tariff  has  given  us  million- 
aires by  the  thousand,  and  has  given  us  local  combinations  and  trusts, 
while  it  has  destroyed  our  foreign  commerce.  When  the  importer 
found  that  he  could  not  sell  goods  in  our  market  because  of  the  tariff, 
he  naturally  quit  coming  here.  And  when  he  ceased  to  bring  goods 
here  he  also  ceased  to  buy  goods  here,  but  would  buy  the  products 
he  wanted  to  buy  in  those  markets  where  he  could  also  sell  the  goods 
he  had  to  sell.  As  a  result  the  splendid  commerce  we  had  prior  to  the 
war,  which,  according  to  Mr.  Elaine,  was  the  grandest  upon  earth,  has 
been  destroyed.  Then  the  farmer  was  not  confined  to  a  home  market, 
but  he  had  all  the  markets  of  the  earth  to  sell  his  products  in. 

ANOTHER    THEORY. 

It  was  also  a  theory  which  was  much  talked  of  years  ago,  that  the 
tariff  would  diversify  home  industry  and  would  create  a  home  market 
for  the  farmer  to  sell  his  products  at.  It  was  admitted  that  the  tariff 
tended  to  destroy  the  foreign  market.  But  he  was  assured  that  the 
home  market  would  be  very  much  better  anyhow,  and  I  notice  that 
Senator  Cullom  recently,  at  Joliet,  estimated  the  intelligence  of  his 
audience  sufficiently  low  to  again  repeat  this  old  theory.  Now,  twenty- 
five  years  ago,  when  we  heard  most  of  this  theory,  the  farmer  was 
selling  a  bushel  of  wheat  for  from  $1.00  to  $1.25,  and  he  was  selling 
other  farm  products  in  proportion.  To-day  he  is  selling  his  wheat  at 
sixty  cents  a  bushel  and  other  farm  products  in  proportion.  I  would 


SPEECH  AT  JOL1ET.  285 

like  to  ask  the  Senator  if  the  home-market  theory  has  produced  this 
reduction  in  twenty-five  years,  how  long  it  will  take  to  further  reduce 
the  price  of  farm  products  so  that  a  bushel  of  wheat  will  sell  for  a 
quarter,  and  other  farm  products  in  proportion  ?  But  to-day  the  whole 
fabric  of  production  rests  on  the  foundation  of  protecting  American 
workingmen.  This  is  the  substance  of  all  the  arguments  to-day,  and  if 
it  does  not  do  this,  then  the  entire  reason  for  its  existence,  offered 
by  its  strongest  advocates,  is  at  an  end.  For  the  last  twenty  years 
the  great  steamship  companies  have  found  it  profitable  to  bring  immi- 
grants from  Europe  to  this  country,  and  through  their  agents  they 
have  induced  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  in  the  pauper-labor 
countries  to  come  to  America.  To  successfully  do  this,  they  generally 
arrange  with  American  employers,  mine  owners,  proprietors  and  manu- 
facturers, and  other  employers  of  labor,  to  give  these  people  employ- 
ment at  wages  upon  which  the  American  laborer  could  not  live.  Thus 
the  steamship  companies  have  brought  them  over  generally  under 
contract.  And  as  the  means  of  transportation  were  constantly  im- 
proved they  were  enabled  to,  at  almost  a  moment's  notice,  bring 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  here  in  two  weeks'  time.  The  result 
was  that  our  country  was  flooded  with  the  cheapest  kind  of  laborers 
to  be  found  in  the  world ;  all  poor  and  willing  to  work  for  one-half 
of  what  other  laborers  were  being  paid.  So  that  wages  have  from  time 
to  time  been  forced  down,  except  in  those  few  instances  where  the 
labor  organizations  were  enabled  to  compel  the  payment  of  living 

wages. 

CHEAP   IMPORTED    LABOR. 

The  large  mine  owners  and  the  manufacturers  in  eastern  cities 
discharged  their  regular  American  laborers,  both  native  born  and  natu- 
ralized, and  filled  their  places  with  laborers  imported  from  the  cheapest 
European  fields,  so  that  Mr.  Powderly,  who  is  a  high  authority  on 
this  subject,  tells  us  that  almost  every  American  laborer,  whether  na- 
tive born  or  naturalized,  was  driven  out  of  the  great  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  his  place  filled  by  the  imported  laborer,  while  at  the 
same  time  the  great  cities  were  being  literally  crowded  with  this  im- 
ported pauper  labor ;  so  that  both  in  the  mining  districts,  in  the  manu- 
facturing centers,  and  in  the  great  cities,  the  American  laborer,  male 
and  female,  had  to  compete  with  the  cheapest  labor  to  be  found  on 
the  earth.  It  was  expecting  too  much  of  employers  to  pay  the  highest 
wages  when  there  were  throngs  at  their  door  ready  to  work  at  starva- 
tion wages ;  so  while  the  tariff  was  constantly  being  increased,  and 
the  cost  of  everything  the  laborer  had  to  buy  was  kept  up,  his  wages 
were  everywhere  declining,  and  there  is  not  a  case  on  record  where 


LIVE  QUESTIONS'. 

any  manufacturer,  after  an  increase  in  the  tariff,  went  into  his  shop 
and  said  to  his  men :  "Now  the  government  has  levied  a  tariff ;  it 
has  relieved  me  of  foreign  competition;  it  has  enabled  me  to  make 
combinations  with  other  manufacturers  and  to  keep  up  the  price  of 
goods.  This  was  all  done  for  your  benefit,  and  I  will  now  raise  your 
wages  from  30  to  80  per  cent." 

In  fact,  there  is  not  an  instance  in  America  where  wages  have 
been  raised  in  the  last  twenty-five  years,  except  where  it  was  forced 
by  organized  labor.  A  few  lines  of  skilled  labor  that  could  not  be 
supplied  instantly  by  sufficient  importation,  have  been  able,  by  means 
of  organization,  to  prevent  a  reduction  down  to  starvation  wages. 
But  even  in  these  there  has  been  a  steady  decline.  In  fact,  the  Con- 
gress which  enacted  the  McKinley  bill  and  nearly  doubled  the  duties 
on  many  articles,  had  scarcely  adjourned  when  upward  of  three  hun- 
dred of  the  largest  protected  establishments  in  this  country  at  once 
reduced  wages.  And  it  is  a  melancholy  fact,  that  during  the  twenty 
months  that  have  elapsed  since  the  enactment  of  the  McKinley  law, 
four  hundred  and  seventy-three  of  the  largest  protected  establish- 
ments in  this  country  have  reduced  wages ;  have  had  strikes  and  lock- 
outs, the  most  serious  of  which  was  at  the  Homestead  works,  near 
Pittsburg,  owned  by  Mr.  Carnegie,  a  gentleman  who  has  been  enabled 
to  make  $50,000,000  because  the  government  assisted  him,  practi- 
cally, in  levying  a  tax  upon  the  whole  American  people  for  his 
benefit. 

During  the  session  of  Congress  which  enacted  the  McKinley  law, 
he  was  urging  for  increased  duties,  in  order,  as  he  said,  that  he  could 
pay  his  men  higher  wages ;  yet  the  ink  of  the  President's  signature 
to  that  bill  was  scarcely  dry  when  he  proceeded  to  reduce  wages,  and 
not  only  that,  but  undertook  to  crush  out  organized  labor  in  America. 
It  was  organized  labor  which  compelled  him,  in  a  few  small  depart- 
ments, to  pay  living  wages.  If  he  could  crush  out  the  organization 
and  deal  with  each  man  individually  he  could  at  once  reduce  them  to 
the  level  of  the  pauper  labor  which  he  had  from  time  to  time  imported. 
As  an  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  the  tariff  has  affected  wages, 
let  us  look  at  the  manufacture  of  clothing,  which  is  a  fair  illustration 
of  every  other  line  of  industry.  Under  the  law  of  1883,  there  was  a 
duty  on  ready-made  clothing  of  from  40  to  50  per  cent.  The  Mc- 
Kinley act  nearly  doubled  the  duty,  and  made  it  from  80  to  100  per 
cent.,  thus  preventing  the  importation  of  cheap  clothing.  Now,  let 
us  see  what  the  laborer  is  paid. 

About  a  year  ago  public  attention  was  aroused  to  the  fact  that  there 
were  scattered  all  over  Chicago  what  were  called  sweating  shops — 


SPEECH  AT  JOLIET.  2g? 

that  is,  shops  where  men,  women  and  children  were  sweating  their 
lives  out,  making  clothing  for  large  establishments  amid  sanitary  con- 
ditions that  must  breed  disease.  An  investigation  was  made  by  a 
committee,  which  was  accompanied  by  some  of  the  high  city  officials. 
They  visited  a  great  many  of  these  places,  and  found  everywhere 
practically  the  same  condition.  Even  a  Republican  paper,  comment- 
ing on  the  system,  said : 

"The  condition  of  the  place  visited  was  terrible.  Overcrowding, 
long  hours  and  low  pay  was  the  rule.  Girls  of  ten  years  of  age  were 
found  to  be  working  ten  and  twelve  hours  a  day  for  eighty  cents  per 
week.  Ten  girls  were  found,  none  being  over  ten  years  of  age,  that 
worked  ten  hours  a  day  for  seventy-five  cents  to  $1.20  per  week.  In 
a  DeKoven  street  den  were  found  a  half  dozen  men  working  eighteen 
hours  a  day  for  from  $4  to  $9  a  week.  At  168  Maxwell  street  were 
found  ten  men  that  worked  sixteen  hours  a  day  each  and  received  from 
$6.50  to  $9  per  week.  They  worked  on  cloaks  that  were  sold  to  J.  V. 
Farwell  &  Co.  In  the  same  place  were  six  girls  working  from  twelve 
to  fourteen  hours  a  day  whose  weekly  pay  was  $3.  In  one  house  was 
found  a  child  who  worked  for  seventy-five  cents  per  week.  At 
425  South  Canal  street  a  girl  was  found  who  declined  to  tell  what  she 
received,  fearing  that  she  would  be  discharged,  and  discharge  meant 

starvation. 

HARDLY    ENOUGH    TO    LIVE   ON. 

"At  69  Judd  street  the  wages  of  the  men  were  found  to  be  $5  to 
$9  per  week,  and  one  child  there  received  $i  per  week.  At  151  Peoria 
street  is  a  cloak  finishing  establishment.  Here  the  women  received 
one  and  one-half  cents  for  finishing  cloaks.  One  woman  was  found  on 
the  streets  with  a  bundle  of  cloaks  she  had  finished.  She  said  that 
by  hard  work  she  finished  twenty  cloaks  a  day  and  earned  thirty  cents. 
This  supported  herself  and  two  babies.  The  place  at  258  Division 
street  was  by  far  the  worst  visited.  Eleven  men  worked  twelve  hours 
a  day  and  received  from  $5  to  $9.50  per  week.  Twelve  children  here 
worked  twelve  hours  a  day  for  seventy-five  cents  per  week.  The  place 
was  terribly  crowded,  there  being  no  water  or  ventilation." 

While  the  tariff  was  doubled  wages  were  steadily  forced  down. 
Other  investigations  made  in  Chicago  at  different  times  disclosed  the 
same  condition  of  affairs,  and  an  investigation  by  a  congressional 
committee  some  years  ago  into  the  condition  of  labor  in  New  York- 
City  brought  out  the  fact  that  the  great  majority  of  both  men  and 
women  who  work  in  protected  industries  get  starvation  wages  and 
work  long  hours.  The  laborer  has  to  compete  with  the  labor  of  all 
the  earth. 


'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

The  coat  on  his  back  costs  him  nearly  twice  what  it  would  if  there 
were  free  competition,  but  his  wages  are  fixed  on  the  starvation  basis. 
In  other  words,  we  have  had  absolute  free  trade  in  labor  for  nearly 
twenty  years.  The  employer  can  buy  his  labor  on  a  free-trade  basis ; 
why  should  not  the  laborer  be  permitted  to  buy  his  tools,  his  clothing 
and  his  household  goods  on  the  same  basis?  Formerly  there  was  a 
duty  on  sugar  that  made  a  pound  of  sugar  cost  about  eight  cents. 
Of  course  the  consumer,  the  man  who  bought  the  sugar,  paid  it. 
This  tariff  was  abolished,  and  sugar  instantly  dropped  to  five  cents, 
showing  that  not  only  had  the  consumer  been  paying  the  tariff,  but 
also  showing  what  would  result  if  the  tariff  was  taken  off  of  all  other 
articles.  I  do  not  say  that  the  tariff  makes  things  dearer  now  than 
they  were  before,  for  invention  has  reduced  the  cost  of  production 
all  over  the  world.  Many  things  can  now  be  made  for  one-tenth 
of  what  it  formerly  cost.  But  I  do  say  that  the  tariff  prevents  a 
laborer  and  the  farmer  from  getting  the  full  benefit  of  this  invention, 
and  compels  them  to  pay  more  than  they  would  have  to  pay  if  there 
were  no  tariff. 

THE    GOVERNMENT   WOULD    PROFIT. 

If  this  prohibitory  tariff  were  abolished  and  some  moderate  duty 
imposed  to  supply  revenue  for  the  government,  heavy  importations 
would  begin  and  the  government  would  collect  many  times  as  much 
as  it  now  collects,  while  the  people  would  save  the  millions  which 
they  now  pay  to  protected  individuals.  When  it  is  proposed  to  reduce 
the  tariff  so  as  to  enable  the  government  to  establish  closer  com- 
mercial relations  with  other  countries,  we  are  told  it  will  ruin  our 
manufacturing  industries.  This  cry  is  not  new.  Every  time  that  there 
was  ever  a  suggestion  of  correcting  an  abuse  it  was  heard.  When  some 
years  ago  it  was  proposed  to  put  quinine  on  the  free  list,  it  was  again 
asserted  that  it  would  ruin  all  who  were  engaged  in  the  quinine  in- 
dustry, but  instead  of  the  quinine  interests  being  ruined,  they  are  to-day 
five  times  as  great  as  they  were  under  protection. 

When  it  was  proposed  to  abolish  the  tariff  in  England,  all  of  the 
privileged  classes  united  with  the  entire  aristocracy,  and  even  the 
clergy,  in  the  cry  that  it  would  ruin  England  and  destroy  the  British 
Empire.  When,  in  1846,  it  was  proposed  to  remove  the  high  tariff 
in  this  country,  the  cry  again  went  up  that  it  would  ruin  the  manu- 
facturing classes  and  destroy  the  industry  of  the  country ;  but  in- 
stead of  having  mined  it  the  British  Empire  enjoyed  a  prosperity  under 
free  trade  which  it  had  never  seen  before.  We  have  already  shown 
that  instead  of  being  ruined  in  1846,  not  only  the  great  business  in- 


SPEECH  AT  BATTERY  D.  289 

terests,  but  the  manufacturing  interests,  which  had  been  protected, 
prospered  as  they  had  not  done  before,  so  that  all  idea  of  further  pro- 
tection was  abandoned.  At  present  many  of  our  industries  are  main- 
tained by  unnatural  stimulants ;  they  are  mere  hot-house  plants ;  they 
are  always  tender  and  ready  to  wilt.  If  they  were  taken  out  of  the  arti- 
ficial atmosphere  and  put  out  into  the  sunlight  and  permitted  to  have 
a  natural  growth,  they  would  acquire  a  strength  and  a  prosperity 
which  is  impossible  under  existing  conditions,  and  inasmuch  as  the 
tariff  affords  the  laborer  of  this  country  absolutely  no  protection ;  in- 
asmuch as  he  has  for  at  least  fifteen  years  had  to  compete  with  the 
cheapest  labor  on  earth,  brought  right  to  his  door;  inasmuch  as  the 
present  tariff  compels  him  to  pay  almost  double  of  what  he  would 
otherwise  have  to  pay  for  what  he  buys,  it  is  but  justice  to  him  that 
it  should  be  abolished.  Reciprocity  means  the  trading  with  foreign 
countries  on  equal  terms.  When  applied  to  England  it  would  mean 
free  trade ;  as  it  is  used  by  the  present  administration  it  is  a  deception 
and  a  fraud,  for  they  have  limited  it  to  a  few  obscure  South  Ameri- 
can countries  with  whom  we  have  scarcely  any  relation — obscure 
people,  of  whom  Tom  Reed  said  that  some  of  them  wore  shirts  on 
Sunday.  When  it  is  considered  that  we  ought  to  have  the  greatest 
commerce  in  the  world,  because  we  have  more  sea  coast,  more  natural 
resources,  more  manufacturing  establishments,  a  better  agriculture, 
more  railroads,  more  invention,  more  skilled  labor,  more  native  en- 
ergy, push  and  pluck  than  any  other  people  on  the  face  of  the  globe, 
it  is  humiliating  to  see  this  great  republic  go  down  to  a  half-civilized 
people  in  the  extreme  end  of  South  America  and  humbly  enter  into 
negotiations  with  it  for  the  privilege  of  trading  on  equal  terms. 


SPEECH  AT  BATTERY  D,  CHICAGO. 

(Delivered  September  26,  1893.) 

(From  the  "Chicago  Times:"  "Democratic  enthusiasm  broke  bounds  last 
night.  Battery  D  the  scene  of  the  biggest  Democratic  rally  of  the  campaign. 
Fully  7,000  persons  were  in  the  building  and  enough  left  over  to  blockade 
Michigan  avenue  and  Monroe  street.  It  was  Democratic  enthusiasm  that 
brought  the  big  crowd  together  which  had  collected  to  hear  its  nominee  for 
Governor.  The  crowd  was  not  only  large,  but  representative.") 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

In  appearing  to-night  here  in  our  own  wonderful  city  and  meeting 
my  neighbors  and  fellow-citizens,  with  whom  I  have  lived,  with  whom 
I  have  done  business,  and  with  whom  I  have  led  that  hurrying,  bust- 
ling, high-pressure  life  that  distinguishes  this  city  from  all  others,  I 
19 


290  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

desire  to  lay  aside  the  character  of  a  candidate  for  office,  and  to  be 
simply  one  citizen  conferring  with  his  fellow-citizens,  and  in  that 
capacity  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  achievements  of  this  century,  the 
forces  that  wrought  them,  and  the  political  duty  which  patriotism 
imposes  on  all  of  us.  Some  of  you  are  aware  that  I  have  not  a  high 
opinion  of  the  achievements  of  office-holders,  but  am  an  enthusiast  on 
the  subject  of  the  private  individual ;  I  believe  that  the  wonderful 
achievements  of  this  century,  in  all  the  fields  of  human  activity,  are  to 
be  credited  to  the  genius  and  labor  of  private  individuals ;  that  in  this 
country,  where  we  have  a  government  of  law,  policies  are  all  important, 
and  the  personnel  of  the  office-holder  is  a  matter  of  indifference,  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  it  stands  as  a  guaranty  and  assurance  that  the  law  will 
be  fearlessly  and  honestly  administered.  This  feeling  is  intensified 
when  I  gaze  out  over  our  great  State  of  Illinois,  richer,  greater,  grander 
in  everything  that  goes  to  make  a  great  people,  than  any  of  the  former 
empires  of  the  earth ;  and  it  is  still  more  intensified  when  I  contemplate 
our  own  marvelous  city,  for  which  I  have  an  admiration  and  a  love 
that  exceed  the  bounds  of  enthusiasm.  Its  rapid  growth,  its  wide 
extent,  its  wonderful  architecture,  its  great  business  houses,  its  gi- 
gantic industrial  establishments,  its  almost  countless  railroads,  its 
schools,  its  churches,  and  its  libraries,  are  the  achievements  of  private 
individuals ;  even  in  so  far  as  governmental  agencies  were  used,  it  was 
the  character  and  influence  of  private  individuals  that  secured  these. 

DICTATES  OF   HIGHER  THOUGHT. 

In  all  fields  of  intelligence  we  find  mankind  occupying  more  ad- 
vanced ground  than  formerly.  Great  institutions  for  the  elevation 
of  mankind,  as  well  as  institutions  for  relieving  the  distressed  or  unfor- 
tunate, are  found  everywhere,  and  even  government  occupies  a  higher 
plane  than  formerly.  What  is  the  force  that  brought  all  this  about? 
It  is  what  may  be  called  the  higher  thought  of  the  world,  that  thought 
that  keeps  its  eye  upon  the  star  of  eternal  justice  and  right.  It  was 
the  higher  thought  that  opened  the  way  for  human  liberty,  and  it  is 
the  higher  thought  that  must  direct  the  governments  of  the  world,  if 
they  are  to  be  a  blessing  to  mankind. 

Let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at  what  this  higher  thought  has  done 
for  the  world ;  find  out  what  the  lessons  are  that  it  teaches  to  those 
who  love  their  country,  and  what  action  does  it  ask  of  all  patriotic 
citizens.  Having  taken  a  glance  at  what  it  has  done,  we  will  then 
inquire  for  a  moment  whether  the  policies  of  the  general  government 
and  the  administrative  acts  of  the  State  government  are  in  harmony 
with  this  higher  thought ;  and  if  they  are,  then  I  will  say  to  you  now 


SPEECH  AT  BATTERY  D.  291 

that  a  reasonable  and  proper  conservatism  would  require  that  they  be 
continued ;  if,  however,  they  are  not,  if  they  are  found  to  do  violence 
to  every  element  of  its  character,  then  it  will  be  our  duty  as  patriots 
loving  our  country,  to  make  a  change.  It  was  the  higher  thought 
that  proclaimed  to  the  world  that  all  men  were  born  free  and  equal, 
and  that  governments  derived  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed.  This  was  laughed  at  as  a  wild  chimera  by  those  who 
were  fattening  on  privilege  and  eating  the  substance  of  a  crushed 
people ;  but  the  times  soon  came  when  this  chimera  became  the  corner- 
stone of  the  greatest  government  on  the  earth. 

It  was  advanced  thought  that  led  John  Howard  to  visit  the  prisons 
of  the  world  in  the  last  century,  and  then  insisted  that,  instead  of  being 
chambers  of  horrors,  too  frightful  for  human  contemplation,  they 
should  be  governed  by  law  and  be  made  places  where  men  convicted 
of  crime  are  undergoing  that  legal  punishment  which  the  law  imposes, 
and  not  that  suffering  which  brutes  inflict,  and  the  result  was  that  a 
great  stride  forward  was  taken  in  prison  management.  Not  very  long 
ago  the  insane  were  regarded  as  possessed  of  the  devil ;  were  chained 
to  a  tree,  or  locked  up  in  dark  chambers.  The  higher  thought  pro- 
claimed that  they  were  diseased  and  should  be  treated  in  a  humane 
spirit,  and  soon  great  asylums  were  erected  for  the  care  of  these 
unfortunates.  It  has  not  been  long  since  the  deaf  and  dumb  and  the 
blind  simply  dragged  out  their  lives  in  the  most  wretched  almshouses. 

CREATED    A    NATION    OF    NATIONS. 

The  higher  thought  proclaimed  that  they  should  be  educated,  and 
it  was  not  long  until  schools  were  founded  by  the  State  for  their 
instruction  and  keeping.  It  has  not  been  long  when  only  the  children 
of  the  rich  could  be  given  even  the  rudiments  of  an  education.  The 
higher  thought  proclaimed  that  the  best  interests  of  mankind,  the  wel- 
fare and  perpetuity  of  civilized  institutions,  required  that  the  children 
of  the  poor  should  be  educated  as  well  as  those  of  the  rich,  and  it  was 
not  long  until  there  were  founded  those  splendid  common  school 
systems  which  have  had  the  support  of  all  good  citizens,  have  attained 
a  wonderful  degree  of  excellence,  and  are  the  pride  if  not  the  bul- 
wark of  our  country.  It  has  not  been  long  since  traffic  in  human 
chattels  was  not  only  permissible  but  even  regarded  as  respectable. 
The  higher  thought  arose  and  declared  that  no  man  can  have  property 
in  human  flesh  and  blood,  and  when  the  question  of  slavery  threatened 
the  destruction  of  our  country  the  higher  thought  proclaimed,  from 
Democrat  and  Republican  alike,  that  free  institutions  among  men 
depended  upon  maintaining  the  integrity  of  the  Union.  It  was  this 


292  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

higher  thought  that  impelled  2,500,000  men,  as  brave  as  any  that  ever 
marched  to  battle,  to  leave  their  homes,  their  families — to  leave  every- 
thing they  had  on  earth — and  rally  around  the  flag  of  their  country 
and  go  down  to  the  swamps,  the  forests,  and  the  fields  of  the  South, 
and  face  not  only  hardships,  but  death.  It  was  the  higher  thought 
which  proclaimed  to  the  world  that  instead  of  having  in  America 
simply  a  branch  nation  of  one  of  the  other  nations  of  the  old  world, 
the  oppressed  of  all  lands  should  be  invited  to  come  here  and  seek 
homes.  The  native  American  element,  with  its  magnificent  genius, 
its  invention,  and  its  wonderful  enterprise,  led  the  way,  and  was  soon 
joined  by  people  from  all  lands,  bringing  their  industry,  their  frugality, 
and  steady  habits,  and  native  and  immigrant  worked  hand  in  hand 
and  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  as  a  result  we  have  a  homogeneous  peo- 
ple, made  up  of  representatives  of  nearly  all  of  the  nations  in  the  world, 
and  possessing  in  consequence  a  vitality,  an  energy,  and  a  strength 
which  no  one  nationality  possesses.  It  was  the  higher  thought  which 
proclaimed  that  church  and  State  should  be  separate,  and  that  the  peo- 
ple of  different  religions  as  well  as  of  different  nationalities  should  live 
peaceably  and  harmoniously  in  the  same  country,  neither  interfering 
with  the  other,  and  all  alike  devoted  to  free  institutions ;  and  as  a 
result  we  have  what  the  world  never  saw  before — not  only  all  nation- 
alities, but  the  votaries  of  nearly  all  forms  of  religion  living  side  by 
side  in  peace  and  harmony,  working  for  the  development  and  the 
progress  of  our  whole  country,  all  loyal  to  our  flag  and  forming  a 
State  the  grandeur  of  which  baffles  human  conception.  Greece  in  her 
glory  and  Rome  in  her  power  never  dreamed  of  such  an  empire. 

THE  GREAT  FAIR. 

This  same  higher  thought  suggested  the  idea  of  celebrating  the 
discovery  of  this  country,  because  this  discovery  furnished  a  field  for 
the  development  of  free  institutions,  and  such  a  celebration  would 
advance  civilization  by  bringing  the  nations  closer  together ;  and  it 
was  in  harmony  with  this  idea  that  we  have  just  had  a  dedication 
which  attracted  the  attention  of  all  the  civilized  world.  Not  only  have 
we  had  within  our  gates  countless  multitudes  of  our  own  people,  but 
representatives  of  the  different  governments  of  the  world.  And  those 
distinguished  American  citizens  who  had  charge  of  this  celebration, 
and  who  have  managed  it  with  that  excellent  tact  and  great  ability, 
which  have  won  for  them  the  encomiums  of  our  people,  found  that  no 
brute  force  was  necessary :  they  simply  had  to  appeal  to  the  deeply 
implanted  sense  of  right,  of  love  of  law  and  order  and  the  spirit  of 
patriotism  of  the  great  multitude.  This  dedication  was  to  open  an 


SPEECH  AT  BATTERY  D.  293 

exposition  where  the  nations  of  the  earth  are  to  meet  and  display  their 
highest  achievement.  The  wonderful  buildings  which  have  been  pre- 
pared for  this  purpose  reveal  the  development  in  architecture,  in  the 
sciences  and  in  the  arts,  as  well  as  the  lofty  conception  of  the  grand 
and  that  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  that  characterizes  the  higher 
thought  of  the  world ;  and  I  want  to  say,  those  able  and  public 
spirited  men  of  our  city,  who  conceived  the  idea  of  this  exposition, 
and  those  who  carried  it  out  with  such  remarkable  success,  as  well 
as  the  architects  and  engineers  who  designed,  directed  and  superin- 
tended the  construction  of  these  marvelous  buildings,  and  who  have 
thus  helped  to  bring  about  a  meeting  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world 
in  friendly  relations,  have  done  more  for  mankind  than  any  of  the 
conquerors  named  in  history.  A  monument  may  commemorate  for- 
gotten deeds  of  the  latter,  but  no  monument  can  commemorate  the 
great  works  of  these  men,  and  women,  too,  in  the  cause  of  human 

civilization. 

THE   SACREDNESS   OF  OFFICE. 

Turning  again  to  the  political  field,  we  find  it  is  not  very  long 
since  an  office  was  regarded  as  a  private  perquisite.  The  higher- 
thought  came  and  proclaimed  that  an  office  was  a  public  trust.  There 
are  to  be  found  even  yet  some  men  who  seem  to  think  that  corruption 
and  abuse  in  their  own  party  should  be  condoned  rather  than  exposed 
and  punished ;  that  bad  government  by  their  own  party  is  preferable 
to  good  government  by  the  opposition  party ;  but  the  higher  thought 
is  at  work  leavening  the  intelligence  of  the  masses,  and  proclaiming 
that  the  duty  which  the  citizen  owes  to  his  country  is  greater  than  that 
which  he  may  owe  to  any  political  organization. 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  let  us  briefly  examine  the  political  con- 
ditions existing  in  our  State  and  in  the  Nation,  and  then  see  what 
does  the  higher  thought,  what  does  eternal  justice  and  right  demand 
at  our  hands. 

ENEMIES   OF   REFORM   AT  WORK. 

There  had  grown  up  in  Illinois  and  other  Northern  States,  an  evil 
known  as  the  penitentiary  contract  system,  under  which  great  and 
powerful  rings  grew  up  around  the  different  penitentiaries.  The 
higher  thought  proclaimed  that  this  evil  should  be  stopped.  The 
people  of  Illinois,  heeding  this  voice,  adopted  a  constitutional  amend- 
ment six  years  ago  to  forever  stop  this  wrong;  but  unfortunately  the 
reform  was  given  into  the  hands  of  enemies  to  carry  out.  The  Peni- 
tentiary Commissioners,  who,  for  some  reason  which  can  easily  be 
surmised,  were  interested  in  maintaining  the  old  system,  at  once  set 


294  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

about  to  defeat  the  reform,  and  they  have  systematically  and  delib- 
erately violated  this  fundamental  law  of  this  State  for  six  years.  They 
set  the  convicts  to  work  at  what  they  called  the  piece-price  plan,  and 
they  did  this  because  they  claimed  that  the  Legislature  had  made  no 
appropriation  for  them,  although  it  is  an  undisputed  fact,  well  known 
to  everybody  who  has  had  occasion  to  be  about  Springfield,  that  the 
Penitentiary  Commissioners  themselves  lobbied  with  the  Legislature 
and  prevented  all  legislation.  Still,  while  this  piece-price  plan  is  in 
itself  a  violation  of  the  law,  it  would  not  have  been  so  serious  a  matter 
if  they  had  adopted  it  in  good  faith;  but  they  did  not.  They  practiced 
a  fraud  in  the  manner  of  carrying  it  out.  I  have  time  to  recite  you 
only  one  example,  which,  however,  illustrates  the  entire  working  of 
the  system.  They  do  not  agree  in  advance  upon  the  price  which  the 
contractor  should  pay  per  piece  made  by  the  convict,  but  they  give  the 
contractor  as  many  convicts  as  he  wishes  to  work,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  month  they  ascertain  the  number  of  pieces  that  have  been  made, 
and  then  they  fix  a  price  per  piece  which  will  require  the  contractor 
to  pay  the  same  sum  per  day  for  each  convict  that  he  formerly  paid 
under  the  contract  system.  So  that,  for  example,  Mr.  Winterbotham, 
the  cooperage  contractor,  who  has  still  a  few  convicts  that  are  working 
under  the  old  contract  plan,  at  the  rate  of  fifty-five  cents  per  day, 
has  also  a  large  number  working  at  the  piece-price  plan.  The  two 
classes  work  side  by  side  and  each  class  costs  him  fifty-five  cents  per 
day.  At  the  end  of  the  month  they  ascertain  the  number  of  barrels 
made  by  those  working  under  the  piece-price  plan,  and  then  they 
fix  the  price  at  such  sum  as  will  require  Mr.  Winterbotham  to  pay 
exactly  fifty-five  cents  a  day  for  each  convict  who  is  working  under  the 
piece-price  plan.  With  the  improved  machinery  he  has  there,  IOO 
convicts  make  1,200  barrels  per  day.  He  works  from  150  to  200  con- 
victs. Paying  fifty-five  cents  a  day,  you  see  it  costs  him  just  five 
cents  apiece  to  have  his  barrels  made. 

FREE  LABOR  RUINED. 

We  had  in  Chicago  several  years  ago  a  great  many  large  cooperage 
shops  working  free  labor.  It  cost  them  upward  of  thirty  cents  to  make 
and  deliver  a  barrel.  It  costs  Winterbotham  about  five  cents  a  barrel. 
The  result  was  the  inevitable  one.  Winterbotham  undersold  the  Chi- 
cago coopers  and  still  had  a  profit  of  upward  of  twenty  cents  a  barrel 
left  on  the  making  alone.  So  that  while  he  was  making  large  fortunes 
all  of  the  Chicago  coopers  making  barrels  for  the  market  were  driven 
out  of  the  business.  The  employing  coopers,  after  they  found  they 
were  being  ruined,  called  on  the  Governor  and  asked  him  to  enforce 


SPEECH  AT  BATTERY  D.  295 

the  law,  but  they  got  little  satisfaction.  After  repeated  effort  they 
succeeded  in  getting  a  meeting  of  the  Governor  and  the  commissioners 
with  themselves.  These  employing  coopers,  who  are  men  of  high 
standing  in  our  city,  have  published  a  report  stating  what  took  place 
at  that  meeting.  They  say  that  the  Governor  finally  stated  to  the 
commissioners  that  it  was  wrong  to  have  convicts  work  in  this  cooper- 
age business  in  the  manner  in  which  it  was  done,  so  as  to  give  this  Mr. 
Winterbotham  this  extraordinary  advantage,  and  that  something 
should  be  done  to  stop  it,  but  that  Commissioner  Jones  insolently 
replied  that  they  would  not  do  it,  and  when  the  Governor  again  in- 
sisted that  it  should  be  done,  Jones  simply  repeated  that  they  would 
do  nothing  of  the  sort,  and  put  on  his  hat  and  left  the  conference, 
and  that  ended  the  matter.  This  was  over  a  year  ago.  The  law  is 
not  enforced,  the  Chicago  coopers  are  being  ruined  and  have  no 
remedy.  The  Governor  is  said  to  stand  in  awe  of  the  penitentiary 
ring  because  of  its  political  influence  in  not  only  controlling  State 
conventions,  but  in  helping  to  control  elections,  and  all  of  this  time  the 
Legislature  of  the  State  appropriates  large  sums  of  money  for  the 
benefit  of  this  penitentiary. 

A  couple  of  years  ago  they  had  a  warden  there  who  seemed  un- 
willing to  ust  the  institution  for  political  purposes,  and  he  was 
promptly  removed  by  the  direction  of  the  present  Governor,  and  his 
place  filled 'by  a  man  who  is  not  only  an  adept  at  political  manipulation, 
but  who  at  once  proceeded  to  use  the  force  of  the  institution  for  that 
purpose. 

ABUSES    AT    OTHER    INSTITUTIONS. 

At  Chester,  in  the  southern  end  of  this  State,  we  have  another 
penitentiary,  for  the  support  of  which  the  Legislature  makes  large 
appropriations.  The  Commissioners  of  this  institution,  while  drawing 
a  large  salary  from  the  State,  are  traveling  around  over  the  State 
devoting  their  whole  time  to  carrying  the  election  for  the  present 
Governor. 

We  have  at  Anna,  this  State,  a  large  insane  asylum.  Until  about 
two  years  ago  it  was  in  charge  of  Dr.  Wardner,  who  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  an  able  and  conscientious  man.  He  found  that  there 
were  about  a  dozen  Democrats  employed  in  the  institution  out  of 
nearly  one  hundred  employes.  Dr.  Wardner  was  told  that  he  had 
either  to  discharge  the  twelve  Democrats  or  he  would  be  discharged 
himself.  He  replied  that  he  did  not  like  the  idea  of  prostituting  the 
great  institution  to  low  political  purposes  anyhow,  and  he  would  go. 
He  went,  and  so  did  the  few  Democrats  who  were  there.  The 


296  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

doctor  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Elrod.  Since  Elrod  took  charge  he 
prepared  a  blank  to  be  filled  up  and  signed.  Among  the  very  first 
questions  he  asks  is  this  one:  "To  what  political  party  do  you  be- 
long?" I  hold  here  a  report  of  this  institution  signed  by  the  warden 
and  trustees.  In  this  I  find  there  are  upward  of  twenty  pages  devoted 
to  giving  an  itemized  account  of  the  expenditures  of  the  institution 
down  to  the'  minutest  items,  with  the  exception  of  salaries.  The 
total  amount  paid  for  wages  and  salaries  was  $57,402.92.  Who  got 
the  salaries  and  wages,  what  they  did,  how  much  salary  per  year  or 
per  month  or  per  day,  nobody  can  find  out.  I  have  examined  the 
reports  of  the  fourteen  or  more  State  institutions,  and  I  find  they  all 
make  out  their  reports  in  the  same  way,  giving  full  information  as  to 
the  small  items  of  expense  and  withholding  all  information  on  the 
subject  of  the  pay  roll. 

RUN  AS  POLITICAL  MACHINES. 

The  fact  is,  that  all  of  these  institutions  are  run  as  political  ma- 
chines. There  is  a  political  ring  connected  with  the  management  of 
each  of  them.  Now,  where  there  is  extravagance  in  the  management 
there  is  also  laxity  of  discipline.  We  find  this  to  be  true  in  these 
asylums  and  other  State  institutions.  In  January,  1891,  a  patient 
sent  to  the  insane  asylum  at  Jacksonville  from  Quincy  was  missed, 
but  there  seems  to  have  been  but  little  or  no  attention  paid  to  his  dis- 
appearance, for  he  was  gone  thirty-three  days  before  he  was  found. 
He  was  then  found  floating  in  the  reservoir  from  which  the  institution 
gets  its  water.  He  was  fished  out  and  simply  buried,  without  inquest, 
in  violation  of  law.  Subsequently  the  matter  leaked  out,  and  an  in- 
vestigation was  had  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities.  At  this  investi- 
gation the  superintendent  was  asked  whether  or  not  he  had  run  the 
water  out  of  the  reservoir  after  the  corpse  was  taken  out,  and  he  said 
"No."  And  when  asked  why,  he  said  that  it  was  not  worth  while; 
that  that  corpse  floating  around  in  the  water  for  thirty  days  would 
make  no  perceptible  impression  on  the  water.  It  also  appeared  that 
there  had,  during  the  last  seven  years,  been  254  sudden  and  unex- 
plained deaths  in  that  institution,  and  out  of  the  whole  number  four 
inquests  were  held,  and  the  law  violated  in  250  cases;  but  that  man 
is  still  superintendent,  and  the  trustees,  who  are  men  of  a  great  deal 
of  political  influence,  are  still  in  charge  of  the  institution,  and  the 
Board  of  Charities  has  not  dared  to  make  a  report. 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  these  institutions  arc  supported  by  the 
taxpayers  of  the  State,  Republicans  and  Democrats  alike.  They  were 
created  for  the  noblest  purposes  for  which  a  State  can  appropriate 


SPEECH  'AT  BATTERY  D.  297 

money;  that  is,  the  care  of  the  unfortunate.  They  were  the  outgrowth 
of  the  higher  thought,  and  this  same  higher  thought  requires  that 
these  institutions  should  be  run  upon  purely  business  principles.  As 
a  citizen  and  a  business  man  of  this  great  city,  I  say  to  you  that  if  I  am 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  running  of  these  great  charitable  in- 
stitutions, they  will  be  lifted  out  of  politics  and  run  for  the  purposes 
for  which  they  were  created.  And  I  will  also  say  to  you  that  if  I  am 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  control  of  the  penitentiaries  of  this 
State,  they  will  be  run  according  to  law,  and  no  commissioners  will 
be  permitted  to  deliberately  disregard  the  law,  to  go  out  of  the  way 
to  give  a  contractor  special  advantages  free  of  charge,  and  then  snap 
their  fingers  defiantly  in  the  face  of  the  Governor  when  told  that  this 
must  stop. 

NATIONAL   AFFAIRS   DISCUSSED. 

When  we  turn  to  national  affairs  we  find  there  has  prevailed  for 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  an  utterly  un-American  policy,  bor- 
rowed from  the  monarchies  of  Europe,  which  enables  a  comparatively 
few  individuals  to  appropriate  to  their  own  use  the  substance  of  the 
American  people,  and  do  this  by  the  operation  of  law.  Every  one  of 
the  pauper  countries  of  the  old  world  has  a  high  protective  tariff 
and  has  had  for  centuries.  This  tariff  long  ago  produced  there,  in  a 
complete  and  most  hideous  form,  these  conditions  which  it  has  par- 
tially created  here  in  the  last  twenty-odd  years,  and  is  now  rapidly 
completing,  that  is  the  concentration  of  the  wealth  of  the  land  in  a 
few  hands,  and  the  impoverishment  of  the  vast  masses  of  the  people. 
Under  its  blighting  influence  we  have  seen  our  foreign  commerce  and 
carrying  trade,  which  was  almost  the  greatest  upon  earth,  not  only 
driven  off  of  the  seas,  but  utterly  annihilated.  We  have  seen  the  con- 
dition of  our  farming  and  industrial  classes  made  harder  year  by  year. 
This  policy  is  sucking  the  blood  of  our  people,  and  it  is  gratifying  to 
know  that  the  higher  thought  of  the  land  is  arising  to  condemn  it. 
Not  only  do  we  hear  the  protestations  of  the  victims  and  of  the  political 
party  which  has  always  set  its  face  against  this  iniquity,  but  we  find 
that  the  higher  intelligence  of  the  land  is  stepping  to  the  front  and 
denouncing  it. 

I  have  not  the  time  to  name  the  scores  of  these  patriotic  men, 
but  I  will  name  a  few  that  are  well  known  to  our  people  here.  You 
recall  that  great  lawyer  and  statesman,  Wayne  MacVeagh,  who  was 
a  member  of  a  Republican  cabinet  years  ago,  and  who  showed  his 
high  character  by  insisting  on  having  the  star-route  scoundrels 
brought  to  justice,  even  though  they  were  Republicans.  He  has 


298  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

grown  weary  of,  even  by  his  silence,  supporting  this  great  iniquity, 
and  boldly  declares  in  favor  of  that  great  Democratic  principle  of 
equal  rights  to  all  and  special  privileges  to  none.  Many  of  you  per- 
sonally know  Judge  Cooley,  of  Michigan,  who  has  made  for  himself 
the  name  of  being  one  of  the  greatest  jurists  this  country  has  pro- 
duced. He,  like  MacVeagh,  is  unwilling  to  lend  even  a  silent  sup- 
port to  the  plundering  of  his  country  by  insatiable  greed  and  corrup- 
tion and  is  supporting  the  Democratic  standard.  And,  nearer  to  us 
than  all,  that  great  soldier-statesman  and  jurist  of  our  own  city,  Judge 
Gresham,  whose  keen  sense  of  the  wrong  that  is  being  inflicted  upon 
his  country  by  this  policy  of  enriching  the  few  and  injuring  the  many, 
has  caused  him  to  make  the  sacrifice  and  to  lift  his  voice  in  favor  of 
reform. 

FREE    BALLOT    IN    DANGER. 

Again,  my  fellow-citzens,  the  dominant  party,  seeing  that  the  con- 
sciences of  the  Nation  are  awakened  and  that  the  intelligence  of  the 
country  is  turning  against  it,  that  its  hold  of  power  must  soon  be 
relaxed,  has  attempted  to  place  upon  the  statute  books  legislation  that 
would  enable  it  to  perpetuate  its  power  at  will;  that  would  enable  a 
President  to  absolutely  control  any  election  in  any  State  of  the  Union ; 
a  law  which  would  virtually  put  an  end  to  republican  institutions;  and 
it  is  well  understood  that  it  is  still  the  intent  of  the  leaders  of  this 
party  to  pass  such  a  law  the  moment  they  can  get  sufficient  power  to  do 
so.  If  they  shall  succeed  in  this  the  ballot  of  the  American  freeman  will 
not  be  worth  a  rush.  The  American  citizens  will  no  longer  be  per- 
mitted to  hold  their  own  elections,  but  their  elections  will  be  held 
and  managed  by  unscrupulous  and  desperate  partisans  holding  power 
from  the  government,  and  having  only  one  object  in  view,  and  that 
the  perpetuating  of  themselves  in  power.  Here,  again,  the  higher 
thought  of  the  land  protests,  and  declares  that  this  is  not  the  way 
in  which  to  perpetuate  free  institutions  among  men. 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  I  have  endeavored  to  point  out  to  you  that 
locally,  speaking  of  the  State,  the  higher  thought,  the  patriotic  senti- 
ment of  the  land,  demands  an  honest  and  a  fearless  execution  of  the 
law,  and  a  non-partisan  and  business-like  administration  of  the  great 
charitable  institutions,  that  should  be  placed  high  above  politics.  It 
requires,  in  short,  that  the  affairs  of  this  wonderful  State  of  Illinois 
should  be  kept  upon  the  high  plane  of  excellence  in  keeping  with  the 
humane,  enlightened  and  progressive  spirit  of  our  people,  and  the  vast 
expenditure  and  effort  they  have  made  to  put  this  State  in  the  very 
front  rank  of  all  of  the  States  upon  earth. 


SPEECH  AT  AUDITORIUM.  299 

I  will  only  add,  upon  this  point,  that  having  spent  most  of  my  life 
in  endeavoring  to  build  up  and  uphold  the  institutions  of  my  country, 
as  a  teacher  in  the  public  school,  at  the  bar  practicing  law,  as  a  State 
prosecutor,  and  then  as  a  judge,  if  I  am  elected  to  the  office  of  chief 
executive  of  this  State,  it  will  be  the  pride  of  my  life,  not  simply  to 
hold  an  office,  but  to  give  the  great  institutions  of  our  State  a  business 
management,  and  to  place  them  upon  that  lofty  plane  that  they  should 
occupy. 

DEMOCRATIC    POLICY    OF    EQUAL    RIGHTS. 

Turning,  in  conclusion,  to  the  affairs  of  the  Nation:  I  have  en- 
deavored to  point  out  to  you  that  the  drift  of  education,  the  drift  of  the 
intelligence  of  the  country,  the  voice  of  the  consciences  of  the  country, 
and  the  voice  of  the  higher  thought  of  the  country,  are 
all  calling  to  every  patriotic  citizen,  no  matter  what  his  political 
affiliations  may  have  been,  to  rise  to  the  emergency  and  discharge  the 
high  duty  of  the  hour  by  putting  a  stop  to  the  growth  of  this  aristo- 
cratic policy  which  was  imported  from  Europe,  and  cast  a  vote  in 
favor  of  that  genuine  American  policy  of  equal  rights  to  all  and  special 
privileges  to  none;  and  I  congratulate  you  and  all  patriotic  citizens, 
to  whom  their  country  is  dearer  than  the  ties  of  party,  that  we  have, 
as  a  national  standard  bearer,  a  man  who,  in  the  opinion  of  even 
Republicans,  embodies  within  himself  all  of  those  great  elements  of 
higher  character,  of  sterling  honesty,  of  lofty  patriotism,  of  keen  sense 
of  justice,  of  indomitable  will,  and,  what  is  still  more  than  all  of  these 
combined,  possesses  the  courage  of  a  hero;  a  man  who  would  rather 
lose  the  Presidency  than  be  wrong. 

Every  patriotic  citizen,  no  matter  what  his  past  political  affiliations 
may  have  been,  feels  that  in  the  hands  of  this  great  man  the  affairs 
of  the  Nation  are  not  only  safe,  but  will  be  guided  along  the  channel 
of  a  true  American  policy,  along  the  channel  that  leads  to  eternal 
justice  and  right ;  yea,  every  patriotic  citizen  feels  that  the  interests  of 
this  nation  will  be  safe  in  the  hands  of  Grover  Cleveland. 


SPEECH  AT  AUDITORIUM,  CHICAGO. 
(Delivered  October,  1892.) 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

It  is  with  diffidence  that  I  arise  after  the  brilliant  addresses  to  which 
you  have  just  listened,  and  this  diffidence  is  intensified  because  I  am 
conscious  of  the  fact  that  I  can  add  neither  thought  nor  wisdom  to 


360  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

what  has  already  been  said  to  you  by  the  illustrious  men  who  have 
preceded  me.  I  can  only  join  in  the  chorus,  which  is  sung  by  the 
many — the  chorus  of  the  awakened  thought  and  the  aroused  con- 
science of  the  American  people — proclaiming  that  a  wrong  is  being 
clone  the  masses  of  this  country  by  an  unjust  economic  policy. 

With  your  permission,  I  will  consider  this  subject  for  a  short  time 
in  its  relations  to  freedom,  which  is  the  basis  of  all  progress  and  de- 
velopment. It  was  freedom  of  conscience  that  released  man  from  the 
superstition  and  the  chains  of  the  past;  that  presented  to  him  the 
gospels  in  a  higher,  a  purer  garb;  that  gave  him  a  higher  conception 
of  his  relations  to  his  Maker,  and  of  his  relations  to  his  brother  man ; 
that  lifted  religion  to  a  plane  that  it  could  not  occupy  under  the  ham- 
pering restrictions  of  the  past.  Again,  it  was  freedom  of  thought  that 
released  the  mind  of  man  from  the  myths  and  the  darkness  of  the  past ; 
that  developed  our  sciences;  that  gave  us  a  new  philosophy,  a  new 
literature,  and  gave  to  the  world  an  entirely  new  intellectual  life. 
Thus  grew  up  the  idea  of  freedom  in  politics,  in  the  affairs  of  govern- 
ment. During  all  of  the  centuries  that  had  passed  no  progress  had 
been  made  in  governments.  Governments  were  simply  great,  rapa- 
cious organizations,  eating  the  substance  of  a  people  who  seemed  to 
have  been  created  only  for  the  purpose  of  being  devoured.  It  was 
the  principle  of  freedom  in  civil  affairs  that  made  possible  our  Repub- 
lic, and  that  is  placing  not  only  the  governments  but  the  nations  of 
the  world  upon  a  higher  plane.  In  all  of  these  cases  freedom  acted  like 
magic  on  human  energies.  It  electrified  whatever  it  touched.  It 
aroused  the  world  from  a  lethargy  of  thousands  of  years,  and  was 
the  cause  of  that  marvelous  activity  to  be  seen  in  this  century  in  all 
fields  of  thought  and  of  human  endeavor.  Finally,  there  was  ad- 
vanced by  an  English  economist  the  notion  of  freedom  of  trade,  for 
the  idea  of  hampering  and  restricting  trade  is  not  modern.  It  is  as 
old  as  superstition  and  as  hoary  as  its  prototype,  the  great  wall  of 
China.  Subsequently  England  decided  to  give  her  people  freedom  of 
exchange;  for,  remember  that  England  had  a  high  protective  tariff 
down  to  a  little  over  forty  years  ago,  and  it  was  while  she  had  this 
tariff  that  the  conditions,  which  are  still  found  there,  arose.  Vast 
wealth  concentrated  in  a  few  hands,  while  the  masses  are  in  poverty. 
England's  tariff  did  for  her  what  our  tariff  is  rapidly  doing  for  us — 
enriching  the  few  and  impoverishing  the  many.  But  a  little  over  forty 
years  ago  she  opened  her  ports  to  the  world,  and  invited  the  nations  of 
the  earth  to  trade  with  her.  Then,  again,  was  seen  the  electrifying 
effect  of  applying  the  principles  of  freedom.  The  energies  of  the 
English  people  embarked,  as  it  were,  upon  a  new  career  in  every  line 


'SPEECH  'AT  AUDITORIUM.  301 

of  industry,  enterprise  and  human  endeavor.  Her  manufactories  in- 
creased and  flourished  as  they  never  had  before,  and  began  to  supply 
the  markets  of  the  world.  Her  financial  and  mercantile  interests 
grew  until  they  are  the  wonder  of  the  earth,  and  are  now,  to  a  great 
extent,  handling  the  commerce  of  the  earth.  Her  population  has 
doubled,  the  wages  of  her  working  people  have  just  about 
doubled,  and  her  foreign  trade  has  increased  five  fold;  and,  we  are 
told  by  Mr.  Gladstone  himself,  that  since  England  adopted  the  prin- 
ciple of  freedom  of  exchange,  not  only  have  all  her  interests  flour- 
ished, but  that  the  physical,  the  moral,  the  intellectual  and  the  political 
conditions  of  her  people  have  undergone  a  wonderful  development. 
Another  enthusiastic  writer  tells  us  that  the  greatness  of  the  British 
Empire  may  almost  be  said  to  date  from  the  time  that  she  threw  down 
the  restrictive  barriers  of  the  ages  and  adopted  the  principle  of  free 
intercourse  with  the  other  people  of  the  world. 

In  this  country  we  had  a  slightly  varying  policy  down  to  in  the  4o's.. 
We  had  what  was  then  considered  a  high  protective  tariff,  though  it 
was  not  one-fourth  of  what  it  is  now;  but  in  1846  our  government 
took  a  stand  in  favor  of  freedom  of  intercourse  and  it  adopted  a  low 
revenue  tariff.  It  did  it  against  the  protests  of  the  men  who  were  then 
getting  the  benefit  of  the  high  tariff.  So  great  was  the  impetus  given 
to  all  lines  of  industry  by  this  application  of  the  principle  of  freedom, 
that  the  ten  years  which  then  followed  are  among  the  most  pros- 
perous years  we  have  ever  seen.  Even  Mr.  Elaine,  in  his  book,  pre- 
pared with  deliberation,  was  forced  to  say  that  the  prosperity  and 
activity  of  those  years  had  scarcely  a  parallel;  that  every  business 
flourished;  that  money  was  plentiful;  that  the  manufacturers  them- 
selves shared  in  this  general  prosperity  until  they  abandoned  all 
thought  of  protection ;  that  even  the  economic  writers  who  had  written 
in  favor  of  the  protective  principle,  abandoned  the  idea  of  it,  and  that 
our  commerce  flourished  until  it  was  nearly  the  greatest  on  earth. 
He  tells  us  that  our  foreign  tonnage  was  greater  than  that  of  any  other 
nation  on  the  globe  at  that  time.  There  was  then  not  a  sea  or  a  river 
that  would  float  a  boat,  but  what  the  American  flag  could  be  seen 
upon  it,  floating  from  the  tops  of  American  masts,  on  American  ships, 
that  were  loaded  with  American  goods  and  manned  by  American  sea- 
men. The  ship  building  industry  became  one  of  the  greatest  indus- 
tries of  the  country.  Not  only  was  this  so,  but  in  1857,  after  the 
operation  of  ten  years  of  this  policy  of  free  intercourse,  so  great  was 
the  general  prosperity  of  the  country,  that  it  was  the  representatives  of 
the  manufacturing  industries  in  Congress  who  brought  forth  and 
carried  through  a  measure  to  still  further  reduce  the  then  low  duties. 


302  'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Then  came  the  great  war,  and  since  then  the  country  has  seen  the 
sowing,  the  growth  and  the  ripening  of  Hamiltonism;  the  application 
of  the  principle  of  having  the  government  take  care  of  the  rich  and 
letting  the  rich  take  care  of  the  poor;  the  principle  of  having  the 
government  build  up  a  few  favorites  and  having  these  interests  in  turn 
be  the  friend  of  the  administration.  For  the  purpose  of  raising 
revenue,  duties,  which  were  then  considered  intolerably  high,  were 
imposed,  with  the  specific  promise  that,  as  soon  as  the  war  was  over 
they  should  be  abolished ;  but,  instead  of  this,  they  have  not  only  been 
retained  under  various  false  pretenses,  but  have  from  time  to  time 
been  increased,  until  to-day  they  are  about  double  what  they  were 
then.  Whenever  one  false  pretense  was  exposed  the  champions  of 
this  system  simply  advanced  another.  First,  they  talked  of  having  an 
American  system,  but  this  deceived  nobody,  for  every  one  of  the  so- 
called  pauper  labor  countries  of  the  old  world  has  a  high  protective 
tariff,  and  has  had  for  centuries,  and  the  tariff  is  in  inverse  ratio  to  the 
wages  paid — the  higher  the  tariff,  the  lower  the  wages.  In  those 
countries,  as  here,  it  is  a  few  privileged  classes  that  get  the  benefit 
of  this  tariff,  while  the  great  body  of  the  people  is  impoverished.  Then 
they  renewed  the  talk  of  protecting  infant  industries.  Morally,  this 
furnished  no  good  reason  for  continuing  these  high  duties,  for  why 
should  you  be  compelled  by  law  to  pay  more  for  what  you  buy,  than  the 
market  price  of  the  world,  in  order  that  some  other  man  may  make  an 
experiment.  But  we  have  heard  nothing  of  this  for  a  number  of 
years,  because  the  infants  finally  became  of  age,  and  instead  of  wear- 
ing swaddling  clothes,  they  wore  plug  hats,  and,  according  to  Inger- 
soll,  they  wore  number  thirteen  boots  and  they  came  forth  out  of 
their  nursery  and  proceeded  to  choke  the  life  out  of  less  favored 
brothers. 

Then  we  are  told  that  the  object  was  to  create  a  home  market  for 
the  farmer  by  making  manufacturing  establishments  so  numerous 
that  he  could  sell  everything  he  raised  at  high  prices,  for  home  con- 
sumption. This  was  twenty-five  years  ago.  At  that  time  the  farmer 
was  selling  his  wheat  at  from  $1.00  to  $1.25  a  bushel,  and  other  farm 
products  in  proportion.  Now,  after  a  fourth  of  a  century  of  making  a 
home  market  for  him,  he  has  been  selling  his  wheat  in  this  State  at 
sixty  cents  a  bushel,  and  other  farm  products  in  proportion.  He 
finds  that  his  grain  and  his  stock  has  to  go  to  Liverpool,  to  be  sold 
in  the  free  trade  markets  of  the  world,  and  that  he  has  to  compete 
with  the  wheat  of  Russia  and  India,  with  the  wheat  raised  by  the 
cheapest  labor  in  the  world,  but  he  is  forbidden  to  buy  there.  If  he 
does  buy  an  article  there  and  undertakes  to  bring  it  with  him,  he  is  not 


SPEECH  AT  AUDITORIUM.  303 

permitted  to  land  it  until  he  has  paid  a  duty,  which  in  some  cases  is 
equal  to  the  first  cost  of  the  article. 

Then  we  are  told  that  they  wanted  to  make  the  foreign  nations  pay 
oui  taxes.  Even  McKinley  has  stated  that  he  was  not  in  favor  of 
taxing  the  American  people,  so  long  as  they  could  find  some  other 
nation  to  tax.  The  beautiful  theory  was  held  out  of  getting  some- 
thing for  nothing.  We  are  told  that  we  could  just  sit  still — other 
people  of  the  world  would  have  to  come  and  furnish  the  money  to 
run  our  government  and  it  would  not  cost  us  a  cent — that  men  would 
bring  their  goods  here,  would  pay  cash  into  the  United  States  treas- 
ury for  the  privilege  of  landing  them,  and  then  sell  the  goods  at  the 
same  price  they  sold  them  for  before.  It  is  not  necessary  to  comment 
upon  the  moral  principle  involved  in  the  endeavor  of  getting  some- 
thing for  nothing.  It  is  sufficient  to  say,  that  in  this  case  it  did  not 
work.  The  American  has  yet  to  be  found  who  managed  to  get  some- 
thing for  nothing  from  the  foreigner  in  this  way — a  number  of  individ- 
uals have  managed  to  get  a  great  deal  for  nothing,  under  this  law,  but 
they  did  not  get  it  from  the  foreigner,  but  they  got  it  from  our  own 
people.  When  it  was  found  that  the  duty  on  some  article  was  greater 
than  the  first  cost,  that,  for  example,  the  duty  on  plate  glass  was 
140  per  cent.,  and  these  theorists  were  asked  whether,  if  a  man  brought 
a  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  plate  glass  across  the  ocean  and  was  then 
compelled  to  pay  $1,400  in  cash  for  the  privilege  of  landing  it,  he 
would  still  sell  the  glass  at  $1,000,  and  if  he  did,  how  long  he  would 
probably  keep  that  up,  there  was  no  reply.  But  the  consequences  of 
these  excessively  high  duties  soon  became  apparent.  The  foreigner, 
finding  that  he  could  not  sell  his  goods  in  our  market,  stopped  com- 
ing, and  as  he  stopped  coming  he  stopped  buying  to  a  very  great 
extent,  and  the  result  was  that  our  magnificent  foreign  trade  began 
to  vanish  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  as  our  high  tariff  made  ship 
building  an  impossibility,  so  long  as  ships  could  be  built  free  in  Eng- 
land, it  was  not  long  until  our  shipping  disappeared  from  the  waters 
of  the  earth,  and  England  got  the  benefit  of  it. 

Then  we  were  told  that  the  purpose  of  the  tariff  was  to  cheapen 
production ;  that  it  would  induce  so  many  men  to  engage  in  the  same 
lines  of  manufacture  that,  in  competing  among  themselves,  they  would 
finally  put  the  price  down  to  a  point  below  what  it  would  be  if  there 
were  no  tariff.  Now,  if  this  had  been  so,  then  you  were  compelled  to 
pay  high  prices  while  this  development  was  going  on,  and  until  the 
point  was  reached  when  they  began  to  sell  cheap,  you  were  forced  to 
pay  more  money  for  what  you  needed  than  you  would  have  had  to 
pay  if  you  were  permitted  to  buy  in  a  competitive  market.  But  the 


364  'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

trouble  was,  that  the  time  never  came  when  these  petted  industries 
competed  with  themselves.  Instead  of  that,  they  met  at  Delmonico's, 
they  had  a  wine  dinner,  and  then  they  formed  a  trust ;  so  that,  instead 
of  cutting  each  other's  prices,  they  simply  pooled  their  issues  and 
formed  a  combination  whereby  they  kept  up  prices.  To  be  sure,  there 
has  been  a  decline  in  the  price  of  some  articles,  but  it  is  due  to  the 
great  inventions  of  the  age.  So  great  has  this  been,  that  in  most  lines 
of  manufacture  it  does  not  cost  the  twentieth  part  to-day  of  what  it  cost 
to  manufacture  twenty  years  ago,  and  the  effect  of  the  tariff  is  to  de- 
prive the  consumer  of  the  benefit  of  this  invention.  While  some  ar- 
ticles are  sold  cheaper  now  than  formerly,  they  are  not  sold  nearly  as 
cheap  as  they  would  be  if  the  market  was  competitive ;  and  the  differ- 
ence in  price  between  a  competitive  market  and  a  protected  market;  in 
other  words,  the  difference  in  price  between  what  we  are  obliged  to  pay 
now  for  an  article,  and  what  we  would  have  to  pay  if  there  were  no 
tariff,  goes  not  into  the  treasury  to  support  our  government,  but 
goes  into  the  pockets  of  these  trusts  and  combinations.  For,  if  there 
were  no  duties,  they  would  be  obliged  to  sell  at  the  same  price  that 
the  imported  articles  were  sold.  The  tariff  prevents  foreign  articles 
from  coming  in,  thus  enabling  the  home  manufacturers  to  keep  up  their 
price,  and  this  difference,  which  is  paid  by  the  American  consumers, 
does  the  government  no  good,  but  simply  enriches  a  few  individuals. 
This  is  illustrated  by  the  legislation  on  sugar.  Formerly  sugar  was  a 
shilling  a  pound.  There  was  a  high  duty  on  common  sugar.  The 
processes  of  manufacture  by  degrees  were  so  improved,  both  abroad 
and  here,  that  sugar  went  down  to  eight  cents  a  pound,  and  the  pro- 
tectionists told  us:  "You  see  what  the  tariff  has  done;  it  has  reduced 
sugar  from  a  shilling  to  eight  cents  a  pound."  But,  two  years  ago 
they  put  common  sugar  on  the  free  list,  and  what  happened  then? 
Why,  it  instantly  went  to  five  cents  a  pound.  That  is  where  the  com- 
petitive price  put  it.  Now,  what  had  held  it  at  eight  cents  in  this 
country?  Why,  the  protective  tariff.  The  processes  of  sugar  making 
had  so  cheapened  its  production  that  the  price  necessarily  went  down, 
but  it  did  not  go  down  as  much  as  it  would  have  gone  had  there  been 
no  tariff;  for  the  moment  the  tariff  was  removed  it  fell  upwards  of 
thirty  per  cent. 

But  the  last  pretense  advanced  was  that  of  protecting  the  Amer- 
ican laborer,  and  if  this  had  had  in  it  a  grain  of  truth  I  would  have 
been  a  protectionist;  but,  like  all  of  the  other  pretexts,  it  has  proved 
to  be  false,  and  I  tell  you  the  laborer  is  finding  it  out.  He  is  learn- 
ing the  fact  by  sad  experience,  that  while  duties  have  increased  right 
along,  his  wages  are  steadily  falling.  He  finds  that  there  has  been, 
right  along,  the  most  absolute  free  trade  in  labor;  not  only  that, 


SPEECH  AT  AUDITORIUM.  305 

but  by  combinations  between  the  large  manufacturing  and  mining  in- 
terests and  the  steamship  companies,  the  country  has  been  flooded,  not 
only  by  thousands,  but  by  millions  of  laborers,  who  were  brought  over 
under  contract  from  the  pauper  fields  of  Europe  to  supplant  the  Amer- 
ican workmen.  The  laborer  finds  that  he  has  to  compete  with  the 
cheapest  labor  on  earth  right  at  his  door;  he  has  got  to  compete  even 
with  Chinamen ;  he  finds  that  his  wages  are  fixed  by  the  law  of  supply 
and  demand;  that  when  there  are  two  jobs  of  work  for  one  workman, 
wages  go  up ;  but  when,  as  has  been  the  case  now  for  many  years,  there 
are  two  workmen  for  one  job  of  work,  then  wages  go  down.  He  finds, 
in  other  words,  that  he  has  got  to  sell  his  labor  in  a  competitive  mar- 
ket; has  got  to  compete  with  the  labor  from  all  over  the  world,  and 
that  for  him  there  is  no  protection.  He  is  discovering  that  the  effect 
of  this  protection  is  simply  to  make  him  pay  more  for  everything  that 
he  has  got  to  buy  than  he  would  have  to  pay  if  he  could  buy  in  a  com- 
petitive market;  that  it  deprives  him  of  the  benefit  of  invention  and  the 
cheapening  process  of  manufacture,  and  does  this  all  for  the  benefit  of  a 
few  individuals.  He  has  found  out  that  the  government,  in  putting  mil- 
lions of  dollars  into  the  pockets  of  a  few  trusts  and  favored  industries, 
did  him  no  good.  He  has  found  out  that  the  building  of  magnificent 
castles  on  the  hills  of  Scotland  does  not  put  bread  into  the  mouths  of 
his  children. 

Not  only  does  this  restriction  upon  the  freedom  of  intercourse 
affect  the  farmer  and  the  laborer  by  compelling  them  to  sell  in  a 
competitive  market  and  buy  in  a  protective  market;  not  only  does  it 
affect  every  consumer  in  this  country,  by  requiring  him  to  pay  more 
than  he  would  have  to  pay  in  a  competitive  market,  thus  depriving 
him  of  the  cheapening  process  of  manufacture,  but  it  affects  all  lines 
of  business.  For  the  articles  of  trade  are  sensitive,  and  a  hampering 
restriction  at  one  point  is  soon  felt  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  through- 
out the  entire  body. 

Again,  my  fellow-citizens,  so  eager  has  been  the  government  to 
protect  monopolies,  that  it  has  taken  up  the  great  sugar  monopoly 
and  relieved  it  from  competition.  When  a  business  man  finds  the 
competition  severe  and  he  cannot  hold  out,  he  is  turned  over  to  the 
sheriff;  when  the  manufacturer  finds  that  the  conditions  are  against 
him  he  is  forced  into  the  bankruptcy  court;  when  the  farmer  finds  he 
cannot  run  his  farm  without  losing  money,  he  is  obliged  to  mortgage 
it  and  ultimately  to  give  it  up  and  farm  for  the  shares;  but  when  the 
great  sugar  combine  protested  that  it  could  make  no  money  making 
sugar  at  competitive  prices,  the  government  at  once  said  to  it:  "Be 
calm,  my  child,  I  will  give  you  two  cents  a  pound  bonus  on  every 


306  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

pound  you  make.  We  will  spend  ten  millions  of  dollars  a  year  from 
money  collected  from  the  whole  American  people  in  order  to  enable 
you  to  compete  and  to  prosper." 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  we  have  here  all  of  the  conditions  neces- 
sary to  make  us  the  most  prosperous  people  on  earth — richness  of 
soil,  vast  resources,  a  splendid  climate,  an  enterprising,  sober  and  in- 
dustrious people.  We  enjoy  some  degree  of  prosperity,  and  amazing 
as  it  may  seem,  there  are  men  abroad  in  the  land  to-day  who  will  tell 
us  that  we  owe  this  prosperity  to  protection.  At  some  places  in  the 
South,  my  fellow-citizens,  where  the  soil  is  very  rich  and  the  climate 
salubrious,  and  all  of  the  conditions  favorable,  there  is  a  luxuriant 
vegetation;  and,  occasionally,  you  will  see  a  tree  upon  which  the  moss, 
or  some  parasitical  plant,  has  fastened  itself  and  is  growing  in  great 
luxuriance,  until  it  covers  the  tree,  sucking  the  sap  out  of  it  and  ulti- 
mately killing  it.  Now,  if  this  moss  had  the  tongue  of  a  McKinley, 
or  could  wield  the  pen  of  Ben  Harrison,  it  would  say  to  the  astonished 
world:  "Behold  me!  I  have  made  this  tree;  it  was  by  reason  of 
my  fastening  myself  upon  it  and  sucking  the  blood  out  of  it  all  these 
years  that  it  grew  and  flourished."  "But,"  says  somebody,  "if  you 
will  abolish  the  high  protective  tariff  you  cripple  our  industries  and 
ruin  the  country."  Now,  it  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  that  whenever  and 
wherever  a  great  wrong  was  eating  the  substance  of  the  people,  and 
it  was  proposed  to  abolish  it,  the  cry  of  ruin  was  heard.  When  it  was 
proposed  in  England  to  abolish  the  tariff  forty  odd  years  ago,  all  of 
the  privileged  classes,  the  entire  aristocracy,  joined  even  by  the  clergy, 
united  in  the  cry  of  "ruin" — that  it  would  ruin  the  British  Empire. 
But  it  had  the  opposite  effect.  When  in  1846  it  was  proposed  in  the 
United  States  to  abolish  the  protective  tariff,  again  the  cry  of  ruin 
was  heard,  and  just  the  opposite  results  followed.  When  some  years 
ago  it  was  proposed  to  put  quinine  on  the  free  list,  we  again  were  told 
that  it  would  ruin  all  connected  with  that  industry;  but  instead  of 
that,  the  quinine  interests  to-day  are  five  times  as  great  as  they  were 
when  there  was  a  duty  on  quinine.  At  present  some  of  our  manufac- 
turing establishments  have  only  a  hot-house  life;  the  least  wind  chills 
them.  Let  them  be  put  out  into  the  open  air,  on  the  broad  prairies, 
out  into  the  sun;  let  them  study  the  conditions  necessary  to  success 
and  they  will  acquire  a  healthful  tone,  a  much  more  vigorous  nature, 
a  much  steadier  and  more  permanent  prosperity. 

It  is  gratifying  to  know,  my  fellow-citizens,  that  the  conscience  and 
the  higher  intelligence  of  the  country  is  at  last  aroused,  and  demand- 
ing that  this  arbitrary  and  mediaeval  restriction  be  wiped  out.  and 


SPEECH  AT  AUDITORIUM.  307 

that  the  principle  of  freedom  be  applied  here  the  same  as  in  other 
lines  of  human  activity. 

Let  me  say,  in  conclusion,  that  not  only  is  the  coming  election  of 
vital  importance  in  a  national  way,  because  it  will  settle  the  question 
whether  we  shall  tend  toward  mediaeval  restrictions  and  the  building 
up  of  classes,  or  whether  we  shall  enter  upon  the  high  plateau  of  free- 
dom, of  the  elevation  of  all  mankind ;  but  it  is  important  for  the  peo- 
ple of  Chicago  and  of  the  State  in  a  local  way.  During  the  next  four 
years  questions  that  are  vital  to  our  city  will  have  to  be  settled  by 
the  Legislature  and  the  State  Government.  We  have  the  question  of 
drainage  and  pure  water  for  Chicago;  questions  that  may  arise  in 
connection  with  the  Columbian  Exposition;  the  question  whether  we 
shall  have  a  consolidation  here  in  Cook  county  of  the  three  govern- 
ments that  are  now  overlapping  each  other — city,  township  and 
county;  whether  we  shall  have,  if  possible,  less  machinery  and  more 
efficiency;  and  then  comes  the  great  question  of  revenue.  Our  pres- 
ent revenue  law  is  everywhere  felt  to  be  a  patch-work  and  a  botch. 
A  well  digested,  comprehensive  and  just  revenue  system  for  this 
great  city  and  this  great  State  is  the  need  of  the  hour,  and  attempts 
will  be  made  to  create  one.  Hence,  it  is  a  matter  of  serious  import 
to  every  citizen  of  Illinois  as  to  whom  he  supports  for  the  Legislature, 
and  whom  he  supports  for  Governor  and  Lieutenant-Governor. 

There  is  a  further  question,  involving,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the 
State,  whether  the  laws  shall  be  fearlessly  and  thoroughly  enforced, 
or  whether  a  set  of  officials  and  money  making  rings  shall  be  per- 
mitted to  deliberately  not  only  disregard  the  law,  but  trample  it  under 
foot;  whether  our  great  State  institutions  shall  continue  to  be  mere 
political  machines,  used  to  control  conventions  and  to  carry  elections, 
made  homes  for  political  mendicants,  or  whether  they  shall  be  lifted 
out  of  politics,  lifted  from  the  low  plane  of  political  intrigue,  lifted 
upon  that  high  plane,  which  the  people  intended  they  should  occupy 
when  they  were  created;  whether  we  shall  continue  to  pay  about 
$130,000  a  year  more  to  take  care  of  in  the  neighborhood  of  9,000 
objects  of  charity  than  it  costs  the  people  of  Ohio  to  take  care  of  an 
equal  number  of  objects  of  charity. 

During  the  past  year  some  manufacturers  of  Chicago,  whose  busi- 
np1..  .......  t,..:..^  -..:„„,!  uv  r^:t.n^:^.l  .  [  .-,-  ,  11,.^  nn  t^(L_ 

Governor  and  asked  him  to  enforce  the  law.  They  succeeded  in  get- 
ting the  Commissioners  and  the  Governor  to  meet  them.  They  have 
published  a  report  as  to  what  took  place  there.  I  will  read  you  just 
a  few  lines  from  the  report.  They  say: 

"When  our  committee  met  Governor  Fifer  and  the  Commission- 


308  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ers,  and  explained  to  the  Governor  the  wrong  that  was  being  perpe- 
trated in  the  name  of  the  State,  the  Governor  acknowledged  that  he 
had  been  a  stranger  to  the  real  condition  of  affairs  at  Joliet,  and  he, 
in  the  presence  of  the  committee,  ordered  the  Commissioners  to  re- 
move all  piece-price  convicts  from  the  cooper  shop.  This  Commis- 
sioner Jones  opposed,  and  when  the  Governor  insisted  that  it  should 
be  done,  Jones  became  so  incensed  that  he  put  on  his  hat  and  in- 
solently left  the  conference." 

That  was  all  that  transpired.  No  change  was  made  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  penitentiary;  the  law  was  not  enforced;  Jones  is  still 
Penitentiary  Commissioner;  no  relief  of  any  kind  is  being  given  to 
the  men  who  were  ruined  because  the  law  was  not  enforced.  The 
Penitentiary  Commissioner  insolently  snaps  his  finger  in  the  face  of 
the  Governor,  and  the  Governor  has  not  the  courage  to  interfere. 
Now,  I  will  say  to  you,  that  if  the  people  of  Illinois  make  the  change 
this  fall  that  from  present  indications  they  are  determined  to  make, 
there  will  be  no  repetition  of  that  scene  during  the  next  four  years. 

Nationally  we  have  a  ticket,  both  ends  of  which  represent  that 
high  character,  that  patriotism,  that  statesmanship,  that  courage  to 
do  right,  that  alone  is  a  guaranty  that  the  affairs  of  this  Nation,  in 
their  hands,  will  be  administered  for  the  best  interests  of  all  of  the 
people  of  this  country. 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 
(Delivered  to  the  General  Assembly,  January  10,   1893.) 

It  has  become  the  custom  for  each  incoming  Executive  to  deliver 
an  inaugural  address  defining  his  position  on  public  measures,  and. 
to  a  limited  extent,  outlining  the  policy  of  the  new  administration.  I 
shall  follow  this  custom,  although  I  realize  that  in  this  busy  age  com- 
paratively few  people  pay  any  attention  to  inaugural  addresses,  but 
that  both  men  and  parties  are  judged  by  what  they  actually  do,  rather 
than  by  what  they  profess  or  promise.  In  order  better  to  understand 
the  present,  we  will  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  past. 

The  policy  of  the  State  of  Illinois  was  directed,  almost  wholly,  by 
one  of  the  great  existing  political  parties,  during  the  greater  portion 

of  the  time  from   1818,  when  it  was  admitted  to  the  Union,  <»«*;1  npqr 

the  beginning  of  the  civil  war.  This  was  the  formative  period,  during 
which  the  foundations  of  our  institutions  were  in  great  part  laid,  and 
those  broad  and  liberal  policies  relating  to  education,  internal  im- 
provements, the  freedom  of  conscience  and  of  speech,  the  rights  of 
the  citizens,  the  protection  of  property  and  the  welfare  of  the  masses, 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  309 

were  not  only  adopted,  but  became  so  firmly  rooted  that  their  subse- 
quent growth,  as  well  as  the  development  and  greatness  of  the  State, 
were  assured.  It  was  during  this  time  that  our  common  school  sys- 
tem, the  bulwark  of  free  institutions,  was  founded  and  munificently 
endowed,  in  order  that  we  might  in  time  have  the  best  schools  in  the 
world.  During  this  time  the  State  fostered  a  system  of  iifternal  im- 
provements, so  as  to  encourage  and  hasten  the  development  of  our 
great  natural  resources.  It  not  only  caused  the  construction  of  a 
canal  to  connect  the  great  lakes  with  the  Mississippi  system,  but  it 
encouraged  the  building  of  railroads  so  as  to  bring  remote  parts  of 
the  State  close  together.  Notwithstanding  its  youth,  Illinois  then 
excelled  almost  every  other  State  in  that  regard.  At  the  same  time 
the  interests  of  the  public  were  carefully  guarded.  It  was  during  this 
period  that  an  arrangement  was  made  with  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road Company,  in  pursuance  of  which  it  now  pays  annually  nearly  half 
a  million  of  dollars  into  the  State  treasury.  Then  came  a  change  of 
party  control,  and  soon  thereafter  the 'civil  war.  The  young  State, 
which  had  led  in  the  development  of  civil  institutions,  took  an  equally 
patriotic  and  aggressive  stand  in  favor  of  upholding  the  Union,  and 
gave  a  greater  per  cent  of  its  population  to  carry  on  the  war  than 
almost  any  other  State;  and  we  now  have  a  home  for  the  aged  heroes 
who  were  disabled  in  war,  which  is  supported  by  the  liberality  of  the 
State,  and  it  will  be  our  duty  to  see  that  this  worthy  object  of  a  State's 
bounty  is  fairly  and  liberally  treated. 

The  richness  of  our  soil  has  attracted  husbandmen  from  all  quar- 
ters of  the  globe.  Our  great  mineral  resources  and  central  location 
have  drawn  the  manufacturers  of  almost  every  kind  of  goods;  great 
railrbads  traverse  nearly  all  parts  of  the  State,  while,  owing  to  the 
push  and  enterprise  of  our  people,  our  commercial  interests  are 
scarcely  rivaled  in  the  world.  The  present  condition  of  our  people, 
both  in  the  State  and  in  the  Nation,  is  an  illustration  of  the  fact  that 
in  this  country  the  people  are  greater  than  the  government,  and  that 
they  can  attain  a  reasonable  degree  of  prosperity  and  happiness  in 
spite  of  unjust  and  injurious  governmental  policies.  The  recent  ac- 
tion of  our  people  at  the  polls  is  a  warning  that  their  patience  has  a 
limit,  and  that  they  cannot  be  long  fed  on  empty  and  delusive  prom- 
ises. Thev  demand  of  their  servants  that  honesty  and  good  faith 
which  every  employer  iias  a  i;siu.  to  expect  at  the  hands  of  those  who 
serve  him. 

Now,  after  an  interval  of  more  than  thirty  years,  that  political 
party  which  guided  the  councils  of  the  State  in  its  earlier  history, 
again  assumes  control  of  its  destinies,  and  we  are  confronted  by  a 


310  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

number  of  important  problems,  which,  for  their  proper  solution,  re- 
quire painstaking  investigation  and  deliberate  judgment.  These 
must  all  be  treated  by  general  laws,  inasmuch  as  special  legislation  is 
not  only  prohibited  by  our  Constitution,  but  it  is  antagonistic  to  demo- 
cratic principles. 

EDUCATION. 

Our  great  educational  system  is  so  well  grounded  that,  with  the 
exception  of  wasteful  extravagance  in  some  localities,  it  is  working 
reasonably  well.  Its  farther  improvement  will  depend  more  upon 
the  emulation  of  those  who  are  laboring  in  that  field,  and  their  efforts 
to  reach  the  highest  degree  of  excellence,  than  it  will  upon  legisla- 
tion. But  we  have  a  statute,  passed  four  years  ago,  known  as  the 
compulsory  education  act,  which  is  no  part  of  our  common  school 
system,  and  which  violates  the  fundamental  principles  of  free  govern- 
ment. It  will  be  our  duty,  not  only  to  repeal  this  act  at  as  early  a 
day  as  practicable,  but  to  provide  in  its  place  another  law  that  shall  be 
free  from  the  objections  that  apply  to  this,  and  which  shall  make  ample 
provisions  for  the  care  of  neglected  children.  The  State  cannot  per- 
mit children  to  grow  up  on  the  street,  learning  nothing  but  the  rudi- 
ments of  crime,  and  learning  nothing  to  fit  them  for  the  discharge  even 
of  the  ordinary  duties  of  American  citizenship,  even  that  of  self- 
maintenance. 

PUBLIC    FUNDS. 

The  question  as  to  who  shall  have  the  interest  on  public  funds  calls 
for  the  attention  of  the  Legislature.  While  it  may  be  true  that  the 
law  does  not  contemplate  that  the  funds  shall  be  deposited  at  interest 
in  banks,  it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  all  custodians  of  public  funds 
actually  draw  interest  on  the  balances  of  such  funds.  When  the  sums 
held  were  smaller,  the  matter  attracted  but  little  attention,  but  condi- 
tions have  changed.  The  salary  paid  the  custodians,  whether  of  State, 
County,  City,  Park,  School  or  other  public  funds,  having  been  fixed 
when  the  amounts  held  were  small,  is  now,  in  most  cases,  entirely 
disproportionate  to  the  bond  which  has  to  be  given  and  the  respon- 
sibilities assumed;  the  custodian  now  obtaining,  as  a  part  of  his 
compensation,  the  interest  upon  the  public  funds  in  his  custody,  but 
as  this  is  in  most  cases  many  times  as  great  as  a  reasonable  com- 
petinntion  mn,,iA  i^>,  ii.«  ....„...,  ui.Bt.ii  iidum.  Tcrainr"5e~aeeumiLcu 
for  as  part  of  the  public  funds;  and  inasmuch  as  the  Constitution  will 
not  permit  the  salary  of  an  official  to  be  changed  during  his  term  of 
office,  and  as  the  terms  of  most  of  the  custodians  of  public  moneys, 
whether  State,  County,  City,  School,  or  other  public  funds,  are  brief, 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  311 

in  my  judgment  the  proper  course  will  be  to  provide,  by  general  law, 
that  all  such  custodians  that  may  hereafter  be  elected  or  appointed 
and  qualified,  shall  be  paid  a  salary  to  be  determined  by  a  per  cent 
of  the  amount  of  money  they  handle,  and  that  all  interest  or  increment 
earned  by  the  fund  in  their  possession,  shall  belong  to  the  fund  and 
be  accounted  for. 

LIBERTY    OF    THE    CITIZEN. 

Practically,  there  is  at  present  neither  Magna  Charta  nor  Bill  of 
Rights  for  the  poor  of  our  great  cities.  They  have  to  submit  to  in- 
sult, assault  and  false  imprisonment,  and  have  no  remedy,  except  a 
suit  at  law,  which  takes  from  three  to  five  years,  and  requires  time 
and  money  to  prosecute;  so  they  are  practically  without  any  remedy. 
Any  man,  rich  or  poor,  taken  into  our  higher  courts,  no  matter  on 
what  charge,  can  have  a  jury  trial  and  a  full  and  fair  hearing  before 
sentence  can  be  pronounced  against  him,  but  in  the  magistrate's  court 
they  deprive  him  of  a  jury  trial  by  requiring  him  to  advance  the  jury 
fee,  which,  when  poor,  he  cannot  do,  so  that  he  is  compelled  to 
submit  to  anything  the  magistrate  may  do,  which  frequently  means 
anything  that  a  police  officer  may  wish  to  have  done.  In  the  city  of 
Chicago,  where  there  are  a  number  of  magistrates  sitting  at  the  same 
time,  there  are  from  thirty  to  fifty  men  and  women  tried  by  one 
magistrate  in  from  one  to  two  hours  every  day.  The  proceedings  are 
not  under  the  criminal  laws  as  a  rule,  but  fines  are  imposed,  and  when 
these  are  not  promptly  paid,  imprisonment  follows,  just  as  it  would 
in  a  case  of  conviction  for  crime  in  the  higher  court.  While  a  judge 
of  a  higher  court  could  not  imprison  a  man  for  an  hour  without  a 
jury  trial,  a  simple  magistrate  actually  does  imprison  scores  every  day 
without  a  jury  trial. 

During  the  year  1891,  the  police  of  Chicago  alone  arrested  and 
carried  to  prison  70,550  people,  including  men,  women  and  children. 
Of  these,  32,500  were  discharged  by  the  magistrate,  because,  in  most 
cases,  no  offense  of  any  kind  was  proved ;  yet  these  people  had  been 
arrested,  sometimes  clubbed,  taken  through  the  streets  in  charge  of 
officers,  and  sometimes  kept  in  prison  several  days,  just  as  if  they  were 
charged  with  murder;  and  all  this  not  on  any  charge  of  crime,  but 
generally  at  the  mere  discretion  of  some  man  wearing  the  uniform 
of  law.  When  they  finally  got  out  they  were  practically  without  a 
remedy  for  the  reason  stated.  Of  the  remaining  ^a.u^u,  a  little  over 
8,000  were  sent  to  prison  for  various  terms  by  the  magistrates,  be- 
cause of  their  inability  to  pay  the  fines  which  had  been  imposed,  and 
nearly  all,  except  about  ninety  of  these,  were  charged  with  trivial  of- 


312  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

fenses,  generally  simply  disorderly  conduct.  Yet  their  treatment  was 
the  same  as  if  they  had  committed  highway  robbery,  except  that  in 
the  latter  case  they  would  have  had  something  like  a  fair  trial.  The 
practice  has  long  prevailed  in  Chicago  and  other  cities,  of  raids  being 
made  by  the  police  in  the  night-time,  and  as  many  as  a  hundred  or 
more  men  and  women,  sometimes  only  women,  arrested  and  carried 
to  prison  in  one  night  on  no  specific  charge  of  crime,  but  simply  at 
the  caprice  of  a  policeman.  These  cases  have  to  be  continued  till  the 
next  morning.  A  bond  is  generally  given,  signed  by  a  professional 
bailer.  The  justice  charges  a  dollar  for  taking  each  bond,  and  the 
bailer  all  he  can  get  for  signing  it,  so  that  it  is  an  exceedingly  profit- 
able business  for  those  connected  with  the  so-called  police  court. 

While  the  law  at  present  provides  that  nearly  all  other  officers  shall 
pay  what  fees  they  collect  into  the  public  treasury,  and  shall  receive  a 
salary  for  the  services  they  render,  this  does  not  seem  to  apply  to  the 
magistrates.  The  law  should  be  made  more  strict,  and  prohibit  every 
officer,  whether  judicial  or  executive,  who  is  in  any  way  connected 
with  the  administration  of  justice,  from  keeping  any  fees  under  any 
pretext,  for  so  long  as  he  profits  by  the  amount  of  business  that  is 
run  in,  there  is  a  standing  bribe  to  do  injustice.  The  law  should 
secure  'to  all  persons  a  fair  jury  trial  before  judgment  can  be  pro- 
nounced by  which  they  can  be  thrown  into  prison.  These  so-called 
raids  neither  prevent  nor  punish  crime,  but  are  simply  irritants,  and 
it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  real  criminals  frequently  ply  their  vocation 
with  great  boldness  at  the  very  time  that  these  raids  are  made,  and 
they  go  uncaught  and  unpunished.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many 
cases  in  which  the  police  are  rendered  powerless  to  suppress  crime 
by  reason  of  political  intrigue  and  interference.  Our  police  system 
should  be,  so  far  as  possible,  placed  beyond  the  reach  of  this  character 
of  interference. 

I  will  also,  in  this  connection,  direct  your  attention  to  the  fact  that 
our  system  of  administering  justice  in  this  State  does  not  command 
the  entire  confidence  of  the  public.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that,  with 
our  present  machinery,  litigation  is  so  prolonged,  and  rendered  so 
uncertain,  without  regard  to  the  merits  of  the  case,  that  many  prudent 
men  feel  that  they  had  better  relinquish  a  claim  and  submit  to  an 
injustice  than  to  venture  into  the  courts.  As  a  rule,  the  men  who  are 
directly  occupied  in  the  administration  of  justice  in  the  higher  courts 
cf  this  Suit,  arc  not  onl^  of  the  most  able  and  learned,  but  of  the 
highest  character  and  unquestioned  integrity.  But  the  system  is  so 
defective  that  personal  ability  cannot  overcome  its  deficiencies, 


'INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  313 

PUBLIC  SERVICE. 

It  will  be  our  duty  to  endeavor  to  reduce  the  expense  of  the  civil 
service  of  the  State.  There  has  been  a  tendency  to  create  unnecessary 
boards,  and,  while  some  of  these  do  not  draw  a  salary,  they  are  paid 
their  expenses  and  a  per  diem,  and  they  manage  to  draw  large  sums 
out  of  the  State  treasury.  Many  of  these  should  be  abolished,  and 
their  duties,  so  far  as  they  perform  any  necessary  service,  be  assigned 
to  some  of  the  regular  County  or  State  officers,  who  could  attend  to 
them  without  increased  expense  to  the  public.  Again,  the  public  ser- 
vice is  frequently  crowded  by  placing  many  more  persons  on  the  pay 
roll  than  are  necessary  to  do  the  work.  This  not  only  increases  the 
expenditure,  but  destroys  the  efficiency  of  the  service.  Whenever 
four  men  are  set  to  do  one  man's  work,  no  one  of  them  will  make 
an  effort;  all  become  careless,  thoroughness  will  be  lacking,  and  the 
result  will  be  poor  service.  I  desire  to  say  a  word  in  this  connec- 
tion in  regard  to  the  extraordinary  demand  for  offices,  both  elective 
and  appointive.  While  there  are  many  men  anxious  to  hold  office 
for  the  honor  of  serving  the  people,  and  without  reference  to  salary, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  demand  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
applicants  can  get  larger  salaries  while  holding  office  than  they  can 
earn  at  the  private  employment  for  which  they  are  qualified.  The 
people  of  Illinois  are  willing  to  pay  fair  salaries  for  the  service  ren- 
dered, yet  the  question  is  worth  considering,  whether,  if  we  were  to 
reduce  salaries,  we  would  not  get  rid  of  the  persistent  demand  for 
official  positions,  and  at  the  same  time  increase  the  efficiency  of  the 
service.  As  the  matter  now  stands,  many  capable  but  modest  men 
who  would  gladly  serve  for  a  moderate  salary  are  deterred  from  ap- 
plying. It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  high  salaries  secure  a  higher 
grade  of  service  to  the  public;  if  anything,  they  have  the  opposite 
effect.  They  give  the  office  the  character  of  spoils,  and  simply  in- 
crease the  endeavor  to  obtain  it  by  men  who  want  it  for  the  money 
there  is  in  it.  In  some  States  the  experiment  has  been  made  by  pay- 
ing officials  high  salaries,  and  in  none  of  them  has  the  service  been 
improved.  While  we  must  pay  such  salaries  as  will  enable  poor  men 
to  hold  office,  yet  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  we  get  the 
highest  grade  of  service  from  those  men  who  esteem  it  an  honor  to 
serve  the  public,  and  with  whom  salaries  are  a  secondary  considera- 
tion. 

Nearly  all  the  great  institutions  of  the  State  have,  for  years,  been 
conducted  on  a  partisan  basis,  and  some  of  them  rather  offensively  so. 
This  has  created  a  feeling  of  bitterness,  and  there  is  a  widespread  de- 


'LIVE.  QUESTIONS. 

mand  that  there  shall  be  a  change  in  the  management.  There  is  also 
a  belief  that  many  of  these  institutions  are  extravagant  and  that  their 
expenses  are  unnecessarily  increased  to  accommodate  political  favor- 
ites. Inasmuch  as  it  will  be  our  duty  to  have  them  run  in  as  economi- 
cal a  manner  as  possible,  it  will  be  necessary  that  those  in  charge  shall 
be  in  thorough  sympathy  with  the  administration.  Such  changes  as 
may  be  necessary  should  be  made,  care  being  taken  to  bring  the  ser- 
vice to  the  highest  degree  of  excellence  possible.  I  wish,  however, 
in  this  connection,  to  submit  that  the  time  has  come  in  the  develop- 
ment of  our  great  State  when  its  public  service  should  be,  as  far  as 
possible,  divorced  from  partisan  politics,  and  when  we  should  estab- 
lish by  law  a  classified  civil  service  based  upon  honesty  and  capability, 
such  as  already  prevails  in  some  of  the  Eastern  States.  In  all  cases 
where  the  head  officer  is  not  directly  responsible  for  the  acts  of  his 
subordinates,  such  a  civil  service  system  should  be  established.  This 
would  apply  to  attendants  in  our  State  charitable  and  reformatory  in- 
stitutions and  in  the  government  of  our  cities. 

CLAIMS  OF   LABOR. 

The  State  of  Illinois  already  contains  one  of  the  greatest  industrial 
communities  in  the  world,  and  is  rapidly  growing.  Not  only  are 
hundreds  of  millions  of  capital  invested,  but  employment  is  given 
to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  persons.  The  State  must  do  justice  to 
both  employer  and  employe;  it  must  see  to  it  that  law  and  order  are 
maintained,  and  that  life  and  property  are  thoroughly  protected.  Any 
weakness  in  this  regard  would  be  pusillanimous  and  invite  incalcul- 
able evils.  On  the  other  hand,  the  State  must  not  pursue  such  a 
policy  as  to  convince  the  masses  of  the  laboring  people  that  the  au- 
thority of  the  State  is  simply  a  convenient  club  for  the  use  of  the 
employer.  When  the  State  follows  such  a  policy  it  forfeits  the  con- 
fidence of  its  people  and  itself  sows  the  seed  of  anarchy.  We  must 
not  forget  that  the  law  contemplates  that  the  civil  officer  shall  protect 
life  and  property,  and  for  this  purpose  may  order  out  the  posse  comi- 
tatus  when  necessary,  and  that  a  too  hasty  ordering  out  of  the  military 
creates  irritation  and  bitterness,  which  frequently  results  in  unneces- 
sary bloodshed.  Many  civil  officers  have  shown  a  disposition  to 
shirk  their  duty  during  a  strike,  and  this  has  been  followed  by  the 
introduction  of  an  irresponsible  armed  force  controlled  by  private 
individuals.  The  presence  of  these  armed  strangers  always  acts  as 
an  irritation  and  tends  to  provoke  riot  and  disorder,  and  we  should 
take  warning  by  the  experience  of  some  of  our  sister  States  and  abso- 
lutely prohibit  the  use  of  these  armed  mercenaries  by  private  cor- 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  315 

porations  or  individuals.     At  the  same  time  we  should  see  to  it  that 
the  civil  officers  do  their  duty. 

If  we  are  to  prosper  we  must  make  all  of  our  people  feel  that  the 
flag  which  floats  over  them  is  an  emblem  of  justice.  Our  laboring 
people  must  either  advance  or  retrograde.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
standing  still.  If  they  are  to  advance,  it  must  be  by  their  own  con- 
servative and  intelligent  standing  together.  Only  those  forces  sur- 
vive which  can  take  care  of  themselves.  The  moment  individuals  or 
classes  become  dependent  they  are  objects  of  charity,  and  their  case 
is  then  hopeless.  If  the  laboring  classes  cannot  thus  stand  together, 
they  will  be  reduced  to  the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes  in  the 
poorer  countries  of  the  old  world.  Such  a  condition  would  destroy 
the  purchasing  power  of  the  American  laborer,  and  with  it  destroy 
also  the  great  American  market.  If  ever  the  American  laborer  is 
reduced  to  that  condition  where  he  can  buy  only  a  little  coarse  cloth- 
ing and  a  little  amount  of  coarse  food,  the  entire  character  of  our 
institutions  will  be  transformed,  and  the  value  of  much  of  our  manu- 
facturing and  railroad  property  depreciated. 

STRIKES   AND    LOCKOUTS. 

The  question  of  the  protection  of  non-combatants — the  great 
public— in  the  event  of  a  strike  or  lockout,  must  not  be  overlooked  in 
this  connection.  Conditions  have  so  changed  that  it  can  no  longer 
be  said  that  it  is  nobody's  business  what  other  people  do.  All  the 
elements  of  American  society  have  become  so  interdependent,  each 
class  or  interest  has  so  adjusted  itself  to  the  other  classes  or  interests, 
as  to  be  in  a  measure  dependent  on  them,  and  a  suspension  of  the 
operation  of  one  must  injure  the  whole.  For  example,  a  strike  on  a 
railroad  is  not  limited  to  a  contention  between  employer  and  employe, 
but  it  affects  all  people  along  the  line  of  the  road  who  have  adjusted 
their  affairs  to  the  operation  of  the  road,  and  who  are  entitled  to 
protection  at  the  hands  of  the  State.  Not  only  this,  but  when  a  large 
number  of  men  are  suddenly  thrown  out  of  employment,  conditions 
are  created  which  beget  pauperism  and  crime  and  increase  the  bur- 
dens of  the  public.  Especially  is  this  true  when  an  employer,  who 
has  so  far  interfered  with  the  natural  distribution  of  population  as  to 
cause  a  large  number  of  men  to  settle  where  they  would  not  other- 
wise have  settled,  suddenly  attempts  to  discharge  them  all  at  once 
and  to  fill  their  places  with  others. 

The  reign  of  law  has  so  broadened  in  this  century  as  to  cover 
almost  every  other  controversy  between  man  and  man,  and  in  the 
development  of  society  some  way  must  be  found  to  subject  the  so- 


3i6  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

called  "labor  controversies"  to  law.  This  suggests  the  practicability 
of  arbitration,  and  raises  the  question  of  the  powers  of  the  State  in 
that  regard.  There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  about  the  right  of  the 
State  to  make  a  thorough  investigation  and  render  a  decision,  but  the 
difficulty  arises  in  enforcing  the  decision.  The  State  cannot  compel 
an  unwilling  employer  to  run  his  shop,  nor  can  it  compel  unwilling 
employes  to  go  to  work.  The  State  might  compel  an  employer,  who 
disregarded  its  decision  and  persisted  in  operating  his  works,  to  pay 
the  expense  of  any  special  protection  he  received.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  employes  should  refuse  to  go  to  work  in  accordance  with  the  terms 
of  a  decision,  the  State  can  give  its  entire  power  in  protecting  the 
employer  in  hiring  new  men;  but  the  moral  influence  alone  of  a 
State  decision  would,  in  many  cases,  be  sufficient  to  end  a  strike,  and 
some  of  the  States  have  adopted  laws  creating  Boards  of  Arbitration 
with  this  end  in  view,  while  others  have  gone  further  and  attempted, 
in  certain  cases,  to  enforce  the  decisions  of  Boards  of  Arbitration. 
The  constant  increase  in  the  use  of  labor-saving  machinery  tends  to 
throw  more  and  more  men  out  of  employment  every  year.  This  sug- 
gests the  necessity  of  shortening  the  hours  of  labor,  wherever  this  can 
be  done  by  legislation,  in  order  that  all  may  still  be  able  to  get  em- 
ployment, and  also  that  the  working  classes  may  derive  some  benefit 
from  the  great  inventions  of  the  age. 

INSANE. 

While  we  already  have  erected  four  very  large  hospitals  for  the 
insane,  still  only  about  two-thirds  of  the  insane  of  the  State  are  prop- 
erly cared  for.  Nearly  one-third  are  in  the  poor-houses  of  the  State, 
where  they  cannot  be  cared  for,  and  exist  in  a  horrible  condition. 

CHILD    LABOR    AND    SANITATION. 

The  increasing  density  of  population  in  our  large  cities,  and  the 
establishment  of  what  has  been  called  "the  sweating  system,"  whereby 
many  people  are  made  to  work  amid  sanitary  conditions  which  con- 
stantly imperil  the  health  of  the  community,  and  the  employment  of 
children  in  factories  and  shops,  where  they  become  stunted  in  both 
body  and  mind,  and  unfit  for  citizenship,  call  for  more  thorough  legis- 
lation. Steps  should  also  be  taken  to  facilitate  the  work  of  furnish- 
ing proper  homes  in  private  families  for  dependent  and  neglected 

children. 

MUNICIPAL  POWERS. 

A  number  of  large  cities,  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  have 
made  the  experiment  of  supplying  their  inhabitants  with  water,  gas, 


INAUGURAL  'ADDRESS.  317 

electric  light,  and  even  operating  the  street  railways,  with  very  satis- 
factory results.     I  commend  this  subject  to  your  careful  consideration. 

ROADS. 

While  our  State  has  developed  in  every  other  respect,  we  have 
made  no  progress  in  the  matter  of  roads.  We  are,  in  this  regard,  al- 
most where  we  were  half  a  century  ago,  so  that  for  a  number  of 
moiTths  in  a  year  our  roads  are  almost  impassable.  The  loss  and 
inconvenience  of  this  falls  most  heavily  on  our  agricultural  communi- 
ties. Not  only  is  the  farmer  subjected  to  a  heavy  loss  in  the  wear 
and  tear  of  his  team,  but  he  is  frequently  prevented  from  availing  him- 
self of  favorable  markets  by  the  impassableness  of  the  roads.  The 
State  should  again  take  up  the  subject  of  internal  improvements,  and 
adopt  a  policy  that  will  tend  to  the  building  of  good  roads  in  every 
county  in  the  State — roads  that  can  be  traveled  every  day  in  the  year. 
As  the  railroads  do  all  the  carrying  for  long  distances,  wagon  roads 
are,  to  a  great  extent,  a  local  matter  in  each  county.  This  being  so, 
the  roads  will  not  need  to  be  so  wide,  and  can,  therefore,  be  more 
cheaply  built  than  would  otherwise  be  possible.  It  is  also  probable 
that  some  of  the  convicts  in  our  penitentiaries  could  be  used  to  pre- 
pare material  for  the  building  of  roads. 

PENITENTIARIES. 

An  amendment  to  the  Constitution  was  adopted  by  the  people  in 
1886,  which  prohibits  the  hiring  of  convict  labor.  This  provision  has 
been  evaded  and  disregarded,  and  the  affairs  of  the  penitentiary  have 
been  so  managed  in  the  granting  of  space  to  the  contractors  as  to 
make  it  difficult  for  the  State  to  work  prisoners  on  its  own  account. 
After  the  amendment  was  proposed,  and  in  anticipation  of  its  adop- 
tion, some  contracts  running  for  eight  years  were  made.  Although 
many  other  contracts  had  run  out,  these  contracts  have  been  presented 
as  an  excuse  for  the  failure  to  enforce  the  command  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, but  it  has  not  been  accepted  as  a  valid  one  by  the  people.  At  the 
present  time  nearly  all  contracts  have  by  their  terms  expired.  The 
duty  of  the  Legislature  is  plain.  The  convicts  must  be  kept  at  work. 
A  few  of  them  could  be  set  to  preparing  material  for  the  making  of 
roads,  but  other  employment  must  be  furnished  for  the  remainder. 
Immediate  action  should  be  taken  for  the  adoption  of  a  plan  for  work- 
ing convict  labor  consistent  with  the  fundamental  law.  I  suggest 
that  many  industries  be  established,  so  as  to  interfere  as  little  as  pos- 
sible with  the  markets  and  outside  labor  and  industries.  While  this 
will  require  some  considerable  outlay  for  machinery  and  tools,  there 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

is  no  doubt  that  the  penitentiaries  can  then,  by  proper  management, 
be  run  without  violating  the  law,  without  becoming  a  burden  on  the 
State,  and  without  coming  into  ruinous  competition  with  outside  free 
labor. 

PENAL  LEGISLATION. 

In  this  connection  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that,  in  the 
matter  of  penal  legislation,  our  State  is  not  abreast  of  the  times.  We 
still  adhere  to  the  old  system  of  fixed  sentences,  under  which  the 
greatest  inequality  results;  the  vicious  and  hardened  are  frequently 
given  short  terms  by  a  jury,  while  the  comparatively  innocent  are 
given  long  terms  by  another  jury.  At  best,  first  offenders  and  old 
criminals  go  in  and  out  of  prison  together,  while  as  a  rule  all  classes 
come  out  without  such  training  as  will  enable  the  individual  to  make 
a  living,  and  utterly  unable  to  find  employment.  Naturally  these 
drift  into  a  career  of  crime,  and  either  prey  upon  the  community  or 
are  returned  to  prison.  Instead  of  this  method,  some  of  the  States 
have  adopted  a  system  of  indeterminate  sentences,  under  which  a 
prisoner  is  sentenced  generally  to  the  penitentiary,  the  law  fixing  the 
minimum  and  maximum  time  of  imprisonment,  and  the  actual  length 
of  confinement  between  these  two  points  depends  upon  the  general 
characteristics  and  personal  conduct  of  the  prisoner.  Under  this  sys- 
tem the  vicious  and  hardened  can  be  restrained,  while  those  who  are 
comparatively  innocent  are  released  on  parole,  that  is  to  say,  on  good 
behavior,  but  only  after  having  been  secured  employment  by  the 
prison  officials  that  will  enable  them  to  make  an  honest  living.  Un- 
der such  a  system,  the  number  of  convicts  in  our  penitentiaries  would 
be  greatly  reduced,  and  all  problems  involved  in  the  treatment  of 
criminals  and  the  conduct  of  our  penitentiaries  more  easily  solved. 

REDISTRICTING. 

The  redistricting  of  the  State  will  be  one  of  the  most  important 
duties  devolving  upon  this  General  Assembly.  It  will  be  difficult  to 
so  redistrict  the  State  as  to  do  exact  justice  to  all  interests  and  parties. 
Nevertheless,  every  effort  should  be  made  to  come  as  near  doing  so  as 
possible.  As  a  rule,  injustice  benefits  nobody,  and  almost  invariably 
comes  home  to  plague  its  authors. 

TAXATION. 

Some  of  the  States  have  tried  the  experiment  of  a  heavy  graduated 
succession  tax  on  the  estates  of  deceased  persons.  This  has  been  fol- 
lowed with  very  satisfactory  results.  I  commend  this  fact  to  your 
consideration;  likewise  the  advisability  of  providing  for  a  heavy 


REMARKS  AT  A   BANQUET.  319 

corporation  fee,  <.o  be  paid  at  the  organization  of  a  corporation,  as 
well  as  by  all  outside  corporations  coming  here  to  do  business.  The 
practice  of  forming  corporations  to  carry  on  the  simple  business  af- 
fairs of  life  is  becoming  so  common  that  a  tax  of  this  kind  would  be 
proper.  Then,  there  is  a  wide-spread  conviction  that  the  present 
revenue  system  of  our  State  results  in  the  greatest  inequalities  and 
injustice  in  the  matter  of  taxation.  The  subject  is  too  great  to  be 
considered  at  present.  Various  measures  in  relation  to  it  will  no 
doubt  be  presented  to  your  consideration,  the  most  important  of  which 
is,  perhaps,  the  question,  whether  any  comprehensive  change  can  be 
made  without  a  revision  of  our  constitution.  In  the  past,  our  State 
has  revised  its  constitution  at  intervals  of  thirty  and  twenty-two  years. 
A  number  of  questions  have  arisen  in  the  development  of  recent 
years,  relating  to  various  subjects  on  which  legislation  is  needed,  but 
where  there  seem  to  be  constitutional  difficulties  in  the  way.  This  is 
especially  true  of  the  revenue  system  and  of  the  question  of  enlarging 
the  elective  franchise,  on  which  latter  subject  the  law  is  left  in  a 
condition  of  uncertainty  that  is  not  creditable  to  the  intelligence  of 
our  people.  But  I  am  aware  that,  as  a  rule,  where  so  much  is  prom- 
ised little  is  accomplished.  I  will,  therefore,  not  go  further  into  de- 
tails. If  I  may  be  permitted  to  do  so,  I  would  like  to  suggest,  for  the 
consideration  of  the  General  Assembly,  the  propriety  of  making  the 
sittings  of  the  Legislature  a  little  more  continuous.  A  practice  has 
grown  up  of  working  only  a  few  days  in  the  week.  This  not  only 
tends  to  prolong  the  session,  but  necessitates  constant  interruption  in 
the  matter  of  considering  any  measure,  and  where  this  is  the  case, 
there  cannot  be  that  thorough  examination  of  a  subject  that  would 
otherwise  be  possible,  and  which  is  of  the  greatest  importance  as  the 
preliminary  of  intelligent  legislation. 


REMARKS  AT  A  BANQUET 

GIVEN  THE  DUKE  OF  VERAGUA,  MAY  2,  1893,  AT  THE 

AUDITORIUM  HOTEL. 
(From  the  "Chicago  Herald.") 

Director  General  Davis  took  advantage  of  a  momentary  lull  to 
speak  in  the  following  words: 

Gentlemen:  I  do  not  propose  to  make  a  speech.  I  made  one 
yesterday,  but  I  notice  here  this  evening  representatives  of  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth,  which  presents  a  splendid  scene,  and  I  think  those 
who  have  come  from  abroad,  who  are  visitors  to  our  city,  and  to  assist 
in  making  a  success  of  this  great  Exposition,  among  whom  are  the 


LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

direct  descendants  of  Columbus,  should  hear  from  the  Governor  of 
the  great  State  of  Illinois,  and  I  therefore  call  upon  Governor  Altgeld. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  remarks  of  Director  General  Davis,  the  air 
was  filled  with  cries  of  "Altgeld,"  and  as  the  Governor  arose  to  re- 
spond the  applause  was  tremendous.  He  said: 

Mr.  President,  Marquis  and  Gentlemen: 

I  understood  the  President  to  say  that  there  were  to  be  no  more 
speeches  and  that  you  were  to  have  a  good  time.  Just  why  he  should 
want  to  change  the  programme  and  rob  you  of  a  good  time,  is  more 
than  I  can  comprehend.  If  I  must  say  a  word,  gentlemen,  here  in 
Illinois — and  especially  in  Chicago — we  admire  nerve;  we  admire 
lofty  purpose  and  inflexible  resolution.  During  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century  and  more  the  American  people  have  witnessed  some  mag- 
nificent examples  in  this  line— in  warfare  and  in  civic  achievement. 
In  the  building  of  our  great  enterprise  we  imagine  we  have  shown  a 
degree  of  nerve,  courage,  of  lofty  purpose  that  is  rarely  witnessed. 

If  you  will  permit  me  to  go  back  four  hundred  years,  I  will  call 
your  attention  to  a  young  man  who,  so  far  as  I  know,  did  not  wear  a 
big  shirt  or  a  swallow-tail  coat — was  not  a  leader  in  the  fashions  of 
his  day.  He  was  a  sailor,  and  he  was  familiar  with  the  art  and  the 
dangers  incident  to  sailing.  He  did  not  attend  banquets,  so  far  as  I 
can  learn;  but  he  spent  his  time  pondering  over  charts,  and  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  could  discover  a  new  route  to  India.  He  tried 
to  get  the  men  of  commerce  to  help  him,  but  they  pronounced  his 
scheme  impracticable;  he  tried  to  get  the  men  of  authority  to  help 
him,  and  they  pronounced  him  a  crank;  he  tried  to  get  the  scientific 
men  to  help  him,  and  they  told  him  it  was  impossible — the  earth  was 
flat  and  he  could  not  go  that  way.  When  all  of  his  resources  failed, 
he  applied  to  a  high-minded,  spirited  woman,  and  he  succeeded. 

He  started  out  in  three  little  vessels,  in  none  of  which  you  or  I 
would  care  to  venture  a  hundred  miles  upon  the  Atlantic.  He  sailed 
weeks  and  weeks  and  weeks  and  there  was  no  land.  The  rations  ran 
low,  the  crew  mutinied ;  but  he  was  steadfast  in  his  purpose.  Finally 
they  threatened  to  kill  him,  but  he  did  not  waver  an  instant.  Re- 
flect a  moment!  The  wealthy  people  were  against  him;  the  scientific 
men  were  against  him;  the  men  in  office  were  against  him;  the  ele- 
ments were  against  him,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  fates  were  against 
him;  but  he  was  immovable  in  the  prow  of  that  boat  until  he  saw  land 
— the  most  magnificent  example  of  cool  nerve,  of  inflexible  purpose, 
ever  witnessed  upon  earth.  All  had  been  defied — the  very  fates  had 
been  defied,  and  had  been  conquered. 


OPENING   OF  ILLINOIS  BUILDING.  321 

He  did  not  know  what  a  great  work  he  was  doing — usually  men 
do  not;  but  he  not  only  called  the  attention  of  the  world  to  what  a 
great  woman  can  do — a  fact  which  has  again  been  exemplified  in  the 
building  of  the  great  white  city  by  the  lake  here — but  he  destroyed 
the  canons  of  navigation;  for,  at  that  time,  it  was  contended  that,  at 
the  point  where  the  horizon  dipped  into  the  waters,  there  was  the  end. 
Not  only  that,  he  forced  the  creation  of  a  new  geography,  and  he  laid 
the  foundation  of  a  new  basis  for  fame  and  for  civilization — a  basis 
for  fame  of  individual  achievement. 

There  had  been  many  conquerors  in  the  world  and  great  rulers, 
but  they  are  forgotten.  There  have  been  many  since  his  day,  and 
they  are  forgotten ;  and  yet,  four  hundred  years  after  that  magnificent 
achievement,  the  greatest  nation  upon  earth  delights  to  invite  his  de- 
scendants, and  we  delight  to  honor  them.  I  say  he  laid  a  new  foun- 
dation— for  fame  and  for  civilization,  and  that  is  individual  achieve- 
ment, and  the  coming  centuries  will  no  longer  inquire,  as  they  see 
the  monuments  erected  in  past  times,  over  what  country  did  this 
man  rule  and  in  what  age  did  he  reign?  They  will  no  longer  inquire: 
What  office  did  he  hold?  They  will  no  longer  inquire:  Did  he  live 
in  a  palace,  or  did  he  sleep  in  a  garret?  Did  he  ride  in  a  carriage,  or 
did  he  walk?  The  question  which  coming  ages  are  going  to  ask  is: 
What  did  this  man  do  for  humanity? 

And,  gentlemen,  the  fame  of  rulers  dies,  but  the  fame  of  Christo- 
pher Columbus  will  grow  brighter  and  brighter  as  the  centuries  roll 
by.  When  this  great  continerit  shall  become  covered  with  cities,  and 
when  it  shall  be  peopled  by  an  enlightened  and  enterprising  people 
having  the  spirit  of  Columbus — that  of  individual  achievement,  that  of 
cool  nerve,  of  lofty  purpose  and  of  fierce  determination,  a  people 
stretching  from  the  North  Pole  to  the  South  Pole — only  then,  gentle- 
men, will  the  world  fully  appreciate  what  Christopher  Columbus  has 
done. 


ADDRESS  AT  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  ILLINOIS  BUILD- 
ING. 
(Delivered  at  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  Chicago,  May  18,  1893.) 

Mr.  President  of  the  Illinois  Board  of  World's  Fair  Commissioners, 
and  Madam  President  of   the    Illinois    Woman's    Exposition 
Board,  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 
We  have  met  to  formally  open  the  Illinois  Building  and  make  it, 

with  its  contents,  a  part  of  the  Columbian  Exposition,  an  exposition 

whose  grandeur  neither  pen  nor  pencil  can  picture. 


21 


322  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

We  feel  that  this  is  a  great  day  for  the  people  of  our  State,  for 
it  is  the  first  time  in  their  history  that  they  have  attempted  to  stand 
beside  the  nations  of  the  earth  for  the  purpose  of  comparing  achieve- 
ments. 

We  are,  in  a  sense,  the  host  of  the  world,  which  has  gathered  within 
our  borders  to  exhibit  the  products  of  its  highest  civilization,  and,  as 
these  products  are  addressed  to  the  eye,  and  silently  tell  the  story  of 
the  past  and  the  condition  of  the  present,  we  are  endeavoring,  as  host, 
to  respond  in  kind.  This  building,  with  its  grand  proportions,  its 
majestic  height,  its  symmetry,  and  beautiful  lines,  will  testify  to  our 
skill  in  the  art  of  building,  and  we  expect  the  numerous  exhibits  gath- 
ered here  to  tell,  in  silent  eloquence,  the  brilliant  history  of  Illinois. 
But,  my  friends,  while  we  are  thus  vying  with  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  in  showing  the  wonderful  things  accomplished,  let  us  not  forget 
that  all  that  we  see  here  is  emblematical.  This  exposition,  while  sur- 
passing even  the  dreams  of  genius,  is  but  intended  to  commemorate  a 
great  event  in  the  history  of  the  world.  These  life-like  statues;  these 
Grecian  columns  and  Roman  arches;  these  temples  of  industry,  of  sci- 
ence and  of  learning,  which  challenge  the  admiration  of  the  gods,  are 
but  the  language,  they  are  but  the  words,  the  exclamations  with  which 
this  age  expresses  its  admiration  for  the  achievements  of  Christopher 
Columbus. 

More  than  four  centuries  ago,  when  the  world  was  about  to  awaken 
from  a  long  night;  when  literature  showed  new  signs  of  life;  when 
art  began  again  to  breathe;  when  science  and  philosophy  again  lifted 
up  their  heads;  when  the  centuries  were  in  labor  to  give  birth  to  a 
new  era  and  new  civilization,  in  which  man  might  again  walk  the 
earth,  not  with  his  head  bowed,  his  hands  shackled  and  his  spirit 
crushed,  but  with  mein  erect  and  his  face  to  the  sun ;  a  civilization  in 
which  woman  should  no  longer  be  a  beast  of  burden,  but  a  companion 
to  man;  then  there  went  through  the  universe  a  silent  call  for  a  new 
land  with  a  new  atmosphere  in  which  to  rock  and  nurture  the  new 
time,  for  the  countries  of  the  old  world  were  so  covered  with  the 
malaria  which  had  thickened  during  centuries  of  tyranny,  of  supersti- 
tion and  darkness,  that  nothing  beneficial  to  mankind  could  flourish 
there. 

Responding  to  this  call,  there  came  forth  a  young  man  who  knew 
little  of  the  fashions  of  his  day,  took  no  part  in  the  gay  frivolity  of  his 
time,  did  not  live  in  luxury  nor  go  forth  in  fine  raiment.  The  idle 
aristocrats  felt  that  they  were  of  greatly  more  consequence  than  he; 
but  he  had  what  all  men  who  have  helped  mankind  had,  and  that  is, 
industry,  perseverance  and  self-reliance.  He  was  a  sailor  and  was 


OPENING   OF  ILLINOIS  BUILDING.  323 

familiar  with  the  hardships  and  dangers  of  a  sea-faring  life,  and  in- 
stead of  going  to  banquets  he  spent  his  nights  pondering  over  charts, 
until  he  conceived  the  idea  of  finding  a  new  route  to  India  by  sailing 
westward.  The  art  of  navigation  then  consisted  of  sailing  from  head- 
land to  head-land.  The  earth  was  supposed  to  be  flat,  and  the  regions 
beyond  the  horizon  to  be  peopled  with  monsters.  He  sought  assist- 
ance from  the  commercial  people  and  they  laughed  at  him;  he  ap- 
plied to  the  learned  and  they  pronounced  it  impossible;  he  appealed 
to  the  men  in  office  and  they  said  he  was  insane;  finally  he  appealed  to 
a  sympathetic  woman,  and  she  assisted  him.  In  three  little  vessels, 
which  to-day  would  be  pronounced  unseaworthy,  he  embarked  on  an 
unknown  ocean.  He  sailed  for  months,  with  the  world  against  him, 
the  elements  against  him,  the  crew  against  him,  and  starvation  in  front 
of  him;  but  he  never  faltered  a  moment,  and  finally  sighted  land. 
He  had  defied  and  conquered  the  learning  of  his  time;  the  influences 
of  his  time,  the  authorities  of  his  time,  as  well  as  the  danger  of  the 
elements  and  the  frown  of  the  fates,  and  he  gave  to  the  world  a  new 
science,  a  new  navigation,  a  new  geography,  a  new  continent,  and 
ultimately,  a  new  civilization  and  a  new  hope.  It  was  on  the  continent 
discovered  by  Columbus  that  there  was  the  first  successful  experi- 
ment among  men  of  absolute  freedom  of  religion,  freedom  of  con- 
science, freedom  of  thought,  freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  action, 
and  the  highest  form  of  a  free  man's  government.  It  was  here  that 
the  first  successful  attempt  was  made  of  lifting  up  the  masses  by  uni- 
versal education.  And  it  is  this  continent  which  has  given  to  the  world 
most  of  those  wonderful  inventions  which  have  revolutionized  indus- 
try, have  brought  all  people  close  together,  and  are  covering  the  earth 
with  intelligence.  Nowhere  else  have  the  possibilities  of  human 
achievement,  when  the  mind  is  given  freedom  of  action,  been  so  fully 
exemplified  as  here. 

Let  me  say  in  conclusion,  that  it  was  proper  that  this  celebration 
of  the  discovery  of  America  should  be  held  in  the  United  States,  be- 
cause the  important  results  following  that  discovery  had  their  birth 
here.  Again,  it  was  fitting  that  it  should  be  held  in  Illinois,  for  it 
possesses,  not  only  the  richest,  most  productive  and  extensive  agri- 
cultural resources  of  any  State  in  the  Union,  but,  extending  over  more 
degrees  of  latitude,  it  has  a  greater  variety  of  climate,  and  conse- 
quently of  products,  than  almost  any  other  State;  and  particularly 
was  it  fitting  that  the  great  Exposition  should  be  located  in  the  city 
of  Chicago,  which  exemplifies  more  than  any  other  city  in  the  world, 
not  only  the  possibilities  of  human  achievement  when  the  mind  is 
given  freedom  of  action,  but  has  demonstrated  to  the  world  that  men 


324  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

of  all  nationalities,  of  all  religions,  and  all  conditions  can  live  harmo- 
niously in  the  same  community;  can  toil  side  by  side  and  rally  to  the 
support  of  the  same  flag. 

I  am  proud  to  open  this  building  because  it  is  not  the  creation  of 
either  King  or  Emperor,  but  of  the  independent  citizens  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  and  the  marvels  that  are  on  exhibition  here  are  the  work  of 
their  hands,  and  they  will  go  away  from  here  with  higher  ideals,  with 
newly  kindled  patriotism;  with  renewed  confidence  in  themselves  and 
their  high  destiny,  and  they  and  their  children  will  stand  nearer  the 
altar  of  our  common  country  than  ever  before. 

Let  me  tell  you  another  thing.  In  preparing  for  this  Exposition, 
women  of  different  lands  have  learned  to  help  each  other,  and  thus  the 
nucleus  of  an  international  woman's  organization  has  been  formed, 
the  ultimate,  far-reaching  influence  of  which  in  the  emancipation  of 
her  sex  no  man  can  foresee. 

Now,  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  Illinois  Board,  I  commit  the 
management  of  this,  the  distinctive  Illinois  exhibit,  to  your  hands,  and 
in  doing  so  I  would  remind  you  that  a  great  responsibility  rests  on 
you.  Our  people  are  proud  of  this  State,  they  know  its  riches  and  its 
resources,  they  are  proud  of  its  achievements  and  its  glorious  history, 
and  being  in  a  sense  the  host,  they  want  to  make  an  exhibit  that  shall 
be  a  credit  to  them.  They  have  been  liberal,  even  lavish,  in  supplying 
means  for  this  purpose,  and  will  examine  your  work  with  a  critical 
eye;  but,  judging  from  what  you  have  already  done,  I  am  satisfied 
that  the  honor  and  the  glory  of  the  State  are  here  safely  left  in  your 
hands. 


SPEECH  AT  UNVEILING    OF    SOLDIERS'    MONUMENT. 
(Delivered  at  Jerseyville,  May  3Oth,  1893.) 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  see  here  people  from  all  walks  in  life;  from  all  professions,  pur- 
suits and  avocations;  old,  middle-aged  and  young.  You  have  left 
your  farms,  your  stores  and  your  shops  and  have  gathered  here,  on 
this  beautiful  day,  and  at  this  charming  spot,  and  there  is  something 
in  your  countenances  that  tells  me  that  you  are  not  here  simply  on  a 
holiday  excursion.  You  are  here  for  a  higher,  a  greater  purpose; 
you  have  come  to  commemorate  a  great  event;  you  have  come  to 
cover  the  last  resting  places  of  heroes  with  tributes  of  your  love;  you 
have  come  to  shed  a  tear  over  the  remains  of  some  one  who  was 
dear  to  you.  But  that  is  not  all;  you  have  still  a  higher  purpose; 
you  have  come  to  unveil  to  the  world,  and  to  give  to  mankind,  and  to 


SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT  SPEECH.  325 

the  future,  this  monument,  which  is  an  evidence  of  your  patriotism 
and  an  evidence  of  your  valor  in  the  past.  You  have  not  erected  this 
monument  because  of  the  beauty  of  its  form,  nor  to  decorate  the  land- 
scape. It  is  to  you  not  a  dumb,  inanimate,  speechless  stone;  you 
expect  it  to  talk  to  the  ages  to  come,  and  to  tell  a  story  that  will  be 
brilliant  when  you  and  I  are  gone.  Monuments  are  the  mile-stones 
erected  along  the  pathway  of  time.  They  mark  the  spot  or  they  tell 
the  hour  where  or  when  humanity  halted;  where  or  when  mankind 
struggled;  where  or  when  heroes  died.  They  mark  the  point  where 
a  new  era  begins ;  like  the  hammers  in  the  horologe  of  time  they  an- 
nounce to  the  universe  the  beginning  of  a  new  day. 

What,  then,  is  the  story  which  this  monument  is  to  tell?  A  third 
of  a  century  ago  there  were  heard  the  rumblings  of  war;  a  great  na- 
tion stood,  with  pale  face,  on  the  brink  of  destruction;  there  was 
hanging  in  the  balance  the  question  whether  mankind  was  capable  of 
self-government;  whether  the  great  American  experiment  had  been 
a  failure;  whether  the  people  of  the  earth,  who  had  been  looking 
hither  with  high  hopes  for  the  future,  should  sink  into  disappoint- 
ment and  despair.  There  was  hanging  in  the  balance  the  question, 
whether,  after  all,  there  are  a  few  people,  with  no  superior  virtue  or 
talents,  who  by  reason  of  the  accident  of  birth,  or  of  other  accidental 
advantages,  hold  a  divine  commission  to  govern  their  fellows  and  to 
eat  the  bread  that  others  toil  for;  it  was  the  question  whether  govern- 
ment of  the  people,  for  them  and  by  them,  should  perish  from  the  face 
of  the  earth.  Never  before  in  the  history  of  the  world  was  so  mo- 
mentous, so  far-reaching  a  question  at  stake,  or  a  question  fraught 
with  such  mighty  consequences  to  humanity.  Then  there  came  from 
among  your  midst,  from  your  fields  and  stores  and  shops,  young  men, 
middle-aged  men,  even  old  men;  the  sons  of  widows;  the  heads  of 
families,  the  patriarchs  of  communities,  and  they  offered  themselves 
upon  the  altar  of  their  country.  They  came  by  the  thousand  and  the 
tens  of  thousands.  They  were  free  men,  coming  from  the  homes  of 
free  men,  and  coming  to  the  rescue  of  a  free  government.  They  saw 
before  them  the  spectre  of  disease,  of  privation  and  of  suffering;  they 
read  the  inscription  of  death  in  the  skies,  but  with  heads  erect  and 
unfaltering  feet  they  stepped  to  the  music  of  war.  It  was  not  ignor- 
ance, nor  the  hardihood  of  folly,  that  stimulated  them.  They  had  in- 
telligently counted  the  cost.  They  gave  all  they  had  and  faced  death. 
They  went  to  the  South,  and  this  monument  tells  the  story  that  hun- 
dreds and  thousands  of  them  never  returned.  They  are  buried  in  the 
fields,  the  swamps,  the  forests,  and  the  dark  ravines,  of  what  was  then 
the  enemy's  country.  "Nothing  care  they  for  friend  or  foeman;  for 


326  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

hand  of  man  or  kiss  of  woman;   they  dream  of  battle-fields  no  more; 
of  days  of  danger  and  of  nights  of  waking." 

While  that  fearful  struggle  was  in  progress,  when  from  day  to 
.  day  the  intelligence  reached  the  poor  man's  hut  or  the  rich  man's 
house  in  your  midst,  that  a  son,  or  a  husband,  or  a  father  had  laid 
down  his  arms  forever  and  would  return  no  more,  how  many  there 
were  who  cried  out  in  the  anguish  of  their  souls,  "All  my  heart  is 
buried  with  thee;  all  my  thoughts  go  onward  with  thee."  I  cannot 
picture  that  great  struggle.  The  Nation  was  in  the  field;  it  would 
not  fly;  it  could  not  yield;  its  armies  stretched  across  a  continent, 
from  the  salt  waters  of  the  Altantic  to  the  borders  of  Mexico.  The 
nations  of  the  earth  were  watching  this  great  spectacle;  it  was  to  be 
a.  turning  point  in  the  history  of  government,  in  the  history  of  civiliza- 
tion, in  the  progress  of  humanity,  and  the  heroes  who  gave  up  their 
lives  there  are  beyond  and  above  the  reach  of  our  praise  and  of  our 
admiration.  This  monument  does  not  mark  the  place  of  their  burial. 
All  the  world  is  their  sepulcher,  and  their  epitaphs  are  not  chiseled 
upon  stone,  but  they  are  engraved  upon  the  hearts  of  mankind. 
''Wherever  language  is  spoken,  wherever  there  is  knowledge  of  noble 
deeds,  there  they  are  held  in  remembrance."  What  we  say  and  do  will 
be  forgotten  by  the  morrow;  what  they  did  will  be  sung  through  the 
ages.  We  stand  over  their  graves  and  we  say  to  them,  the  blessings 
of  the  world  shall  follow  you;  and  do  they  hear  us?  Is  there  intelli- 
gence that  can  reach  them  and  give  them  our  good  morning?  Thous- 
ands of  years  ago,  when  the  Greeks  buried  their  heroes  they  looked 
into  their  graves  and  asked  in  grief  and  anguish,  "Is  there  no  work, 
nor  thought,  nor  wisdom,  nor  breathing  of  the  soul  in  the  silence  of 
the  grave?  Will  there  be  no  rolling  of  chariots  nor  voice  of  fame 
heard  in  that  dark  abode?  Wrapt  in  pale  Elysian  mists,  will  you 
waste  on  forever?"  Our  age  gives  us  hope.  We  hear  the  rustling  of 
a  wing;  we  feel  a  breath  from  the  other  shore;  we  do  not  know  when, 
but  are  sure  we  shall  meet  over  there. 

But  if  this  monument  is  not  to  add  to  the  glory  of  the  dead,  what 
is  it  to  teach  the  living?  Greater  things  than  language  can  tell — 
language  can  reach  the  ear,  this  monument  reaches  the  soul;  language 
may  stir  to  temporary  action,  this  monument  to  everlasting  resolve. 
We  can  learn,  first,  that  the  shackles  were  struck  from  four  millions 
of  human  beings  who  had  been  children  of  sorrow  and  victims  of  the 
lash  for  many  dark  centuries.  They  were  set  out  into  the  sunlight 
of  freedom.  Where,  in  all  the  glories  of  the  past,  is  there  such  a 
page?  And  let  me  say  a  word  here  about  these  newly  emancipated 
and  enfranchised  children  of  the  South.  I  know  it  is  claimed  that 


SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT  SPEECH.  327 

the  experiment  of  giving  them  freedom  and  the  ballot  is  a  failure, 
but  they  have  not  yet  had  a  trial.  We  have  no  right  yet  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment; we  have  no  right  yet  to  so  much  as  make  an  inquiry.  Wait 
until  the  third  generation  has  grown  to  manhood.  Ask  yourself  then, 
first:  What  you  have  done  to  help  these  victims  of  ignorance  and  of 
oppression  to  a  higher  manhood  and  a  better  citizenship?  When  the 
white  man  shall  have  demonstrated  that  he  has  done  his  full  duty, 
and  given  them  a  fair  chance,  then  he  may  proceed  to  inquire  how 
the  Negro  is  getting  along;  and  he  should  then  inquire  cautiously, 
for,  if  you  subject  the  Caucasian  race  to  the  treatment  these  people 
have  received,  reduce  them  to  the  condition  of  helplessness  to  which 
they  have  been  reduced,  and  then  give  them  the  treatment  that  they 
are  now  getting,  and  your  proud  Caucasian  race  will  require,  not  thirty 
years,  but  five  times  thirty  years,  before  it  can  make  any  satisfactory 
showing.  Meantime,  let  me  say,  the  colored  race  is  doing  even  better 
than  could  have  been  expected.  It  is  doing  the  work  of  the  South; 
it  is  slowly  imbibing  the  intelligence  of  the  age,  and  what  is  now 
called  a  vexed  question  there  will  in  time  settle  itself. 

Second,  this  monument  should  admonish  us  that  those  old  heroes 
who  were  not  slain  in  battle,  who  have  lived  and  returned  to  us,  are 
entitled  to  consideration;  and  where,  by  reason  of  any  infirmity, 
either  physical  or  mental,  they  cannot  maintain  the  struggle  in  the 
fierce  competition  of  the  times,  we  should  see  to  it  that  these  heroes  do 
not  suffer  for  want  of  bread;  that  they  do  not  languish  in  the  alms- 
houses  of  the  land,  and  are  not  buried  in  the  potter's  field.  The 
government,  which  would  have  no  existence  but  for  what  they  did, 
owes  them  this. 

The  great  struggle  which  this  monument  commemorates  formed 
the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  our  country.  Dormant  energies 
seemed  to  be  all  at  once  let  loose.  In  every  field  of  knowledge,  labor 
and  achievement  mankind  entered  upon  a  new  career,  which  has  given 
us  a  grandeur  and  a  glory  that  surpasses  the  dreams  of  patriots  and  the 
speculation  of  philosophers.  Look  out  upon  our  country  to-day: 
From  ocean  to  ocean,  from  the  frozen  North  to  the  waters  of  the 
Gulf — one  nation,  one  country,  one  people — intelligent,  industrious, 
patriotic.  School  houses,  like  watch  fires,  in  every  neighborhood 
from  Maine  to  California;  colleges  in  almost  every  valley;  great  in- 
dustrial establishments  everywhere;  the  agencies  of  intelligence  and 
for  the  elevation  of  man  at  work  everywhere.  Mankind  never  gazed 
upon  such  a  scene  before.  A  hundred  minarets  may  call  the  Mus- 
sulman to  prayer  at  noonday,  but  it  is  largely  the  worship  of  slaves. 
In  our  country  every  hamlet  has  its  church,  which  appeals  silently  to 


328  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  God  of  nations  and  draws  to  its  altar  the  worship  of  intelligent 
free  men. 

Let  your  children  visit  this  monument.  Let  them  learn  the  story 
it  tells.  Let  them  learn  lessons  of  patriotism.  Let  them  here  dedi- 
cate themselves  to  the  service  of  humanity  and  devote  their  lives  to  the 
glory  of  their  country,  and  let  us,  who  are  older,  learn  from  it  a  serious 
lesson,  for  it  tells  us  that  we  have  a  serious  duty  to  perform,  a 
great  trust  to  discharge ;  that  this  great  country  and  this  government, 
cemented  by  the  blood  of  heroes,  is  committed  to  our  care  and  that 
it  depends  upon  us  and  what  we  do,  as  to  whether  it  shall  continue  to 
be  a  beacon  light  to  all  the  people  of  the  earth;  whether  it  shall  go 
on  in  a  career  of  grandeur,  of  prosperity  and  of  happiness,  or  whether 
it  shall  go  down  in  darkness  and  all  the  heroic  deeds  of  the  past  shall 
be  covered  with  gloom.  And  let  us  swear  over  the  graves  of  our  dead, 
by  the  eternal  Goddess  of  Liberty,  by  the  God  of  Battles  and  the 
Ruler  of  Nations,  that  while  we  live  the  glory  of  our  country  shall 
remain  unsullied. 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  GRADUATES  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF 

ILLINOIS. 

(Delivered  at  Champaign,  June  7,  1893.) 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

The  first  question  which  will  present  itself  for  your  solution  when 
you  leave  these  halls  is  what  to  do  for  a  living:  what  course  to  pursue, 
and  how  to  run  a  career.  This  is  true,  not  only  of  the  young  men,  but 
of  the  young  women.  No  doubt  the  most  felicitous  condition  possible 
for  woman  is  to  be  happily  married  and  to  be  the  center  of  a  refined 
household;  the  object  of  tender  regard  and  love;  surrounded  with  all 
the  comforts  of  life;  but  this  is  an  ideal  condition,  and  the  ideal  is 
rarely  found.  Thousands  cannot  marry  for  want  of  opportunity; 
millions  do  marry,  and  instead  of  being  happy,  they  drag  out  a  mis- 
erable, gloomy  and  slavish  existence.  While  no  condition  is  so 
felicitous  as  that  of  being  happily  married,  there  is  no  one  so  much  to 
be  pitied,  no  one  who  will  carry  so  many  sorrows  through  life,  as 
the  woman  who  is  absolutely  dependent  upon  being  married.,  The 
long  wail  of  woman's  misery,  the  great  black  cloud  stretching  back 
over  her  career  to  the  dawn  of  history  grew  from  the  condition  of 
absolute  dependence  in  which  she  was  kept  by  the  strong  hand  of 
man.  No  matter  how  able  her  brain  or  how  ingenious  her  fingers,  she 
could  not  go  into  the  great  fields  of  human  activity  and  earn  her 
bread ;  an  unreasonable  and  inhuman  custom  forbade  it,  and  when  her 


ADDRESS  TO  GRADUATES.  329 

frame  was  consumed  with  hunger  and  her  soul  was  sinking  into 
despair,  she  had  either  to  eat  the  bread  of  charity,  sell  herself  in  the 
market  place  or  lie  down  by  the  wayside  to  die,  and  she  was  more 
than  human  if  she  did  not  do  all  three. 

AN    AGE   OF    RELIEF. 

In  one  particular,  at  least,  this  age  has  stretched  out  its  hand  to 
her  relief.  It  is  knocking  down  the  barriers  reared  by  selfishness  and 
superstition.  It  is  bidding  her  throw  aside  the  veil  of  slavery  and 
helplessness.  It  is  calling  her  to  step  out  into  the  sunlight.  It  is 
permitting  her  to  stand  by  the  side  of  man  in  the  industries.  It  is 
telling  her  to  do  anything  that  the  great  world  may  have  to  do.  In 
this  country,  at  least,  all  fields  of  human  activity  are  open  to  her. 
Wherever  brain  thinks,  hand  shapes  or  will  directs,  there  she  may  go; 
and  she  has  already  demonstrated  her  ability  to  stand  alone  every- 
where. Let  me  say  to  you,  young  women,  that  nothing  so  surely 
commands  homage  as  independence.  Men  do  not  care  for  what  is 
forced  upon  them  or  is  easily  gotten.  The  things  near  enough  to 
be  admired,  yet  difficult  of  access,  are  the  ones  struggled  for.  Be 
independent  and  the  world  will  come  to  you. 

"But,"  says  an  objector,  "the  world  now  pays  homage  to  woman. 
Why  change  this  glorious  condition?"  Ah,  if  it  only  were  so!  The 
world  pays  homage  to  the  few  who  possess  the  graces,  but,  I  beg 
you,  do  not  insult  the  intelligence  of  the  millions  of  unfortunates  who 
are  being  crushed  because  they  are  weak;  who  are  faint  with  hunger 
and  cold;  who  toil  long  hours  and  earn  only  a  pittance;  the  millions 
for  whom  every  day  brings  new  humiliations,  new  sorrows  and  new 
sufferings.  Do  not  insult  these  by  telling  them  that  the  world  pays 
them  homage.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  women  of  the  age,  and 
holding  high  social  position,  in  a  recent  address,  that  has  the  imprint 
of  genius  on  every  line,  said  on  this  subject:  "Sentimentalists  should 
have  reduced  their  theories  to  set  terms  and  applied  them.  They 
have  had  ample  opportunity  and  time  to  provide  means  by  which 
helpless  women  could  be  cherished,  protected  and  removed  from 
storms  and  stress  of  life.  Women  could  have  asked  nothing  better. 
We  have  no  respect  for  a  theory  which  touches  only  the  favored  few 
who  do  not  need  this  protection,  and  leaves  unaided  the  great  mass 
it  has  assisted  to  push  into  the  mire.  Babble  it  not,  therefore,  until 
it  can  be  uttered,  not  only  in  polite  drawing  rooms,  but  also  in  fac- 
tories and  work-shops,  without  a  blush  of  shame  for  its  weakness 
and  inefficiency." 

To  a  young  man,  the  selection  of  a  vocation  means  more  than 


330  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

simply  making  a  living;  more  than  merely  getting  bread  to  eat.  It 
means  either  failure  and  humiliation,  or  it  means  being  a  man  among 
men;  being  a  leader  in  progress;  being  a  factor  in  your  time;  in 
short,  it  means  a  career.  You  are  fortunate  in  living  in  an  age  when 
possibilities  of  a  career  are  not  confined  to  the  three  professions  and 
the  government — when  you  must  be  either  a  lawyer,  a  doctor,  a 
preacher,  or  serve  the  government.  This  is  an  age  of  individual 
achievement  in  all  lines  of  activity;  an  industrial  and  scientific  age. 
To-day  the  world  does  not  ask  who  you  are,  what  is  your  rank  nor 
what  is  your  lineage.  It  simply  asks:  "What  have  you  done,  or 
what  can  you  do?" 

MEN  WHO   COMMAND   ATTENTION. 

The  men  of  this  age,  whom  history  will  deign  to  notice,  are  the 
men  who  have  spanned  our  rivers,  built  and  operated  our  railroads, 
built  our  cities,  reared  our  mighty  temples  of  learning  and  of  in- 
dustry; the  men  who  have  harnessed  the  lightnings  and  made  them 
beasts  of  burden  for  man;  the  men  who  are  covering  the  earth  with 
intelligence.  It  will  be  the  men  who  are  making  and  moulding  the 
age.  They  will  be  the  kings  and  princes  of  this  century. 

Being  an  officeholder  myself,  I  may  be  pardoned  for  saying  that 
most  of  the  men  who  are  holding  the  offices  and  wielding  authority 
will  be  forgotten  before  the  grass  has  had  time  to  grow  over  them ; 
for  they  are  not  the  great  captains;  they  are  not  the  leaders  of  our 
progress  and  of  our  civilization.  As  a  rule,  they  do  not  gaze  into  the 
firmament  or  measure  the  stars;  their  vision  is  limited  to  the  weather 
vane  on  public  buildings.  They  never  give  the  order  for  advance 
on  any  great  question,  they  wait  to  be  commanded  to  move,  and  then 
hesitate  until  assured  that  it  is  the  voice  of  the  majority  calling  to  them. 
They  wait  until  the  leaders  of  thought  have  captured  the  strong- 
hold of  a  wrong,  and  then  they  try  to  plant  their  flag  over  the  ram- 
parts that  were  stormed  by  others.  As  a  rule,  they  are  moral  cowards, 
following  the  music  wagon  of  their  time,  and  holding  the  penny  of  im- 
mediate advantage  so  close  to  their  eye  as  to  shut  out  the  sunlight 
of  eternal  principles. 

The  second  time  I  say  to  you:  This  is  an  age  of  personal 
achievement.  While  accident  and  a  thousand  things  over  which  you 
have  no  control  will,  to  a  limited  extent,  shape  your  course,  and 
possibly  determine  the  field  in  which  you  are  to  operate,  still,  to  a 
very  great  extent,  your  career  will  be  just  what  you  make  it.  I  warn 
you  that  the  conditions  of  success  are  hard;  that  the  path  to  em- 
inence is  difficult.  The  competition  in  every  field  you  survey  is  fierce; 


ADDRESS   TO   GRADUATES.  331 

the  general  standard  of  intelligence  is  high;  a  remarkable  degree  of 
excellence  has  already  been  achieved;  if  you  do  not  surpass  it  you 
must  stand  with  the  multitude,  and  to  surpass  it  means  to  contest  with 
thousands  who  are  just  as  able,  just  as  bright  and  just  as  ambitious 
as  you  are.  It  requires  spirit  and  tenacity  to  win.  It  is  not  the  size 
of  the  army  that  determines  the  victory,  but  the  spirit  pervading  it. 
It  is  not  the  hardness  of  the  resisting  substance  that  is  to  be  con- 
sidered so  much  as  the  persistence  of  the  attacking  force. 

AN  ADAGE  WHICH  NEVER  FADES. 

I  have  tried  to  frame  a  sentence  that  should  be  an  improvement  on 
the  old  adage,  "Perseverance  wins  the  clay,"  but  I  could  not  do  it. 
To  those  of  you  who  are  literary  experts,  I  say,  "try  it."  It  has  only 
four  words  in  it,  yet  it  tells  the  story  of  every  great  career  and  great 
achievement  in  the  entire  history  of  man.  You  will  pardon  me  for 
repeating  it.  "Perseverance  wins  the  day." 

Perseverance  in  what?  I  say  in  aggression;  in  a  forward  move- 
ment. Perseverance  in  sitting  still  can  achieve  nothing;  cannot  pre- 
vent your  starving  if  you  have  no  bread.  All  progress  is  the  result 
of  aggression;  this  brings  me  to  a  point  I  want  to  emphasize:  Ag- 
gression is  the  father  of  greatness  and  the  mother  of  achievement. 
It  is  the  aggressive,  the  attacking  armies  of  the  world  that  still  excite 
our  wonder.  Alexander  commanded  aggressive  armies,  Hannibal 
crossed  the  Alps  with  an  aggressive  army,  Caesar  conquered  the  world 
by  aggression,  Frederick  the  Great  and  Napoleon  changed  the  map 
of  Europe  by  forward  movements.  To  be  sure,  there  are  isolated 
cases  of  heroic  defenses,  but  these  are  rather  the  still  places  in  the 
water;  the  great  current  is  running  the  other  way.  In  science,  in 
literature,  in  art,  in  government,  in  learning,  in  the  industries,  in  the 
thousand  changes  that  have  given  us  the  glories  of  the  century,  we 
see  the  spirit  and  the  hand  of  aggression. 

Let  me  now  say  a  word  about  the  indispensable  handmaid  of  both 
perseverance  and  aggression,  and  that  is  labor — hard  labor,  without 
which  nothing  is  accomplished  in  life.  It  is  labor  that  lays  the  founda- 
tions of  empires,  that  clears  up  continents,  that  builds  cities,  that  op- 
erates railroads,  gathers  news,  prints  papers,  cultivates  the  earth, 
feeds  the  nations  and  elevates  man,  and  it  is  the  men  who  toil  with 
their  hands  that  are  entitled  to  special  consideration,  although  they 
get  little  credit  for  their  work.  The  men  who  gather  at  banquets 
dressed  in  fine  linen  and  soft  raiment  may  imagine  that  they  are  the 
State,  but  it  is  not  so.  Many  of  them  are  simply  parasites,  eating 
bread  that  others  toil  for;  all  could  be  wiped  out  and  the  nation  would 


332  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

go  right  on;  they  would  scarcely  be  missed.  It  is  the  intelligent  men 
who  create  and  produce  the  things  that  make  a  State,  who  are  its 
bulwarks.  Remove  them  suddenly  from  existence  and  the  State  is 
lost. 

Let  me  impress  upon  you  that  labor  is  the  only  door  to  achieve- 
ment; there  is  no  other  way  open.  I  address  you  on  the  assump- 
tion that  you  want  to  do  more  than  merely  live.  The  four-footed  kine 
which  lie  down,  rise  up  and  lie  down  again,  do  this.  If  you  are  willing 
to  be  simply  some  rich  man's  son-in-law  and  be  taken  care  of,  then  I 
have  nothing  to  say  to  you.  If  you  are  content  to  simply  be  well 
clothed,  well  fed  and  well  housed,  and  occasionally  invited  to  a  thanks- 
giving dinner,  then  you  must  take  little  interest  in  my  address.  But 
the  fact  that  you  have  had  the  spirit  to  pursue  your  course  through 
college,  convinces  me  that  you  have  higher  aims,  and  I  commend 
you  to  the  goddess  of  ambition.  True,  she  cannot  change  the  laws 
by  which  the  Almighty  governs  the  universe;  she  cannot  remove  the 
accursed  stuff  that  weighs  upon  the  heart;  she  cannot  soften  the  pillow 
upon  which  you  end  your  career  nor  light  the  way  through  the  dark- 
ness beyond.  You  must  go  to  another  altar  for  these  things;  but  she 
teaches  the  three  great  virtues  of  labor,  aggression  and  perseverance, 
and  she  points  her  pupils  to  the  experience  of  the  world  to  show  them 
that  dishonesty  rots  a  man  down,  limits  his  usefulness  and  shortens  his 
career,  and  that  therefore  he  is  a  fool  who  will  pursue  that  path. 
She  loves  her  votaries  and  few  be  they  who,  following  her  precepts, 
come  away  from  her  altars  empty-handed,  or  visit  her  shrine  in  vain. 

BRAINS  MANAGE  AFFAIRS  OF  MEN. 

You  will  find,  as  you  go  out  into  the  world,  that  most  of  the  affairs 
of  the  country,  both  governmental  and  civil,  banking,  manufacturing, 
merchanting,  railroading,  etc.,  are  managed  by  men  who  either  had  no 
collegiate  training  or  else  came  from  the  smaller  colleges,  and  not 
from  the  great  universities  of  the  East ;  and  those  few  men  who  come 
from  those  institutions  and  are  in  any  way  conspicuous,  graduated 
there  when  the  institutions  were  smaller,  and  not  so  rich.  I  do  not 
know  the  reason  for  this,  unless  it  is  that  the  young  men  there  be- 
come institutionized.  That  is,  they  are  educated  out  of  or  away  from 
the  spirit  that  prevails  among  the  people,  and  having  been  so  long 
under  tutelage  they  lose  all  self-reliance,  and  the  consequent  ability 
to  go  out  and  manage  affairs.  In  fact,  starting  as  rich  men's  sons, 
they  learn  little  or  nothing  about  the  practical  side  of  life  before  enter- 
ing college,  and  they  leave  when  almost  at  middle  age,  with  no  knowl- 
edge of  affairs  except  the  art  of  spending  money.  You  will  find  grad- 


'ADDRESS  TO  GRADUATES.  333 

uates  by  the  hundred  who  have  come  from  the  large  Eastern  universi- 
ties, and  very  many  from  great  European  universities,  who  are  un- 
able to  make  a  living.  They  have  to  be  cared  for  almost  as  a  fash- 
ionable young  woman  must  be.  Although  they  seemed  to  have  fair 
natural  ability,  they  are  helpless ;  helpless  at  the  bar,  in  the  pulpit,  and 
in  affairs. 

You  will  also  soon  learn  that,  while  a  college  education  is  invalu- 
able, it  is  not  the  end  and  aim  of  life.  It  is  only  a  training  to  begin 
work.  I  have  already  said  the  conditions  of  success  are  hard.  You 
must  get  right  down  on  the  ground;  understand  the  spirit  of  every- 
day life;  understand  human  nature  and  the  spirit  that  pervades  the 
affairs  of  men,  and  work  up  along  that  line.  If  you  understand  how 
to  do  this,  then,  with  your  college  training,  your  progress  will  be 
rapid;  otherwise,  it  will  fail.  You  cannot  step  out  of  the  university 
into  a  high  position,  and  it  is  not  best  that  you  should;  for,  without 
a  practical  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  without  understanding 
the  spirit  of  everyday  affairs,  without  actual  contact  with  them,  you 
would  soon  fail.  You  are  to  be  congratulated  on  attending  a  college 
where  you  are  kept  as  near  the  people  as  possible!  and  where 
those  conditions  have  not  yet  grown  up  which  tend  to  give  a  false 
notion  of  life. 

Again,  if  you  want  to  be  a  potent  factor  in  your  day,  then  you  are 
to  be  congratulated  on  attending  a  college  which  endeavors  to  meet 
the  need  of  the  times,  and  to  prepare  young  men  for  the  great  practical 
problems  which  confront  them.  I  have  nothing  to  say  against  the 
dead  languages.  I  suppose  there  are  cases  in  which  a  man  should 
study  them,  but  the  impression  made  upon  my  mind,  from  a  wide  ob- 
servation at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench,  was  that  the  only  thing  that 
Greek  did  for  a  man  now  was  to  enable  him  to  take  a  licking  philo- 
sophically, and  that,  usually,  from  a  man  who  never  heard  of  Homer 
nor  his  Iliad,  but  who  understood  the  spirit  of  modern  affairs.  Do 
not  understand  me  to  undervalue  the  refining  effect  of  literature  on  the 
mind.  It  is  a  necessity,  but  it  would  be  strange  indeed  if,  with  all 
the  genius  and  eloquence  of  the  last  century,  we  did  not  have  English 
classics  equal  to,  if  they  did  not  surpass,  anything  written  in  Greek, 
and,  I  believe,  some  of  the  ablest  Greek  scholars  are  beginning  to 
admit  this. 

TRUE   MEANING   OF   EDUCATION. 

Education  means  training,  not  memorizing  or  stuffing.  The  mind 
must  be  a  workshop,  not  a  storehouse.  It  has  at  times  seemed  to  me 
that  many  young  men  coming  from  the  great  universities,  had  had 


334  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

their  minds  transformed  into  garrets,  in  which  you  could  find  many 
antique  and  interesting  old  things,  but  nothing  that  was  needed  in  a 
modern  workshop.  Consequently  they  found  themselves  three  thou- 
sand years  behind  the  times  and  unable  to  make  a  living.  Bear  in 
mind,  there  is  nothing  perfect  on  earth ;  don't  expect  it,  for  you  will 
be  disappointed.  The  stronger  force  devours  the  weaker — in  the 
woods,  in  the  water,  in  the  church,  in  business — in  fact,  everywhere. 
Institutions  are  at  best  only  on  a  level  with  the  men  of  the  times,  and 
frequently  a  hundred  years  behind.  You  expect  ministers  of  the 
gospel  to  be  better  than  other  men.  Why  should  you?  They  are 
human,  with  all  the  weaknesses  of  humanity.  They  are  teachers,  and 
they  should  do  their  best  to  set  an  example.  At  least  many  of  them 
are  trying  to  elevate  the  race,  .and  to  inculcate  what  they  believe  to  be 
eternal  truths,  and  are  doing  the  best  they  can.  That  is  all  you  have 
a  right  to  ask  of  them. 

You  turn  to  the  courts  of  justice;  you  think  of  a  goddess,  blind- 
folded, holding  the  scales;  you  recall  eloquent  things  about  eternal 
justice,  etc.,  and  you  say,  here  I  will  find  exact  right,  here  wrongs  are 
corrected,  the  strong  are  curbed  and  the  weak  protected.  You  will 
be  disappointed.  The  administration  of  justice,  or  rather  of  the  laws, 
is  better  than  it  ever  has  been,  but  it  is  only  a  struggling  toward  the 
right;  only  a  blind  groping  in  the  darkness  toward  light.  The  men 
who  administer  the  laws  are  human,  with  all  the  failings  of  humanity. 
They  take  their  biases,  their  prejudices,  with  them  onto  the  bench. 
Upon  the  whole,  they  try  to  do  the  best  they  can;  but  the  wrongs 
done  in  the  courts  of  justice  themselves  are  so  great  that  they  cry  to 
heaven.  You  say,  why  not  abolish  this  if  this  is  so?  Because  we 
have  nothing  better  to  put  in  their  place,  and,  defective  as  they  are, 
they  are  an  immeasurable  improvement  on  the  savage  state,  where 
each  man  righted  his  own  wrongs,  whether  fancied  or  real. 

Again,  you  have  read  eloquent  chapters  about  the  origin  of  gov- 
ernment. Let  me  say  to  you  they  are  simply  romance;  they  belong 
to  the  realm  of  fiction.  You  say,  "Here  only  those  things  are  con- 
sidered which  are  for  the  best  interest  of  man."  Well,  that  is  the  ideal 
government  and  does  not  exist.  Government  grew  out  of  an  effort  to 
further  selfish  purposes  and  personal  interests.  It  has  improved  a 
little  at  every  step  in  its  history,  and  has  broadened  out  and  is  more 
humane  in  its  character  now  than  ever  before.  But  to-day  you  find 
legislative  bodies  everywhere,  here  and  in  Europe,  made  up  of  repre- 
sentatives of  selfish  interests,  and  instead  of  standing  on  ideal  ground 
and  considering  only  what  is  for  the  best  interest  of  mankind,  it  is 
simply  a  struggle  by  one  selfish  interest  to  get  an  advantage  over 


'ADDRESS   TO  GRADUATES.  335 

another.  And  it  always  has  been  so.  The  point  where  conflicting 
selfish  interests  compromise  or  check  each  other,  that  point  marks  the 
level  of  the  law,  and  the  wrongs  done  by  government  are  so  great 
that  they  can  be  measured  only  by  the  eye  of  omniscience.  Some 
shortsighted  people,  seeing  this  fact,  conclude  it  ought  to  be  abolished. 
This  is  a  fatal  mistake.  Defective  as  it  is,  it  is  yet  the  best  that  man 
has  been  able  to  devise,  and  until  the  level  of  morality  and  intelligence 
is  elevated  no  better  can  be  devised.  People  who  talk  about  the  aboli- 
tion of  government  fail  to  consider  the  one  great,  all-important  factor, 
and  that  is  human  selfishness.  The  same  selfishness  which  has  dis- 
figured the  governments  of  the  present  will  shape  the  new  ones  and 
make  them  worse  than  the  present,  because  it  was  only  after  centuries 
of  effort  that  they  could  be  made  as  good  as  they  are.  But  you  say, 
"If  this  is  the  case,  had  we  not  better  keep  still  about  the  real  char- 
acter of  the  courts,  the  government  and  all  institutions;  won't  it  do 
harm  to  talk  about  it?"  No.  The  greatest  reformer  and  purifier  in  the 
physical  world  is  the  sun.  Let  sunlight  into  the  dark  places  and  the 
poisons  collected  there  disappear.  So  with  the  dark  places  in  the 
government  and  civil  affairs  that  are  now  festering  with  wrong;  let 
the  sunlight  of  eternal  truth  and  justice  shine  on  them  and  they  will 
disappear.  Wherever  there  is  a  wrong,  point  it  out  to  all  the  world, 
and  you  can  trust  the  people  to  right  it.  Wrongs  thrive  in  secrecy  and 
darkness. 

REASON  FOR  PLAIN  LANGUAGE. 

Another  reason  why  I  talk  thus  plainly  to  you  is  to  impress  upon 
you  that  the  ideal  has  not  yet  come.  In  the  pulpit,  in  the  courts,  in 
government,  in  business — everywhere  there  is  a  kind  of  blind  groping 
toward  it,  and  that  man  will  render  mankind  the  greatest  service  who, 
recognizing  this  fact,  will  help  the  race  onward  to  this  high  plane  of 
eternal  sunlight.  And  let  me  say,  that  all  great  reforms,  great  move- 
ments, come  from  the  bottom  and  not  the  top. 

Here  I  want  to  congratulate  you,  or  certainly  most  of  you,  upon 
not  having  enervating  riches  or  a  paralyzing  pedigree.  It  is  grati- 
fying to  have  had  an  honorable  ancestry,  but  the  fates  seem  to  have 
decreed  that  great  men  shall  not  have  great  sons.  Great  philoso- 
phers are  not  the  sons  of  great  philosophers;  great  generals  not  the 
sons  of  great  generals;  great  statesmen  not  the  sons  of  great  states- 
men; great  engineers  not  the  sons  of  great  engineers,  and  so  on 
through  the  whole  category.  Ex-Senator  Ingalls,  of  Kansas,  the  most 
brilliant  epigrammatist  of  our  country,  recently  said:  "A  pedigree 
may  be  gratifying  to  pride,  but  it  is  not  consoling  to  ambition."  One 
thing,  however,  must  be  said  of  nearly  all  great  men:  They  had  not 


336  'LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

brilliant  but  very  sensible  mothers.  As  to  riches — they  are  a  great 
advantage  after  you  have  developed  ability;  after  your  character  is 
formed  and  your  habits  of  industry  are  fixed,  but  until  this  is  the  case, 
riches  shut  the  gate  to  the  pathway  of  glory.  This  is  a  strange  decree 
of  nature.  You  would  suppose  that  the  surroundings  of  wealth  and 
refinement  and  the  fact  of  distinguished  ancestry  would  tend  to  form 
a  higher  grade  of  men,  of  superior  power  and  usefulness,  but  just  the 
contrary  is  the  case.  Luxury  does  not  form  the  hard,  strong  fiber 
necessary  to  greatness.  The  everywhere  present  and  always  active 
law  of  disintegration  pulls  them  down.  Read  Froude's  "Life  of 
Caesar,"  a  little  volume,  and  you  will  be  astonished  to  see  how  the 
vices  and  follies  of  the  aristocracy  helped  to  pull  down  the  mighty 
Roman  Empire.  Read  the  first  five  or  six  chapters  of  Trevellian's 
"Life  of  Charles  James  Fox,"  and  you  will  be  amazed  to  see  how  de- 
bauchery devoured  the  so-called  noblemen  of  England  in  the  last 
century.  It  was  new  blood  continually  coming  up  from  the  ground 
that  saved  the  empire.  Notice  some  of  the  rich  men's  sons  in  dudish 
attire  lounging  around  the  club  rooms  of  our  cities  and  aping  English 
manners,  and  you  will  understand  the  feelings  of  the  old  farmer,  who 
exclaimed  when  he  first  saw  one:  "Gosh!  what  things  a  feller  sees 
when  he  hain't  got  his  gun  along."  The  trouble  with  rich  men's  sons, 
even  when  they  are  not  dudes,  is  that  they  are  too  much  taken  up  with 
society  matters  where  the  atmosphere  is  not  congenial  to  greatness. 
As  a  rule,  the  men  who  have  done  great  things  for  the  world  were  not 
society  men.  The  immortal  Pericles  who  made  Athens  the  wonder  of 
the  world  is  known  to  have  attended  but  one  evening's  enter- 
tainment in  his  life.  I  repeat  that  all  great  things,  great  move- 
ments and  great  reforms  grow  from  the  ground  up  and  not  from  the 
top  downward. 

When  you  go  away  from  this  institution  in  search  of  work,  you  will 
find  capital  consolidated ;  instead  of  a  few  men,  hundreds,  sometimes 
thousands,  are  working  in  one  establishment.  You  can't  see  the 
owners;  you  see  only  the  manager,  who  will  deal  more  harshly  with 
you  than  the  owners  would,  for  the  manager  wants  to  make  a  good 
showing;  wants  to  get  his  salary  raised;  wants  to  make  his  own 
family  a  little  more  comfortable.  He  cannot  cut  salaries  above  him, 
so  he  presses  hard  below  him.  You  will  consider  this  unjust,  but 
don't  forget  that  selfishness  is  yet  the  governing  force  in  the  world. 
You  cannot  change  it,  and  therefore  you  must  make  the  best  of  it. 

Let  me  tell  you  something,  confidentially,  here.  If  you  are  sent 
to  bring  something,  bring  it,  and  not  an  explanation.  If  you  agree 
to  do  something,  do  it;  don't  come  back  with  an  explanation.  Ex- 


ADDRESS    TO   GRADUATES.  337 

planations  as  to  how  you  came  to  fail  are  not  worth  two  cents  a  ton. 
Nobody  wants  them  or  cares  for  them.  The  fact  that  you  met  with  an 
accident  and  got  your  legs  broken,  your  neck  twisted  and  your  head 
smashed  is  not  equal  to  a  delivery  of  the  goods. 

Let  me  tell  you  another  thing,  also  confidentially.  Only  about 
one-fourth  of  your  efforts  will  produce  satisfactory  results.  The 
sower  went  forth  to  sow ;  some  fell  by  the  wayside  and  the  birds  got  it ; 
some  fell  in  stony  places  and  it  could  not  get  root;  some  fell  among 
thorns  and  got  choked  by  its  wicked  neighbors,  and  some  fell  on 
fertile  ground  and  brought  forth  a  harvest.  It  always  has  been  thus 
and  is  everywhere  so  to-day.  If  all  the  efforts  I  have  made,  which 
have  produced  no  results,  were  collected  and  piled  on  top  of  me,  they 
would  bury  me  so  deep  that  Gabriel's  horn  would  never  awaken  me. 
You  say  I  am  making  you  a  pessimistic  speech.  Xot  at  all.  I  am 
simply  telling  you  what  there  is  ahead.  The  old  cardinal  said  to  the 
young  woman:  "You  are  Richelieu's  ward;  you  are  a  soldier's  wife; 
you  must  not  shrink  from  hearing  the  truth." 

Now,  young  friends,  you  are  children  of  the  great  State  of  Illinois ; 
you  have  shown  pluck,  ambition  and  spirit;  you  are  college  graduates; 
you  are  going  out  as  soldiers  in  this  great  intellectual  and  industrial 
battle;  it  is  necessary  that  you  should  understand  the  character  of  the 
situation.  Besides,  I  have  been  talking  to  you  about  seed  time;  about 
preparing  the  ground,  planting  the  seed  and  tilling  the  field.  I  have 
said  nothing  about  the  harvest;  it  was  not  necessary;  the  harvest 
will  be  looked  after.  Men  don't  grow  eloquent  in  the  seed  time;  it  is 
all  toil  then;  but  when  the  harvest  is  gathered  and  the  barn  is  filled 
with  golden  grain,  'tis  then  that  the  heart  is  glad  and  man  rejoices. 
And  let  me  say  to  you,  in  conclusion,  that  just  as  sure  as  effect  follows 
cause,  as  sunlight  follows  darkness,  just  so  sure  does  harvest  follow 
sowing;  just  so  sure  does  reward  follow  honest  effort.  Do  your  duty; 
work  while  it  is  time  to  work;  be  true  to  yourselves  and  your  nobler 
manhood;  stand  by  the  flag  of  your  country,  and  not  only  will  your 
last  days  be  days  of  gladness,  but  you  will  reach  the  high  places  of  this 
universe,  and  your  eyes  will  gaze  upon  the  golden  mountain  tops 
where  dwell  the  spirits  of  the  dawn. 


338  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

OFFICE  HOLDERS  MORAL  COWARDS. 
POTENCY  OF  THE  PRIVATE  INDIVIDUAL. 
(Interview,  "Evening  Post,"  Chicago,  July  31,  1891.) 

Judge  John  P.  Altgeld  passed  his  last  day  upon  the  Superior  Court 
bench  of  Cook  county  to-day.  He  came  down  at  10:30  and  found 
but  one  litigant  in  his  court,  a  lawyer's  clerk,  who  wanted  some  un- 
important motion  entered  of  record.  The  dockets  were  cleared  up, 
and  at  n  o'clock  the  well-known  jurist  and  able  lawyer  was  ready  to 
lay  aside  the  honors  and  duties  of  the  judgeship.  To  a  reporter  for  the 
Evening  Post,  Judge  Altgeld  talked  freely  upon  a  number  of  im- 
portant topics  appertaining  directly  and  indirectly  to  the  high  office 
which  he  was  about  to  vacate. 

"Do  you  expect  to  resume  the  practice  of  law?" 

"After  a  while  I  expect  to  resume  my  law  practice  to  some  extent." 

"Will  you  in  future  take  part  in  politics?" 

"I  do  not  expect  to  take  any  more  interest  in  politics  than  any 
ordinary  citizen." 

"Is  there  any  truth  in  the  statement  that  you  are  a  candidate  for  the 
office  of  Governor?" 

"No.    I  am  not  a  candidate  for  any  office." 

"Suppose  you  were  tendered  the  nomination,  would  you  accept  it?" 

"That  is  an  idle  supposition.  There  is  going  to  be  a  scramble  next 
year  for  the  nomination  for  Governor.  I  do  not  want  to  be  Governor 
and  naturally  do  not  wish  to  enter  a  scramble  for  something  I  do  not 
want.  Understand  me,  I  am  not  declining  something  that  has  not 
been  offered  and  that  is  not  within  reach.  I  believe  in  the  private 
individual.  It  is  the  successful  private  individual  who  is  the  im- 
portant factor  in  American  society — the  man  who  has  convictions 
and  who  dares  to  express  them.  The  whole  officeholding  class  is 
getting  to  be  a  cowardly  hanging  on  class,  which  always  is  careful  to 
see  how  the  wind  blows  before  daring  to  either  have  or  express  an 
opinion,  and  the  result  is  it  is  a  negative  class.  They  do  not  lead  in 
public  opinion  or  in  the  formation  of  a  public  sentiment  on  any  ques- 
tion. We  have  in  this  country  now  forty  odd  Governors,  and  it 
would  be  difficult  for  any  man  to  point  out  wherein  the  whole  forty 
had,  for  ten  years,  done  anything  of  an  enduring  character  for  their 
country,  or  for  the  progress  of  civilization.  We  have  several  hundred 
Congressmen,  we  have  legislators  without  number,  we  count  even  our 
judges  by  the  hundred,  and  taking  the  whole  officeholding  class  to- 
gether, it  is  difficult  to  point  out  wherein  it  does  anything  that  can  be 


OFFICE-HOLDERS  MORAL  COWARDS.  339 

regarded  as  raising  the  standard  of  public  morals,  creating  a  healthy 
public  sentiment,  or  solving  in  a  proper  manner  any  of  the  great  ques- 
tions, both  economic  and  social,  that  are  calling  for  solution.  On 
the  contrary,  the  whole  officeholding  fraternity  simply  follows  the 
public  band  wagon.  The  really  influential  men  in  America  are,  I  re- 
peat, the  successful  private  individuals — positive  men,  earnest,  con- 
scientious, thorough-going  men.  Take  successful  business  men,  suc- 
cessful manufacturers,  leading  railroad  men,  lawyers,  physicians,  and 
even  preachers,  when  they  have  sufficient  independence  to  develop 
any  individuality — these  are  the  men  who  mold  public  opinion  and 
whose  favor  and  support  is  sought  by  the  politicians,  and  who,  in  the 
end,  secure  legislation  and  shape  the  policy  of  the  country,  using  the 
officeholding  classes  simply  as  instruments  by  which  to  carry  out  a 
purpose.  While  politics  has  a  strong  fascination  for  me,  just  as 
gambling  has  for  some  men,  and  I  have,  consequently,  at  different 
times  taken  part  in  politics,  yet  I  have  always  felt  that  I  would  be  a 
great  deal  better  off  and  could  do  more  for  my  country  if  I  would  let 
politics  alone." 

"Have  you,  then,  no  future  policy  in  regard  to  political  life?" 

"Absolutely  none." 

"What  are  your  views  on  the  question  of  the  salaries  paid  the 
judges  of  Cook  county?  Several  lawyers,  including  some  judges, 
have  said  the  salary  paid  was  not  high  enough  to  have  secured  the  best 
men  for  the  bench?" 

"I  have  always  regarded  the  salary  paid  the  judges  in  Cook 
county  as  not  only  ample,  but  exceedingly  liberal,  and  the  truth  is  that 
there  are  very  few  men  on  the  bench  here  who  ever  made  as  much 
practicing  law  as  they  are  making  as  judges.  High  salary  does  not 
secure  the  highest  order  of  judges.  New  York  City  pays  almost 
fancy  salaries  to  its  local  judges,  and  the  bench  there  will  not  com- 
pare favorably  with  the  bench  in  other  cities  where  the  salary  is  very 
low.  The  truth  is,  that  when  the  salary  is  made  very  high  the  office 
becomes  a  plum  which  is  scrambled  for  by  the  politicians,  and  the 
abler  lawyers  and  modest  men  decline  to  enter  into  the  contest. 
There  are  many  very  able  lawyers  at  our  bar  who  would  be  glad  to 
serve  the  public  on  the  bench  for  even  a  much  lower  salary  than  is 
now  paid,  provided  they  could  get  the  positions  without  a  political 
scramble. 

"Further,  outside  of  Chicago  the  judges  get  only  one-half  what  is 
paid  here ;  they  have  to  work  the  whole  year,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
do  much  more  business  during  the  year  than  Chicago  judges  do, 
for  they  frequently  open  court  at  8  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  run 


340  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

until  9  o'clock  at  night,  and  it  is  claimed  by  lawyers  who  practice 
throughout  the  State,  as  well  as  in  Chicago,  that  the  bench  in  the 
country  is  much  abler  than  in  Chicago.  Being  still  on  the  bench 
myself,"  added  the  Judge,  with  a  smile,  "I  can  talk  with  a  little  more 
freedom  on  this  subject  than  I  otherwise  could. 

"The  people  of  Chicago  will  have  no  trouble  in  getting  plenty 
of  good  men  to  serve  them  as  judges,  and  in  my  opinion  they  will  get 
a  higher  order  of  talent  and  get  more  painstaking  and  conscientious 
men,  if  the  salary  of  judges  is  not  increased,  than  if  it  is  increased." 

"Have  you  any  ideas  as  to  how  the  judgeships  could  be  taken  out 
of  the  ordinary  scramble  and  swirl  of  politics?"  was  asked. 

"I  do  not  believe  in  taking  the  election  of  judges  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  people,"  answered  Judge  Altgeld,  after  a  minute's  meditation. 
"The  people  can  be  trusted  in  the  long  run  to  discriminate  in  this 
regard  and  select  pretty  good  men.  I  do  not  believe  in  a  few  com- 
mitteemen  sitting  in  a  back  room  and  determining  who  ,shall  and  who 
shall  not  occupy  a  position  on  the  bench,  and  while  it  is  desirable  that 
the  bench  shall  be  non-partisan,  I  question  whether  the  attempt  to 
have  a  few  men  select  judges  and  divide  them  between  the  parties, 
will,  in  the  end,  prove  satisfactory.  I  would  leave  it  in  the  hands  of 
the  people",  as  it  has  been,  but  I  would  not  convert  the  office  into 
such  a  fat  plum  that  it  would  be  sought  after  by  any  other  class  of  men 
than  those,  who,  from  the  very  highest  motives,  are  willing  to  serve 
the  public  as  judges,  without  reference  to  any  extraordinary  moneyed 
compensation,  and,  I  will  repeat,  there  are  many  men,  who  have  long 
been  an  ornament  to  the  Chicago  bar,  and  who  would  be  an  honor  to 
the  bench,  who  would  serve  for  even  a  much  smaller  salary  than  is 
now  paid,  if  they  were  not  elbowed  out  of  the  way  by  politicians." 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  LABORING  MEN  OF  CHICAGO. 
(Delivered  September  8,  1893.) 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

You  are  to  be  congratulated  on  the  success  of  your  celebration. 
Two  great  demonstrations  in  Chicago  alone  are  vying  with  each  other 
in  honoring  Labor  Day.  These  vast  assemblages  represent  sturdy 
manhood  and  womanhood.  They  represent  honest  toil  of  every  kind, 
and  they  represent  strong  patriotism  and  desirable  citizenship.  The 
law  has  set  apart  this  day  in  recognition  of  the  nobility  of  labor,  and 
as  the  Governor  of  this  great  State,  I  have  come  to  pay  homage  to  that 
force  which  lays  the  foundation  of  empires,  which  builds  cities,  builds 


ADDRESS   TO   LABORING  MEN.  341 

railroads,  develops  agriculture,  supports  schools,  founds  industries, 
creates  commerce,  and  moves  the  world.  It  is  wisely  directed  labor 
that  has  made  our  country  the  greatest  ever  known,  and  has  made 
Chicago  the  wonder  of  mankind.  I  say  wisely  directed  labor;  for 
without  wise  direction  labor  is  fruitless.  The  pointing  out  and  thie 
doing  are  inseparably  connected.  More  than  this,  ahead  of  the  direct- 
ing, there  must  go  the  genius  which  originates  and  conceives,  the 
genius  which  takes  the  risk  and  moves  a  league  forward.  All  three 
are  necessary  to  each  other.  Weaken  either,  and  there  are  clouds  in 
the  sky.  Destroy  either,  and  the  hammer  of  industry  ceases  to  be 
heard.  Glance  over  this  majestic  city,  see  its  workshops,  its  ware- 
houses, its  commercial  palaces,  its  office  temples,  and  the  thousand 
other  structures  that  show  the  possibilities  of  human  achievement  and 
tell  who  did  all  this.  You  say  the  laboring  men;  yes,  that  is  correct; 
but  I  tell  you  that  if  the  gods  keep  a  record  of  our  doings,  they  have  set 
down  the  men  who  originated  all  this,  and  then  dared  to  make  a  for- 
ward step  in  building,  as  among  the  greatest  of  laborers.  We  are  at 
present  in  the  midst  of  a  great  industrial  and  commercial  depression. 
Industry  is  nearly  at  a  stand-still  all  over  the  earth.  The  consump- 
tive power,  or  rather  the  purchasing  power,  of  the  world  has  been  in- 
terfered with,  producing  not  only  a  derangement  but  a  paralysis,  not 
only  stopping  further  production,  but  preventing  the  proper  distribu- 
tion of  what  there  is  already  created;  so  that  we  have  the  anomalous 
spectacle  of  abundant  food  products  on  the  one  hand,  and  hungry  men 
without  bread  on  the  other.  Abundant  fabrics  on  the  one  hand,  and 
industrious,  frugal  men  going  half  clad  on  the  other.  Employer  and 
employe  are  affected  alike. 

There  are  thousands  of  honest,  industrious  and  frugal  men  who 
walk  the  streets  all  day  in  search  of  work,  and  even  bread,  and  there 
are  many  hundreds  of  the  most  enterprising  employers  who  sweat  by 
day  and  walk  the  floor  by  night  trying  to  devise  means  to  keep  the 
sheriff  away  from  the  establishment.  You  are  not  responsible  for 
this  condition.  Men  here  and  in  Europe,  who  call  themselves  states- 
men, have  inaugurated  policies  of  which  this  is  a  natural  result.  Con- 
sidering the  increase  in  population,  the  increase  in  the  industries  and 
commercial  activity  of  the  world,  as  well  as  the  increased  area  over 
which  business  was  done,  there  has  in  recent  years  been  a  practical  re- 
duction in  the  volume  of  the  money  of  the  world  of  from  thirty-three 
to  forty  per  cent.,  and  there  had  of  necessity  to  follow  a  shrinkage  in 
the  value  of  property  to  a  corresponding  extent.  This  has  been  going 
on  for  a  number  of  years,  and  as  it  has  progressed  it  has  become 
harder  and  harder  for  the  debtor  to  meet  his  obligations.  For  the 


342  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

value  of  his  property  kept  falling  while  his  debt  did  not  fall.  Conse- 
quently, every  little  while  a  lot  of  debtors,  who  could  no  longer  stand 
the  strain,  succumbed.  The  result  was  that  each  time  there  was  a 
flurry  in  financial  circles.  By  degrees  these  failures  became  more  fre- 
quent, until  finally  people  who  had  money  took  alarm,  and  withdrew  it 
from  circulation.  This  precipitated  a  panic  and  with  it  a  harvest  of 
bankruptcy.  No  doubt  there  were  secondary  causes  that  contributed, 
but  this  one  cause  was  sufficient  to  create  the  distress  that  we  see.  If 
for  some  years  to  come  there  should  not  be  sufficient  blood  in  the  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  world  to  make  affairs  healthy,  then  you  must 
console  yourselves  with  the  thought  that  our  country,  with  all  the 
other  great  nations,  has  been  placed  on  a  narrow  gold  basis,  and  you 
•will  not  be  troubled  with  any  of  these  cheap  dollars  that  the  big  news- 
papers claim  you  did  not  want.  The  present  depression,  resulting 
from  a  lack  of  ready  money  in  the  world,  shows  how  indispensable 
capital  is  to  labor — all  the  wheels  of  industry  stand  still  the  moment  it 
is  withdrawn.  It  also  shows  that  while  the  interests  of  the  employer 
and  the  employe  may  be  antagonistic  on  the  subject  of  wages,  they  are 
the  same  in  every  other  respect ;  neither  can  do  anything  without  the 
other — certain  it  is  that  the  employe  cannot  prosper  unless  the  em- 
ployer does.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  purchasing  power  of  the  em- 
ploye is  destroyed,  the  employer  must  soon  be  without  a  market  for 
his  goods.  The  great  American  market  was  due  to  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  laboring  classes.  If  this  should  in  the  end  be  destroyed 
it  will  change  entirely  the  character  of  our  institutions.  Whenever 
our  laboring  classes  are  reduced  to  a  condition  where  they  can  buy 
only  a  few  coarse  articles  of  food  and  clothing,  then  our  glory  will 
have  departed.  Still  another  thing  has  been  made  more  clear  than 
before,  and  that  is,  that  the  employers,  as  a  rule,  are  not  great 
capitalists  of  the  country.  As  a  rule,  they  are  enterprising  men  who 
borrow  idle  capital,  and  put  it  to  some  use,  and  whenever  they  are 
suddenly  called  on  to  pay  up  and  are  not  able  to  borrow  elsewhere, 
they  are  obliged  to  shut  down. 

There  are  many  advanced  thinkers  who  look  forward  to  a  new 
industrial  system  that  shall  be  an  improvement  on  the  present,  and 
under  which  the  laborer  shall  come  nearer  getting  his  share  of  the 
benefits  resulting  from  invention  and  machinery,  than  under  the  pres- 
ent system.  All  lovers  of  their  kind  would  hail  such  a  system  with  joy. 
But  we  are  forced  to  say  that  it  is  not  yet  at  hand.  As  we  must  have 
bread  and  must  have  clothing,  we  are  obliged  to  cling  to  the  old  sys- 
tem for  the  present,  and  probably  for  a  long  time  to  come,  until  the 
foundations  can  be  laid  for  a  better  one  by  intelligent  progress. 


'ADDRESS  TO  LABORING  MEN.  343 

Classes,  like  individuals,  have  their  bright  and  their  dark  days,  and  just 
now  there  seems  to  be  a  long  dark  day  ahead  of  you.  It  will  be  a  day 
of  suffering  and  distress,  and  I  must  say  to  you  there  sejsms  to  be  no 
way  of  escaping  it,  and  I  therefore  counsel  you  to  face  it  squarely  and 
bear  it  with  that  heroism  and  fortitude  with  which  an  American  citi- 
zen should  face  and  bear  calamity.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the 
State  and  different  branches  of  government  should  furnish  employ- 
ment during  the  winter  to  idle  men.  Certainly  everything  that  can 
be  done  in  this  line  will  be  done,  but  I  must  warn  you  not  to  expect 
too  much  from  this  source.  The  powers  of  government  are  so  hedged 
about  with  constitutional  provisions  that  much  cannot  be  done.  The 
State  at  present  has  no  work  to  do.  The  parks  can  employ  only  a 
few  men.  The  city  has  work  for  more  men,  but  it  is  also  limited  in  its 
funds.  The  great  drainage  canal  may,  and  probably  will,  give  em- 
ployment to  a  considerable  number  of  men,  but,  after  all,  you  must 
recognize  that  these  things  will  be  only  in  the  nature  of  makeshifts; 
only  to  tide  over;  only  to  keep  men  and  their  families  from  starving. 
And  on  this  point  let  me  say  it  will  be  the  duty  of  all  public  officials  to 
see  to  it  that  no  man  is  permitted  to  starve  on  the  soil  of  Illinois,  and 
provision  will  be  made  to  that  end.  But  all  this  is  temporary.  The 
laborer  must  look  to  ways  and  means  that  are  permanent  for  the  im- 
provement of  his  condition  when  the  panic  is  over,  and  these  measures 
must  be  along  the  line  of  and  in  harmony  with  the  institutions  of  this 
century,  and  must  move  by  a  gradual  and  steady  development.  Noth- 
ing that  is  violently  clone  is  of  permanent  advantage  to  the  working 
man.  He  can  only  prosper  when  his  labor  is  in  demand,  and  his 
labor  can  be  in  demand  only  when  his  employer  prospers  and  there  is 
nothing  to  interfere  with  consumption. 

The  world  has  been  slow  to  accord  labor  its  due.  For  thousands  of 
years  pillage,  plunder  and  organized  robbery,  called  warfare,  were 
honorable  pursuits,  and  the  man  who  toiled,  in  order  that  all  might 
live,  was  despised.  In  the  flight  of  time,  it  was  but  yesterday  that  the 
labor  of  the  earth  was  driven  with  the  lash,  and  either  sold  on  the 
block  like  cattle,  or  tied  by  an  invisible  chain  to  the  soil,  and  was  for- 
bidden to  even  wander  outside  his  parish.  In  the  yesterday  of  time, 
even  the  employers  of  labor  were  despised.  The  men  who  conducted 
great  industries,  who  carried  on  commerce,  who  practiced  the  useful 
arts,  the  men  who  made  the  earth  habitable,  were  looked  down  upon 
by  a  class  that  considered  it  honorable  to  rob  the  toiler  of  his  bread, 
a  class  which,  while  possessing  the  pride  of  the  eagle,  had  only  the 
character  of  the  vulture.  Great  has  been  the  development  since 
then.  This  century  brought  upon  its  wings  higher  ideas,  more  of 


344  'UVE  QUESTIONS. 

truth  and  more  of  common  sense,  and  it  announced  to  mankind  that 
he  is  honorable  who  creates;  that  he  should  be  despised  who  can  only 
consume;  that  he  is  the  benefactor  of  the  race  who  gives  it  an  addi- 
tional thought,  an  additional  flower,  an  additional  loaf  of  bread,  an  ad- 
ditional comfort; and  he  is  a  curse  to  his  kind  who  tramples  down  what 
others  build,  or,  without  compensation,  devours  what  others  create. 
The  century  brought  with  it  still  greater  things.  Not  only  did  it  lift  the 
employer  to  a  position  of  honor,  influence  and  power,  but  it  tore  away 
parish  boundaries,  it  cut  the  chains  of  the  serf,  it  burned  the  auction 
block,  where  the  laborer  and  his  children  were  sold;  and  it  brought 
ideas;  it  taught  the  laboring  man  to  extend  his  hand  to  his  fellow- 
laborer;  it  taught  him  to  organize,  and  not  only  to  read  but  to  investi- 
gate, to  inquire,  to  discuss,  to  consider  and  to  look  ahead ;  so  that  to- 
day, the  laborer  and  his  cause,  at  least  theoretically,  command  the  hom- 
age of  all  civilized  men,  and  the  greatest  States  in  Christendom  have 
set  apart  a  day  to  be  annually  observed  as  a  holiday  in  honor  of  la- 
bor. 

The  children  of  Israel  were  forty  years  in  marching  from  the  bond- 
age of  Egypt  to  the  freer  atmosphere  of  Palestine,  and  a  halo  of  glory 
envelops  their  history.  In  the  last  forty  years  the  children  of  Toil 
have  made  a  forward  march  which  is  greater  than  any  ever  made 
in  the  wilderness.  True,  the  land  is  not  conquered.  You  have  sim- 
ply camped  upon  that  higher  plane  where  you  can  more  clearly  see 
the  difficulties  of  the  past,  and  where,  in  the  end,  you  may  hope  for 
a  higher  justice  and  a  happier  condition  for  yourselves  and  your  chil- 
dren, but  a  great  deal  remains  to  be  done.  In  a  sense,  you  are  just 
out  of  the  wilderness.  You  ask,  along  what  lines,  then,  shall  we  pro- 
ceed when  the  times  get  better  in  order  to  improve  our  condition? 
I  answer,  along  lines  which  harmonize,  not  only  with  nature's  laws, 
but  with  the  laws  of  the  land.  Occupying,  as  I  do,  a  position  which 
makes  me  in  a  sense  a  conservator  of  all  interests  and  classes,  I  de- 
sire to  see  the  harmonious  prosperity  of  all;  and  let  me  say  to  you 
that,  until  all  the  active  interests  of  the  land  prosper  again,  there  can 
be  no  general  demand  for  your  services,  and,  consequently,  no  healthy 
prosperity.  What  I  wish  to  point  out  is  the  absolute  necessity  of  each 
class  or  interest  being  able  to  take  care  of  itself  in  the  fierce  struggle 
for  existence.  You  have  not  yet  fully  reached  this  state.  In  the 
industrial  world,  as  well  as  in  the  political  world,  only  those  forces 
survive  which  can  maintain  themselves,  and  which  are  so  concentrated 
that  their  influence  is  immediately  and  directly  felt.  A  scattered  force, 
no  matter  how  great,  is  of  no  account  in  the  sharp  contests  of  the 
age.  This  is  an.  age  of  concentration.  Everywhere  there  is  concen- 


"ADDRESS   TO  LABORING  MEN.  34$ 

tration  and  combination  of  capital  and  of  those  factors  which  to-day 
rule  the  world.  The  formation  of  corporations  has  greatly  accelerated 
this  movement,  and  no  matter  what  is  said  about  it,  whether  we  ap- 
prove it  or  not,  it  is  the  characteristic  feature  of  our  civilization,  and 
grows  out  of  increased  invention,  the  speedy  communication  between 
different  parts  of  the  world,  and  the  great  industrial  generalship  and 
enterprise  of  the  time.  It  is  questionable  whether  this  tendency  to 
combination  could  have  been  stopped  in  any  way.  It  is  certain, 
without  this  concentration  of  force,  the  gigantic  achievements  of  our 
times  would  have  been  an  impossibility.  Combination  and  concen- 
tration are  the  masters  of  the  age.  Let  the  laborer  learn  from  this  and 
act  accordingly.  Fault-finding1  and  idle  complaint  are  useless.  Great 
forces,  like  great  rivers,  cannot  be  stopped.  You  must  be  able  to  fight 
your  own  battles  For  the  laborer  to  stand  single-handed  before 
giant  combinations  of  power  means  annihilation.  The  world  gives 
only  when  it  is  obliged  to,  and  respects  only  those  who  compel  its 
respect. 

Government  was  created  by  power  and  has  always  been  controlled 
by  power.  Do  not  imagine  that  it  is  sufficient  if  you  have  justice  and 
equity  on  your  side,  for  the  earth  is  covered  with  the  graves  of  justice 
and  equity  that  failed  to  receive  recognition,  because  there  was  no 
influence  or  force  to  compel  it,  and  it  will  be  so  until  the  millennium. 
Whenever  you  demonstrate  that  you  are  an  active,  concentrated  pow- 
er, moving  along  lawful  lines,  then  you  will  be  felt  in  government. 
Until  then  you  will  not.  This  is  an  age  of  law  as  well  as  of  force,  and  no 
force  succeeds  that  does  not  move  along  legal  lines.  The  laboring 
men  of  the  world  always  have  been,  and  are  to-day,  the  support  and 
principal  reliance  of  the  government.  They  support  its  flags  in  time 
of  war,  and  their  hands  earn  the  taxes  in  time  of  peace.  Their  voice 
is  for  fair  play,  and  no  great  government  was  ever  destroyed  by  the 
laboring  classes.  Treason  and  rebellion  never  originated  with  them, 
but  always  came  from  the  opposite  source.  Early  in  our  history  there 
occurred  what  was  called  Shay's  rebellion,  but  they  were  not  wage- 
workers  who  created  it.  Then  came  the  so-called  whisky  rebellion, 
created  not  by  day  laborers.  During  the  war  of  1812,  a  convention 
was  held  in  the  East  which  practically  advocated  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  but  wage-workers  were  not  among  its  members.  The  great 
rebellion  of  1861  was  not  fomented  by  the  laboring  classes,  but  by 
those  classes  which  ate  the  bread  that  others  toiled  for.  It  was  a  re- 
bellion by  those  who  had  long  been  prominent  as  leaders,  who  largely 
controlled  the  wealth  of  the  country,  who  boasted  of  aristocratic  so- 
ciety, and  many  of  whom  had  been  educated  at  the  expense  of  the 


346  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

country  whose  flag  they  fired  on.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  the  great 
armies  which  put  down  this  rebellion  and  supported  the  flag  were 
composed  of  men  who  had  literally  earned  their  bread  by  the  sweat 
of  their  brows.  It  is  true  that  at  times  a  number  of  laborers,  more 
or  less  ignorant,  who  thought  they  were  being  robbed  of  the  fruits 
of  their  toil,  have  indulged  in  rioting;  and,  while  they  have  always  lost 
by  it,  and  while  they  cannot  be  too  severely  condemned,  yet  they  do 
not  stand  alone  in  this  condemnation,  for  there  have  been  many 
broadcloth  mobs  in  this  country  and  in  different  sections  of  it,  whose 
actions  were  lawless  and  as  disgraceful  as  that  of  any  labor  mob  that 
ever  assembled.  I  must  congratulate  organized  labor  upon  its  free- 
dom from  turbulence.  Rioting  is  nearly  always  by  an  ignorant  class 
outside  of  all  organizations,  and  which,  in  most  cases,  was  brought 
into  the  community  by  conscienceless  men  to  defeat  organized  labor. 
There  should  be  a  law  compelling  a  man  who  brings  this  class  of  peo- 
ple into  our  midst  to  give  bond  for  their  support  and  their  good  be- 
havior, for  at  present  they  are  simply  a  disturbing  element.  They 
threaten  the  peace  of  society  and  bring  reproach  on  the  cause  of 
labor.  The  lesson  I  wish  to  impress  upon  you  is  that  in  business, 
in  the  industries,  in  government,  everywhere,  only  those  interests 
and  forces  survive  that  can  maintain  themselves  along  legal  lines, 
and  if  you  permanently  improve  your  condition  it  must  be  by  intelli- 
gently and  patriotically  standing  together  all  over  the  country.  Every 
plan  must  fail  unless  you  do  this. 

At  present  you  are  to  a  great  extent  yet  a  scattered  force,  sufficient- 
ly powerful,  if  collected,  to  make  yourselves  heard  and  felt;  to  secure, 
not  only  a  fair  hearing,  but  a  fair  decision  of  all  questions.  Unite 
this  power  and  you  will  be  independent;  leave  it  scattered  and  you 
will  fail.  Organization  is  the  result  of  education  as  well  as  an  educa- 
tor. Let  all  the  men  of  America  who  toil  with  their  hands  once  stand 
together  and  no  more  complaints  will  be  heard  about  unfair  treatment. 
The  progress  of  labor  in  the  future  must  be  along  the  line  of  patriotic 
association,  not  simply  in  localities,  but  everywhere.  And  let  me 
caution  you  that  every  act  of  violence  is  a  hindrance  to  your  progress. 
There  will  be  men  among  you  ready  to  commit  it.  They  are  your 
enemies.  There  will  be  sneaks  and  Judas  Iscariots  in  your  ranks, 
who  will  for  a  mere  pittance  act  as  spies  and  try  to  incite  some  of  the 
more  hot-headed  of  your  number  to  deeds  of  violence,  in  order  that 
these  reptiles  may  get  the  credit  of  exposing  you.  They  are  your 
enemies.  Cast  them  out  of  your  ranks.  Remember  that  any  per- 
manent prosperity  must  be  based  upon  intelligence  and  upon  con- 
ditions which  are  permanent.  And  let  me  say  to  you  again,  in  conclu- 


'ADDRESS   TO   LABORING  MEN.  347 

slon:  This  fall  and  this  winter  will  be  a  trying  time  to  you.  The 
record  of  the  laborers  of  the  earth  is  one  of  patriotism.  They  have 
maintained  the  government,  they  have  maintained  the  schools  and 
churches,  and  it  behooves  you  now  to  face  the  hardships  that  are  upon 
you  and  see  that  your  cause  is  not  injured  by  grave  indiscretions. 
Make  the  ignorant  understand  that  government  is  strong  and  that 
life  and  property  will  be  protected  and  law  and  order  will  be  main- 
tained, and  that,  while  the  day  is  dark  now,  the  future  will  place  the 
laborer  in  a  more  exalted  position  than  he  has  ever  occupied. 


SPECIMENS    OF  NEWSPAPER     COMMENT    ON    ABOVE 

SPEECH. 

ALTGELD  ON  LABOR  DAY. 

"Words  fitly  spoken  are  like  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver." 
And  nowhere  of  late  have  such  words  been  spoken  with  more  force 
and  with  promise  of  more  good  effect  than  by  Governor  Altgeld,  at 
Chicago,  on  Labor  Day. 

Governor  Altgeld,  at  that  meeting,  was  emphatically  the  right  man 
in  the  right  place.  Not  because  of  his  official  rank,  though  it  was 
entirely  proper,  under  existing  circumstances  in  Chicago,  that  the 
Governor  of  Illinois  should  be  there.  It  is,  however,  as  a  citizen  of 
Chicago,  elected  to  high  office  by  the  votes  of  its  workingmen,  who 
believe  in  and  trust  him  as  they  do  no  other  man,  that  John  P.  Altgeld 
could  be  most  effective  on  such  an  occasion. 

He  has  the  demagogue's  opportunity.  He  could  easily  have  fallen 
in  with  the  schemes  of  those  who  propose  to  use  the  State  as  a  means 
of  relief.  Instead  of  this,  having  in  mind  the  constitutional  limitations 
of  the  powers  of  the  State,  he  pointed  out  the  impossibility  of  such  a 
plan.  He  held  before  his  hearers  no  illusory  hopes  or  promises,  but 
while  insisting  that  it  was  the  duty  of  society  to  assist  them,  he  pointed 
out  the  necessity  of  sacrifice  and  courage  on  their  own  part. 

The  mutual  dependence  upon  each  other,  of  labor  and  capital,  met 
with  clear  and  forcible  treatment  at  the  Governor's  hands.  The  argu- 
ment is  somewhat  trite,  but  is  usually  without  effect  because  made  by 
men  who  have  no  sympathy  with  labor,  in  answer  to  other  men  equal- 
ly without  sympathy  with  capital,  who  declare  eternal  war  between 
the  two  elements.  In  the  hands  of  Governor  Altgeld,  talking  to  the 
Chicago  workingmen,  the  argument  becomes  effective.  When  made 
in  connection  with  a  statement  of  the  causes  which  have  brought  about 


348  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

present  conditions  and  the  things  necessary  to  their  betterment,  it 
cannot  fail  to  exert  a  deep  and  wholesome  influence. 

This  speech  is  one  of  the  most  notable  made  since  the  beginning 
of  hard  times.  In  many  respects  it  is  more  important  than  any  which 
has  been  made  at  Washington.  It  required  both  courage  and  a  high 
sense  of  duty  to  make  it.  Its  influence  is  for  good,  and  it  should  have 
wide  circulation  and  acceptance. — St.  Louis  Republic,  September  7, 

1893- 

ALTGELD'S  CONSERVATIVE  SPEECH. 

Just  as  all  sensible,  patriotic  citizens  were  shocked,  and  their  sense 
of  the  duty  and  limits  of  the  State  Executive  outraged,  by  Gov.  Alt- 
geld's  famous  fulmination  pardoning  the  anarchists,  so  the  same  citi- 
zens should  rejoice  that  within  a  few  months  he  should  give  utterance 
to  views  upon  the  existing  evil  conditions  of  industries  at  once  calm, 
sound  and  fearless.  Nothing  is  more  remarkable  about  Governor 
Altgeld's  address  at  Kuhn's  Park,  Labor  Day,  than  its  freedom  from 
truckling  demagogy. 

If  the  laboring  men  looked  for  a  fiery  Mark  Antony  harangue,  ca- 
tering to  their  discontent  and  dwelling  upon  the  wrongs  that  labor 
suffers  at  the  hands  of  capital,  they  must  have  been  woefully  disap- 
pointed. He  faced  the  industrial  situation  as  the  Governor  of  the  State 
of  Illinois  should,  squarely  and  candidly.  He  told  his  hearers  that  if 
"there  are  thousands  of  honest,  industrious  and  frugal  men  who  walk 
the  streets  all  day  in  search  of  work  or  even  bread,  there  are  many 
hundreds  of  the  most  enterprising  employers  who  sweat  all  day  and 
walk  the  floor  by  night  trying  to  devise  means  to  keep  the  sheriff 
away  from  the  establishment."  He  counseled  his  hearers  to  face  the 
situation  like  men,  and  endure  the  present  hardships  with  "that  hero- 
ism and  fortitude  with  which  an  American  citizen  should  face  and  bear 
calamity." 

But  the  most  important  part  of  the  Governor's  speech  was  that 
in  which  he  spoke  of  the  government  as  the  creature  and  safeguard 
of  the  laboring  men.  He  cautioned  his  hearers  against  every  act  of 
violence,  that  could  only  hinder  their  progress,  and  closed  by  a  warn- 
ing to  the  ignorant,  that  "government  is  strong,  and  that  life  and  prop- 
erty will  be  protected  and  law  and  order  will  be  maintained," 

Such  was  the  tenor  of  Governor  Altgeld's  speech  to  the  representa- 
tives of  that  labor  which  has  no  affinity  or  sympathy  with  anarchy 
and  violence.  It  was  rendered  all  the  more  noteworthy  by  the  fact 
that  on  the  day  of  its  delivery  hundreds  of  pamphlets  containing 
his  incendiary  message  of  pardon  were  being  distributed  through  the 
mails  from  the  "Executive  Mansion,  Springfield,  111."  Evidently  the 


THE   DEBUT    OF   ILLINOIS.  349 

Governor  is  essaying  the  difficult  role  of  Dr.  Jekyl  and  Mr.  Hyde. 
He  cannot  too  quickly  cast  off  his  anarchist  notions  and  act  up  to  the 
lights  and  views  of  his  Labor  Day  speech. — Chicago  Journal  (a  Re- 
publican newspaper). 

THE  DEBUT  OF  ILLINOIS. 

(Delivered   at    a    Banquet   to    Foreign    Representatives,   at   the    World's   Fair 
Grounds,  Oct.  n,  1893.) 

Illinois  was  young;  many  of  her  citizens  remembered  the  time 
when  she  was  not  yet  a  State;  thousands  remembered  the  time  when 
the  Indians  roamed  over  her  prairies.  But  she  was  conscious  of  hav- 
ing had  a  most  romantic  and  remarkable  career.  Upon  her 
prairies  and  along  her  rivers  had  been  performed  deeds  of 
heroism  equal  to  any  famed  in  song  or  story..  Here  the 
red  savage  had  committed  some  of  his  most  bloody  butch- 
eries, and  within  her  boundaries  was  fought  that  great 
battle  of  debate  and  of  ballots  which,  in  1822,  arrested  the  progress 
of  the  slave  power  and  then  and  there  fixed  the  doom  of  Slavery  and 
shaped  the  future  of  the  entire  country,  by  determining  that  Illinois 
should  forever  be  a  free  State. 

On  her  State  plains  were  mustered  many  of  the  great  armies,  and 
from  her  people  came  many  of  those  renowned  chieftains  who  crushed 
the  mighty  rebellion;  and  she  gave  to  the  Nation  a  number  of  states- 
men whose  genius  shaped  the  policy  and  whose  hands  guided  the 
destiny  of  the  Republic  through  its  darkest  days. 

She  was  also  conscious  of  having  no  rival  in  material  growth, 
grandeur  and  greatness.  There  was  not  another  State  in  the  world, 
four  hundred  miles  long  and  two  hundred  miles  wide,  nearly  every 
acre  of  which  was  a  garden.  She  was  the  greatest  agricultural  State, 
the  greatest  dairy  State,  one  of  the  greatest  fruit  States ;  she  surpassed 
all  other  States  in  the  extent  of  her  coal  fields,  and  had  scarcely  an 
equal  in  the  extent  of  her  quarries;  her  railroads  penetrated  every 
neighborhood,  her  manufacturing  industries  covered  the  whole  field  of 
human  ingenuity,  and  the  enterprise  of  her  merchants  was  seen  in  every 
mart  under  the  sun. 

She  had  built  great  cities,  and  when  the  fury  of  the  elements  had 
laid  one  in  ashes,  while  the  embers  were  yet  smoldering,  she  re-built 
it  upon  a  scale  of  grandeur  and  magnificence  that  astonished  man- 
kind. 

Rut  while  she  was  conscious  of  all  these  things,  she  had  not  yet 
formed  a  close  acquaintance  with  the  people  of  the  world;  she  had  not 


350  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

yet  formally  made  her  debut.  While  her  older  sisters  had  received 
some  attention,  she  had  stood  in  the  background;  but  she  now  re- 
solved to  step  to  the  front  and  to  close  this  century  by  bringing  to- 
gether, in  one  grand  group,  all  of  the  highest  and  best  achievements 
of  modern  civilization.  She  resolved  to  celebrate  the  anniversary  of 
the  discovery  of  America  by  bringing  together  here,  on  her  soil,  the 
greatest  material  productions,  as  well  as  the  creations  of  genius  and 
the  conceptions  of  the  grandest  intellects  of  the  time,  so  that  the  spirit 
which  guided  the  discoverer  across  the  ocean  could  now,  four  hun- 
dred years  later,  at  one  glance,  in  one  enchanting  view,  see  the  mighty 
results  which  followed  in  the  wake  of  that  lonely  voyage. 

With  this  end  in  view,  she  asked  her  sister  States,  the  older  and  the 
younger  sisters,  to  help  her;  and  promptly,  generously,  nobly  they  re- 
sponded. The  nations  of  the  earth  were  invited,  people  of  all  coun- 
tries, of  all  climes,  and  of  all  conditions — from  the  most  highly  civil- 
ized to  the  savage — all  the  devotees  of  learning,  scholars  in  their  se- 
clusion, scientists  in  their  laboratories,  philosophers  amid  their  spec- 
ulations, and  religionists  amid  their  devotions,  were  invited  to  come, 
and  they  accepted  the  invitation.  There  are  here  represented  nations 
whose  histories  run  beyond  the  advent  of  letters,  nations  whose  corner- 
stones are  hidden  in  tradition.  Their  representatives  have  come, 
bringing  the  good  will  of  the  sovereigns,  and  bringing  with  them  the 
highest  and  best  products  of  their  people,  material  and  intellectual; 
they  have  come  from  the  great  empires  of  Europe,  from  the  vast 
countries  of  Asia,  from  the  snow-covered  lands  of  the  North,  from  the 
time-worn  basin  of  the  Mediterranean,  from  the  depths  of  Africa,  from 
the  islands  of  the  sea;  all  are  here,  bringing  not  only  the  product  of 
their  hands,  but  the  achievements  of  their  intellect. 

Representative  women  were  here  from  all  over  the  civilized  world. 
Woman,  for  the  first  time  in  her  history,  standing  on  an  independent 
basis  in  the  Congress  of  Nations.  Men  of  science  were  here,  men 
who  have  stolen  from  nature  her  secrets,  men  who  arrest  disease  and 
strangle  pestilence,  men  who  span  rivers  and  build  cities,  men  who 
have  harnessed  the  lightning  to  the  chariots  of  rnen  were  here;  men 
whose  eyes  have  pierced  the  rocks  and  who  have  forced  Mother  Earth 
to  give  us  an  idea  of  her  age,  men  who  have  reached  into  the  Universe 
and  measured  the  faces  of  the  stars  were  here;  men  who  paint  for  the 
ages  and  men  who  chisel  for  all  time  were  here;  moralists  who  hold 
their  faces  to  the  sun  and  look  to  the  elevation  of  man  were  here;  and 
the  devotees  of  religion  were  here — the  children  of  Buddha,  the  sol- 
diers of  Mohammed,  the  followers  of  the  Cross — worshipers  from 
every  altar  and  from  every  shrine  were  here;  not  to  destroy,  nor  even 


OPENING  COLUMBUS  CLUB  HOUSE.  351 

to  anathematize,  but  rather  to  confer  for  the  good  of  humanity.  Never 
since  the  first  gray  dawn  of  time  has  there  been  such  a  collection  of 
all  that  was  great  in  achievement,  such  an  assemblage  of  the  master 
spirits  of  the  world. 

But  the  entertainment  is  drawing  to  a  close.  The  sighs  of  autumn 
are  heard  in  the  air,  the  Spirit  of  Dissolution — yea,  sad  thought — the 
Spirit  of  Dissolution  is  hovering  over  the  great  Exposition ;  that  mir- 
acle of  the  centuries  is  going  the  way  of  all  the  earth.  And  as  our 
guests  take  their  departure,  we  hope  they  will  carry  with  them  that 
same  kindly  feeling  for  us  that  we  have  conceived  for  them. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Old  Worlds,  as  you  go  back  to  your  ancient 
capitals,  to  your  cities  that  are  white  with  the  frost  of  ages,  tell  your 
sovereigns  and  tell  your  people  that  the  people  of  Illinois  and  of  the 
great  American  Republic  appreciate  the  honor  which  has  been  done 
them,  and  will  ever  remember  it.  We  could  not  have  succeeded  with- 
out you.  It  was  not  a  local,  it  was  not  a  national  Exposition;  it  was 
the  Grand  Exposition  of  the  human  race. 

Say  to  them  that  Illinois  affords  a  market  for  everything  that 
grows,  from  the  equator  to  the  poles ;  for  everything  that  is  produced, 
from  Siberia  to  Africa ;  for  everything  that  genius  can  design  or  hand 
can  make.  Say  to  them  that  Illinois  has  not  only  been  introduced 
into  the  society  of  Nations,  but  that  henceforth  she  will  keep  "open 
house;"  that  she  stands  on  the  shore  of  the  great  Inland  Sea  and  holds 
aloft  a  torch  to  light  the  way  for  every  traveler  and  every  wayfaring 
man  under  the  sun  to  her  gates ;  that  at  her  door  all  honest  people  are 
welcome.  Say  to  them  that  every  man  who  comes  with  good  intent  or 
noble  purpose,  or  who  brings  new  thought  or  lofty  sentiment;  every 
man  who  comes  with  mind  to  think  or  hand  to  do,  no  matter  at  what 
altar  he  kneels  or  at  what  shrine  he  bows,  is  welcome  in  Illinois. 


ADDRESS    AT    THE    OPENING    OF    COLUMBUS    CLUB 
HOUSE,  CHICAGO. 

(Delivered  October  12,  1893.) 

Gentlemen:  You  ask  me  to  speak  for  Illinois.  This  is  so  great  a 
subject  that,  to  do  it  justice,  would  keep  you  here  a  week.  But  I 
have  no  thought  of  making  a  talk  four  hundred  miles  long  or  two 
hundred  miles  wide.  I  will  simply  say  that  the  most  enthusiastic  of  us 
have  no  conception  of  the  greatness  and  wonderful  development  of 
Illinois.  So  rapid  has  been  its  growth  that  we  ourselves  do  not  fully 
comprehend  it.  You  have  been  an  eye-witness  of  its  more  recent 


352  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

development;  you  are  familiar  with  its  institutions  and  know  of  the 
constant  struggle  to  keep  them  abreast  with  the  age.  The  State  has 
reached  the  highest  pinnacle  of  material  grandeur — no  matter  what 
she  may  do  in  the  building  of  cities,  she  can  never  surpass  her  re- 
cent effort.  She  can  never  build  greater  railroads,  greater  warehouses, 
greater  factories,  or  finer  buildings.  If  her  development  is  to  con- 
tinue, then  the  great  forces  which  have  created  these  things  must  be 
turned  into  new  channels;  we  have  got  to  look  to  a  broader  field;  we 
have  got  to  fix  our  eyes  upon  a  higher  point  in  the  distant  heavens, 
and  instead  of  laboring  only  for  the  attainment  of  the  material,  we 
must  strive  for  the  intellectual;  instead  of  dealing  only  with  houses  and 
•railroads  and  lands  and  shops,  that  can  last  but  for  a  day  in  the 
Almighty's  calendar  of  time,  we  must  turn  to  principles  that  run 
through  the  ages,  and  to  truths  that  live  through  eternity. 

From  the  coining  of  dollars,  we  must  turn  to  the  building  of 
character.  We  must  stop  our  mad  rush  after  the  material  long  enough 
to  reflect  that  manhood  is  a  matter  of  growth,  that  can  expand,  grow 
strong,  or  can  shrivel  up  and  be  lost;  that  it  gradually  takes  on  not 
only  the  color,  but  the  actual  nature  of  the  things  that  occupy  it;  so 
that  he  who  contemplates  only  the  earth  will  become  earthy,  while 
he  who  gazes  at  the  stars  will  acquire  elevation  of  thought,  and  in 
time  the  one  or  the  other  will  be  written  on  his  countenance. 

The  object  of  your  organization  is  social,  and  neither  political  nor 
commercial,  but  you  have  adopted  a  name  which  stands  for  a  new  era 
and  a  higher  order  of  things,  and  which  implies  that  you  have  a  higher 
motive  than  simply  to  have  a  good  time.  The  State  could  feel  but 
little  interest  in  this,  and  it  would  be  entirely  at  variance  with  the 
character  and  career  of  the  great  discoverer.  If  your  aim  is  to  be  as 
'earnest  in  life  as  his  was,  then  you  are  in 'a  position  to  render  the 
State  great  and  lasting  service,  to  become  a  pillar  and  a  power  in  it. 
Whether  you  do  this  or  not,  will  depend  upon  the  course  you  pursue. 
If  you  make  this  club  house  a  center  of  intelligence,  a  place  for  dis- 
cussions and  the  growth  of  a  broader  thought — if  you  keep  your 
finger  upon  the  pulse  of  humanity,  upon  the  great  masses  of  the  peo- 
ple, keep  so  near  to  them  that  you  feel  their  breath  and  hear  their 
heart-beats,  so  near  to  them  that  you  understand  their  wants,  and 
know  the  real  nature  as  well  as  the  cause  of  their  suffering,  and  then 
shape  your  actions  accordingly — then,  let  me  say  to  you  again,  this 
club  will  become  a  power  in  the  land  and  an  ornament  to  the  State. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  you  pursue  the  policy,  so  common  with 
clubs,  of  being  exclusive,  of  feeling  that  when  you  get  within  your 
own  precincts  you  are  so  much  better  than  the  men  who  walk  outside ; 


OPENING  COLUMBUS  CLUB  HOUSE.  353 

if  your  spacious  rooms  become  the  lounging  place  for  the  weaklings 
who  want  to  hang  on  to  the  skirts  of  fashionable  society,  or  if,  in  time, 
you  simply  become  a  rich  man's  club,  then  the  State  will  have  little 
to  hope  from  you ;  for  there  never  was  a  rich  man's  club  that  fought  for 
liberty  or  struggled  for  humanity;  there  never  was  a  rich  man's  club 
that  won  a  battle  or  saved  a  nation.  Occasionally  they  have  had  gen- 
erous impulses  and  lofty  purposes;  but  even  then,  when  they  honestly 
intended  to  do  something  for  the  world,  they  generally  began  wrong. 
They  usually  commence  at  the  top  and  want  to  work  downward;  a 
process  which  is  contrary  to  the  laws  of  Jehovah  and  the  decrees  of 
nature,  and  which,  of  necessity,  fails.  In  all  nature,  in  all  conditions 
of  life,  development,  growth,  progress  is  from  the  ground  upward. 
The  seed  must  be  planted  in  the  ground,  and  must  have  time  to  grow. 
This  accounts  for  the  fact  that  some  of  our  wealthy  clubs  wield  so 
little  influence. 

I  asked  an  intelligent  man  recently,  "Why  is  it  that  some  of  our 
clubs,  made  up  of  brainy,  energetic,  wealthy,  and  even  public-spirited 
men — men  who,  in  their  individual  capacities,  wield  power,  exert  in- 
fluence— why  is  it  that,  when  acting  in  concert,  or  in  a  body,  as  a  club, 
the  reverse  is  true;  for  they  make  very  little  imprint  upon  the  history 
of  their  country?  As  clubs  they  exert  little  or  no  influence  in  mu- 
nicipal government,  or  in  shaping  any  public  measure,  or  in  settling 
any  great  public  question,  whether  it  be  social,  economical  or  politi- 
cal." 

"Why,"  he  replied,  "it  is  because  these  clubs  do  not  go  with  or 
even  attempt  to  direct  the  great  currents  that  make  up  our  active  life. 
They  are  exclusive,  and  when  they  do  venture  out,  they  talk  over  and 
talk  at  the  people,  and  not  to  them;  for  they  never  get  near  enough 
to  them  to  be  heard.  Their  influence  is  nil,  and  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  go  along  managing  their  affairs,  running  the  government  and 
making  our  history,  unconscious  of  the  existence  of  these  finely 
clothed  clubs." 

Again,  gentlemen,  you  will  become  a  power  and  a  blessing  to  the 
State  if  you  make  this  club  an  agency  to  quietly  but  earnestly  sow 
the  seeds  of  patriotism;  not  in  the  air,  but  in  the  ground;  not  as  an 
effervescence,  but  as  a  serious  fact;  not  in  revelry,  but  with  all  the  sol- 
emnity of  prayer.  So  that  all  young  men  and  young  women  shall 
acquire  a  serious  and  lofty  idea  of  the  duty  they  owe  their  country. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  you  deal  with  patriotism  simply  as  a  fash- 
ionable subject,  then  the  State  can  expect  but  little  of  you;  for  there  is 
nothing  so  cheap  in  this  country  to-day  as  this  postprandial,  cham- 
pagne-effervescing, after-dinner  patriotism.  Patriotism  is  serious;  it 
23 


354  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

is  like  piety,  it  is  like  virtue;  it  vaunteth  not,  and  it  never  stands  on 
street  corners  and  proclaims  itself.  Its  habitation  is  deep  in  the  soul, 
and  its  face  is  always  modest.  And  the  men  who  are  ready  to  die  at 
the  altar  of  their  country  are  not  the  boasting  patriots  of  a  banquet 
hall. 

Building  up  empires  and  developing,  as  well  as  maintaining,  human 
institutions  is  serious  work,  and  it  requires  the  strength  that  comes 
from  deep  and  solemn  convictions  to  do  it.  The  safety  as  well  as  the 
glory  of  the  State,  lie  in  the  patriotism  of  the  great  masses  of  the 
people.  They  carry  its  burdens  and  move  its  machinery  in  time  of 
peace,  and  they  shoulder  the  muskets  and  go  forth  to  battle  and  to 
death  in  time  of  war.  If  your  club  shall  keep  in  close  touch  with  them 
and  sow  seeds  of  patriotism  on  this  ground,  and  see  that  they  are 
watered  by  the  dews  and  warmed  by  the  sunlight  of  liberty  and  truth, 
then  the  career  of  this  club  will  become  memorable  in  the  annals  of 
the  State. 


STATE  CHARITABLE  INSTITUTIONS. 

(Address  to  the  Trustees  and  Superintendents  of  the  Charitable  Institutions  of 
Illinois,  at  Springfield,   November  28,   1893.) 

Gentlemen :  I  have  invited  you  to  meet  here  to-day  in  order  to 
have  a  general  conference  relating  to  the  management  of  the  great 
public  institutions  of  this  State,  and  to  enable  me  to  make  a  few  sug- 
gestions which  I  could  not  so  well  make  by  correspondence. 

While  public  sentiment  in  America  has  been  progressive  and 
liberal,  and  while  almost  countless  sums  have  been  appropriated  in 
the  most  generous  manner,  for  the  building  and  maintaining  of  great 
public  institutions  for  almost  every  purpose,  these  institutions  have 
not  yet  all  reached  the  highest  degree  of  excellence.  Another  fact 
to  be  deplored  is  that  the  officials  in  charge  of  these  institutions  are 
not  held  in  that  high  regard  by  the  public  to  which  the  great  responsi- 
bilities and  importance  of  their  duties  should  entitle  them.  In  some 
European  countries  to  serve  as  a  superintendent  or  as  a  trustee  of 
a  great  hospital  or  a  great  asylum  is  to  hold  a  position  of  honor 
and  distinction  in  the  eye  of  the  public,  and  to  consequently  enjoy  the 
confidence  and  good  opinion  of  the  public,  while  in  this  country  these 
places  have,  in  some  cases,  come  to  be  regarded  as  political  spoils, 
and  the  men  who  hold  them  have  come  to  be  looked  upon  merely  as 
politicians  who  have  been  lucky  enough  to  get  a  few  plums  for  them- 
selves and  their  friends,  and  instead  of  being  honored  and  regarded 
with  a  still  higher  degree  of  confidence,  it  often  happens  that  men  who 


ADDRESS   TO    TRUSTEES,   ETC.  355 

are  appointed  to  these  places  are  looked  upon  with  jealousy  and  even 
distrust. 

Now,  I  want  to  say,  that  all  of  these  great  charitable  institutions 
were  founded  for  the  most  noble  purpose  that  man  can  conceive,  and  in 
this  State  they  have  become  so  large  that  they  require  a  high  order 
of  business  capacity  and  integrity  to  manage  them,  and  there  is  no 
field  in  which  a  man  can  do  more  good  for  the  unfortunate,  or  in  which 
he  can  render  his  country  more  valuable  service,  than  he  can  right 
here,  and  there  is  no  work  that  should  give  a  man  more  honor  or  the 
confidence  and  esteem  of  the  public  in  a  higher  degree  than  the  work 
you  have  in  hand. 

Gentlemen,  those  of  you  who  are  trustees  are  serving  without  com- 
pensation. You  have  agreed  to  give  your  time,  as  far  as  it  may  be 
necessary,  to  these  institutions  free  of  charge,  and  let  me  impress 
upon  you  strongly  right  here,  that  there  is  only  one  way  in  which  you 
can  get  anything  out  of  it  in  the  way  of  satisfactory  compensation, 
and  that  is  to  manage  these  institutions  better  than  they  have  ever 
been  managed ;  to  place  them  upon  a  higher  plane  than  they  have  ever 
been  placed,  and  to  make  them  do  better  work  than  they  have  ever 
done.  It  is  not  necessary  to  say  a  word  in  disparagement  of  the  past. 
No  matter  how  good  it  may  have  been,  almost  infinite  improvement 
is  yet  possible. 

Those  of  you  who  have  passed  middle  life  have  long  since  dis- 
covered that  the  things  which  give  us  most  pleasure  are  those  which 
\ve  have  done  extraordinarily  well.  If  we  have  done  one  thing  in  all 
our  lives  better  than  other  people  could  do  it,  that  one  thing  will  give 
us  pleasure  as  long  as  we  live,  while  the  ten  thousand  other  things 
which  we  have  done  only  tolerably  well  are  forgotten.  If  you  will 
take  hold  of  these  institutions  in  the  right  spirit  you  can,  in  a  few 
years,  make  more  reputation,  win  more  honor  for  yourselves  and  your 
families,  than  you  can  in  thirty  years  of  the  ordinary  management. 

The  people  of  Illinois  have  been  exceptionally  liberal.  They  have 
aimed  to  make  provision  for  almost  every  class  of  unfortunates,  and 
they  want  these  to  have  the  best  of  care.  There  is  no  reason  in  the 
world  why  the  institutions  of  this  State  should  not  be  made  the  very 
best  upon  earth.  Everything  is  furnished  by  the  people  that  they 
could  be  asked  to  furnish.  But  I  notice  that  a  great  source  of  weakness 
in  some  American  institutions  is  the  fact  that  the  management  has  no 
high  conception  of  duty  or  principle,  and  instead  of  looking  only  to  the 
highest  interests  of  the  institution,  spends  its  energy  in  seeing  how  it 
can  take  care  of  friends  or  how  it  can  make  money  out  of  the  public, 
and  the  result  is  poor  discipline,  inefficient  service,  extravagant  man- 


356  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

agement  and  a  general  lowering  of  the  tone  of  the  institution.  In 
this  State  I  have  adopted  the  policy  of  requiring  that  all  those  who 
fill  important  places  must  be  in  personal  sympathy  with  the  adminis- 
tration, and  personally  interested  in  carrying  out  its  policies ;  but  this 
rule  has  not  been  applied  to  minor  places,  and  my  instructions  have 
been  not  to  employ  anybody,  no  matter  by  whom  recommended  or 
urged,  unless  it  was  reasonably  apparent  that  he,  or  she,  was  honest 
and  competent  and  would  do  efficient  work ;  and  further,  that  nobody 
must  be  retained  for  one  hour  after  it  became  apparent  that  he,  or 
she,  was  not  the  right  person  for  the  place,  and  that  political  pressure 
must  be  absolutely  disregarded  in  passing  upon  a  case  of  this  kind ; 
that  only  the  best  interests  of  the  institution  must  be  considered.  But, 
notwithstanding  these  instructions,  we  have  had  trouble  in  certain 
localities.  That  was  one  reason  why  I  wished  to  have  you  meet  here 
to-day,  and  I  wish  now  to  repeat  and  to  emphasize  these  instructions ; 
that  the  whole  energy  of  the  superintendents  and  of  the  trustees,  and 
of  everybody  connected  with  the  management,  shall  be  bent  to  place 
these  institutions  upon  the  very  highest  plane  of  excellence  and  su- 
periority possible,  and  that  no  personal  considerations,  no  considera- 
tions of  friendship  or  political  patronage  must  be  permitted  to  stand 
in  the  way  one  minute. 

The  public  is  reasonable.  It  asks  only  what  is  fair.  This  being 
a  Democratic  administration,  when  you  employ  men  for  important 
positions  the  public  will  not  find  any  fault  with  you  if  you  employ 
Democrats,  but  it  will  find  fault  and  it  should  condemn  you  for  em- 
ploying men  who  are  either  incompetent  or  dishonest,  or  who  are  not 
thorough-going.  Let  me  say  here,  one  trouble  constantly  met  with  in 
the  employment  of  men  who  are  urged  by  local  politicians  is  that 
they  are  simply  what  is  called  "good  fellows."  Now,  no  business  can 
be  run  on  good-fellowship  alone.  We  need  energy  and  thorough- 
going purpose ;  and  let  me  say  to  you,  gentlemen,  that  if  you  were 
to  attempt  to  make  places  for  the  friends  of  local  politicians  in  these 
public  institutions,  and  were  to  shut  your  eyes  to  laxity  of  management 
and  extravagance,  you  would  never  get  any  satisfaction  out  of  having 
held  this  office ;  for  when  you  step  out  of  the  office  there  will  be 
nothing  to  give  you  any  comfort,  and  the  very  men  whom  you  have 
helped  to  place  in  positions  will  not  respect  you  after  you  have  ceased 
to  give  them  a  job.  In  this  connection  let  me  suggest,  further,  that 
you  cannot  manage  an  institution  with  a  high  degree  of  independ- 
ence and  thoroughness,  if  you  fill  the  places  with  men  whom,  for  any 
reason,  it  may  be  embarrassing  to  remove.  You  should  not  have  an 
employe  in  an  institution  whom  you  can  not  remove,  without  a  mo- 


ADDRESS    TO    TRUSTEES,   ETC.  357 

ment's  hesitation,  whenever  it  becomes  apparent  that  the  best  interests 
of  the  institution  require  it.  There  has  been  some  embarrassment 
on  account  of  the  great  expectations  of  the  localities  or  towns  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  certain  institutions.  The  people  of  these  towns 
seem  to  regard  the  institutions  as  belonging  to  them,  and  they  expect 
to  run  them — to  furnish  the  help  and  supplies — and  they  usually  want 
to  do  it  in  their  own  way,  and  they  do  not  want  to  have  too  thorough 
a  scrutiny  of  the  management.  They  don't  want  too  much  competition 
in  furnishing  supplies,  and  they  don't  want  such  thorough-going 
methods  employed  as  interferes  with  their  friends.  The  position  of 
the  local  trustee  is  most  embarrassing.  No  matter  how  able  or  honest 
a  man  is,  his  position  is  embarrassing.  His  town  expects  everything 
of  him.  To  serve  his  townsmen  and  neighbors  he  must  go  in  one 
direction,  while  his  duty  toward  the  State  may  require  him  to  go  in 
another.  In  a  few  cases  we  have  no  local  trustees,  and  our  experience 
is  the  most  satisfactory  there. 

INSPECTION   BY  TRUSTEES. 

On  the  subject  of  inspection  by  trustees  and  by  the  State  Board  of 
Public  Charities,  I  will  say  that,  to  my  mind,  little  is  accomplished  by 
going  to  an  institution  in  a  body,  getting  a  good  dinner  and  taking  a 
walk  around  it,  or  even  through  it,  and  those  trustees  who  simply  go 
to  the  board  meetings,  and  do  not  give  the  institution  much  attention 
in  any  other  way,  do  not  do  their  full  duty.  Each  institution  is  so 
large  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  one  man,  acting  as  superintendent, 
to  keep  a  wide-awake,  energetic  spirit  prevailing  all  over  it,  and  the 
trustees  can  help  very  much  in  this  regard  if  they  will  go  singly,  and 
go  often  and  go  at  unexpected  hours,  to  an  institution,  and  go  all  over 
it ;  look  into  every  room,  nook  and  corner  of  it ;  go  into  the  kitchen ; 
go  into  the  dining-room  when  the  patients  are  eating;  look  after 
everything.  In  this  way  they  will  greatly  assist  in  keeping  up  the 
tone,  and  will  make  it  very  much  easier  for  the  superintendent  to  keep 
the  entire  force  of  employes  in  that  spirit  in  which  nothing  will  be 
neglected.  I  want  to  impress  upon  you  that  every  person  who  is 
guilty  of  brutal  conduct  toward  patients  should  be  promptly  dis- 
charged, not  simply  for  some  particular  act,  but  because  of  a  dispo- 
sition unsuited  for  the  place.  Let  me  here  also  suggest  the  advisability 
of  having  a  competent  female  physician  in  each  of  our  large  asylums, 
where  women  are  confined. 

BILL  OF  FARE. 

The  vital  importance  of  having  a  thoroughly  competent  person  to 
supervise  the  making  of  the  daily  bill  of  fare,  and  the  cooking  and 


358  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

service,  must  not  be  overlooked.  The  success  of  your  management 
will  depend  largely  on  this.  There  is  such  a  great  variety  of  substan- 
tial articles  of  food,  costing  about  the  same  price,  that  with  a  little 
ingenuity  the  table  can  be  greatly  improved  without  increasing  the 
expense.  This  has  been  too  generally  neglected  in  the  past.  Not 
only  the  superintendent,  but  the  trustees,  should  give  the  table  all 
the  attention  possible. 

PURCHASING  SUPPLIES. 

But  the  principal  reason  for  calling  you  together  here  to-day  was 
to  consider  the  subject  of  purchasing  supplies,  and  in  doing  this  I  do 
not  wish  to  be  understood  as  reflecting  upon  any  person  who  has 
bought  supplies  for  any  of  the  institutions  in  the  past,  and  certainly 
not  upon  the  able  men  now  filling  these  places,  but  I  want  to  speak  of 
the  system.  The  system  which  has  been  retained  thus  far  is  the  old 
system  of  having  a  man  who  is  connected  with  the  institution  go  out 
into  the  market  and  look  around  and  buy  where,  in  his  judgment, 
he  can  buy  the  best.  At  least  that  is  the  theory  of  it ;  but  in  practice 
the  system  generally  works  this  way :  If  the  man  who  does  the  pur- 
chasing is  dishonest  he  makes  an  arrangement  with  some  business 
house,  or  rather  with  the  salesman  of  whom  he  buys,  to  be  paid  a 
commission  in  cash  upon  all  that  he  buys.  If  he  is  honest  at  the 
beginning,  then  the  usual  experience  is  about  this :  He  gets  ac- 
quainted with  the  different  salesmen  in  large  establishments.  He  is 
invited  to  take  a  ride.  He  is  invited  to  go  to  the  theater.  He  is 
invited  to  do  the  town.  He  is  treated  to  wine.  He  has  a  good  time. 
He  is  treated  right  royally.  He  gets  a  kindly  impression  of  his  host, 
and  when  on  the  following  day  the  host  assures  him  that  certain 
goods  are  the  best  and  cheapest  in  the  market,  he  is  inclined  to  be- 
lieve it,  and  he  buys  them.  Later  on,  as  purchases  increase,  the  host 
very  kindly  presents  him  with  a  watch,  as  a  Christmas  gift.  Occasion- 
ally he  throws  in  a  suit  of  clothes,  and  ere  long  a  point  is  reached  where 
valuable  presents  are  made  very  frequently.  These  presents  are  not 
given  by  the  head  of  the  business  house  which  makes  the  sales ;  they 
are  given  by  the  salesman  who  makes  them,  and  then  they  go  onto 
the  books  of  the  concern  under  the  head  of  expense  account.  Now, 
the  large  corporations  of  this  State  and  other  States,  the  railroad  com- 
panies and  other  concerns  that  do  heavy  buying,  long  ago  abandoned 
this  system,  abandoned  it  absolutely.  They  said  they  did  not  want 
to  send  a  dishonest  man  into  the  market  to  buy  for  them :  that  it  was 
wrong  to  send  an  honest  man  into  the  market  under  existing  con- 
ditions ;  and  third,  what  is  still  more  important,  that  the  most  honest 


ADDRESS    TO    TRUSTEES,   ETC.  359 

man  living  could  not,  on  the  whole,  buy  as  cheaply  in  that  way  as  they 
could  buy  under  what  is  called  the  competitive  system ;  that  is,  by 
giving  everybody  who  has  the  goods  to  sell  a  chance  to  bid.  Hence, 
all  of  the  corporations  have  adopted  the  plan  of  never  permitting  a 
purchasing  agent  to  go  into  the  market ;  but  they  make  out  a  requisi- 
tion of  what  they  need,  or  of  what  they  will  need  for  a  few  weeks  or  a 
month  ahead.  They  make  fifteen  or  twenty  copies  of  this,  send  it  out 
to  that  many  different  houses  carrying  the  line  of  goods  that  are 
wanted,  and  receive  bids  from  all  these  houses,  and  the  lowest  bidder  is 
given  the  contract,  the  right  being  always  reserved  to  reject  any  goods 
that  are  not  satisfactory.  Their  experience  is,  that  even  in  the  pur- 
chase of  the  most  staple  articles,  the  bids  will  vary  from  ten  per  cent, 
to  twenty  per  cent.  By  purchasing  in  this  way  the  supplies  are  ob- 
tained, not  only  at  the  lowest  figure  that  some  one  reliable  house  may 
be  willing  to  sell  for  on  that  particular  day,  but  at  the  lowest  figure 
that  any  reliable  house  is  willing  to  sell  for  on  that  day,  and  among  so 
many  business  houses  there  will  always  be  one  or  more  that  will  have 
special  reasons  for  bidding  low  on  one  day  that  may  not  have  on 
others,  especially  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  orders  from  these 
institutions  are  usually  large  and  that  the  institutions  pay  cash.  Almost 
everything  that  is  needed  in  these  institutions  can  be  described  in  a 
requisition,  and  when  it  comes  to  the  purchase  of  an  article  like  cloth, 
the  bid  may  be  accompanied  by  sample.  Several  of  the  institutions 
of  the  State  have  already  adopted  this  system,  and  their  experience  is 
that  they  get  their  supplies  from  ten  per  cent,  to  twenty-five  per  cent, 
cheaper  than  they  were  able  to  get  them  before.  But  even  if,  in  the 
long  run,  supplies  could  not  be  obtained  cheaper  in  this  way  than  under 
the  old  system,  this  plan  should  be  adopted  because  it  is  correct  in 
principle,  and  because  it  gives  everybody  an  equal  chance  and  is  a 
preventative  to  scandal.  I  want  this  system  adopted  in  every  institution 
in  this  State  and  rigidly  adhered  to.  It  is  not  necessary  to  discuss 
the  feasibility  or  practicability  of  it,  because  it  has  been  tried  too  long 
to  be  open  to  question.  Requisitions  should  be  made  out  in  copies 
of  at  least  twelve  or  more,  and  copies  sent  to  every  business  house 
that  is  at  all  within  reach  or  that  competes  in  that  country,  and  then 
when  the  bids  come  in  they  should  all  be  attached  to  a  copy  of  the 
requisition.  The  lowest  should  be  accepted,  and  they,  together  with 
each  requisition,  should  be  laid  away,  so  that  they  can  be  examined 
at  any  time  in  the  future.  With  rare  exceptions  all  supplies  should  be 
purchased  at  the  office  of  the  institution,  and  the  purchaser  should  not 
go  into  the  market. 

Now,  in  conclusion,  gentlemen,  let  me  say,  that  if  you  can  get  this 


360  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

system  of  purchasing  supplies  firmly  established,  you  will  have  ren- 
dered a  great  service  to  the  State  and  have  succeeded  in  putting  our  in- 
stitutions upon  a  business  plane  that  they  have  not  occupied  so  far,  and 
if  you  shall  succeed  in  placing  the  institutions  of  this  State  upon  so  high 
a  plane  that  they  will  be  regarded  as  the  very  best  in  the  world,  then 
you  can  afford  to  retire  from  their  management  soon,  with  the  con- 
sciousness that  as  long  as  you  live  you  will  derive  a  pleasure  from 
the  thought  that  this  thing  was  done  better  than  it  was  ever  done 
before ;  that  you  have  led  the  way  in  establishing  a  reform,  and  that 
you  have  rendered  your  country  a  substantial  service,  which  entitles 
you  to  the  gratitude  and  the  honor  of  all  patriotic  people.  I  shall 
have  something  to  say  to  you  at  another  time,  on  the  subject  of  placing 
the  institutions  of  this  State  on  a  higher  scientific  plane. 


SPEECH    AT    UNVEILING    OF    STATUE    OF    GENERAL 

SHIELDS. 

(Delivered  in  Memorial  Hall,  in  the  Capitol,  at  Washington,  D.  C,  December 

6.  1893.) 

Note. — The  proceedings  were  in  the  presence  of  a  vast  assemblage,  in- 
cluding the  Vice-President,  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 
prominent  men  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 

Fellow-Citizens  of  America : 

We  are  here  to  perform  an  unusual  ceremony,  to  do  an  act  that 
is  not  common,  and  that  has  never  been  and  never  can  be  so.  We  are 
here  not  to  mourn  the  departure  of  a  friend,  but  to  honor  the  memory 
of  a  hero ;  not  to  shed  tears,  but  to  place  a  laurel  wreath.  We  are  here 
to  pay  that  tribute  which  civilized  people  give  to  the  memory  of  such 
of  their  sons  as  have  rendered  great  and  distinguished  service  to  their 
country.  Occasions  of  this  kind  are  not  common,  because  few  men 
ever  render  a  service  to  mankind  that  ensures  the  gratitude  of  a  Na- 
tion. 

There  have  been  ages  in  the  history  of  the  world  in  which  no  monu- 
ments were  erected,  either  because  there  were  no  men  of  sufficient  gen- 
ius and  grandeur  of  soul  to  do  great  deeds, or  else  there  were  no  people 
of  sufficient  appreciation  to  recognize  them ;  and  the  fact  that  occa- 
sions of  this  character  are  now  more  frequent  than  ever  shows  the  ad- 
vaflce  of  civilization,  and  it  also  shows  that  liberal  institutions,  giving 
freedom  of  thought,  freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  action  for  honest 
men,  are  more  conducive  to  the  growth  of  genius  and  the  development 
of  greatness  than  the  repressive  institutions  of  the  past. 


VNV RILING   OF  STATUE,   ETC. 

The  greater  frequency  of  occasions  of  this  character  in  this  cen- 
tury may  warrant  us  in  saying  that  the  genii  travel  in  groups;  that 
brilliancy  never  wanders  alone,  but  as  the  brighter  stars  range  them- 
selves together,  so  in  the  march  of  ages,  by  a  kind  of  natural  assimila- 
tion, superiority  and  brilliancy  go  together.  The  basis  of  all  demon- 
strations of  this  character  is  gratitude — that  gratitude  which  a  living 
people  feel  for  the  distinguished  dead.  In  early  times  great  services 
were  always  of  a  military  character,  because  all  people  were  exposed 
to  the  ravages  of  war.  Nearly  all  the  early  heroes  were  warriors.  But 
as  the  world  progressed,  as  civilization  moved  a  league  onward,  and 
men  began  to  understand  that  only  through  the  arts  of  peace  can  the 
world  be  permanently  blessed,  they  came  to  regard  the  founding  of 
States  as  an  act  of  immortality,  and  instead  of  remembering  only  sol- 
diers, they  began  to  erect  statues  to  those  men  who  made  it  possible  for 
cities  to  grow,  for  learning  to  nourish,  for  industries  to  thrive,  and  for 
the  arts  to  beautify  life. 

OTHER  HEROES  CREATED. 

And  then,  when  civilization  had  again  moved  a  step  forward,  and 
the  wants  of  man  began  to  develop  under  the  new  order  of  things,  when 
it  was  discovered  that  there  is  nothing  fixed  or  stationary  in  all  the 
universe ;  that  change  and  consequent  growth  or  dissolution  are  per- 
petual ;,  that  the  law  of  concentration  and  the  law  of  separation  are 
everywhere  simultaneously  at  work,  and  that  those  laws  apply  not 
only  to  the  heavens  and  to  the  entire  physical  creation,  but  to  all  social, 
religious,  economic  and  political  existence;  when  it  was  noticed  that 
the  tendency  of  the  strong  to  devour  the  weak  was  inherent  and  eter- 
nal; that  grasping  selfishness  is  but  a  manifestation  of  universal  law: 
that  government,  instead  of  being  the  protector  of  the  poor  and  the 
weak,  is  in  constant  danger  of  being  used  as  an  instrument  by  the 
cunning  and  designing  to  despoil  the  ignorant  and  the  unwary ;  when 
it  was  found  that  it  required  constant  vigilance  to  prevent  the  very  best 
institutions  from  being  productive  of  great  wrong,  and  that  problems 
constantly  arise  that  are  difficult  of  solution,  and  vitally  affect  the 
happiness  of  men,  then  the  world  created  another  class  of  heroes.  It 
began  to  honor  the  men  who  devoted  their  lives  to  the  solution  of 
these  problems.  It  began  to  build  statues  to  statesmen.  Not  to  the 
men  who  were  merely  office-holders,  for  they  do  little  good  and  win  no 
glory,  but  it  built  statues  to  the  men  who,  whether  in  office  or  out  of 
office,  helped  to  light  the  way  for  humanity. 


362  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

ADDED  GLORY  TO  THE  FLAG. 

To-day  we  honor  the  memory  of  a  man  whose  career  meets  all 
three  of  the  requirements  we  have  mentioned.  He  was  a  brilliant 
soldier,  he  helped  to  lay  the  foundation  of  States,  and  he  assisted  in 
guiding  the  destiny  and  shaping  the  institutions,  not  only  of  a  great 
commonwealth,  but  of  the  great  American  Republic.  A  lawyer  and 
a  soldier,  a  judge  and  a  legislator,  an  executive  officer  and  a  popular 
leader,  he  was  honest,  brilliant  and  brave.  He  added  glory  to  the 
flag  of  his  country  on  both  foreign  and  domestic  soil. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  tell  the  full  story  of  his  life ;  there  are  others 
who  can  do  it  better.  I  will  refer  to  only  such  parts  of  it  as  tell  a  les- 
son to  the  age  and  to  posterity. 

James  Shields  was  born  in  a  village  in  Ireland  in  1810.  When 
about  sixteen  years  old  he  came  to  America  and  stopped  for  a  time 
on  the  seaboard,  working  his  way  upward,  teaching  school  and  doing 
some  newspaper  work.  He  then  studied  law  and  settled  in  Kaskaskia, 
111.  The  military  bent  of  his  mind  led  him  -to  participate  in  Indian 
warfare  for  a  time,  but  he  returned  to  his  law  practice.  In  1836  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Illinois  Legislature,  and  later  held  the  office 
of  Auditor ;  in  1843  ne  was  appointed  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  State,  and  in  1845  was  made  Commissioner  General  of 
the  United  States  Land  Office. 

BRAVE  IN  BATTLE. 

At  the  commencement  of  hostilities  with  Mexico,  he  was  appointed 
Brigadier  General  and  served  under  Gen.  Zachariah  Taylor  on  the  Rio 
Grande,  under  Gen.  Wood  in  Chihuahua,  and  through  the  extended 
campaigns  of  Gen.  Scott,  everywhere  displaying  great  skill  as  a  mili- 
tary leader.  At  Cerro  Gordo  he  was  shot  through  the  lungs  and  was 
breveted  as  Major  General  for  gallant  conduct.  After  his  recovery  he 
participated  in  all  of  the  campaigns  in  the  valley  of  Mexico,  and  was 
again  severely  wounded  at  the  battle  of  Chapultepec. 

Returning  from  Mexico,  he  was,  in  1848,  elected  a  United  States 
Senator  by  the  Legislature  of  Illinois,  and  served  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  until  in  the  spring  of  1855.  Subsequently  he  went  to  the 
then  Territory  of  Minnesota,  assisted  in  organizing  the  State  govern- 
ment there,  and  was  elected  United  States  Senator  from  that  State, 
serving,  however,  but  a  short  time.  He  then  went  to  California,  and 
at  the  beginning  of  the  civil  war  was  'in  Mexico  superintending  a  mine. 
He  at  once  hastened  to  Washington,  tendered  his  services  to  the  gov- 
ernment, was  appointed  a  Brigadier  General  in  August,  1861,  and  on 


UNVEILING   OP  STATUE,   ETC.  363 

March  23,  1862,  he  won  a  victory  over  the  great  Stonewall  Jackson  at 
Winchester,  in  one  of  the  hardest  fought  battles  of  the  war,  and  was 
again  severely  wounded. 

So  brilliant  was  his  conduct  in  this  battle,  that  he  was  congratulated, 
not  only  by  Generals  McClellan  and  Banks,  but  by  the  great  War  Sec- 
retary, Stanton,  for  "energy,  activity  and  bravery"  displayed  by  him, 
and  was  further  honored  by  Gov.  Curtin,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  ordered 
that  the  flags  of  Pennsylvania  be  inscribed  "Winchester,  March  23, 
1862." 

In  1863  he  resigned  his  commission  in  the  army  and  went  to  Cali- 
fornia, but  afterwards  returned,  settled  in  Missouri,  and  resumed  the 
practice  of  law,  for  Gen.  Shields  was  always  obliged  to  work  for  a 
living.  In  Missouri  he  served  as  a  railroad  commissioner ;  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Legislature,  and  in  1879  was  appointed  to  serve  out  the 
brief  unexpired  term  of  Senator  Bogy  in  the  United  States  Senate. 
This  was  his  last  public  service. 

The  people  of  Illinois  delight  to  honor  him,  and  having  been  in- 
vited to  erect  two  statues  in  Memorial  Hall,  at  Washington,  of  citizens 
who  had  achieved  military  or  civic  renown,  the  Legislature  of  that 
great  commonwealth,  at  its  last  session,  declared  Gen.  Shields  to  have 
been  a  distinguished  warrior,  statesman  and  jurist,  and  it  directed  this 
statue  to  be  made  and  placed  in  position  here. 

PATRIOTISM    DOES   NOT   DEPEND    ON   BIRTH. 

The  life  of  Gen.  Shields  shows  that  love  of  country  and  lofty  patriot- 
ism do  not  depend  on  the  locality  of  birth.  He  was  reared  almost 
to  manhood  on  foreign  soil,  and  yet  no  truer  patriot  ever  bled  for  the 
American  flag. 

The  American  Nation  differs  from  all  other  nations  on  earth;  it 
differs  from  its  ancestry  and  differs  from  its  component  parts. 

The  brain  and  muscle  of  all  peoples  meet  here;  all  give  and  all  re- 
ceive ;  all  are  burnished ;  none  remain  the  same ;  all  are  transformed, 
not  by  intermarriage  through  generations,  but  as  by  magic,  so  that  in 
a  few  years  after  landing  on  our  shores,  even  though  they  retain  their 
mother  language,  they  are  no  longer  English,  German  or  Scandinavian 
— no  longer  Teuton,  Celt,  Latin  or  Slav — but  are  of  that  new,  cosmo- 
politan people  known  the  world  over  as  Americans.  Empires  can  only 
be  founded  by  labor ;  it  requires  labor  to  clear  forests  and  span  rivers, 
to  found  schools  and  churches,  to  build  factories,  railroads  and  cities. 
The  making  of  a  mighty  State  requires  hewing  and  lifting,  delving  and 
spinning.  It  requires  that  endurance  that  comes  from  being  used  to 
hard  conditions.  Gen.  Shields  saw  this ;  he  saw  that  where  the  for- 


364  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

eign-born  people  joined  hands  with  the  native-born,  joined  their  in- 
dustry and  frugality  to  the  magnificent  genius  of  the  native-born  citi- 
zens, it  made  a  force  such  as  existed  nowhere  else. 

He  saw  that  those  States  which  had  the' greatest  number  of  foreign- 
born  citizens  co-operating  with  and  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder 
to  the  native-born  made  the  greatest  progress.  In  them  was  found 
the  best  agriculture,  the  most  railroads,  the  most  factories,  the  finest 
cities,  the  best  schools,  the  most  libraries,  and  the  greatest  material 
and  intellectual  development,  while  those  States  having  no  foreign- 
born  citizens  lagged  far  behind. 

More  than  this,  he  saw  that  these  people  did  not  take  up  arms 
against  their  adopted  country,  but  came  promptly  forward  in  support 
of  the  Union.  Not  only  did  their  industry,  joined  to  that  of  the  native 
American,  help  to  produce  that  material  wealth  which  enabled  the 
government  to  carry  on  a  protracted  war,  but  they  and  their  sons  made 
up  a  large  per  cent,  of  our  armies,  and  formed  a  large  per  cent,  of  the 
dead  and  wounded  on  every  battle-field. 

Gen.  Shields  himself  was  shot  a  number  of  times  while  fighting 
for  the  flag  of  his  country ;  yet,  he  in  his  day  heard  men,  as  we  do  in 
our  day,  inveigh  against  the  foreign-born,  and  seeking  to  apply  a 
different  law  to  them  from  that  applied  to  the  native. 

The  life  of  Gen.  Shields  is  a  fitting  response  to  all  such  people. 
If  the  great  Shields  could  animate  this  statue  but  for  an  hour,  with 
what  infinite  scorn  would  his  proud  spirit  look  upon  these  men,  who, 
having  bled  on  no  battle-field,  stormed  the  ramparts  of  no  armed 
enemy,  solved  no  great  problem  for  humanity,  done  nothing  to  de- 
velop our  resources,  taken  no  part  in  laying  the  foundation  of  State 
or  building  its  superstructure  ;  who,  having  done  nothing  to  make  their 
country  great,  or  their  age  illustrious,  now  seek  to  turn  the  accident 
of  birth  into  a  virtue  by  an  act  of  Congress. 

POVERTY  NO  BAR  TO  SUCCESS. 

But  to  my  mind,  the  most  important  feature  in  the  career  of  Gen. 
Shields,  the  most  inspiring  lesson  to  the  world,  and  especially  to  the 
ambitious  young  men  of  America,  is  the  fact  that  he  was  poor ;  that  he 
had  to  toil  for  daily  bread,  not  only  for  himself,  but  for  his  family ;  that, 
notwithstanding  this  poverty,  by  strong  resolution,  by  lofty  purpose, 
by  keeping  his  eye  fixed  upon  the  star  of  patriotism  and  of  duty,  he  has 
won  renown  and  a  place  in  the  galaxy  of  the  world's  heroes.  Every 
age  has  produced  millions  of  brilliant  and  able  men,  who,  failing  to 
keep  their  eye  turned  to  the  sun,  losing  sight  of  lofty  ideals,  gave  way  to 


'REASONS   FOR   PARDONING,  ETC.  365 

dissipation  and  carried  only  indescribable  wretchedness  to  miserable 
graves. 

Every  age  has  produced  millions  of  strong  and  industrious  men 
who  knew  no  higher  God  than  the  dollar,  who  coined  their  lives  in 
sordid  gold,  who  gave  no  thought  to  blessing  the  world  or  lifting  up 
humanity ;  men  who  owned  ships  and  palaces  and  the  riches  of  the 
earth,  who  gilded  meanness  with  splendor  and  then  sunk  into  oblivion. 
Posterity  erected  no  statue  to  their  memory,  and  there  was  not  a  pen 
in  the  universe  that  would  even  preserve  a  letter  of  their  names. 

Let  the  young  men  of  America  learn  from  this  statue  and  from 
the  career  of  Gen.  Shields  that  the  paths  of  virtue  and  of  honor,  the 
paths  of  glory  and  immortality  are  open  to  them. 


REASONS    FOR    PARDONING    FIELDEN,    NEEBE,    AND 

SCHWAB,  THE  SO-CALLED  ANARCHISTS, 

JUNE  26,  1893. 

STATEMENT  OF  THE  CASE. 

On  the  night  of  May  4,  1886,  a  public  meeting  was  held  on  Hay- 
market  Square,  in  Chicago;  there  were  from  800  to  1,000  people  pres- 
ent, nearly  all  being  laboring  men.  There  had  been  trouble,  growing 
out  of  the  effort  to  introduce  an  eight-hour  day,  resulting  in  some 
collisions  with  the  police,  in  one  of  which  several  laboring  people  were 
killed,  and  this  meeting  was  called  as  a  protest  against  alleged  police 
brutality. 

The  meeting  was  orderly  and  was  attended  by  the  mayor,  who 
remained  until  the  crowd  began  to  disperse,  and  then  went  away.  As 
soon  as  Capt.  John  Bonfield,  of  the  Police  Department,  learned  that 
the  mayor  had  gone,  he  took  a  detachment  of  police  and  hurried  to  the 
meeting  for  the  purpose  of  dispersing  the  few  that  remained,  and  as 
the  police  approached  the  place  of  meeting  a  bomb  was  thrown  by 
some  unknown  person,  which  exploded  and'wounded  many  and  killed 
several  policemen,  among  the  latter  being  one  Mathias  Degan.  A 
number  of  people  were  arrested,  and  after  a  time  August  Spies,  Albert 
R.  Parsons,  Louis  Lingg,  Michael  Schwab,  Samuel  Fielden,  George 
Engle,  Aclolph  Fischer,  and  Oscar  Neebe  were  indicted  for  the  murder 
of  Mathias  Degan.  The  prosecution  could  not  discover  who  had 
thrown  the  bomb  and  could  not  bring  the  really  guilty  man  to  justice, 
and  as  some  of  the  men  indicted  were  not  at  the  Haymarket  meeting 
and  had  nothing  to  do  with  it,  the  prosecution  was  forced  to  proceed 
on  the  theory  that  the  men  indicted  were  guilty  of  murder,  because 


366  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

it  was  claimed  they  had,  at  various  times  in  the  past,  uttered  and  print- 
ed incendiary  and  seditious  language,  practically  advising  the  killing  of 
policemen,  of  Pinkerton  men,  and  others  acting  in  that  capacity,  and 
that  they  were,  therefore,  responsible  for  the  murder  of  Mathias  Degan. 
The  public  was  greatly  excited  and  after  a  prolonged  trial  all  of  the 
defendants  were  found  guilty ;  Oscar  Neebe  was  sentenced  to  fifteen 
years'  imprisonment  and  all  of  the  other  defendants  were  sentenced 
to  be  hanged.  The  case  was  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court  and  was 
there  affirmed  in  the  fall  of  1887.  Soon  thereafter  Lingg  committed 
suicide.  The  sentence  of  Fielden  and  Schwab  was  commuted  to  im- 
prisonment for  life,  and  Parsons,  Fischer,  Engle  and  Spies  were 
hanged,  and  the  petitioners  now  ask  to  have  Neebe,  Fielden  and 
Schwab  set  at  liberty. 

The  several  thousand  merchants,  bankers,  judges,  lawyers  and 
other  prominent  citizens  of  Chicago,  who  have  by  petition,  by  letter 
and  in  other  ways  urged  executive  clemency,  mostly  base  their  appeal 
on  the  ground  that,  assuming  the  prisoners  to  be  guilty,  they  have  been 
punished  enough ;  but  a  number  of  them  who  have  examined  the  case 
more  carefully,  and  are  more  familiar  with  the  record  and  with  the 
facts  disclosed  by  the  papers  on  file,  base  their  appeal  on  entirely  dif- 
ferent grounds.  They  assert : 

First — That  the  jury  which  tried  the  case  was  a  packed  jury  selected 
to  convict. 

Second — That  according  to  the  law  as  laid  down  by  the  Supreme 
Court,  both  prior  to  and  again  since  the  trial  of  this  case,  the  jurors, 
according  to  their  own  answers,  were  not  competent  jurors,  and  the 
trial  was,  therefore,  not  a  legal  trial. 

Third — That  the  defendants  were  not  proven  to  be  guilty  of  the 
crime  charged  in  the  indictment. 

Fourth — That  as  to  the  defendant  Neebe,  the  State's  Attorney  had 
declared  at  the  close  of  the  evidence  that  there  was  no  case  against 
him,  and  yet  he  has  been. kept  in  prison  all  these  years. 

Fifth — That  the  trial  judge  was  either  so  prejudiced  against  the 
defendants,  or  else  so  determined  to  win  the  applause  of  a  certain 
class  in  the  community,  that  he  could  not  and  did  not  grant  a  fair 
trial. 

Upon  the  question  of  having  been  punished  enough,  I  will  simply 
say  that  if  the  defendants  had  a  fair  trial,  and  nothing  has  developed 
since  to  show  that  they  were  not  guilty  of  the  crime  charged  in  the 
indictment,  then  there  ought  to  be  no  executive  interference,  for  no 
punishment  under  our  laws  could  then  be  too  severe.  Government 
must  defend  itself;  life  and  property  must  be  protected,  and  law  and 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  367 

order  must  be  maintained ;  murder  must  be  punished,  and  if  the  defend- 
ants are  guilty  of  murder,  either  committed  by  their  own  hands  or  by 
some  one  else  acting  on  their  advice,  then,  if  they  have  had  a  fair  trial, 
there  should  be  in  this  case  no  executive  interference.  The  soil  of 
America  is  not  adapted  to  the  growth  of  anarchy.  While  our  institu- 
tions are  not  free  from  injustice,  they  are  still  the  best  that  have  yet 
been  devised,  and  therefore  must  be  maintained. 

WAS  THE  JURY  PACKED? 
I. 

The  record  of  the  trial  shows  that  the  jury  in  this  case  was  not 
drawn  in  the  manner  that  juries  usually  are  drawn;  that  is,  instead 
of  having  a  number  of  names  drawn  out  of  a  box  that  contained  many 
hundred  names,  as  the  law  contemplates  shall  be  done  in  order  to  insure 
a  fair  jury  and  give  neither  side  the  advantage,  the  trial  judge  appoint- 
ed one  Henry  L.  Ryce  as  a  special  bailiff  to  go  out  and  summon  such 
men  as  he  (Ryce)  might  select  to  act  as  jurors.  While  this  practice  has 
been  sustained  in  cases  in  which  it  did  not  appear  that  either  side  had 
been  prejudiced  thereby,  it  is  always  a  dangerous  practice,  for  it  gives 
the  bailiff  absolute  power  to  select  a  jury  that  will  be  favorable  to  one 
side  or  the  other.  Counsel  for  the  State,  in  their  printed  brief,  say  that 
Ryce  was  appointed  on  motion  of  defendants.  While  it  appears  that 
counsel  for  the  defendants  were  in  favor  of  having  some  one  appoint- 
ed, the  record  has  this  entry  : 

"Mr.  Grinnell  (the  State's  Attorney)  suggested  Mr.  Ryce  as  special 
bailiff,  and  he  was  accepted  and  appointed."  But  it  makes  no  differ- 
ence on  whose  motion  he  was  appointed  if  he  did  not  select  a  fair  jury. 
It  is  shown  that  he  boasted  while  selecting  jurors  that  he  was  man- 
aging this  case ;  that  these  fellows  would  hang  as  certain  as  death ; 
that  he  was  calling  such  men  as  the  defendants  would  have  to  chal- 
lenge peremptorily  and  waste  their  challenges  on,  and  that  when  their 
challenges  were  exhausted  they  would  have  to  take  such  men  as  the 
prosecution  wanted.  It  appears  from  the  record  of  the  trial  that  the 
defendants  were  obliged  to  exhaust  all  of  their  peremptory  challenges, 
and  they  had  to  take  a  jury,  almost  every  member  of  which  stated 
frankly  that  he  was  prejudiced  against  them.  On  Page  133,  of  Volume 
I,  of  the  record,  it  appears  that  when  the  panel  was  about  two-thirds 
full,  counsel  for  defendants  called  attention  of  the  court  to  the  fact 
that  Ryce  was  summoning  only  prejudiced  men,  as  shown  by  their 
examinations.  Further :  That  he  was  confining  himself  to  particular 
classes,  i.  e.,  clerks,  merchants,  manufacturers,  etc.  Counsel  for  de- 
fendants then  moved  the  court  to  stop  this  and  direct  Ryce  to  summon 


368  _  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

the  jurors  from  the  body  of  the  people ;  that  is,  from  the  community  at 
large,  and  not  from  particular  classes;  but  the  court  refused  to  take 
any  notice  of  the  matter. 

For  the  purpose  of  still  further  showing  the  misconduct  of  Bailiff 
Ryce,  reference  is  made  to  the  affidavit  of  Otis  S.  Favor.  Mr.  Favor  is 
one  of  the  most  reputable  and  honorable  business  men  in  Chicago ;  he 
was  himself  summoned  by  Ryce  as  a  juror,  but  was  so  prejudiced 
against  the  defendants  that  he  had  to  be  excused,  and  he  abstained 
from  making  any  affidavit  before  sentence  because  the  State's  Attorney 
had  requested  him  not  to  make  it,  although  he  stood  ready  to  go  into 
court  and  tell  what  he  knew  if  the  court  wished  him  to  do  so,  and  he 
naturally  supposed  he  would  be  sent  for.  But  after  the  Supreme  Court 
had  passed  on  the  case,  and  some  of  the  defendants  were  about  to  be 
hanged,  he  felt  that  an  injustice  was  being  done,  and  he  made  the  fol- 
lowing affidavit : 

STATE  OF  ILLINOIS,   )  ss 
Cook  County.  ) 

Otis  S.  Favor,  being  duly  sworn,  on  oath  says  that  he  is  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  residing  in  Chicago,  and  a  merchant 
doing  business  at  Nos.  6  and  8  Wabash  Avenue,  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  in  said 
county.  That  he  is  very  well  acquainted  with  Henry  L.  Ryce,  of  Cook  county, 
Illinois,  who  acted  as  special  bailiff  in  summoning  jurors  in  the  case  of  The 
People,  etc.  vs.  Spies  et  al.,  indictment  for  murder,  tried  in  the  Criminal  Court 
of  Cook  county,  in  the  summer  of  1886.  That  affiant  was  himself  summoned  by 
said  Ryce  for  a  juror  in  said  cause,  but  was  challenged  and  excused  therein  be- 
cause of  his  prejudice.  That  on  several  occasions  in  conversation  between 
affiant  and  said  Ryce  touching  the  summoning  of  the  jurors  by  said  Ryce,  and 
while  said  Ryce  was  so  acting  as  special  bailiff  as  aforesaid,  said  Ryce  said  to  this 
affiant  and  to  other  persons  in  affiant's  presence,  in  substance  and  effect  as 
follows,  to-wit:  "I  (meaning  said  Ryce)  am  managing  this  case  (meaning  this 
case  against  Spies  et  al.),  and  know  what  I  am  about.  Those  fellows  (meaning 
the  defendants,  Spies  et  al.)  are  going  to  be  hanged  as  certain  as  death.  I  am 
calling  such  men  as  the  defendants  will  have  to  challenge  peremptorily  and  waste 
their  time  and  challenges.  Then  they  will  have  to  take  such  men  as  the  prose- 
cution wants."  That  affiant  has  been  very  reluctant  to  make  any  affidavit  in  this 
case,  having  no  sympathy  with  anarchy  nor  relationship  to  or  personal  interest 
in  the  defendants  or  any  of  them,  and  not  being  a  socialist,  communist  or 
anarchist;  but  affiant  has  an  interest  as  a  citizen,  in  the  due  administration  of 
the  law,  and  that  no  injustice  should  be  done  under  judicial  procedure,  and 
believes  that  jurors  should  not  be  selected  with  reference  to  their  known  views 
or  prejudices.  Affiant  further  says  that  his  personal  relations  with  said  Ryce 
were  at  said  time,  and  for  many  years  theretofore  had  been  most  friendly  and 
even  intimate,  and  that  affiant  is  not  prompted  by  any  ill  will  toward  any  one  in 
making  this  affidavit,  but  solely  by  a  sense  of  duty  and  a  conviction  of  what  is 
due  to  justice. 

Affiant  further  says,  that  about  the  beginning  of  October.  1886,  when  the 
motion  for  a  new  trial  was  being  argued  in  said  cases  before  Judge  Gary,  and 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  369 

when,  as  he  was  informed,  application  was  made  before  Judge  Gary  for  leave  to 
examine  affiant  in  open  court,  touching  the  matters  above  stated,  this  affiant 
went,  upon  request  of  State's  Attorney  Grinnell,  to  his  office  during  the  noon 
recess  of  the  court,  and  there  held  an  interview  with  said  Grinnell,  Mr.  Ingham 
and  said  Ryce,  in  the  presence  of  several  other  persons,  including  some  police 
officers,  where  affiant  repeated  substantially  the  matters  above  stated,  and  the 
said  Ryce  did  not  deny  affiant's  statements,  and  affiant  said  he  would  have  to 
testify  thereto  if  summoned  as  a  witness,  but  had  refused  to  make  an  affidavit 
thereto,  and  affiant  was  then  and  there  asked  and  urged  to  persist  in  his  refusal 
and  to  make  no  affidavit.  And  affiant  further  saith  not. 

OTIS  S.  FAVOR. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  7th  day  of  November,  A.  D.  1887. 

JULIUS  STERN, 
Notary  Public  in  and  for  said  County. 

So  far  as  shown  no  one  connected  with  the  State's  Attorney's  office 
has  ever  denied  the  statements  of  Mr.  Favor,  as  to  what  took  place  in 
that  office,  although  his  affidavit  was  made  in  November,  1887. 

As  to  Bailiff  Ryce,  it  appears  that  he  has  made  an  affidavit  in  which 
he  denies  that  he  made  the  statements  sworn  to  by  Mr.  Favor,  but  un- 
fortunately for  him,  the  record  of  the  trial  is  against  him,  for  it  shows 
conclusively  that  he  summoned  only  the  class  of  men  mentioned  in 
Mr.  Favor's  affidavit.  According  to  the  record,  981  men  were  ex- 
amined as  to  their  qualifications  as  jurors,  and  most  of  them  were 
either  employers,  or  men  who  had  been  pointed  out  to  the  bailiff  by 
their  employer.  The  following,  taken  from  the  original  record  of  the 
trial,  are  fair  specimens  of  the  answers  of  nearly  all  the  jurors,  except 
that  in  the  following  cases  the  court  succeeded  in  getting  the  jurors 
to  say  that  they  believed  they  could  try  the  case  fairly  notwithstanding 

their  prejudices. 

EXAMINATION  OF  JURORS. 

William  Neil,  a  manufacturer,  was  examined  at  length ;  stated  that 
he  had  heard  and  read  about  the  Haymarket  trouble,  and  believed 
enough  of  what  he  had  so  heard  and  read  to  form  an  opinion  as  to  the 
guilt  of  the  defendants,  which  he  still  entertained ;  that  he  had  ex- 
pressed said  opinion,  and  then  he  added :  "It  would  take  pretty  strong 
evidence  to  remove  the  impression  that  I  now  have.  I  could  not  dis- 
miss it  from  my  mind ;  could  not  lay  it  altogether  aside  during  the  trial. 
I  believe  my  present  opinion,  based  upon  what  I  have  heard  and  read, 
would  accompany  me  through  the  trial,  and  would  influence  me  in 
determining  and  getting  at  a  verdict." 

He  was  challenged  by  the  defendants  on  the  ground  of  being  pre- 
judiced, but  the  court  then  got  him  to  say  that  he  believed  he  could 
give  a  fair  verdict  on  whatever  evidence  he  should  hear,  and  there- 
upon the  challenge  was  overruled. 

24 


370  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

H.  F.  Chandler,  in  the  stationery  business  with  Skeen,  Stuart  & 
Co.,  said:  "I  was  pointed  out  to  the  deputy  sheriff  by  my  employer 
to  be  summoned  as  a  juror."  He  then  stated  that  he  had  read  and 
talked  about  the  Haymarket  trouble,  and  had  formed  and  frequently 
expressed  an  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  of  the  defendants,  and  that  he 
believed  the  statements  he  had  read  and  heard.  He  was  asked  : 

Q.     Is  that  a  decided  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  of  the  defendants  ? 

A.     It  is  a  decided  opinion ;  yes,  sir. 

Q.  Your  mind  is  pretty  well  made  up  now  as  to  their  guilt  or  inno- 
cence? 

A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.    Would  it  be  hard  to  change  your  opinion  ? 

A.  It  might  be  hard ;  I  cannot  say.  I  don't  know  whether  it  would 
be  hard  or  not. 

He  was  challenged  by  the  defendants  on  the  ground  of  being  pre- 
judiced. Then  the  court  took  him  in  hand  and  examined  him  at  some 
length,  and  got  him  to  state  that  he  believed  he  could  try  the  case 
fairly.  Then  the  challenge  was  overruled. 

F.  L.  Wilson :  Am  a  manufacturer.  Am  prejudiced  and  have 
formed  and  expressed  an  opinion ;  that  opinion  would  influence  me 
in  rendering  a  verdict. 

He  was  challenged  for  cause,  but  was  then  examined  by  the  court. 

Q.  Are  you  conscious  in  your  own  mind  of  any  wish  or  desire 
that  there  should  be  evidence  produced  in  this  trial  which  should  prove 
some  of  these  men,  or  any  of  them,  to  be  guilty? 

A.     Well,  I  think  I  have. 

Being  further  pressed  by  the  court,  he  said  that  the  only  feeling 
he  had  against  the  defendants  was  based  upon  having  taken  it  for 
granted  that  what  he  read  about  them  was,  in  the  main,  true ;  that  he 
believed  that  sitting  as  a  juror  the  effect  of  the  evidence  either  for  or 
against  the  defendants  would  be  increased  or  diminished  by  what  he 
had  heard  or  read  about  the  case.  Then  on  being  still  further  pressed 
by  the  court,  he  finally  said:  "Well,  I  feel  that  I  hope  that  the  guilty 
one  will  be  discovered  or  punished — not  necessarily  these  men." 

Q.  Are  you  conscious  of  any  other  wish  or  desire  about  the  mat- 
ter than  that  the  actual  truth  may  be  discovered  ? 

A.     I  don't  think  I  am. 

Thereupon  the  challenge  was  overruled. 

George  N.  Porter,  grocer,  testified  that  he  had  formed  and  ex- 
pressed an  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  of  the  defendants,  and  that  this  opin- 
ion, he  thought,  would  bias  his  judgment ;  he  would  try  to  go  by  the 
evidence,  but  that  what  he  had  read  would  have  a  great  deal  to  do  with 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  371 

his  verdict;  his  mind,  he  said,  was  certainly  biased  now,  and  that  it 
would  take  a  great  deal  of  evidence  to  change  it.  He  was  challenged 
for  cause  by  the  defendants ;  was  examined  by  the  court  and  said : 

I  think  what  I  have  heard  and  read  before  I  came  into  court  would 
have  some  influence  with  me.  But  the  court  finally  got  him  to  say 
he  believed  he  could  fairly  and  impartially  try  the  case  and  render  a 
verdict  according  to  law  and  evidence,  and  that  he  would  try  to  do  so. 
Thereupon  the  court  overruled  the  challenge  for  cause.  Then  he 
was  asked  some  more  questions  by  defendants'  counsel,  and  among 
other  things  said: 

Why,  we  have  talked  about  it  there  a  great  many  times  and  I  have 
always  expressed  my  opinion.  I  believe  what  I  have  read  in  the  papers ; 
believe  that  the  parties  are  guilty.  I  would  try  to  go  by  the  evidence, 
but  in  this  case  it  would  be  awful  hard  work  for  me  to  do  it. 

He  was  challenged  a  second  time  on  the  ground  of  being  preju- 
diced ;  was  then  again  taken  in  hand  by  the  court  and  examined  at 
length,  and  finally  again  said  he  believed  he  could  try  the  case  fairly 
on  the  evidence ;  when  the  challenge  for  cause  was  overruled  for  the 
second  time. 

H.  N.  Smith,  hardware  merchant,  stated  among  other  things  that 
he  was  prejudiced  and  had  quite  a  decided  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  or 
innocence  of  the  defendants ;  that  he  had  expressed  his  opinion  and  still 
entertained  it,  and  candidly  stated  that  he  was  afraid  he  would  listen 
a  little  more  attentively  to  the  testimony  which  concurred  with  his 
opinion  than  the  testimony  on  the  other  side;  that  some  of  the  police- 
men injured  were  personal  friends  of  his.  He  was  asked  these  ques- 
tions : 

Q.  That  is,  you  would  be  willing  to  have  your  opinion  strength- 
ened, and  hate  very  much  to  have  it  dissolved  ? 

A.     I  would. 

Q.  Under  these  circumstances  do  you  think  that  you  could  render 
a  fair  and  impartial  verdict  ? 

A.     I  don't  think  I  could. 

Q.     You  think  you  would  be  prejudiced? 

A.     I  think  I  would  be,  because  my  feelings  are  very  bitter. 

Q.  Would  your  prejudice  in  any  way  influence  you  in  coming  at 
an  opinion,  in  arriving  at  a  verdict? 

A.     I  think  it  would. 

He  was  challenged  on  the  ground  of  being  prejudiced ;  was  interro- 
gated at  length  by  the  court,  and  was  brought  to  say  he  believed  he 
could  try  the  case  fairly  on  the  evidence  produced  in  court.  Then  the 
challenge  was  overruled. 


372  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

Leonard  Gould,  wholesale  grocer,  was  examined  at  length  ;  said  he 
had  a  decided  prejudice  against  the  defendants.  Among  other  things, 
lie  said:  "I  really  don't  know  that  I  could  do  the  case  justice;  if  I  was  to 
sit  on  the  case  I  should  just  give  my  undivided  attention  to  the  evi- 
dence and  calculate  to  be  governed  by  that."  He  was  challenged  for 
cause  and  the  challenge  overruled.  He  was  then  asked  the  question 
over  again,  whether  he  could  render  an  impartial  verdict  based  upon 
the  evidence  alone,  that  would  be  produced  in  court,  and  he  answered : 
"Well,  I  answered  that,  as  far  as  I  could  answer  it." 

Q.  You  say  you  don't  know  that  you  can  answer  that,  either 
yes  or  no  ? 

A.     No,  I  don't  know  that  I  can. 

Thereupon  the  court  proceeded  to  examine  him,  endeavoring  to 
get  him  to  state  that  he  believed  he  could  try  the  case  fairly  upon 
the  evidence  that  was  produced  in  court,  part  of  the  examination  being 
as  follows : 

Q.  Now,  do  you  believe  that  you  can — that  you  have  sufficiently 
reflected  upon  it — so  as  to  examine  your  own  mind,  that  you  can  fairly 
and  impartially  determine  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  defendants? 

A.     That  is  a  difficult  question  for  me  to  answer. 

Q.  Well,  make  up  your  mind  as  to  whether  you  can  render,  fairly 
and  impartially  render,  a  verdict  in  accordance  with  the  law  and  the 
evidence.  Most  men  in  business  possibly  have  not  gone  through 
a  metaphysical  examination  so  as  to  be  prepared  to  answer  a  question 
of  this  kind. 

A.     Judge,  I  don't  believe  I  can  answer  that  question. 

Q.     Can  you  answer  whether  you  believe  you  know? 

A.     If  I  had  to  do  that  I  should  do  the  best  I  could. 

Q.  The  question  is  whether  you  believe  you  could  or  not.  I 
suppose,  Mr.  Gould,  that  you  know  the  law  is  that  no  man  is  to  be 
convicted  of  any  offense  with  which  he  is  charged,  unless  the  evidence 
proves  that  he  is  guilty  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt? 

A.    That  is  true. 

Q.     The  evidence  heard  in  this  case  in  court? 

A.     Yes. 

Q.  Do  you  believe  that  you  can  render  a  verdict  in  accordance 
with  the  law? 

A.     Well,  I  don't  know  that  I  could. 

Q.  Do  you  believe  that  you  can't — if  you  don't  know  of  any  rea- 
son why  you  cannot,  do  you  believe  that  you  can't? 

A.     I  cannot  answer  that  question. 

Q.     Have  you  a  belief  one  way  or  other  as  to  whether  you  can 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  373 

or  can  not  ?  Not  whether  you  are  going  to  do  it,  but  do  you  believe 
you  can  not  ?  That  is  the  only  thing.  You  are  not  required  to  state 
what  is  going  to  happen  next  week  or  week  after,  but  what  do  you 
believe  about  yourself,  whether  you  can  or  can't? 

A.     I  am  about  where  I  was  when  I  started. 

Some  more  questions  were  asked  and  Mr.  Gould  answered : 

Well,  I  believe  I  have  gone  just  as  far  as  I  can  in  reply  to  that  ques- 
tion. 

Q.  This  question,  naked  and  simple  in  itself  is,  do  you  believe 
that  you  can  fairly  and  impartially  render  a  verdict  in  the  case  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  law  and  evidence? 

A.     I  believe  I  could. 

Having  finally  badgered  the  juror  into  giving  this  last  answer, 
the  court  desisted.  The  defendants'  counsel  asked : 

Do  you  believe  you  can  do  so,  uninfluenced  by  any  prejudice  or 
opinion  which  you  now  have? 

A.  You  bring  it  at  a  point  that  I  object  to  and  I  do  not  feel  com- 
petent to  answer. 

Thereupon  the  juror  was  challenged  a  second  time  for  cause,  and 
the  challenge  was  overruled. 

James  H.  Walker,  dry  goods  merchant,  stated  that  he  had  formed 
and  expressed  an  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  of  defendants ;  that  he  was 
prejudiced,  and  stated  that  his  prejudice  would  handicap  him. 

Q.  Considering  all  prejudice  and  all  opinions  you  have,  if  the 
testimony  was  equally  balanced,  would  you  decide  one  way  or  the 
other  in  accordance  with  that  opinion  or  your  prejudice? 

A.  If  the  testimony  was  equally  balanced  I  should  hold  my  pres- 
ent opinion,  sir. 

Q.  Assuming  that  your  present  opinion  is,  that  you  believe  the 
defendants  guilty,  would  you  believe  your  present  opinion  would  war- 
rant you  in  convicting  them  ? 

A.     I  presume  it  would. 

Q.    Well,  you  believe  it  would ;  that  is  your  present  belief,  is  it? 

A.     Yes,  sir. 

He  was  challenged  on  the  ground  of  prejudice. 

The  court  then  examined  him  at  length,  and  finally  asked: 

Q.  Do  you  believe  that  you  can  sit  here  and  fairly  and  impartially 
make  up  your  mind,  from  the  evidence,  whether  that  evidence  proves 
that  they  are  guilty  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt  or  not? 

A.  I  think  I  could,  but  I  should  believe  that  I  was  a  little  handi- 
capped in  my  judgment,  sir. 


374  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Thereupon  the  court,  in  the  presence  of  the  jurors  not  yet  exam- 
ined, remarked : 

Well,  that  is  a  sufficient  qualification  for  a  juror  in  the  case;  of 
course,  the  more  a  man  feels  that  he  is  handicapped  the  more  he  will 
be  guarded  against  it. 

W.  B.  Allen,  wholesale  rubber  business,  stated  among  other  things : 

Q.  I  will  ask  you  whether  what  you  have  formed  from  what  you 
have  read  and  heard  is  a  slight  impression,  or  an  opinion,  or  a  con- 
viction. 

A.     It  is  a  decided  conviction. 

Q.  You  have  made  up  your  mind  as  to  whether  these  men  are 
guilty  or  innocent  ? 

A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.  It  would  be  difficult  to  change  that  conviction,  or  impossible, 
perhaps  ? 

A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.     It  would  be  impossible  to  change  your  conviction  ? 

A.     It  would  be  hard  to  change  my  conviction. 

He  was  challenged  for  cause  by  defendants.  Then  he  was  exam- 
ined by  the  court  at  length  and  finally  brought  to  the  point  of  say- 
ing that  he  could  try  the  case  fairly  and  impartially,  and  would  do  so. 
Then  the  challenge  for  cause  was  overruled. 

H.  L.  Anderson  was  examined  at  length,  and  stated  that  he  had 
formed  and  expressed  an  opinion,  still  held  it,  was  prejudiced,  but 
that  he  could  lay  aside  his  prejudices  and  grant  a  fair  trial  upon  the 
evidence.  On  being  further  examined,  he' said  that  some  of  the  police- 
men injured  were  friends  of  his  and  he  had  talked  with  them  fully. 
He  had  formed  an  unqualified  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence 
of  the  defendants,  which  he  regarded  as  deep-seated,  a  firm  conviction 
that  these  defendants,  or  some  of  them,  were  guilty.  He  was  chal- 
lenged on  the  ground  of  prejudice,  but  the  challenge  was  overruled. 

M.  D.  Flavin,  in  the  marble  business.  He  had  read  and  talked 
about  the  Haymarket  trouble,  and  had  formed  and  expressed  an  opin- 
ion as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  defendants,  which  he  still  held 
and  which  was  very  strong;  further,  that  one  of  the  officers  killed  at 
the  Haymarket  was  a  relative  of  his,  although  the  relationship  was 
distant,  but  on  account  of  this  relationship  his  feelings  were  perhaps 
-  different  from  what  they  would  have  been,  and  occasioned  a  very 
strong  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  of  the  defendants,  and  that  he  had 
stated  to  others  that  he  believed  what  he  had  heard  and  read  about  the 
matter.  He  was  challenged  on  the  ground  of  prejudice,  and  then 
stated,  in  answer  to  a  question  from  the  prosecution,  that  he  believed 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  375 

that  he  could  give  a  fair  and  impartial  verdict,  when  the  challenge  was 
overruled. 

Rush  Harrison,  in  the  silk  department  of  Edson  Keith  &  Co., 
was  examined  at  length ;  stated  that  he  had  a  deep-rooted  conviction 
as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  defendants.  He  said : 

"It  would  have  considerable  weight  with  me  if  selected  as  a  juror. 
It  is  pretty  deep-rooted,  that  opinion  is,  and  it  would  take  a  large  pre- 
ponderance of  evidence  to  remove  it;  it  would  require  the  preponder- 
ance of  evidence  to.  remove  the  opinion  I  now  possess.  I  feel  like  every 
other  good  citizen  does.  I  feel  that  these  men  are  guilty;  we  don't 
know  which ;  we  have  formed  this  opinion  by  general  reports  from  the 
newspapers.  Now,  with  that  feeling,  it  would  take  some  very  positive 
evidence  to  make  me  think  these  men  were  not  guilty,  if  I  should 
acquit  them;  that  is  what  I  mean.  I  should  act  entirely  upon  the 
testimony ;  I  would  do  as  near  as  the  main  evidence  would  permit  me 
to  do.  Probably  I  would  take  the  testimony  alone." 

Q.  But  you  say  that  it  would  take  positive  evidence  of  their  inno- 
cence before  you  could  consent  to  return  them  not  guilty  ? 

A.     Yes,  I  should  want  some  strong  evidence. 

Q.  Well,  if  that  strong  evidence  of  their  innocence  was  not  in- 
troduced, then  you  want  to  convict  them,  of  course? 

A.     Certainly. 

He  was  then  challenged  on  the  ground  of  being  prejudiced,  when 
the  judge  proceeded  to  interrogate  him  and  finally  got  him  to  say 
that  he  believed  he  could  try  the  case  fairly  on  the  evidence  alone ; 
then  the  challenge  was  overruled. 

J.  R.  Adams,  importer,  testified  that  he  was  prejudiced ;  had  formed 
and  expressed  opinions  and  still  held  them.  He  was  challenged  on 
this  ground,  when  the  court  proceeded  to  examine  him  at  length,  and 
finally  asked  him  this  question  : 

Q.  Do  you  believe  that  your  convictions  as  to  what  the  evidence 
proved,  or  failed  to  prove,  will  be  at  all  affected  by  what  anybody 
at  all  said  or  wrote  about  the  matter  before? 

A.  I  believe  they  would. 

The  court  (in  the  hearing  of  other  jurors  not  yet  examined)  ex- 
claimed: "It  is  incomprehensible  to  me."  The  juror  was  excused. 

B.  L.  Ames,  dealer  in  hats  and  caps,  stated  that  he  was  prejudiced ; 
had  formed  and  expressed  opinions ;  still  held  them.     He  was  chal- 
lenged on  these  grounds.     Then  the  court  examined  him  at  length ; 
tried  to  force  him  to  say  that  he  could  try  the  case  fairly,  without  re- 
gard to  his  prejudice,  but  he  persisted  in  saying,  in  answer  to  the 
court's  questions,  that  he  did  not  believe  that  he  could  sit  as  a  juror, 


376  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

listen  to  the  evidence  and  from  that  alone  make  up  his  mind  as  to  the 
guilt  or  innocence  of  the  defendants.  Thereupon  the  court,  in  the 
presence  of  other  jurors  not  yet  examined,  lectured  him  as  follows: 

"Why  not?  What  is  to  prevent  your  listening  to  the  evidence  and 
acting  alone  upon  it?  Why  can't  you  listen  to  the  evidence  and  make 
up  your  mind  on  it?" 

But  the  juror  still  insisted  that  he  could  not  do  it,  and  was  dis- 
charged. 

H.  D.  Bogardus,  flour  merchant,  stated  that  he  had  read  and  talked 
about  the  Haymarket  trouble;  had  formed  and  expressed  an  opinion, 
still  held  it,  as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  defendants ;  that  he  was 
prejudiced;  that  this  prejudice  would  certainly  influence  his  verdict  if 
selected  a  juror.  "I  don't  believe  that  I  could  give  them  a  fair  trial 
upon  the  proof,  for  it  would  require  very  strong  proof  to  overcome 
my  prejudice.  I  hardly  think  that  you  could  bring  proof  enough  to 
change  my  opinion."  He  was  challenged  on  the  ground  of  preju- 
dice. 

Then  the  court  took  him  in  hand,  and  after  a  lengthy  examination 
got  him  to  say :  "I  think  I  can  fairly  and  impartially  render  a  verdict 
in  this  case  in  accordance  with  the  law  and  the  evidence." 

Then  the  challenge  was  overruled. 

Counsel  for  defendants  then  asked  the  juror  further  questions, 
and  he  replied :  "I  say  it  would  require  pretty  strong  testimony  to 
overcome  my  opinion  at  the  present  time  ;\ still,  I  think  I  could  act 
independent  of  my  opinion.  I  would  stand  by  my  opinion,  however, 
and  I  think  that  the  preponderance  of  proof  would  have  to  be  strong 
to  change  my  opinion.  I  think  the  defendants  are  responsible  for 
what  occurred  at  the  Haymarket  meeting.  The  preponderance  of  the 
evidence  would  have  to  be  in  favor  of  the  defendants'  innocence  with 
me." 

Then  the  challenge  for  cause  was  renewed,  when  the  court  re- 
marked, in  the  presence  of  jurors  not  yet  examined :  "Every  fairly 
intelligent  and  honest  man,  when  he  comes  to  investigate  the  ques- 
tion originally  for  himself,  upon  authentic  sources  of  information,  will, 
in  fact,  make  his  opinion  from  the  authentic  source,  instead  of  hearsay 
that  he  heard  before." 

The  court  then  proceeded  to  again  examine  the  juror,  and  as  the 
juror  persisted  in  saying  that  he  did  not  believe  he  could  give  the 
defendants  a  fair  trial,  was  finally  discharged. 

These  examinations  are  fair  specimens  of  all  of  them,  and  show 
conclusively  that  Bailiff  Ryce  carried  out  the  threat  that  Mr.  Favor 
swears  to.  Nearly  every  juror  called  stated  that  he  had  read  and 


'REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  37? 

talked  about  the  matter,  and  believed  what  he  had  heard  and  read, 
and  had  formed  and  expressed  an  opinion,  and  still  held  it,  as  to  the 
guilt  or  innocence  of  the  defendants;  that  he  was  prejudiced  against 
them ;  that  that  prejudice  was  deep-rooted,  and  that  it  would  require 
evidence  to  remove  that  prejudice. 

A  great  many  sai4  they  had  been  pointed  out  to  the  bailiff  by  their 
employers,  to  be  summoned  as  jurors.  Many  stated  frankly  that  they 
believed  the  defendants  to  be  guilty,  and  would  convict  unless  their 
opinions  were  overcome  by  strong  proofs ;  and  almost  every  one,  after 
having  made  these  statements,  was  examined  by  the  court  in  a  man- 
ner to  force  him  to  say  that  he  would  try  the  case  fairly  upon  the 
evidence  produced  in  court,  and  whenever  he  was  brought  to  this 
point  he  was  held  to  be  a  competent  juror,  and  the  defendants  were 
obliged  to  exhaust  their  challenges  on  men  who  declared  in  open 
court  that  they  were  prejudiced  and  believed  the  defendants  to  be 
guilty. 

THE  TWELVE  WHO  TRIED  THE  CASE. 

The  twelve  jurors  whom  the  defendants  were  finally  forced  to  ac- 
cept, after  the  challenges  were  exhausted,  were  of  the  same  general 
character  as  the  others,  and  a  number  of  them  stated  candidly  that 
they  were  so  prejudiced  that  they  could  not  try  the  case  fairly,  but  each, 
when  examined  by  the  court,  was  finally  induced  to  say  that  he  be- 
lieved he  could  try  the  case  fairly  upon  the  evidence  that  was  pro- 
duced in  court  alone.  For  example : 

Theodore  Denker,  one  of  the  twelve :  "Am  shipping  clerk  for 
Henry  W.  King  &  Co.  I  have  read  and  talked  about  the  Haymarket 
tragedy,  and  have  formed  and  expressed  an  opinion  as  to  the  guilt 
or  innocence  of  the  defendants  of  the  crime  charged  in  the  indictment. 
I  believe  what  I  read  and  heard,  and  still  entertain  that  opinion." 

Q.  Is  that  opinion  such  as  to  prevent  you  from  rendering  an  im- 
partial verdict  in  the  case,  sitting  as  a  juror,  under  the  testimony  and 
the  law? 

A.     I  think  it  is. 

He  was  challenged  for  cause  on  the  ground  of  prejudice.  Then 
the  State's  Attorney  and  the  court  examined  him  and  finally  got 
him  to  say  that  he  believed  he  could  try  the  case  fairly  on  the  law  and 
the  evidence,  and  the  challenge  was  overruled.  He  was  then  asked  fur- 
ther questions  by  the  defendant's  counsel,  and  said : 

"I  have  formed  an  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  of  the  defendants  and 
have  expressed  it.  We  conversed  about  the  matter  in  the  business 
house  and  I  expressed  my  opinion  there ;  expressed  my  opinion  quite 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

frequently.  My  mind  was  made  up  from  what  I  read  and  I  did  not 
hesitate  to  speak  about  it." 

Q.  Would  you  feel  yourself  in  any  way  governed  or  bound  in 
listening  to  the  testimony  and  determining  it  upon  the  pre-judgment 
of  the  case  that  you  had  expressed  to  others  before? 

A.     Well,  that  is  a  pretty  hard  question  to  answer. 

He  then  stated  to  the  court  that  he  had  not  expressed  an  opinion 
as  to  the  truth  of  the  reports  he  had  read,  and  finally  stated  that  he 
believed  he  could  try  the  case  fairly  on  the  evidence. 

John  B.  Greiner,  another  one  of  the  twelve:  "Am  a  clerk  for  the 
Northwestern  railroad.  I  have  heard  and  read  about  the  killing  of 
Degan,  at  the  Haymarket,  on  May  4,  last,  and  have  formed  an  opinion 
as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  defendants  now  on  trial  for  that 
crime.  It  is  evident  that  the  defendants  are  connected  with  that  affair 
from  their  being  here." 

Q.     You  regard  that  as  evidence  ? 

A.  Well,  I  don't  know  exactly.  Of  course  I  would  expect  that 
it  connected  them  or  they  would  not  be  here. 

Q.  So,  then,  the  opinion  that  you  now  have  has  reference  to  the 
guilt  or  innocence  of  some  of  these  men,  or  all  of  them  ? 

A.     Certainly. 

Q.  Now,  is  that  opinion  one  that  would  influence  your  verdict 
if  you  should  be  selected  as  a  juror  to  try  the  case? 

A.  I  certainly  think  it  would  affect  it  to  some  extent ;  1  don't  see 
how  it  could  be  otherwise. 

He  further  stated  that  there  had  been  a  strike  in  the  freight  de- 
partment of  the  Northwestern  road,  which  affected  the  department 
he  was  in.  After  some  further  examination,  he  stated  that  he  thought 
he  could  try  the  case  fairly  on  the  evidence,  and  was  then  held  to  be 
competent. 

G.  W.  Adams,  also  one  of  the  twelve :  "Am  a  traveling  salesman ; 
have  been  an  employer  of  painters.  I  read  and  talked  about  the  Hay- 
market  trouble  and  formed  an  opinion  as  to  the  nature  and  character 
of  the  crime  committed  there.  I  conversed  freely  with  my  friends 
about  the  matter." 

Q.  Did  you  form  an  opinion  at  the  time  that  the  defendants  were 
connected  with  or  responsible  for  the  commission  of  that  crime? 

A.     I  thought  some  of  them  were  interested  in  it ;  yes. 

Q.     And  you  still  think  so? 

A.     Yes. 

Q.  Nothing  has  transpired  in  the  interval  to  change  your  mind 
at  all,  I  suppose. 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC. 

A.     No,  sir. 

Q.  You  say  some  of  them;  that  is,  in  the  newspaper  accounts 
that  you  read,  the  names  of  some  of  the  defendants  were  referred  to  ? 

A.     Yes,  sir. 

After  further  examination  he  testified  that  he  thought  he  could  try 
the  case  fairly  on  the  evidence. 

H.  T.  Sanford,  another  one  of  the  twelve :  Clerk  for  the  North- 
western railroad,  in  the  freight  auditor's  office. 

Q.  Have  you  an  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  de- 
fendants of  the  murder  of  Mathias  J.  Began? 

A.    I  have. 

Q.  From  all  that  you  have  heard  and  that  you  have  read,  have 
you  an  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  defendants  of  throw- 
ing the  bomb? 

A.    Yes,  sir ;  I  have. 

Q.    Have  you  a  prejudice  against  socialists  and  communists? 

A.     Yes,  sir;  a  decided  prejudice. 

Q.  Do  you  believe  that  that  prejudice  would  influence  your  ver- 
dict in  this  case? 

A.  Well,  as  I  know  so  little  about  it,  it  is  a  pretty  hard  question 
to  answer.  I  have  an  opinion  in  my  own  mind  that  the  defendants 
encouraged  the  throwing  of  that  bomb. 

Challenged  for  cause  on  the  ground  of  prejudice. 

On  further  examination,  stated  he  believed  he  could  try  the  case 
fairly  upon  the  evidence,  and  the  challenge  for  cause  was  overruled. 

Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  considering  the  facts  brought  to  light 
since  the  trial,  as  well  as  the  record  of  the  trial  and  the  answers  of  the 
jurors  as  given  therein,  it  is  clearly  shown  that,  while  the  counsel  for 
defendants  agreed  to  it,  Ryce  was  appointed  special  bailiff  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  State's  Attorney,  and  that  he  did  summon  a  prejudiced 
jury  which  he  believed  would  hang  the  defendants ;  and  further,  that 
the  fact  that  Ryce  was  summoning  only  that  kind  of  men  was  brought 
to  the  attention  of  the  court  before  the  panel  was  full,  and  it  was  asked 
to  stop  it,  but  refused  to  pay  any  attention  to  the  matter,  but  per- 
mitted Ryce  to  go  on,  and  then  forced  the  defendants  to  go  to  trial 
before  this  jury. 

While  no  collusion  is  proven  between  the  judge  and  State's  Attor- 
ney, it  is  clearly  shown  that  after  the  verdict  and  while  a  motion  for  a 
new  trial  was  pending,  a  charge  was  filed  in  court  that  Ryce  had 
packed  the  jury,  and  that  the  attorney  for  the  State  got  Mr.  Favor 
to  refuse  to  make  an  affidavit  bearing  on  this  point,  which  the  defend- 
ants could  use,  and  then  the  court  refused  to  take  any  notice  of  it 


3&>  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

unless  the  affidavit  was  obtained,  although  it  was  informed  that  Mr. 
Favor  would  not  make  an  affidavit,  but  stood  ready  to  come  into 
court  and  make  a  full  statement  if  the  court  desired  him  to  do  so. 

These  facts  alone  would  call  for  executive  interference,  especially 
as  Mr.  Favor's  affidavit  was  not  before  the  Supreme  Court  at  the  time 
it  considered  the  case. 

RECENT    DECISION    OF   THE    SUPREME    COURT    AS    TO    COM- 
PETENCY OF  JURORS. 

II. 

The  second  point  argued  seems  to  me  to  be  equally  conclusive. 
In  the  case  of  the  People  vs.  Coughlin,  known  as  the  Cronin  case, 
recently  decided,  the  Supreme  Court,  in  a  remarkably  able  and  com- 
prehensive review  of  the  law  on  this  subject,  says,  among  other 
things : 

"The  holding  of  this  and  other  courts  is  substantially  uniform, 
that  where  it  is  once  clearly  shown  that  there  exists  in  the  mind  of  the 
juror,  at  the  time  he  is  called  to  the  jury  box,  a  fixed  and  positive 
opinion  as  to  the  merits  of  the  case,  or  as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence 
of  the  defendant  he  is  called  to  try,  his  statement  that,  notwithstanding 
such  opinion,  he  can  render  a  fair  and  impartial  verdict  according  to 
the  law  and  evidence,  has  little,  if  any,  tendency  to  establish  his  im- 
partiality. This  is  so  because  the  juror  who  has  sworn  to  have  in  his 
mind  a  fixed  and  positive  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the 
accused,  is  not  impartial,  as  a  matter  of  fact.  *  *  * 

"It  is  difficult  to  see  how,  after  a  juror  has  avowed  a  fixed  and 
settled  opinion  as  to  the  prisoner's  guilt,  a  court  can  be  legally  satisfied 
of  the  truth  of  his  answer  that  he  can  render  a  fair  and  impartial  ver- 
dict, or  find  therefrom  that  he  has  the  qualification  of  impartiality,  as 
required  by  the  Constitution.  *  *  * 

"Under  such  circumstances,  it  is  idle  to  inquire  of  the  jurors 
whether  they  can  return  just  and  impartial  verdicts.  The  more  clear 
and  positive  were  their  impressions  of  guilt,  the  more  certain  they  may 
be  that  they  can  act  impartially  in  condemning  the  guilty  party.  They 
go  into  the  box  in  a  state  of  mind  that  is  well  calculated  to  give  a  color 
of  guilt  to  all  the  evidence,  and  if  the  accused  escapes  conviction,  it  will 
not  be  because  the  evidence  has  not  established  guilt  beyond  a  reason- 
able doubt,  but  because  an  accused  party  condemned  in  advance,  and 
called  upon  to  exculpate  himself  before  a  prejudiced  tribunal,  has  suc- 
ceeded in  doing  so.  *  *  * 

"To  try  a  cause  by  such  a  jury  is  to  authorize  men,  who  state  that 
they  will  lean  in  their  finding  against  one  of  the  parties,  unjustly  to 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  381 

determine  the  rights  of  others,  and  it  will  be  no  difficult  task  to  predict, 
even  before  the  evidence  was  heard,  the  verdict  that  would  be  rendered. 
Nor  can  it  be  said  that  instructions  from  the  court  would  correct  the 
bias  of  the  jurors  who  swear  they  incline  in  favor  of  one  of  the 
litigants.  *  *  * 

"Bontecou  (one  of  the  jurors  in  the  Cronin  case),  it  is  true,  was 
brought  to  make  answer  that  he  could  render  a  fair  and  impartial  ver- 
dict in  accordance  with  the  law  and  the  evidence,  but  that  result  was 
reached  only  after  a  singularly  argumentative  and  persuasive  cross- 
examination  by  the  court,  in  which  the  right  of  every  person  accused  of 
crime  to  an  impartial  trial  and  to  the  presumption  of  innocence  until 
proved  guilty  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt,  and  the  duty  of  every  citizen, 
when  summoned  as  a  juror,  to  lay  aside  all  opinions  and  prejudices 
and  accord  the  accused  such  a  trial,  was  set  forth  and  descanted  upon  at 
length,  and  in  which  the  intimation  was  very  clearly  made  that  a  juror 
who  could  not  do  this  was  recreant  to  his  duty  as  a  man  and  a  citizen. 
Under  pressure  of  this  sort  of  cross-examination,  Bontecou  seems  to 
have  been  finally  brought  to  make  answer  in  such  a  way  as  to  profess 
an  ability  to  sit  as  an  impartial  juror,  and  on  his  so  answering 
he  was  pronounced  competent  and  the  challenge  as  to  him  was 
overruled.  Whatever  may  be  the  weight  ordinarily  due  to  statements 
of  this  character  by  jurors,  their  value  as  evidence  is  in  no  small  degree 
impaired  in  this  case  by  the  mode  in  which  they  were,  in  a  certain 
sense,  forced  from  the  mouth  of  the  juror.  The  theory  seemed  to  be, 
that  if  a  juror  could  in  any  way  be  brought  to  answer  that  he  could 
sit  as  an  impartial  juror,  that  declaration  of  itself  rendered  him  compe- 
tent. Such  a  view,  if  it  was  entertained,  was  a  total  misconception 
of  the  law.  *  *  * 

"It  requires  no  profound  knowledge  of  human  nature  to  know 
that  with  ordinary  men  opinions  and  prejudices  are  not  amenable  to 
the  power  of  the  will,  however  honest  the  intention  of  the  party  may 
be  to  put  them  aside.  They  are  likely  to  remain  in  the  mind  of  the 
juror  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts  to  get  rid  of  them,  warping  and  giving 
direction  to  his  judgment,  coloring  the  facts  as  they  are  developed  by 
the  evidence,  and  exerting  an  influence  more  or  less  potent,  though 
it  be  unconsciously  to  the  juror  himself,  on  the  final  result  of  his  delib- 
erations. To  compel  a  person  accused  of  a  crime  to  be  tried  by 'a  juror 
who  has  prejudiced  his  case  is  not  a  fair  trial.  Nor  should  a  defendant 
be  compelled  to  rely,  as  his  security  for  the  impartiality  of  the  jurors 
by  whom  he  is  to  be  tried,  upon  the  restraining  and  controlling  in- 
fluence upon  the  juror's  mind  of  his  oath  to  render  a  true  verdict  ac- 
cording to  the  law  and  the  evidence.  His  impartiality  should  appear 


382  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

before  he  is  permitted  to  take  the  oath.  If  he  is  not  impartial  theri, 
his  oath  cannot  be  relied  upon  to  make  him  so.  In  the  terse  and  ex- 
pressive language  of  Lord  Coke,  already  quoted,  the  jury  should 
'stand  indifferent  as  he  stands  unsworn.'  " 

Applying  the  law  as  here  laid  down  in  the  Cronin  case  to  the  an- 
swers of  the  jurors  above  given  in  the  present  case,  it  is  very  apparent 
that  most  of  the  jurors  were  incompetent  because  they  were  not 
impartial,  for  nearly  all  of  them  candidly  stated  that  they  were  preju- 
diced against  the  defendants,  and  believed  them  guilty  before  hearing 
the  evidence,  and  the  mere  fact  that  the  judge  succeeded,  by  a  singular- 
ly suggestive  examination,  in  getting  them  to  state  that  they  believed 
they  could  try  the  case  fairly  on  the  evidence,  did  not  make  them 
competent. 

It  is  true  that  this  case  was  before  the  Supreme  Court,  and  that 
court  allowed  the  verdict  to  stand;  and  it  is  also  true  that  in  the  opin- 
ion of  the  majority  of  the  court  in  the  Cronin  case,  an  effort  is  made 
to  distinguish  that  case  from  this  one;  but  it  is  evident  that  the  court 
did  not  have  the  record  of  this  case  before  it  when  it  tried  to  make 
the  distinction,  and  the  opinion  of  the  minority  of  the  court  in  the 
Cronin  case  expressly  refers  to  this  case  as  being  exactly  like  that 
one,  so  far  as  relates  to  the  competency  of  the  jurors.  The  answers 
of  the  jurors  were  almost  identical  and  the  examinations  were  the 
same.  The  very  things  which  the  Supreme  Court  held  to  be  fatal 
errors  in  the  Cronin  case,  constituted  the  entire  fabric  of  this  case, 
so  far  as  relates  to  the  competency  of  the  jury.  In  fact,  the  trial  judge 
in  the  Cronin  case  was  guided  by  the  rule  laid  down  in  this  case,  yet 
the  Supreme  Court  reversed  the  Cronin  case  because  two  of  the  jurors 
were  held  to  be  incompetent,  each  having  testified  that  he  had  read 
and  talked  about  the  case,  and  had  formed  and  expressed  an  opinion 
as  to  the  guilt  of  the  defendants;  that  he  was  prejudiced;  that  he  be- 
lieved what  he  had  read,  and  that  his  prejudice  might  influence  his 
verdict;  that  his  prejudice  amounted  to  a  conviction  on  the  subject  of 
the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  defendants;  but  each  finally  said  that 
he  could  and  would  try  the  case  fairly  on  the  evidence  alone,  etc. 

A  careful  comparison  of  the  examination  of  these  two  jurors  with 
that  of  many  of  the  jurors  in  this  case,  shows  that  a  number  of  the 
jurors  m  this  case  expressed  themselves,  if  anything,  more  strongly 
against  the  defendants  than  these  two  did;  and  what  is  still  more,  one 
of  those  summoned,  Mr.  M.  D.  Flavin,  in  this  case,  testified  not  only 
that  he  had  read  and  talked  about  the  case,  and  had  formed  and  ex- 
pressed an  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  defendants, 
that  he  was  bitterly  prejudiced,  but  further,  that  he  was  related  to  one 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  383 

of  the  men  who  was  killed,  and  that  for  that  reason  he  felt  more 
strongly  against  the  defendants  than  he  otherwise  might,  yet  he  was 
held  to  be  competent  on  his  mere  statement  that  he  believed  he  could 
try  the  case  fairly  on  the  evidence. 

No  matter  what  the  defendants  were  charged  with,  they  were  en- 
titled to  a  fair  trial,  and  no  greater  danger  could  possibly  threaten 
our  institutions  than  to  have  the  courts  of  justice  run  wild  or  give 
way  to  popular  clamor;  and  when  the  trial  judge  in  this  case,  ruled 
that  a  relative  of  one  of  the  men  who  was  killed  was  a  competent  juror, 
and  this  after  the  man  had  candidly  stated  that  he  was  deeply  preju- 
diced, and  that  his  relationship  caused  him  to  feel  more  strongly  than 
he  otherwise  might;  and  when,  in  scores  of  instances,  he  ruled  that 
men  who  candidly  declared  that  they  believed  the  defendants  to  be 
guilty,  that  this  was  a  deep  conviction  and  would  influence  their  ver- 
dict, and  that  it  would  require  strong  evidence  to  convince  them  that 
the  defendants  were  innocent;  when  in  all  these  instances  the  trial 
judge  ruled  that  these  men  were  competent  jurors,  simply  bcause  they 
had,  under  his  adroit  manipulation,  been  led  to  say  that  they  believed 
they  could  try  the  case  fairly  on  the  evidence,  then  the  proceedings 
lost  all  semblance  of  a  fair  trial. 

DOES  THE  PROOF  SHOW  GUILT? 
III. 

The  State  has  never  discovered  who  it  was  that  threw  the  bomb 
which  killed  the  policeman,  and  the  evidence  does  not  show  any  con- 
nection whatever  between  the  defendants  and  the  man  who  did  throw 
it.  The  trial  judge,  in  overruling  the  motion  for  a  new  hearing,  and 
again,  recently  in  a  magazine  article,  used  this  language: 

"The  conviction  has  not  gone  on  the  ground  that  they  did  have 
actually  any  personal  participation  in  the  particular  act  which  caused 
the  death  of  Began,  but  the  conviction  proceeds  upon  the  ground 
that  they  had  generally,  by  speech  and  print,  advised  large  classes  of 
the  people,  not  particular  individuals,  but  large  classes,  to  commit 
murder,  and  had  left  the  commission,  the  time  and  place  and  when, 
to  the  individual  will  and  whim  or  caprice,  or  whatever  it  may  be,  of 
each  individual  man  who  listened  to  their  advice,  and  that  in  conse- 
quence of  that  advice,  in  pursuance  of  that  advice,  and  influenced  by 
that  advice,  somebody  not  known  did  throw  the  bomb  that  caused 
Degan's  death.  Now,  if  this  is  not  a  correct  principle  of  the  law, 
then  the  defendants  of  course  are  entitled  to  a  new  trial.  This  case  is 
without  a  precedent;  there  is  no  example  in  the  law  books  of  a  case 
of  this  sort." 


384  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

The  judge  certainly  told  the  truth  when  he  stated  that  this  case 
was  without  a  precedent,  and  that  no  example  could  be  found  in  the 
law  books  to  sustain  the  law  as  above  laid  down.  For,  in  all  the  cen- 
turies during  which  government  has  been  maintained  among  men, 
and  crime  has  been  punished,  no  judge  in  a  civilized  country  has  ever 
laid  down  such  a  rule  before.  The  petitioners  claim  that  it  was  laid 
down  in  this  case  simply  because  the  prosecution,  not  having  discov- 
ered the  real  criminal,  would  otherwise  not  have  been  able  to  convict 
anybody;  that  this  course  was  then  taken  to  appease  the  fury  of  the 
public,  and  that  the  judgment  was  allowed  to  stand  for  the  same  rea- 
son. I  will  not  discuss  this.  But  taking  the  law  as  above  laid  down, 
it  was  necessary  under  it  to  prove,  and  that  beyond  a  reasonable 
doubt,  that  the  person  committing  the  violent  deed  had  at  least  heard 
br  read  the  advice  given  to  the  masses,  for  until  he  either  heard  or 
read  it  he  did  not  receive  it,  and  if  he  did  not  receive  it,  he  did  not 
commit  the  violent  act  in  pursuance  of  that  advice;  and  it  is  here  that 
the  case  for  the  State  fails;  with  all  his  apparent  eagerness  to  force 
conviction  in  court,  and  his  efforts  in  defending  his  course  since  the 
trial,  the  judge,  speaking  on  this  point  in  his  magazine  article,  makes 
this  statement:  "It  is  probably  true  that  Rudolph  Schnaubelt  threw 
the  bomb,"  which  statement  is  merely  a  surmise  and  is  all  that  is 
known  about  it,  and  is  certainly  not  sufficient  to  convict  eight  men 
on.  In  fact,  until  the  State  proves  from  whose  hands  the  bomb  came, 
it  is  impossible  to  show  any  connection  between  the  man  who  threw 
it  and  these  defendants. 

It  is  further  shown  that  the  mass  of  matter  contained  in  the  record 
and  quoted  at  length  in  the  judge's  magazine  article,  showing  the  use 
of  seditious  and  incendiary  language,  amounts  to  but  little  when  its 
source  is  considered.  The  two  papers  in  which  articles  appeared  at 
intervals  during  years,  were  obscure  little  sheets,  having  scarcely  any 
circulation,  and  the  articles  themselves  were  written  at  times  of  great 
public  excitement,  when  an  element  in  the  community  claimed  to  have 
been  outraged ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  speeches  made  by  the  de- 
fendants and  others;  the  apparently  seditious  utterances  were  such 
as  are  always  heard  when  men  imagine  that  they  have  been  wronged, 
or  are  excited  or  partially  intoxicated;  and  the  talk  of  a  gigantic  an- 
archistic conspiracy  is  not  believed  by  the  then  Chief  of  Police,  as  will 
be  shown  hereafter,  and  it  is  not  entitled  to  serious  notice,  in  view  of 
the  fact  that,  while  Chicago  had  nearly  a  million  inhabitants,  the  meet- 
ings held  on  the  lake  front  on  Sundays  during  the  summer,  by  these 
agitators,  rarely  had  fifty  people  present,  and  most  of  these  went  from 
mere  curiosity,  while  the  meetings  held  in-doors,  during  the  winter, 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  385 

were  still  smaller.  The  meetings  held  from  time  to  time  by  the  masses 
of  the  laboring  people,  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  meetings 
above  named,  although  in  times  of  excitement  and  trouble  much  vio- 
lent talk  was  indulged  in  by  irresponsible  parties;  which  was  forgotten 
when  the  excitement  was  over. 

Again,  it  is  shown  here  that  the  bomb  was,  in  all  probability, 
thrown  by  some  one  seeking  personal  revenge ;  that  a  course  had  been 
pursued  by  the  authorities  which  would  naturally  cause  this;  that  for 
'a  number  of  years  prior  to  the  Haymarket  affair  there  had  been  labor 
troubles,  and  in  several  cases  a  number  of  laboring  people,  guilty  of 
no  offense,  had  been  shot  down  in  cold  blood  by  Pinkerton  men,  and 
none  of  the  murderers  were  brought  to  justice.  The  evidence  taken  at 
coroners'  inquests  and  presented  here,  shows  that  in  at  least  two  cases 
men  were  fired  on  and  killed  when  they  were  running  away,  and  there 
was  consequently  no  occasion  to  shoot,  yet  nobody  was  punished; 
that  in  Chicago  there  had  been  a  number  of  strikes  in  which  some 
of  the  police  not  only  took  sides  against  the  men,  but  without  any 
authority  of  law  invaded  and  broke  up  peaceable  meetings,  and  in 
scores  of  cases  brutally  clubbed  people  who  were  guilty  of  no  offense 
whatever.  Reference  is  made  to  the  opinion  of  the  late  Judge  Mc- 
Allister, in  the  case  of  the  Harmonia  Association  of  Joiners  against 
Brenan,  et  al.,  reported  in  the  Chicago  Legal  News.  Among  other 
things,  Judge  McAllister  says: 

"The  facts  established  by  a  large  number  of  witnesses,  and  without 
any  opposing  evidence,  are,  that  this  society,  having  leased  Turner 
Hall,  on  West  Twelfth  street,  for  the  purpose,  held  a  meeting  in  the 
forenoon  of  said  day,  in  said  hall,  composed  of  from  200  to  300  indi- 
viduals, most  of  whom  were  journeymen  cabinet-makers  engaged  in 
the  several  branches  of  the  manufacture  of  furniture  in  Chicago,  but 
some  of  those  in  attendance  were  the  proprietors  in  that  business,  or 
the  delegates  sent  by  them.  The  object  of  the  meeting  was  to  obtain 
a  conference  of  the  journeymen  with  such  proprietors,  or  their  author- 
ized delegates,  with  the  view  of  endeavoring  to  secure  an  increase  of 
the  price  or  diminution  of  the  hours  of  labor.  The  attendants  were 
wholly  unarmed,  and  the  meeting  was  perfectly  peaceable  and  orderly, 
and  while  the  people  were  sitting  quietly,  with  their  backs  toward  the 
entrance  hall,  with  a  few  persons  on  the  stage  in  front  of  them,  and  all 
engaged  merely  in  the  business  for  which  they  had  assembled,  a  force 
of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  policemen  came  suddenly  into  the  hall,  hav- 
ing a  policeman's  club  in  one  hand  and  a  revolver  in  the  other,  and 
making  no  pause  to  determine  the  actual  character  of  the  meeting, 
they  immediately  shouted:  'Get  out  of  here,  you  damned  sons-of- 
25 


386  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

bitches,"  and  began  beating  the  people  with  their  clubs,  and  some 
of  them  actually  firing  their  revolvers.  One  young  man  was  shot 
through  the  back  of  the  head  and  killed.  But  to  complete  the  atrocity 
of  the  affair  on  the  part  of  the  officers  engaged  in  it,  when  the  people 
hastened  to  make  their  escape  from  the  assembly  room,  they  found 
policemen  stationed  on  either  side  of  the  stairway  leading  from  the  hall 
clown  to  the  street,  who  applied  their  clubs  to  them  as  they  passed, 
seemingly  with  all  the  violence  practicable  under  the  circumstances. 

"Mr.  Jacob  Beiersdorf,  who  was  a  manufacturer  of  furniture,  em- 
ploying some  200  men,  had  been  invited  to  the  meeting  and  came, 
but  as  he  was  about  to  enter  the  place  where  it  was  held,  an  inoffensive 
old  man,  doing  nothing  unlawful,  was  stricken  down  at  his  feet  by  a 
policeman's  club. 

"These  general  facts  were  established  by  an  overwhelming  mass 
of  testimony,  and  for  the  purpose  of  the  questions  in  the  case,  it  is 
needless  to  go  farther  into  detail. 

"The  chief  political  right  of  the  citizen  in  our  government,  based 
upon  the  popular  will  as  regulated  by  law,  is  the  right  of  suffrage, 
but  to  that  right  two  others  are  auxiliary  and  of  almost  equal  im- 
portance: 

"First.    The  right  of  free  speech  and  of  a  free  press. 

"Second.  The  right  of  the  people  to  assemble  in  a  peaceable 
manner  to  consult  for  the  common  good. 

"These  are  among  the  fundamental  principles  of  government  and 
guaranteed  by  our  Constitution.  Section  17,  article  2,  of  the  bill  of 
rights,  declares:  'The  people  have  a  right  to  assemble  in  a  peaceable 
manner  to  consult  for  the  common  good,  to  make  known  their  opin- 
ions to  their  representatives,  and  apply  for  redress  of  grievances.' 
Jurists  do  not  regard  these  declarations  of  the  bill  of  rights  as  creating 
or  conferring  the  rights,  but  as  a  guarantee  against  their  deprivation 
or  infringement  by  any  of  the  powers  or  agencies  of  the  Government. 
The  rights  themselves  are  regarded  as  the  natural  inalienable  rights 
belonging  to  every  individual,  or  as  political,  and  based  upon  or  aris- 
ing from  principles  inherent  in  the  very  nature  of  a  system  of  free 
government. 

"The  right  of  the  people  to  assemble  in  a  peaceable  manner  to 
consult  for  the  common  good,  being  a  Constitutional  right,  it  can  be 
exercised  and  enjoyed  within  the  scope  and  the  spirit  of  that  provision 
of  the  Constitution,  independently  of  every  other  power  of  the  State 
Government. 

"Judge  Cooley,  in  his  excellent  work  on  Torts,'  speaking  (p.  296) 
of  remedies  for  the  invasion  of  political  rights,  says:  'When  a  meeting 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  387 

for  any  lawful  purpose  is  actually  called  and  held,  one  who  goes  there 
with  the  purpose  to  disturb  and  break  it  up,  and  commits  disorder  to 
that  end,  is  a  trespasser  upon  the  rights  of  those  who,  for  a  time, 
have  control  of  the  place  of  meeting.  If  several  unite  in  the  disorder 
it  may  be  a  criminal  riot.'  " 

So  much  for  Judge  McAllister. 

Now,  it  is  shown  that  no  attention  was  paid  to  the  Judge's  de- 
cision; that  peaceable  meetings  were  invaded  and  broken  up,  and 
inoffensive  people  were  clubbed;  that  in  1885  there  was  a  strike  at  the 
McCormick  Reaper  Factory,  on  account  of  a  reduction  of  wages,  and 
some  Pinkerton  men,  while  on  their  way  there,  were  hooted  at  by 
some  people  on  the  street,  when  they  fired  into  the  crowd  and  fatally 
wounded  several  people  who  had  taken  no  part  in  any  disturbance; 
that  four  of  the  Pinkerton  men  were  indicted  for  this  murder  by  the 
grand  jury,  but  that  the  prosecuting  officers  apparently  took  no  in- 
terest in  the  case,  and  allowed  it  to  be  continued  a  number  of  times, 
until  the  witnesses  were  sworn  out,  and  in  the  end  the  murderers  went 
free;  that  after  this  there  was  a  strike  on  the  West  Division  Street 
railway,  and  that  some  of  the  police,  under  the  leadership 
of  Capt.  John  Bonfield,  indulged  in  a  brutality  never  equalled  be- 
fore; that  even  small  merchants,  standing  on  their  own  door- 
steps and  having  no  interest  in  the  strike,  were  clubbed, 
then  hustled  into  patrol  wagons,  and  thrown  into  pris- 
on, on  no  charge  and  not  even  booked;  that  a  petition  signed  by 
about  1,000  of  the  leading  citizens  living  on  and  near  West  Madison 
street,  was  sent  to  the  Mayor  and  City  Council,  praying  for  the  dis- 
missal of  Bonfield  from  the  force,  but  that,  on  account  of  his  political 
influence,  he  was  retained.  Let  me  say  here,  that  the  charge  of 
brutality  does  not  apply  to  all  of  the  policemen  of  Chicago.  There 
are  many  able,  honest  and  conscientious  officers  who  do  their  duty 
quietly,  thoroughly  and  humanely. 

As  a  specimen  of  the  many  papers  filed  in  this  connection,  I  will 
give  the  following,  the  first  being  from  the  officers  of  a  corporation 
that  is  one  of  the  largest  employers  in  Chicago : 

Office  People's  Gas  Light  and  Coke  Co.. 

Chicago,  Nov.  21,   1885. 
To  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee,  Chicago  Trades  and  Labor  Assembly: 

Sir:  In  response  to  the  request  of  your  committee  for  information  as  to 
the  treatment  received  by  certain  employes  of  this  company  at  the  hands  of 
Captain  Bonfield,  and  by  his  orders,  during  the  strike  of  the  Western  Division 
Railway  Company's  employes  in  July  last,  you  are  advised  as  follows: 

On  that  day  of  the  strike,  in  which  there  was  apparently  an  indiscriminate 
arresting  of  persons  who  happened  to  be  up  on  Madison  street,  whether  con- 


388  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

nected  with  the  disturbance  of  the  peace  or  engaged  in  legitimate  business,  a 
number  of  employes  of  this  company  were  at  work  upon  said  street,  near 
Hoyne  avenue,  opening  a  trench  for  the  laying  of  gas  pipe. 

The  tool  box  of  the  employes  was  at  the  southeast  corner  of  Hoyne  and 
Madison  street.  As  the  men  assembled  for  labor,  shortly  before  7  a.  m.,  they 
took  their  shovels  and  tools  from  the  tool  box,  arranged  themselves  along  the 
trench  preparatory  to  going  to  work  when  the  hour  of  seven  should  arrive. 
About  this  time,  and  a  little  before  the  men  began  to  work,  a  crowd  of  men. 
not  employes  of  this  company,  came  surging  down  the  street  from  the  west,  and 
seizing  such  shovels  and  other  tools  of  the  men  as  lay  upon  the  ground  and 
about  the  box,  threw  more  or  less  of  the  loose  dirt,  which  before  had  been 
taken  from  the  trench,  upon  the  track  of  the  railway  company.  About  this 
time  Captain  Bonfield  and  his  force  appeared  upon  the  scene,  and  began  ap- 
parently an  indiscriminate  arrest  of  persons.  Among  others  arrested  were  the 
following  employes  of  this  company:  Edward  Kane,  Mike  W.  Kerwin,  Dan 
Diamond,  Jas.  Hussey,  Dennis  Murray,  Patrick  Brown  and  Pat  Franey.  No 
one  of  these  persons  had  any  connection  with  the  strike,  or  were  guilty  of  ob- 
structing the  cars  of  the  railway  company,  or  of  any  disturbance  upon  the 
street.  Mr.  Kerwin  had  just  arrived  at  the  tool  box  and  had  not  yet  taken 
his  shovel  preparatory  to  going  to  work,  when  he  was  arrested  while  standing 
by  the  box,  and  without  resistance  was  put  upon  a  street  car  as  prisoner.  When 
upon  the  car  he  called  to  a  friend  among  the  workmen,  saying:  "Take  care  of 
my  shovel."  Thereupon  Bonfield  struck  him  a  violent  blow  with  a  club  upon 
his  head,  inflicting  a  serious  wound,  laying  open  his  scalp,  and  saying  as  he  did 
so:  "I  will  shovel  you,"  or  words  to  that  effect.  Another  of  the  said  employes, 
Edward  Kane,  was  also  arrested  by  the  tool  box,  two  of  the  police  seizing  him, 
one  by  each  arm,  and  as  he  was  being  put  upon  the  car,  a  third  man,  said  by 
Kane  and  others  to  be  Bonfield,  struck  him  with  a  club  upon  the  head,  severely 
cutting  his  head.  Both  of  these  men  were  seriously  injured,  and  for  a  time 
disabled  from  attending  to  their  business.  Both  of  these  men,  with  blood 
streaming  from  cuts  upon  their  heads,  respectively,  as  also  were  all  of  the  others 
above  named,  were  hustled  off  to  the  police  station  and  locked  up.  The  men 
were  not  "booked"  as  they  were  locked  up,  and  their  friends  had  great  diffi- 
culty in  finding  them,  so  that  bail  might  be  offered  and  they  released.  After 
they  were  found  communication  with  them  was  denied  for  some  time,  by  Bon- 
field's  orders  it  was  said,  and  for  several  hours  they  were  kept  in  confinement  in 
the  lock-up  upon  Desplaines  street,  as  criminals,  when  their  friends  were  de- 
sirous in  bailing  them  out.  Subsequently  they  were  all  brought  up  for  trial 
before  Justice  White.  Upon  the  hearing  the  city  was  represented  by  its  attor- 
ney, Bonfield  himself  being  present,  and  from  the  testimony  it  appeared  that  all 
these  men  had  been  arrested  under  the  circumstances  aforesaid,  and  without  the 
least  cause,  and  that  Kane  and  Kerwin  had  been  cruelly  assaulted  and  beaten 
without  the  least  justification  therefor,  and,  of  course,  they  were  all  dis- 
charged. 

The  officers  of  this  company,  who  are  cognizant  of  the  outrages  perpetrated 
upon  these  men.  feel  that  the  party  by  whom  the  same  were  committed  ought 
not  to  remain  in  a  responsible  position  upon  the  police  force. 

PEOPLE'S  GAS  LIGHT  AND  COKE  CO.. 

By  C.  K.  G.  Billings,  V.  P. 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  389 

ROBERT  ELLIS,  974  West  Madison  Street: 

Chicago,  Nov.  19,  1885. 

I  kept  a  market  at  974  West  Madison  street.  I  was  in  my  place  of  business 
waiting  on  customers,  and  stepped  to  the  door  to  get  a  measure  of  vegetables. 
The  first  thing  I  knew,  as  I  stood  on  the  step  in  front  of  my  store,  I  received  a 
blow  over  the  shoulders  with  a  club,  and  was  seized  and  thrown  off  the  side- 
walk into  a  ditch  being  dug  there.  I  had  my  back  to  the  person  who  struck 
me,  but  on  regaining  my  feet  I  saw  that  it  was  Bonfield  who  had  assaulted  me. 
Two  or  three  officers  then  came  up.  I  told  them  not  to  hit  me  again.  They 
said  go  and  get  in  the  car,  and  I  told  them  that  I  couldn't  leave  my  place  of 
business  as  I  was  all  alone  there.  They  asked  Bonfield  and  he  said,  "Take 
him  right  along."  They  then  shoved  me  into  the  car  and  took  me  down  the 
street  to  a  patrol  wagon,  in  which  I  was  taken  to  the  Lake  street  station.  I  was 
locked  up  there  from  this  time,  about  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  till  eight 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  then  taken  to  the  Desplaines  street  station.  I  was 
held  there  a  short  time  and  then  gave  bail  for  my  appearance,  and  got  back  to 
my  place  of  business  about  nine  o'clock  at  night.  Subsequently,  when  I 
appeared  in  court,  I  was  discharged.  It  was  about  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
July  3,  1885,  when  I  was  taken  from  my  place  of  business. 

ROBERT  ELLIS. 

W.  W.  WYMAN,  1004  West  Madison  Street: 

Chicago,  Nov.  19,  1885. 

I  was  standing  in  my  door  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  July  3, 
1885.  I  saw  a  man  standing  on  the  edge  of  the  sidewalk.  He  wasn't  doing 
anything  at  all.  Bonfield  came  up  to  him,  and  without  a  word  being  said  by 
either,  Bonfield  hit  him  over  the  head  with  his  club  and  knocked  him  down. 
He  also  hit  him  twice  after  he  had  fallen.  I  was  standing  about  six  feet  from 
them  when  the  assault  occurred.  I  don't  know  the  man  that  was  clubbed — never 
saw  him  before  nor  since.  W.  W.  WYMAN. 

JESSE  CLOUD,  008  Monroe  Street: 

Chicago,  Nov.  20,  1885. 

On  the  morning  of  July  3,  1885,  about  seven  o'clock,  as  I  was  standing  on 
the  southeast  corner  of  Madison  street  and  Western  avenue,  I  saw  Bonfield  walk 
up  to  a  man  on  the  opposite  corner,  who  was  apparently  looking  at  what  was 
going  on  in  the  street.  Bonfield  hit  him  over  the  head  with  his  club  and 
knocked  him  down.  Some  men  who  were  near  him  helped  him  over  to  the 
drug  store  on  the  corner  where  I  was  standing.  His  face  was  covered  with 
blood  from  the  wound  on  his  head,  made  by  Bonfield's  club,  and  he  appeared  to 
be  badly  hurt.  A  few  moments  later,  as  I  was  standing  in  the  same  place, 
almost  touching  elbows  with  another  man,  Bonfield  came  up  facing  us,  and  said 
to  us,  "stand  back,"  at  the  same  time  striking  the  other  man  over  the  head  with 
his  club.  I  stepped  back  and  turned  around  to  look  for  the  other  man;  saw 
him  a  few  feet  away  with  the  blood  running  down  over  his  face,  apparently 
badly  hurt  from  the  effect  of  the  blow  or  blows  he  had  received  from  Bonfield. 
There  was  no  riot  or  disorderly  conduct  there  at  the  time,  except  what  Bonfield 
made  himself  by  clubbing  innocent  people,  who  were  taking  no  part  in  the 
strike.  If  they  had  been  there  for  the  purpose  of  rioting  they  would  surely 
have  resisted  Bonfield's  brutality. 

I  affirm  that  the  above  statement  is  a  true  and  correct  statement  of  facts. 

JESSE  CLOUD. 


390  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

H.  J.  NICHOLS,  47  Flournoy  Street: 

Chicago,  Nov.  19,  1885. 

On  the  morning  of  July  3,  1885,  I  was  driving  up  Madison  street,  just  com- 
ing from  Johnson's  bakery,  on  Fifth  avenue.  When  I  got  to  the  corner  of 
Market  and  Madison  streets,  I  met  the  cars  coming  over  the  bridge.  On  look- 
ing out  of  my  wagon  I  saw  Bonfield  by  the  side  of  a  car.  He  snatched  me  from 
my  wagon  and  struck  me  on  the  head,  cutting  it  open,  and  put  me  in  a  car, 
leaving  my  wagon  standing  there  unprotected,  loaded  with  bakery  goods,  all  of 
which  were  stolen,  except  a  few  loaves  of  bread.  I  was  taken  to  the  Desplaines 
street  station  and  locked  up  for  about  ten  hours.  I  was  then  bound  over  for 
riot,  in  $500  bail,  and  released.  During  the  time  I  was  there  I  received  no  atten- 
tion of  any  kind,  though  my  head  was  seriously  cut.  Julius  Goldzier,  my 
lawyer,  went  to  Bonfield  with  me  before  the  case  was  called  in  court,  and  told 
him  I  had  done  nothing,  and  Bonfield  said,  "scratch  his  name  off,"  and  I  was 
released. 

I  swear  to  the  truth  of  the  above. 

Signed,       H.  J.  NICHOLS. 

The  following  is  from  Capt.  Schaack,  a  very  prominent  police 
official : 

Department  of  Police, 

City  of  Chicago. 
Chicago,  Illinois,  May  4,  1893. 
Mr.  G.  E.  Detwiler,  Editor  Rights  of  Labor: 

Dear  Sir:  In  reply  to  your  communication  of  April  13,  I  will  say  that  in 
July,  1885,  in  the  street  car  strike  on  the  West  Side,  I  held  the  office  of  lieu- 
tenant on  the  force.  I  was  detailed  with  a  company  of  officers,  early  in  the 
morning,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  car  barns,  I  believe  on  Western  avenue  and  a 
little  north  of  Madison  street.  My  orders  were  to  see  that  the  new  men  on  the 
cars  were  not  molested  when  coming  out  of  the  barns. 

One  man  came  out  and  passed  my  lines  about  fifty  feet.  I  saw  one  of  the 
men,  either  driver  or  conductor,  leave  the  car  at  a  stand-still.  I  ran  up  near 
the  car,  when  I  saw,  on  the  southeast  corner  of  the  street,  Bonfield  strike  a  man 
on  the  head  with  his  club.  He  hit  the  man  twice  and  I  saw  the  man  fall  to 
the  ground. 

Afterwards  I  was  put  on  a  train  of  cars,  protecting  the  rear.  Bonfield  had 
charge  of  the  front.  I  saw  many  people  getting  clubbed  in  front  of  the  train, 
but  I  held  my  men  in  the  rear  and  gave  orders  not  to  strike  anyone  except  they 
were  struck  first.  Not  one  of  my  officers  hurt  a  person  on  that  day  or  at  any 
time. 

Many  people  were  arrested,  all  appearing.  From  what  I  saw  in  the  after- 
noon and  the  next  day,  no  officer  could  state  what  they  were  arrested  for. 
The  officers  professed  ignorance  of  having  any  evidence,  but  "some  one  told 
them  to  take  him  in,"  meaning  to  lock  him  up.  On  that  afternoon,  about  four 
o'clock,  I  met  Bonfield  and  he  addressed  me  in  the  following  words,  in  great 
anger:  "If  some  of  you  goody-goody  fellows  had  used  your  clubs  freely  in  the 
forenoon,  you  would  not  need  to  use  lead  this  afternoon."  I  told  him  that  I  did 
not  see  any  use  in  clubbing  people,  and  that  I  would  club  no  person  to  please 
any  one,  meaning  Bonfield;  and  that  if  lead  had  to  be  used,  I  thought  my 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  391 

officers  could  give  lead  and  take  it  also.     I  will  say  that  affair  was  brutal  and 
uncalled  for.  .    MICHAEL  J.  SCHAACK, 

227  N.  State  Street. 

Again,  it  is  shown  that  various  attempts  were  made  to  bring  to 
justice  the  men  who  wore  the  uniform  of  the  law  while  violating  it, 
but  all  to  no  avail;  that  the  laboring  people  found  the  prisons  always 
open  to  receive  them,  but  the  courts  of  justice  were  practically  closed 
to  them;  that  the  prosecuting  officers  vied  with  each  other  in  hunting 
them  down,  but  were  deaf  to  their  appeals;  that  in  the  spring  of  1886 
there  were  more  labor  disturbances  in  the  city,  and  particularly 
at  the  McCormick  factory;  that  under  the  leadership  of  Capt.  Bonfield 
the  brutalities  of  the  previous  year  were  even  exceeded.  Some  affida- 
vits and  other  evidence  is  offered  on  this  point,  which  I  cannot  give 
for  want  of  space.  It  appears  that  this  was  the  year  of  the  eight-hour 
agitation,  and  efforts  were  made  to  secure  an  eight-hour  day  about 
May  i,  and  that  a  number  of  laboring  men  standing,  not  on  the  street, 
but  on  a  vacant  lot,  were  quietly  discussing  the  situation  in  regard  to 
the  movement,  when  suddenly  a  large  body  of  police,  under  orders 
from  Bonfield,  charged  on  them  and  began  to  club  them;  that  some 
of  the  men,  angered  at  the  unprovoked  assault,  at  first  resisted,  but 
were  soon  dispersed;  that  some  of  the  police  fired  on  the  men  while 
they  were  running  and  wounded  a  large  number  who  were  already 
100  feet  or  more  away  and  were  running  as  fast  as  they  could;  that  at 
least  four  of  the  number  so  shot  down  died;  that  this  was  wanton  and 
unprovoked  murder,  but  there  was  not  even  so  much  as  an  investi- 
gation. 

WAS  IT  AN   ACT  OF  PERSONAL  REVENGE? 

While  some  men  may  tamely  submit  to  being  clubbed  and  seeing 
their  brothers  shot  down,  there  are  some  who  will  resent  it,  and  will 
nurture  a  spirit  of  hatred  and  seek  revenge  for  themselves,  and  the  oc- 
currences that  preceded  the  Haymarket  tragedy  indicate  that  the 
bomb  was  thrown  by  some  one  who,  instead  of  acting  on  the  advice 
of  anybody,  was  simply  seeking  personal  revenge  for  having  been 
clubbed,  and  that  Capt.  Bonfield  is  the  man  who  is  really  responsible 
for  the  death  of  the  police  officers. 

It  is  also  shown  that  the  character  of  the  Haymarket  meeting  sus- 
tains this  view.  The  evidence  shows  there  were  only  800  to  1,000 
people  present,  and  that  it  was  a  peaceable  and  orderly  meeting;  that 
the  mayor  of  the  city  was  present  and  saw  nothing  out  of  the  way, 
and  that  he  remained  until  the  crowd  began  to  disperse,  the  meeting 
being  practically  over,  and  the  crowd  engaged  in  dispersing  when  he 


392  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

left;  that  had  the  police  remained  away  for  twenty  minutes  more  there 
would  have  been  nobody  left  there,  but  as  soon  as  Bonfield  had  learned 
that  the  mayor  had  left,  he  could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  have 
some  more  people  clubbed,  and  went  up  with  a  detachment  of  police 
to  disperse  the  meeting;  and  that  on  the  appearance  of  the  police  the 
bomb  was  thrown  by  some  unknown  person,  and  several  innocent 
and  faithful  officers,  who  were  simply  obeying  an  uncalled-for  order 
of  their  superior,  were  killed.  All  of  these  facts  tend  to  show  the  im- 
probability of  the  theory  of  the  prosecution  that  the  bomb  was  thrown 
as  a  result  of  a  conspiracy  on  the  part  of  the  defendants  to  commit 
murder;  if  the  theory  of  the  prosecution  were  correct,  there  would 
have  been  many  more  bombs  thrown;  and  the  fact  that  only  one  was 
thrown  shows  that  it  was  an  act  of  personal  revenge. 

It  is  further  shown  here,  that  much  of  the  evidence  given  at  the 
trial  was  a  pure  fabrication;  that  some  of  the  prominent  police  of- 
ficials, in  their  zeal,  not  only  terrorized  ignorant  men  by  throwing 
them  into  'prison  and  threatening  them  with  torture  if  they  refused 
to  swear  to  anything  desired,  but  that  they  offered  money  and  em- 
ployment to  those  who  would  consent  to  do  this.  Further,  that  they 
deliberately  planned  to  have  fictitious  conspiracies  formed  in  order 
that  they  might  get  the  glory  of  discovering  them.  In  addition  to 
the  evidence  in  the  record  of  some  witnesses  who  swore  that  they  had 
been  paid  small  sums  of  money,  etc.,  several  documents  are  here  re- 
ferred to. 

First,  an  interview  with  Capt.  Ebersold,  published  in  the  Chicago 
Daily  News,  May  10,  1889. 

CHIEF  OF  POLICE  EBERSOLD'S  STATEMENT. 

Ebersold  was  chief  of  the  police  of  Chicago  at  the  time  of  the  Hay- 
market  trouble,  and  for  a  long  time  before  and  thereafter,  so  that  he 
was  in  a  position  to  know  what  was  going  on,  and  his  utterances  upon 
this  point  are  therefore  important.  Among  other  things  he  says: 

"It  was  my  policy  to  quiet  matters  down  as  soon  as  possible  after 
the  4th  of  May.  The  general  unsettled  state  of  things  was  an  injury  to 
Chicago. 

"On  the  other  hand,  Capt.  Schaack  wanted  to  keep  things  stirring. 
He  wanted  bombs  to  be  found  here,  there,  all  around,  everywhere. 
I  thought  people  would  lie  down  and  sleep  better  if  they  were  not 
afraid  that  their  homes  would  be  blown  to  pieces  any  minute.  But 
this  man  Schaack,  this  little  boy  who  must  have  glory  or  his  heart 
would  be  broken,  wanted  none  of  that  policy.  Now,  here  is  some- 
thing the  public  does  not  know.  After  we  got  the  anarchist  societies 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  393 

broken  up,  Schaack  wanted  to  send  out  men  to  again  organize  new 
societies  right  away.  You  see  what  this  would  do.  He  wanted  to 
keep  the  thing  boiling — keep  himself  prominent  before  the  public. 
Well,  I  sat  down  on  that;  I  didn't  believe  in  such  work,  and  of  course 
Schaack  didn't  like  it. 

"After  I  heard  all  that,  I  began  to  think  there  was,  perhaps,  not 
so  much  to  all  this  anarchist  business  as  they  claimed,  and  I  believe 
I  was  right.  Schaack  thinks  he  knew  all  about  those  anarchists.  Why, 
I  knew  more  at  that  time  than  he  knows  to-day  about  them.  I  was 
following  them  closely.  As  soon  as  Schaack  began  to  get  some 
notoriety,  however,  he  was  spoiled." 

This  is  a  most  important  statement,  when  a  chief  of  police,  who 
has  been  watching  the  anarchists  closely,  says  that  he  was  convinced 
that  there  was  not  so  much  in  all  their  anarchist  business  as  was 
claimed,  and  that  a  police  captain  wanted  to  send  out  men  to  have 
other  conspiracies  formed,  in  order  to  get  the  credit  of  discovering 
them,  and  keep  the  public  excited ;  it  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  the 
whole  situation  and  destroys  the  force  of  much  of  the  testimony  in- 
troduced at  the  trial. 

For,  if  there  has  been  any  such  extensive  conspiracy  as  the  pros- 
ecution claims,  the  police  would  have  soon  discovered  it.  No  chief 
of  police  could  discover  a  determination  on  the  part  of  an  individual, 
or  even  a  number  of  separate  individuals,  to  have  personal  revenge 
for  having  been  maltreated,  nor  could  any  chief  discover  a  determina- 
tion by  any  such  individual  to  kill  the  next  policeman  who  might 
assault  him.  Consequently,  the  fact  that  the  police  did  not  discover 
any  conspiracy  before  the  Haymarket  affair,  shows  almost  conclusive- 
ly that  no  such  extensive  combination  could  have  existed. 

As  further  bearing  on  the  question  of  creating  evidence,  reference 
is  made  to  the  following  affidavits: 

STATE  OF  ILLINOIS,   )  sc 
County  of  Cook.  ) 

Jacob  Mikolanda,  being  first  duly  sworn,  on  oath,  states  that  he  took  no 
part  in  the  so-called  May  troubles  of  1886;  that  on  or  about  the  8th  day  of 
May,  1886,  two  police  officers  without  a  warrant,  or  without  assigning  any 
reason  therefor,  took  this  affiant  from  a  saloon,  where  he  was  conducting 
himself  peacefully,  and  obliged  him  to  accompany  them  to  his  house;  that  the 
same  officers  entered  his  house  without  a  search  warrant,  and  ransacked  the 
same,  not  even  permitting  the  baby's  crib,  with  its  sleeping  occupant,  to  escape 
their  unlawful  and  fruitless  search;  that  about  a  month  after  this  occurrence, 
this  affiant  was  summoned  by  Officer  Peceny  to  accompany  him  to  the  police 
station,  as  Lieutenant  Shepard  wished  to  speak  to  me;  that  there,  without  a 
warrant,  affiant  was  thrown  into  jail;  that  he  was  thereupon  shown  some  photo- 
graphs and  asked  if  he  knew  the  persons,  and  on  answering  to  the  affirmative 


394  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

as  to  some  of  the  pictures,  he  was  again  thrown  into  prison;  that  he  was  then 
transferred  from  one  station  to  another  for  several  days;  that  he  was  im- 
portuned by  a  police  captain  and  Assistant  State's  Attorney  to  turn  State's 
witness,  being  promised  therefor  money,  the  good  will  and  protection  of  the 
police,  their  political  influence  in  securing  a  position  and  his  entire  freedom; 
and  on  answering  that  he  knew  nothing  to  which  he  could  testify,  he  was 
thrown  back  into  jail;  that  his  preliminary  hearing  was  repeatedly  continued 
for  want  of  prosecution,  each  continuance  obliging  this  affiant  to  remain 
longer  in  jail;  that  eventually  this  affiant  was  dismissed  for  want  of  prosecution. 

JACOB  MIKOLANDA. 
Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  I4th  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1893. 

CHARLES  B.  PAVLICEK, 
Notary  Public. 

STATE  OF  ILLINOIS,    > 
County  of  Cook.  f 

Vaclav  Djmek,  being  first  duly  sworn,  on  oath  states  that  he  knows  of  no 
cause  for  his  arrest  on  the  7th  day  of  May,  A.  D.  1886;  that  he  took  no  part 
in  any  of  the  troubles  of  the  preceding  days;  that  without  a  warrant  for  his 
arrest,  or  without  a  search  warrant  for  his  premises,  the  police  entered  the 
house  on  the  night  of  the  7th  of  May,  1886;  that  on  being  requested  to  show 
by  what  authority  they  entered,  the  police  heaped  abuse  upon  this  affiant  and 
his  wife;  that  the  police  then  proceeded  to  ransack  the  house,  roused  this 
affiant's  little  children  out  of  bed,  pulled  the  same  to  pieces,  carried  away  the 
affiant's  papers  and  pillow  slips,  because  the  same  were  red;  that  on  the  way  to 
the  police  station,  though  this  affiant  offered  no  resistance  whatever,  and  went 
at  the  command  of  the  officer,  peacefully,  this  affiant  was  choked,  covered  by 
revolvers,  and  otherwise  inhumanly  treated  by  the  police  officers;  that  for 
many  days  this  affiant  was  jailed  and  refused  a  preliminary  hearing;  that  during 
said  time  he  was  threatened,  and  promised  immunity  by  the  police,  if  he  would 
turn  State's  witness;  that  the  police  clerk  and  officer  Johnson  repeatedly  prom- 
ised this  affiant  his  freedom  and  considerable  money,  if  he  would  turn 
State's  witness;  that  on  his  protestations  that  he  knew  nothing  to  which  he 
could  testify,  this  affiant  was  abused  and  ill-treated;  that  while  he  was  jailed 
this  affiant  was  kicked,  clubbed,  beaten  and  scratched,  had  curses  and  abuses 
heaped  upon  him,  and  was  threatened  with  hanging  by  the  police;  that  this 
affiant's  wife  was  abused  by  the  police  when  she  sought  permission  to  see  this 
affiant.  VACLAV  DJMEK. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me,  this  I4th  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1893. 

CHARLES  B.  PAVLICEK, 
Notary  Public. 

I  will  simply  say  in  conclusion,  on  this  branch  of  the  case,  that 
the  facts  tend  to  show  that  the  bomb  was  thrown  as  an  act  of  personal 
revenge,  and  that  the  prosecution  has  never  discovered  who  threw  it, 
and  the  evidence  utterly  fails  to  show  that  the  man  who  did  throw  it 
ever  heard  or  read  a  word  coming  from  the  defendants ;  consequently 
it  fails  to  show  that  he  acted  on  any  advice  given  by  them.  And  if  he 
did  not  act  on  or  hear  any  advice  coming  from  the  defendants,  either 


.  REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  395 

in  speeches  or  through  the  press,  then  there  was  no  case  against  them, 
even  under  the  law  as  laid  down  by  Judge  Gary. 

FIELDEN    AND    SCHWAB. 

At  the  trial  a  number  of  detectives  and  members  of  the  police 
swore  that  the  defendant,  Fielden,  at  the  Haymarket  meeting,  made 
threat  to  kill,  urging  his  hearers  to  do  their  duty  as  he  would  do  his, 
just  as  the  policemen  were  coming  up;  and  one  policeman  swears 
that  Fielden  drew  a  revolver  and  fired  at  the  police  while  he  was 
standing  on  the  wagon  and  before  the  bomb  was  thrown,  while  some 
of  the  others  testified  that  he  first  climbed  down  off  the  wagon  and 
fired  while  standing  by  a  wheel.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  proven 
by  a  number  of  witnesses,  and  by  facts  and  circumstances,  that  this 
evidence  must  be  absolutely  untrue.  A  number  of  newspaper  report- 
ers, who  testified  on  the  part  of  the  State,  said  that  they  were  standing 
near  Fielden — much  nearer  than  the  police  were — and  heard  all  that 
was  said  and  saw  what  was  done;  that  they  had  been  sent  there  for 
that  purpose,  and  that  Fielden  did  not  make  any  such  threats  as  the 
police  swore  to,  and  that  he  did  not  use  a  revolver.  A  number  of 
other  men  who  were  near,  too,  and  some  of  them  on  the  wagon  on 
which  Fielden  stood  at  the  time,  swear  to  the  same  thing.  Fielden 
himself  swears  that  he  did  not  make  any  such  threats  as  the  police 
swore  to,  and  further,  that  he  never  had  or  used  a  revolver  in  his  life. 
But  if  there  were  any  doubt  about  the  fact  that  the  evidence  charging 
Fielden  with  having  used  a  revolver  as  unworthy  of  credit,  it  is  re- 
moved by  Judge  Gary  and  State's  Attorney  Grinnell.  On  November 
8,  1887,  when  the  question  of  commuting  the  death  sentence  as  to 
Fielden  was  before  the  Governor,  Judge  Gary  wrote  a  long  letter  in 
regard  to  the  case  in  which,  in  speaking  of  Fielden,  he,  among  other 
things,  says:  "There  is  in  the  nature  and  private  character  of  the 
man  a  love  of  justice,  an  impatience  at  undeserved  sufferings.  *  *  * 
In  his  own  private  life  he  was  the  honest,  industrious  and  peaceful 
laboring  man.  In  what  he  said  in  court  before  sentence  he  was  re- 
spectful and  decorous.  His  language  and  conduct  since  have  been 
irreproachable.  As  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  knew  of  any  prepar- 
ation to  do  the  specific  act  of  throwing  the  bomb  that  killed  Began, 
he  does  not  understand  even  now  that  general  advice  to  large  masses 
to  do  violence  makes  him  responsible  for  the  violence  done  by  reason 
of  that  advice.  *  *  *  In  short,  he  was  more  a  misguided  en- 
thusiast than  a  criminal  conscious  of  the  horrible  nature  and  effect  of 
his  teachings  and  of  his  responsibility  therefor." 

The  State's  Attorney  appended  the  foregoing  letter,  beginning  as 


396  LIVE  'QUESTIONS. 

follows:  "While  endorsing  and  approving  the  foregoing  statement 
by  Judge  Gary,  I  wish  to  add  thereto  the  suggestion  *  *  *  that 
Schwab's  conduct  during  the  trial,  and  when  addressing  the  court 
before  sentence,  like  Fielden's,  was  decorous,  respectful  to  the  law 
and  commendable.  *  *  *  It  is  further  my  desire  to  say  that  I 
believe  that  Schwab  was  the  pliant,  weak  tool  of  a  stronger  will  and 
more  designing  person.  Schwab  seems  to  be  friendless." 

If  what  Judge  Gary  says  about  Fielden  is  true;  if  Fielden  has  "a 
natural  love  of  justice  and  in  his  private  life  was  the  honest,  indus- 
trious and  peaceable  laboring  man,"  then  Fielden's  testimony  is  en- 
titled to  credit,  and  when  he  says  that  he  did  not  do  the  things  the 
police  charge  him  with  doing,  and  that  he  never  had  or  used  a  revolver 
iin  his  life,  it  is  probably  true,  especially  as  he  is  corroborated  by  a 
number  of  creditable  and  disinterested  witnesses. 

Again,  if  Fielden  did  the  things  the  police  charged  him  with  doing, 
if  he  fired  on  them  as  they  swear,  then  he  was  not  a  mere  misguided 
enthusiast,  who  was  to  be  held  only  for  the  consequences  of  his 
teachings;  and  if  either  Judge  Gary  or  State's  Attorney  Grinnell  had 
placed  any  reliance  on  the  evidence  of  the  police  on  this  point,  they 
would  have  written  a  different  kind  of  a  letter  to  the  then  executive. 

In  the  fall  of  1887,  a  number  of  the  most  prominent  business  men 
of  Chicago  met  to  consult  whether  or  not  to  ask  executive  clemency 
for  any  of  the  condemned  men.  Mr.  Grinnell  was  present  and  made  a 
speech,  in  which,  in  referring  to  this  evidence,  he  said  that  he  nad 
serious  doubts  whether  Fielden  had  a  revolver  on  that  occasion,  or 
whether  indeed  Fielden  ever  had  one. 

Yet,  in  arguing  the  case  before  the  Supreme  Court  the  previous 
spring,  much  stress  was  placed  by  the  State  on  the  evidence  relating 
to  what  Fielden  did  at  the  Haymarket  meeting,  and  that  court  was 
misled  into  attaching  great  importance  to  it. 

It  is  now  clear  that  there  is  no  case  made  out  against  Fielden  for 
anything  he  did  on  that  night,  and,  as  heretofore  shown,  in  order  to 
hold  him  and  the  other  defendants  for  the  consequences  and  effects  of 
having  given  pernicious  and  criminal  advice  to  large  masses  to  com- 
mit violence,  whether  orally,  in  speeches,  or  in  print,  it  must  be 
shown  that  the  person  committing  the  violence  had  read  or  heard  the 
advice ;  for,  until  he  had  heard  or  read  it,  he  did  not  receive,  and  if  he 
never  received  the  advice,  it  cannot  be  said  that  he  acted  on  it. 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  397 

STATE'S  ATTORNEY  ON  NEEBE'S  INNOCENCE. 
IV. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  evidence  for  the  State,  the  Hon.  Carter 
H.  Harrison,  then  Mayor  of  Chicago,  and  Mr.  F.  S.  Winston,  then 
Corporation  Counsel  for  Chicago,  were  in  the  court  room  and  had  a 
conversation  with  Mr.  Grinnell,  the  State's  Attorney,  in  regard  to  the 
evidence  against  Neebe,  in  which  conversation,  according  to  Mr.  Har- 
rison and  Mr.  Winston,  the  State's  Attorney  said  that  he  did  not 
think  he  had  a  case  against  Neebe,  and  that  he  wanted  to  dismiss  him, 
but  was  dissuaded  from  doing  so  by  his  associate  attorneys,  who 
feared  that  such  a  step  might  influence  the  jury  in  favor  of  the  other 
defendants. 

Mr.  Harrison,  in  a  letter,  among  other  things,  says:  "I  was  pres- 
ent in  the  court  room  when  the  State  closed  its  case.  The  attorney 
for  Neebe  moved  his  discharge  on  the  ground  that  there  was  no 
evidence  to  hold  him  on.  The  State's  Attorney,  Mr.  Julius  S.  Grin- 
nell, and  Mr.  Fred  S.  Winston,  Corporation  Counsel  for  the  city,  and 
myself,  were  in  earnest  conversation  when  the  motion  was  made. 
Mr.  Grinnell  stated  to  us  that  he  did  not  think  there  was  sufficient 
testimony  to  convict  Neebe.  I  thereupon  earnestly  advised  him,  as 
the  representative  of  the  State,  to  dismiss  the  case  as  to  Neebe,  and, 
if  I  remember  rightly,  he  was  seriously  thinking  of  doing  so,  but,  on 
consultation  with  his  assistants,  and  on  their  advice,  he  determined 
not  to  do  so,  lest  it  would  have  an  injurious  effect  on  the  case  as 
against  the  other  prisoners.  *  *  *  I  took  the  position  that  such 
discharge,  being  clearly  justified  by  the  testimony,  would  not  preju- 
dice the  case  as  to  the  others." 

Mr.  Winston  adds  the  following  to  Mr.  Harrison's  letter: 

March  21,  1889. 

I  concur  in  the  statement  of  Mr.  Harrison;  I  never  believed  there  was 
sufficient  evidence  to  convict  Mr.  Neebe,  and  so  stated  during  the  trial. 

F.  S.  WINSTON. 

In  January,  1890,  Mr.  Grinnell  wrote  a  letter  to  Gov.  Fifer,  de- 
nying that  he  had  ever  made  any  such  statement  as  that  mentioned 
by  Mr.  Harrison  and  Mr.  Winston;  also  that  he  did  believe  Neebe 
guilty;  that  Mr.  Harrison  suggested  the  dismissal  of  the  case  as 
to  Neebe;  and  further,  that  he  would  not  have  been  surprised  if 
Mr.  Harrison  had  made  a  similar  suggestion  as  to  others,  and  then 
he  says:  "I  said  to  Mr.  Harrison  at  that  time,  substantially,  that  I 
was  afraid  that  the  jury  might  not  think  the  testimony  presented  in 


398  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  case  sufficient  to  convict  Neebe,  but  that  it  was  in  their  province 
to  pass  upon  it." 

Now,  if  the  statement  of  Messrs.  Harrison  and  Winston  is  true, 
then  Grinnell  should  not  have  allowed  Neebe  to  be  sent  to  the  peni- 
tentiary, and  even  if  we  assume  that  both  Mr.  Harrison  and  Mr. 
Winston  are  mistaken,  and  that  Mr.  Grinnell  simply  used  the  lan- 
guage he  now  says  he  used,  then  the  case  must  have  seemed  very 
weak  to  him.  If,  with  a  jury  prejudiced  to  start  with,  a  judge  press- 
ing for  conviction,  and  amid  the  almost  irresistible  fury  with  which 
the  trial  was  conducted,  he  still  was  afraid  the  jury  might  not  think 
the  testimony  m  the  case  was  sufficient  to  convict  Neebe,  then  the 
testimony  must  have  seemed  very  weak  to  him,  no  matter  what  he 
may  now  protest  about  it. 

When  the  motion  to  dismiss  the  case  as  to  Neebe  was  made, 
defendants'  counsel  asked  that  the  jury  might  be  permitted  to  retire 
while  the  motion  was  being  argued,  but  the  court  refused  to  permit 
this,  and  kept  the  jury  present  where  it  could  hear  all  that  the  court 
had  to  say;  then  when  the  argument  on  the  motion  was  begun  by 
defendants'  counsel,  the  court  did  not  wait  to  hear  from  the  attorneys 
for  the  State,  but  at  once  proceeded  to  argue  the  points  itself  with 
the  attorneys  for  the  defendants,  so  that  while  the  attorneys  for  the 
State  made  no  argument  on  the  motion,  twenty-five  pages  of  the 
record  are  filled  with  the  colloquy  or  sparring  that  took  place  between 
the  court  and  the  counsel  for  the  defendants,  the  court  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  jury  making  insinuations  as  to  what  inference  might  be 
drawn  by  the  jury  from  the  fact  that  Neebe  owned  a  little  stock 
in  a  paper  called  the  Arbeiter  Zeitung  and  had  been  seen  there,  al- 
though he  took  no  part  in  the  management  until  after  the  Haymarket 
troubles,  it  appearing  that  the  Arbeiter  Zeitung  had  published  some 
very  seditious  articles,  with  which,  however,  Neebe  had  nothing  to  do. 
Finally  one  of  the  counsel  for  the  defendants  said:  "I  expected  that 
the  representatives  of  the  State  might  say  something,  but  as  your 
honor  saves  them  that  trouble,  you  will  excuse  me  if  I  reply  briefly 
to  the  suggestions  you  have  made."  Some  other  remarks  were  made 
by  the  court,  seriously  affecting  the  whole  case  and  prejudicial  to 
the  defendants,  and  then,  referring  to  Neebe,  the  court  said: 

"Whether  he  had  anything  to  do  with  the  dissemination  of  advice 
to  commit  murder  is,  I  think,  a  debatable  question  which  the  jury 
ought  to  pass  on."  Finally  the  motion  was  overruled.  Now,  with  all 
the  eagerness  shown  by  the  court  to  convict  Neebe,  it  must  have  re- 
garded the  evidence  against  him  as  very  weak,  otherwise  it  would  not 
have  made  this  admission,  for  if  it  was  a  debatable  question  whether 


REASONS  FOR  PARDONING,  ETC.  399 

the  evidence  tended  to  show  guilt,  then  that  evidence  must  have  been 
far  from  being  conclusive  upon  the  question  as  to  whether  he  was 
actually  guilty;  this  being  so,  the  verdict  should  not  have  been  al- 
lowed to  stand,  because  the  law  requires  that  a  man  shall  be  proven 
to  be  guilty  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt  before  he  can  be  convicted 
of  criminal  offense.  I  have  examined  all  of  the  evidence  against 
Neebe  with  care,  and  it  utterly  fails  to  prove  even  the  shadow  of  a 
case  against  him.  Some  of  the  other  defendants  were  guilty  of  using 
seditious  language,  but  even  this  cannot  be  said  of  Neebe. 

PREJUDICE  OR  SUBSERVIENCY  OF  JUDGE. 
V. 

It  is  further  charged,  with  much  bitterness,  by  those  who  speak 
for  the  prisoners,  that  the  record  of  this  case  shows  that  the  judge 
conducted  the  trial  with  malicious  ferocity,  and  forced  eight  men 
to  be  tried  together;  that  in  cross-examining  the  State's  witnesses,  he 
confined  counsel  to  the  specific  points  touched  on  by  the  State, 
while  in  the  cross-examination  of  the  defendants'  witnesses  he  per- 
mitted the  State's  Attorney  to  go  into  all  manner  of  subjects  entirely 
foreign  to  the  matters  on  which  the  witnesses  were  examined  in 
chief;  also,  that  every  ruling  throughout  the  long  trial  on  any  con- 
tested point,  was  in  favor  of  the  State;  and  further,  that  page  after 
page  of  the  record  contains  insinuating  remarks  of  the  judge,  made 
in  the  hearing  of  the  jury,  and  with  the  evident  intent  of  bringing 
the  jury  to  his  way  of  thinking;  that  these  speeches,  coming  from  the 
court,  were  much  more  damaging  than  any  speeches  from  the  State's 
Attorney  could  possibly  have  been;  that  the  State's  Attorney  often 
took  his  cue  from  the  judge's  remarks;  that  the  judge's  magazine 
article  recently  published,  although  written  nearly  six  years  after  the 
trial,  is  yet  full  of  venom;  that,  pretending  to  simply  review  the 
case,  he  had  to  drag  into  his  article  a  letter  written  by  an  excited 
woman  to  a  newspaper  after  the  trial  was  over,  and  which  therefore 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  case,  and  was  put  into  the  articles  simply 
to  create  a  prejudice  against  the  woman,  as  well  as  against  the  dead 
and  the  living;  and  that,  not  content  with  this,  he,  in  the  same 
article,  makes  an  insinuating  attack  on  one  of  the  lawyers  for  the 
defense,  not  for  anything  done  at  the  trial,  but  because  more  than 
a  year  after  the  trial,  when  some  of  the  defendants  had  been  hung, 
he  ventured  to  express  a  few  kind,  if  erroneous,  sentiments  over  the 
graves  of  his  dead  clients,  whom  he  at  least  believed  to  be  innocent. 
It  is  urged  that  such  ferocity  of  subserviency  is  without  a  parallel  in 


400  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

all  history;    that  even  Jeffries  in  England,  contented  himself  with 
hanging  his  victims,  and  did  not  stoop  to  berate  them  after  death. 

These  charges  are  of  a  personal  character,  and  while  they  seem 
to  be  sustained  by  the  record  of  the  trial  and  the  papers  before  me, 
and  tend  to  show  the  trial  was  not  fair,  I  do  not  care  to  discuss  this 
feature  of  the  case  any  farther,  because  it  is  not  necessary.  I  am 
convinced  that  it  is  clearly  my  duty  to  act  in  this  case  for  the  reasons 
already  given,  and  I,  therefore,  grant  an  absolute  pardon  to  Samuel 
Fielden,  Oscar  Neebe  and  Michael  Schwab,  this  26th  day  of  June, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 

Governor  of  Illinois. 


SPEECH  AT  BANQUET  TO  DIRECTOR  GENERAL  DAVIS. 
(Tendered  by  Foreign  Commissioners,  at  the  Auditorium,  November  n,  1893.) 

But  few  men  are  so  fortunate  as  to  have  their  names  associated 
with  great  affairs.  But  few  men  are  ever  blessed  with  an  opportunity 
to  render  their  country  or  their  age  a  service  that  will  hand  their 
names  down  to  posterity.  The  temple  of  fame  is  so  carefully  guarded 
by  the  genii  that  but  few  mortals  ever  enter  it. 

Millions  of  men  with  high  ambition,  with  patriotic  fervor  and 
noble  sacrifice,  have  had  to  content  themselves  with  the  approval 
of  their  own  conscience  and  the  good  opinions  of  their  neighbors. 
They  have  died  in  the  arms  of  their  families  and  passed  to  the  shad- 
ows beyond  without  having  left  even  a  foot-print  on  the  path  they 
trod. 

The  man  in  whose  honor  we  have  met  to-night  has  been  more 
highly  favored.  The  fates  seem  to  smile  on  him;  again  and  again 
have  they  beckoned  him  onward  and  upward.  He  served  his  coun- 
try as  a  soldier;  he  served- it  in  the  national  halls  of  legislation;  he 
served  it  in  a  position  of  great  financial  responsibility,  and  then  the 
fates  beckoned  him  still  higher,  and  he  served  his  country  as  Director 
General  of  the  great  Columbian  Exposition.  Most  fortunate  man,  to 
have  his  name  prominently  associated  with  the  building,  the  making 
and  the  managing  of  that  wonderful  World's  Fair!  Most  fortunate 
are  all  of  the  great  men  whose  genius  and  creative  force  made  and 
managed  that  marvel  of  the  age  which  has  placed  a  wreath  of  im- 
mortality on  the  brow  of  this  century,  and  which  will  emblazon  the 
names  of  its  creators  in  the  temple  of  achievement,  where  they  will 
be  honored  by  the  generations  to  come  as  these  read  of,  talk  of,  and 
wonder  over  the  glories  of  the  famous  White  City. 


SPEECH  AT  A   BANQUET,  ETC.  401 

Gentlemen  of  the  Foreign  Commission,  in  honoring  this  distin- 
guished citizen  of  Illinois  you  honor  our  State  and  honor  our  people, 
and  you  place  our  State  and  our  people  under  still  greater  obliga- 
tions to  you  and  to  your  sovereigns  and  your  people. 

As  I  have  not  heretofore  had  an  opportunity  of  conveying  to  you 
the  gratitude  of  this  great  State,  permit  me  now  to  say  that  in 
coming  as  you  did  from  all  countries  and  bringing  us  the  best  wishes 
of  your  sovereigns,  and  the  highest  and  best  productions  of  the  genius 
and  the  industry  of  your  people,  you  have  done  us  an  honor  which 
our  people  highly  appreciate  and  will  take  pride  in  repaying  if  ever 
an  opportunity  offers. 

But  more  than  this,  by  the  appreciative  and  friendly  spirit  you  have 
shown  while  with  us,  by  your  generous  kindness  and  obliging  con- 
duct, you  have  won  for  yourselves,  your  sovereigns  and  your  people, 
our  love  and  affection. 

The  exposition  has  taught  its  lesson  to  y9U  and  to  us.  It  has 
pointed  the  tendency  of  civilization;  it  has  shown  the  possibilities 
of  human  achievement;  it  has  brought  all  people  nearer  together  and 
it  has  most  effectively  taught  the  gospel  of  peace  by  showing  that 
peace  alone  creates.  The  arm  of  war  destroys,  while  the  world  halts; 
but  the  hand  of  peace  builds  and  leads  the  world  upward. 

Again,  in  my  view,  the  exposition  has  taught  that  freedom  is  the 
great  creative  and  moving  force  of  all  progress  and  of  all  achieve- 
ment. Freedom  of  thought,  freedom  of  speech  and  freedom  of  action 
for  the  honest  man  give  activity  to  hand  and  to  brain,  and  set  in 
motion  all  the  agencies  that  advance  civilization  and  move  the  world. 

I  believe  that  the  country  which  gives  the  greatest  freedom  to  its 
citizens  will  have  the  advantage  in  the  future,  as  it  has  had  in  the 
past,  in  the  race  between  nations  for  industrial  activity  and  general 
development. 

You  are  about  to  take  your  departure.  You  will  return  to  your 
countries  to  wrestle  with  the  great  national  problems  which  confront 
you  there,  while  we  struggle  with  those  which  confront  us  here. 
With  many  of  you  it  is  the  question  of  militarism;  the  question  of 
saving  the  mental  and  physical  energy  which  it  destroys  and  of 
avoiding  the  great  burdens  it  entails. 

With  us  the  great  problem  is  that  of  industrial  and  commercial 
development.  Some  of  us  believe  that  herein  we  have  an  advantage 
because,  not  having  to  maintain  a  large  military  establishment,  we  can 
direct  all  this  energy  and  force  into  the  channels  of  industry  and 
material  and  intellectual  development,  and  that,  having  this  advan- 
26 


402  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

tage,  we  should  in  time  outstrip  those  nations  that  are  not  so  fortu- 
nate. 

But  however  this  may  be,  let  me  assure  you  of  our  good-will,  and 
say  to  you  that  here  in  Illinois  you  will  ever  be  kindly  remembered, 
and  here  you  will  always  find  a  welcome.  Our  benedictions  will  follow 
you  across  the  seas  to  your  homes  in  Europe  and  the  Orient,  and 
our  prayers  will  bespeak  for  you  the  choicest  blessings  of  Divine 
Providence. 


ADDRESS    AT    LAYING    OF    CORNER-STONE    OF    THE 
ACADEMY   OF   SCIENCES. 

(Delivered  at  Lincoln  Park,  Chicago,  October  10,   1893.) 

Yesterday  over  700,000  people  celebrated  the  restoration  of  Chi- 
cago, that  city  which  twenty-two  years  ago  lay  in  ashes,  and  which 
has  been  rebuilt  on  a  scale  of  magnificence  and  grandeur  that  excites 
the  admiration  and  wonder  of  the  world.  But,  great  as  is  Chicago — 
great  in  its  railroads,  great  in  its  factories,  its  warehouses,  its  office 
temples,  great  in  its  energy  and  enterprise  of  its  people — its  glory 
will  fade  unless  it  builds  on  more  than  material  foundations. 

The  generations  to  come  will  care  nothing  for  our  warehouses, 
our  buildings  or  our  railroads;  but  they  will  ask  what  has  Chicago 
done  for  humanity;  where  has  it  made  man  wiser,  nobler  or  stronger; 
what  new  thought,  or  principle,  or  truth  has  it  given  to  the  world? 

There  have  been  nations  which  have  had  great  material  grandeur, 
but  nothing  more,  and  their  very  existence  has  faded  from  the  mem- 
ory of  time;  and  those  nations  and  cities  which  we  regard  as  the 
greatest,  are  remembered,  not  for  physical  prowess,  but  for  their 
intellectual  achievements. 

Greece  was  a  great  country  for  ages.  It  had  granaries,  and  ships, 
and  armies,  and  wealthy  men;  but  they  are  all  forgotten,  and  to-day 
the  world  looks  with  interest  only  to  that  period  which  it  calls  the 
classic  age,  when  dramatists  wrote,  philosophers  investigated,  poets 
sang,  artists  created,  and  orators  thundered. 

Rome  was,  in  a  material  sense,  the  most  mighty  nation  on  earth. 
It  had  conquering  armies,  countless  slaves,  great  fleets,  vast  granaries, 
charming  baths,  and  wonderful  temples:  but  those  are  all  covered 
with  the  dust  of  time.  The  world  calls  that  the  golden  age  of  Rome 
which  followed  these  things.  The  age  when  poetry  flourished,  when 
jurisprudence  was  studied,  when  art  was  cultivated,  and  literature  was 
patronized, 


LAYING    OF   CORNER-STONE.  403 

England  has  been  a  great  nation  for  many  centuries;  the  mis- 
tress of  the  seas,  the  counting  house,  and  for  a  time,  the  work-shop 
of  the  world;  yet  men  turn  away  from  all  this  and  look  with  admira- 
tion to  the  England  of  Elizabeth,  for  it  was  then  that  letters  thrived; 
that  learning  was  fostered;  that  the  mind  of  man  looked  upward,  to 
higher  ideals  and  nobler  sentiments.  The  generations  which  coined 
their  lives  into  sordid  gold,  are  forgotten,  while  those  which  struggled 
to  uplift  humanity,  are  remembered  and  honored. 

New  England  has  exercised  a  powerful  influence  over  the  entire 
Republic;  has  shaped  its  institutions  and  largely  determined  its  des- 
tiny; and  has  done  this,  not  through  any  material  advantages,  for 
she  had  none,  but  she  has  done  it  through  her  ideas.  Her  schools, 
her  colleges,  her  universities  have  shed  their  lights  across  this  conti- 
nent; and  while  we  know  little  of  her  shops  or  her  cities,  we  read 
her  books  with  delight. 

We,  of  Chicago,  must  learn  from  the  past  that  gold  cast  upon 
the  waters  will  return  no  part  bread,  but  sinks  forever  out  of  sight, 
while  ideas  given  to  the  world  go  on  for  generations,  and  every 
new  principle  coaxed  out  of  Nature's  secrets  will  assist  mankind  in 
the  onward  struggle.  We  have  reached  the  highest  notch  of  material 
development  and  prosperity,  and  we  must  set  our  eyes  toward  the 
spiritual.  We  must  look  toward  the  ideal;  must  labor  for  the  dis- 
covery and  the  establishment  of  truth. 

This  age  has  wrested  from  the  earth,  from  the  air  and  from  the 
clouds  many  of  their  secrets,  and  has  harnessed  some  of  their  vital 
forces  to  the  chariots  of  men  and  taught  them  to  carry  man's  bur- 
dens and  to  do  his  work,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  has  extended 
the  horizon  and  given  us  a  wider  view  of  the  universe. 

We  are  here  to-day  to  lay  the  corner-stone  of  a  temple  that  is  to 
be  devoted  to  science,  devoted  to  analysis,  investigation,  to  discovery; 
a  temple  in  which  the  youth  of  the  land  may  be  instructed  in  all  those 
branches  of  knowledge  which  lie  at  the  basis  of  modern  civilization. 
And  if  the  lofty  conceptions  of  its  founders  shall  be  realized,  it  will 
shed  a  light  through  the  centuries,  and  will  add  to  the  luster  of  our 
achievements. 

On  behalf  of  the  people  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  on  whose  ground 
we  stand,  I  place  this  stone  in  position,  with  the  hope  that  the  in- 
fluence of  this  institution  which  we  here  found  may  be  as  enduring 
as  the  earth  on  which  it  stands. 


404  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

HOW    WOULD    I    SPEND    A    MILLION    DOLLARS   AS   A 
PHILANTHROPIST? 

(From  the  "New  York  Recorder.") 

A  correspondent  of  the  above  paper  submitted  the  following  ques- 
tion: "How  would  you  give  away  $1,000,000,  if  you  were  a  rich 
philanthropist  and  had  it  to  spare?" 

Answer:  "Candidly,  I  don't  know.  I  have  thought  about  the  best 
methods  of  spending  money  for  the  poor  'a  great  deal,  and  have  not 
been  able  to  arrive  at  any  conclusion.  To  spend  it  at  once  would,  of 
course,  give  temporary  relief,  and  make  a  few  people  happy  for  the 
moment,  but  then  it  is  gone.  On  the  other  hand,  to  arrange  it  so 
that  it  will  be  in  the  nature  of  a  permanent  fund,  the  increment 
of  which  shall  be  used  for  the  relief  of  human  suffering,  means  that 
there  must  be  a  board  of  managers,  or  a  superintendent  or  matron, 
or  some  official  of  that  kind,  and  it  will  not  be  long  until  it  will  be 
managed  so  that  the  official  having  it  in  charge  will  get  not  only 
the  cream  but  the  larger  share  of  the  sour  milk,  and  the  objects  of 
charity  for  whom  it  was  intended  will  be  treated  simply  as  a  kind 
of  convenience,  whose  existence  is  necessary  in  order  to  make  the 
office  of  matron  or  superintendent  or  manager  needful. 


EXTERIOR  OF  WORLD'S  FAIR. 
(From  the  Inter  Ocean,  Nov.  12,  1893.) 

What  particular  feature  of  the  World's  Fair  made  the  strongest 
impression  on  me?  Why,  the  overwhelming  grandeur  of  its  ex- 
terior. When  I  gazed  at  the  lagoons,  the  vistas,  the  courts,  the 
temples  of  industry,  the  palaces  of  art,  of  science  and  of  learning, 
covering  the  earth  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  all  rearing  their  heads 
toward  heaven;  when  I  beheld  the  wonders  of  architecture  smiling 
in  the  sun,  and  the  flags  of  all  nations  floating  on  the  breeze  and 
speaking  the  language  of  peace,  I  had  neither  speech  nor  thought. 
It  was  an  intoxication,  an  enchantment,  a  delight.  The  soul  wanted 
nothing  more.  I  feel  its  magic  spell  now,  and  marvel  at  the  possi- 
bilities of  human  achievement. 


ANARCHY    IN    ILLINOIS.  405 

INTERVIEW   ON   ANARCHY   IN   ILLINOIS. 

(Chicago  "Tribune,"  August  31,  1893.) 

Governor  Altgeld,  in  the  course  of  an  interview  on  reports  of 
recent  activity  among  anarchists  in  Chicago,  said: 

"All  talk  of  that  kind  is  a  malicious  libel  upon  the  great  city  of 
Chicago  and  the  fair  name  of  our  State,  and  it  is  that  kind  of  irre- 
sponsible talk  in  the  past  that  has  done  incalculable  injury  to  our 
good  name,  and  it  should  be  stopped,  not  only  by  individuals,  but  by 
the  newspapers  that  have  been  indulging  in  it." 

"Why  do  you  say  it  is  a  libel?" 

"Because  it  is  and  always  has  been  absolutely  without  foundation, 
and  has  been  indulged  in,  in  part,  for  sensational  purposes,  and  in 
part  because  certain  individuals  found  that  they  could  not  only  make 
political  capital  out  of  it,  but  could  derive  personal  benefit  and  ad- 
vantage by  it." 

"Why  do  you  say  that?" 

"Because  the  man  who  was  chief  of  police  at  the  time  the  so-called 
anarchist  agitation  was  at  its  height  some  years  ago,  the  man  who 
was  one  of  the  most  honest  and  able  chiefs  of  police  Chicago  ever 
had,  has  not  only  stated  that  he  investigated  the  whole  matter  care- 
fully, and  watched  the  so-called  anarchists,  and  that  he  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  was  not  much  in  the  whole  anarchist  talk,  but 
he  has  further  stated  that  there  were  prominent  police  officials  who 
wanted  to  have  bogus  anarchist  conspiracies  formed  in  order  to  get 
the  credit  of  dispersing  them,  and  who  wanted  to  keep  the  conserva- 
tive public  in  a  state  of  alarm,  in  order  that  they  themselves  might 
derive  personal  advantages  out  of  it  in  the  way  of  achieving  glory 
and  promotion.  Since  that,  the  same  tactics  have  been  resorted  to 
repeatedly  by  self-called  detectives;  and  I  have  been  informed  at 
different  times  during  the  last  seven  or  eight  years,  that  some  wealthy 
business  men  of  Chicago  were  kept  in  such  a  state  of  uneasiness  by 
this  anarchistic  talk,  that  they  were  induced,  from  time  to  time,  to 
pay  money  to  these  fellows  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  watching 
the  maneuvers  of  a  class  of  people  who  in  reality  had  no  existence. 

"They  have  not  yet  found  out  who  threw  the  bomb  at  the  riot 
in  1886,  consequently  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  was  an  anar- 
chist. Vast  sums  of  money  have  been  spent  and  great  efforts  have 
been  made  to  find  out  all  about  it,  and  if  the  police  have  any  infor- 
mation on  the  subject,  then  the  fact  that  they  refuse  to  say  who  it 
v/as,  would  show  almost  conclusively  that  he  was  not  an  anarchist. 


406  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ANARCHY  AND  THE  ELECTION. 

"Now,  there  is  an  election  to  be  held  in  Chicago  this  fall,  and 
some  of  the  newspapers  there  have  again  shown  a  readiness  to  slander 
that  great  city  by  publishing  paragraphs  about  anarchists,  in  order, 
as  they  imagine,  to  make  some  political  capital  out  of  it." 

"Do  you  think,  Governor,  that  there  are  no  anarchists  in  Chi- 
cago?" 

"I  have  examined  the  whole  subject  carefully.  I  have  been  in 
communication  with  all  classes  of  people,  including  newspaper  men 
and  others,  who  had  previously  talked  much  on  this  subject,  and  I 
am  convinced  that  there  are  not  and  there  never  have  been  fifty 
anarchists  in  the  whole  State  of  Illinois.  I  don't  believe  there  are  fifty 
in  all  America.  Of  course,  small  agitators  will  assert  to  the  con- 
trary, but  that  signifies  nothing.  We  have  our  criminal  classes,  as 
all  other  States  and  cities  have.  We  have  our  percentage  of  thieves, 
of  robbers,  murderers,  and  of  swindlers,  but  no  more  than  our  per- 
centage. We  have  discontented  people,  as  every  State  and  country 
in  the  world  has.  We  have  all  manner  of  theorists,  but  they  are  law- 
abiding.  We  occasionally  have  serious  labor  troubles,  as  every  in- 
dustrial community  has.  Let'  me  say  now  that  Illinois  is  one  of  the 
greatest,  if  not  the  greatest,  industrial  State  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
and,  considering  the  extent  of  its  industries,  we  have  not  the  per- 
centage of  labor  troubles  that  they  have  in  other  States.  During 
times  of  strikes  there  are  occasional  collisions  with  the  authorities, 
just  as  there  are  in  other  States,  and  in  times  of  serious  labor  trouble, 
there  is  more  or  less  irresponsible  and  wild  talk,  all  of  which  subsides 
and  is  forgotten  the  moment  the  labor  trouble  is  over.  At  present 
the  outlook  for  laborers  is  bad,  and  we  have  a  great  many  thousands 
of  idle  men. 

PATRIOTS    AMONG    BREAD    RIOTERS. 

"Nobody  likes  to  starve  while  there  is  bread  in  sight,  and  we  may 
have  an  occasional  bread  riot,  but  it  will  be  by  people  nearly  every 
man  of  whom  would  fight  for  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  There  are  to  be 
found  in  all  cities  a  few  irresponsible  agitators  who  talk  loud  and 
make  a  noise,  and  if  the  newspapers  will  give  them  space  the  public 
may  be  led  to  believe  that  there  are  many  men  talking.  The  fact  is, 
it  is  time  our  people  were  developing  a  little  more  State  pride.  The 
growth  of  the  State  has  been  so  marvelously  rapid,  and  its  develop- 
ment so  wonderful,  that  our  people  do  not  yet  fully  understand  that 
>n  everything  that  goes  to  make  up  a  civilized  and  a  mighty  people, 


SECRET  PROSCRIPTIVE  SOCIETIES.  407 

Illinois  is  the  greatest  State  upon  earth.  Yet  such  has  been  the 
course  of  some  of  our  great  newspapers  in  the  past,  that  an  unfavor- 
able impression  has  been  made  upon  the  world,  and  as  a  consequence, 
some  of  the  States,  that  have  scarcely  anything  left  but  an  over- 
weening conceit  and  a  threadbare  reminiscence,  actually  assume  an  air 
of  superiority  towards  us.  We  can  afford  to  smile  at  those  pre- 
tensions, but  while  the  people  of  the  world  are  coming  to  ,us  in  great 
numbers,  and  are  amazed  at  our  achievements  and  our  greatness,  I 
hope  the  press  will  not  stoop  to  slander  the  good  name  of  our  great 
State  and  of  marvelous  Chicago." 


SECRET    PROSCRIPTIVE    SOCIETIES. 

Milwaukee,  January  n,  1893. 

The  Catholic  Citizen  of  to-day  publishes  the  following  letter  from 
Governor  Altgeld: 

Editor  of  the  "Catholic  Citizen," 

Milwaukee,  Wis.: 

Dear  Sir — In  answer  to  your  favor  of  the  5th  inst.,  asking  me  to 
give  you  my  opinion  upon  the  A.  P._  A.  movement,  permit  me  to 
say  that  I  have  not  the  time  at  present  to  enter  upon  a  discussion 
cf  the  subject,  and  can  only  give  brief  and  off-hand  answers  to  your 
specific  questions: 

1.  "What  is  your  opinion  of  secret  prescriptive  societies?" 
Answer:    Secret  prescriptive  societies,  meeting  in  dark  places  and 

taking  dark  oaths  to  do  dark  things,  have  never  benefited  the  world. 
They  are  the  legitimate  children  of  despotism  and  have  no  place  in  a 
Republic.  The  glory  of  our  country  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that 
we  have  let  sunshine  in  on  every  question  and  every  place,  and  any 
proscriptive  movement  is  at  variance  with  our  career  and  is  antago- 
nistic to  free  government. 

2.  "What  do  you  think  of  the  A.  P.  A.  movement?" 

Answer:  The  American  people  differ  from  all  other  people  in 
the  world  in  that  they  are  composed  or  made  up  of  all  nationalities, 
representing  all  religions  and  all  theories,  and  thus  constituting  an 
entirely  new  people,  distinct  from  all  of  its  elements,  and  possessing 
an  energy  and  enterprise  such  as  the  world  has  not  seen  before.  Our 
marvelous  achievements  and  great  advancement  are  dtie  to  the  fact 
that  all  of  the  nationalities  and  religionists  have  lived  together  har- 
moniously, have  worked  side  by  side  in  peace  and  have  lent  each 


408  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

other  a  helping  hand.  The  effect  of  any  prescriptive  movement  must 
be  to  entirely  change  this  condition  of  affairs,  to  beget  family  feuds, 
to  set  neighbor  against  neighbor  and  townsman  against  townsman, 
to  revive  the  spirit  of  fanaticism,  and  in  the  end  lead  to  violence,  riot 
and  bloodshed.  This  being  so,  I  regard  the  A.  P.  A.  movement  as 
being  unpatriotic  and  dangerous  in  character,  but  I  do  not  believe 
it  can  have  a  long  life  or  meet  with  much  success,  because  the  in- 
telligence of  the  American  people  is  too  great  to  permit  this  mediaeval 
spirit  to  take  root  in  this  country. 

3.  "Do  you  think  the  A.  P.  A.  sentiment  is  generally  diffused 
among  Protestants?" 

Answer:    No,  I  do  not;   they  are  too  intelligent  for  that. 

4.  "What  is  the  right  remedy  against  such  movements?" 
Answer:    The  most  wide  and  thorough  discussion  possible;   hold 

the  whole  subject  up  to  the  sun  and  it  will  right  itself. 

5.  "In  what  respect,  if  any,  are  Catholics  blamable?" 
Answer:    I  do  not  know,  unless  it  should  be  true  that  they  have, 

in  cases,  been  offensively  aggressive,  especially  in  the  matter  of  secur- 
ing and  holding  public  offices,  and  also,  perhaps,  in  not  repudiating 
the  sentiments  of  some  of  the  priests  who  openly  assail  our  public 
school  system.  The  American  people  believe  in  the  public  schools, 
and  are  quick  to  resent  any  attack  upon  them. 

Hoping  you  will  excuse  me  from  a  further  discussion  of  the  sub- 
ject at  present,  I  am 

Very  respectfully, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 

Governor  of  Illinois. 


WHY   ILLINOIS   GIVES  THANKS. 

You  ask:  "Will  Illinois  give  thanks  this  year,  and,  if  so,  why?" 
"Yes;  Illinois  will  give  thanks.  She  has  enjoyed  so  many  bless- 
ings this  year,  material  and  spiritual,  intellectual  and  moral;  she  has 
taken  such  a  forward  stride  in  sight  of  all  the  world,  and  has  been 
so  loaded  with  honors  and  crowned  with  success,  and  she  is  feeling 
so  grateful  to  all  the  'earth,  that  if  there  were  no  God,  she  would  create 
one,  in  order  to  have  a  being  to  whom  she  could  pour  out  her  soul  in 
gratitude.  She  has  been  free  from  famine  or  pestilence;  free  from 
the  scourges  that  destroy  humanity;  and,  while  she  has  felt  the  de- 
pression of  the  times,  she  has  had  bread  for  her  children  and  habita- 
tions for  her  people.  She  has,  during  the  year,  created  new  temples 
pf  learning  and  has  been  introduced  to  all  the  nations.  She  has 


'JURY  TRIAL     IN  POLICE  COURTS.  469 

entertained  the  children  of  all  lands  and  has  seen  the  best  products 
of  the  industry,  the  genius  and  the  intelligence  of  all  peoples  exhibited 
here  within  her  borders.  She  has  witnessed  a  great  step  forward  of 
all  the  forces  that  tend  to  elevate  and  enlighten  mankind.  Here,  for 
the  first  time  in  history,  has  woman  stood  on  an  absolutely  independ- 
ent basis,  in  carrying  out  a  great  work ;  and,  here  in  Illinois,  for  the 
first  time  since  man  gazed  at  the  sun,  or  appealed  to  a  God,  have  the 
representatives  of  all  religions  met  and  offered  each  other  friendly 
hands  and  given  each  other  respectful  hearing,  and  from  her  precincts 
has  gone  forth  this  year  a  new  gospel  of  toleration  and  co-operation, 
a  new  gospel  of  peace  among  men  and  happiness  upon  earth.  Yea, 
with  uncovered  head  and  with  her  face  toward  the  morning,  Illinois 
will  give  thanks  to  the  Ruler  of  the  Universe,  for  having  placed  her 
star  in  the  brightest  constellation  and  given  her  a  year  big  with  fate 
and  great  in  results;  a  year  breathing  progress,  glowing  with  inspira- 
tion and  covered  with  glory;  a  year  forever  memorable  in  the  annals 
of  time." 


JURY  TRIAL  IN   POLICE   COURTS. 

Executive  Office,  June  19,  1893. 
Adolph  Kraus,  Corporation  Counsel, 

City  Hall,  Chicago: 

My  Dear  Kraus:  I  have  your  favor  of  the  I7th  inst.  and  will 
simply  say  in  regard  to  the  Jury  Bill  that  I  have  no  doubt  on  earth 
some  of  the  police  court  officials  will  do  their  best  to  thwart  it  if  they 
can,  and  to  make  just  as  much  trouble  on  account  of  it  as  possible. 
This  was  to  be  expected.  Men  who  have  been  making  fortunes 
out  of  police  courts  and  by  hanging  around  police  courts  naturally 
are  opposed  to  anything  that  will  interfere  with  their  slimy  business, 
but  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  principle  involved  in  this  case. 

First,  this  bill  assures  every  man,  woman  and  child,  of  a  trial  by 
jury  before  they  shall  be  sentenced  to  prison  on  a  judgment.  We 
have  had  this  in  theory  ever  since  the  foundation  of  the  government, 
but  so  far  it  has  in  practice  never  reached  the  poorer  classes.  In  the 
Circuit  and  Superior  courts  every  one  was  given  a  jury  trial  before 
sentence,  but  in  the  police  courts  and  justice  courts  wagon-loads  of 
people  against  whom  there  was  no  evidence  were  sent  to  prison  on 
the  say-so  of  the  justice,  and  then  simply  because  a  policeman  stand- 
ing by  demanded  it.  A  judge  of  one  of  the  higher  courts  could  not 
sentence  anyone  to  prison  for  an  hour  without  a  jury  trial,  but  a  police 


416  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

justice  will  send  a  hundred  persons  to  prison  for  six  months  in  two 
hours. 

Now,  Kraus,  you  are  a  democrat  and  have  an  extraordinarily  large 
amount  of  good  sense  and  remarkably  good  judgment,  besides  being 
one  of  the  best  lawyers  ip  your  town.  I  don't  want  you  to  tell  me, 
as  several  little  fellows  have  told  me,  that  the  proceedings  in  justice 
courts  are  civil,  and  are  not  criminal  at  all.  I  say  I  don't  want  you  to 
talk  to  me  along  that  line,  because  such  a  miserable  subterfuge  as  that 
always  tries  my  patience,  for  to  rush  a  man  through  the  farce  of  a 
.  trial  and  then  lock  him  up  in  a  small  penitentiary  for  six  months 
and  then  tell  him  that  the  proceeding  is  civil  entirely,  and  has  nothing 
of  the  criminal  nature  about  it,  is  an  insult  to  intelligence. 

The  proceedings  in  our  justice  courts,  as  you  know,  have  been 
simply  infamous  for  years  and  a  disgrace  to  our  city  and  our  State,  as 
well  as  a  crime  against  humanity.  Different  efforts  have  been  made 
to  put  an  end  to  this  infamy,  but  on  account  of  some  antiquated  con- 
stitutional provisions  it  has  been  found  impossible  to  do  it,  so  that  we 
see  the  spectacle  almost  every  night  of  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  peo- 
ple being  run  into  a  police  station,  the  police  justice  getting  $i  out  of 
each  one  of  these  wretches,  who  can  give  a  bond,  for  approving  the 
bond;  the  fellows  who  want  to  give  bail  for  a  consideration  getting 
everything  the  poor  wretches  have  for  signing  the  bond,  and  at  times, 
as  is  commonly  believed,  the  officer  in  command  of  the  station  and 
who  orders  the  raid,  getting  his  share  of  this  slimy  harvest.  On  the 
next  morning  the  police  justice,  who  holds  his  appointment  from  the 
Mayor,  and  who  feels  that  the  influence  of  the  police,  backed  by  their 
aldermen,  can  secure  his  removal,  frequently  finds  it  necessary  to 
protect  the  policemen  who  have  run  in  men  and  women,  boys  and 
girls,  without  any  cause  on  earth,  and  for  this  purpose  imposes  a 
small  fine  and  costs,  and  whenever  this  is  not  paid  of  course  the  vic- 
tims find  themselves  in  the  Bridewell  immediately  after  dinner,  and  let 
me  say  that  the  Bridewell  is  a  worse  place  to  be  locked  up  in  than  any 
prison  in  the  State,  not  excepting  Joliet  and  Chester,  and  this  is  not 
because  of  the  management,  which  I  belfbve  is  now  pretty  good,  but 
because  the  conditions  make  it  so. 

The  down-town  police  justices  come  to  their  courts  at  9  o'clock; 
generally  get  through  before  1 1  o'clock,  and  then  go  up  to  their  offices, 
where  they  do  civil  business  the  rest  of  the  day.  Consequently,  in 
less  than  two  hours  they  dispose  of  upwards  of  fifty  cases.  This  mere 
statement  shows  that  the  proceeding  is  a  farce.  Now  you  say:  "But, 
if  you  give  every  person  who  demands  it  a  jury,  then  the  present  police 
justices  can  not  possibly  do  the  business."  Well,  Kraus,  there  are 


WRY   TRIAL  IN  POLICE   COURTS. 

men  now  holding  police  courts  in  Chicago  who,  if  they  were  at  once 
turned  out  upon  the  public  to  earn  their  living,  would  find  it  impos- 
sible to  make  $2,500  a  year,  net.  Can  you  see  any  reason  in  the  world 
why  these  men  should  be  enabled  to  make  from  $12,000  to  $15,000, 
and  even  $20,000  a  year,  by  running  a  police  court?  The  truth  is, 
there  are  hundreds  of  men  in  Chicago  just  as  able  as  the  men  who 
are  now  holding  the  police  courts,  who  would  be  glad  to  give  it  all 
of  their  time  and  do  the  business  for  $2,000  a  year,  but  they  are  not 
at  present  justices  and,  therefore,  of  course  you  can  not  use  them. 
However,  there  are  at  present  so  many  justices  inside  of  the  city 
limits  who  will  be  exceedingly  glad  to  assist  in  doing  this  business 
and  for  less  than  half  what  the  city  now  pays  them,  that  you  can  not 
only  double  the  number  of  police  justices,  but  you  can  triple  and  quad- 
ruple them  if  you  want  to,  and  thus  reduce  the  number  to  be  tried 
by  each  justice  to  about  one-fourth  what  it  now  is. 

Further,  after  the  hangers-on  around  the  police  courts  have  done 
all  they  can  towards  defeating  this  Jury  Bill,  I  am  convinced  it  will 
work  about  this  way:  The  police  will  stop  running-in  people  against 
whom  there  is  absolutely  no  evidence.  They  will  stop  making  raids 
and  running  in  one  hundred  or  more  people  at  a  time  simply  to  enable 
the  magistrate  to  make  $100,  in  one  night,  and  other  hangers-on 
around  the  station  to  make  $1,000  between  them.  On  the  other  hand, 
everybody  against  whom  there  is  any  evidence  will  prefer  being  tried 
by  the  justice  rather  than  by  a  jury,  because  in  cases  where  parties  are 
guilty  a  jury  is  liable  to  sentence  them  more  severely  than  a  justice 
probably  would.  Consequently,  I  believe  that  after  those  who  are  op- 
posed to  this  bill  have  exhausted  their  efforts  in  an  endeavor  to  defeat 
it,  it  will  greatly  reduce  the  number  who  are  run  in  and  will  help  to 
reform  our  police  court  practices.  Now  you  see,  my  dear  Kraus,  that 
I  am  for  this  bill,  and  if  it  does  not  do  the  work  some  other  way  will 
have  to  be  found  to  put  a  stop  to  the  infamous  practices  that  now  dis- 
grace our  police  courts.  Right  here  let  me  suggest  that  you  can 
assist  in  this  line,  and  that  is  by  making  a  new  arrangement  with  the 
police  justices  whereby  they  are  simply  to  get  a  salary  for  doing  the 
work  and  are  not  to  get  anything  for  taking  bonds  at  night.  As  long 
as  you  permit  a  man  to  make  from  $40  to  $100  in  one  night  in  taking 
bonds,  just  that  long  it  is  to  his  interest  to  have  these  raids  made 
and  the  present  order  of  things  continued,  and  it  ought  to  be  stopped. 

With  my  very  best  wishes,  I  am, 

Truly  yours, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


41*  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 


SECOND  ADDRESS  TO  TRUSTEES. 
(June  8,  1894.) 

Gentlemen:  I  have  convened  you  a  second  time  because  I  believe 
that  an  exchange  of  ideas  and  comparison  of  experiences  will  be 
helpful  to  all  of  you  and  be  a  benefit  to  the  great  institutions  with 
which  you  are  connected.  Besides  I  have  some  additional  sugges- 
tions to  make  on  matters  that  have  heretofore  been  brought  to  your 
attention.  While  I  will  have  some  things  to  say  in  the  way  of  criti- 
cism, I  wish  first  to  compliment  you  on  the  splendid  work  you  have 
thus  far  done — work  done  in  the  institutions  themselves,  and  not  in 
the  newspapers.  But  there  still  remains  much  to  be  done. 

Let  me  again  say  to  you  that  Illinois  should  have  the  very  best 
institutions  in  the  world.  Our  people  are  liberal,  they  are  intelligent 
and  progressive,  and  are  ready  to  support  any  progressive  and  en- 
lightened policy,  and  if  we  do  not  place  our  institutions  upon  the 
very  highest  scientific  plane  and  give  them  the  highest  order  of  busi- 
ness management,  then  we  are  not  doing  our  duty. 

When  you  were  assembled  last  fall  I  explained  to  you  that  we 
wanted  the  institutions  of  this  State  to  buy  their  supplies  like  the 
great  corporations  buy  theirs — that  is,  of  the  lowest  bidder.  Make 
out  a  list  of  what  is  needed,  have  a  dozen  or  more  copies  of  this  made 
and  mail  them  to  the  different  houses  dealing  in  the  line  of  goods 
required.  This  system  has  now  been  generally  introduced  and  may 
be  said  to  be  thoroughly  established,  but  there  have  been  a  few  cases 
of  attempted  evasion.  In  one  or  two  cases  there  was  a  slight  dispo- 
sition shown  to  follow  the  old  methods,  and  in  a  few  other  cases  the 
requisitions  were  made  out  in  such  a  way  that  only  one  establishment 
could  bid  on  them.  These  things  were  brought  to  my  attention  at  once. 
They  were  mostly  in  small  matters  and  were  not  of  a  sufficiently  se- 
rious character  to  warrant  me  in  making  a  change  of  management, 
but  they  pained  me  because  it  indicated  a  certain  degree  of  weakness 
on  the  part  of  some  officials. 

Let  me  now  say  finally  on  this  subject  that  there  is  a  principle 
involved,  even  if  it  were  shown  that  supplies  can  be  purchased  as 
cheaply  under  the  old  method  as  they  can  with  the  competitive 
method  (which,  however,  is  not  the  case),  still  we  will  have  to  adhere 
to  the  new  method  because  it  is  right  and  we  cannot  permit  of  any 
exception.  The  moment  we  admit  of  one  exception,  we  weaken  the 
position  all  along  the  line.  The  new  method  is  not  only  right,  but 
has  been  found  to  produce  astonishingly  favorable  results,  and  I  now 


SECOND   ADDRESS   TO   TRUSTEES.  413 

say  to  you  that  we  do  not  want  to  have  a  single  purchasing  agent 
in  the  entire  State  of  Illinois,  and  any  Superintendent  or  Trustee 
who  is  not  willing  to  carry  out  this  principle,  both  in  letter  and  in 
spirit,  should  sever  his  connection  with  the  public  service  at  once. 
This  is  a  subject  upon  which  we  can  tolerate  neither  evasion  nor 
trifling.  So  long  as  a  vestige  remains  of  the  old  method  of  buying 
through  a  purchasing  agent,  no  matter  how  honest  he  may  be,  just 
so  long  will  the  root  of  an  evil  be  kept  alive  which  will  speedily  bring 
a  harvest  of  corruption.  You  must  place  the  management  of  these 
great  asylums  on  a  plane  that  is  far  above  friendship  or  favoritism. 
If  you  do  this,  you  will  reap  a  harvest  of  honor  and  of  glory  that  will 
be  a  comfort  to  you  as  long  as  you  live  and  that  will  make  your 
children  proud  of  the  fact  that  their  father  served  his  country  by 
bringing  this  or  that  institution  on  to  a  high  plane  of  excellence. 
While,  on  the  other  hand,  if  you  do  not  do  this,  then  it  will  Be  very 
much  better  for  you  not  to  hold  office  or  any  public  trust,  because  it 
can  give  you  neither  profit  nor  glory,  and  you  will  finally  leave  it 
feeling  that  you  have  wasted  a  great  deal  of  time  and  have  not  done 
your  country  or  yourselves  any  good. 

EXPENSE   OF  MANAGEMENT. 

In  a  few  cases  the  expense  of  management  has  not  been  reduced 
to  that  point  to  which  we  think  it  should  be  and  to  which  it  has  been 
in  other  cases,  and  it  is  claimed  as  an  excuse  for  this  that  the  patients 
are  better  fed  in  the  one  than  in  the  other,  but  inquiry  has  led  me  to 
conclude  that  that  is  a  mistake.  I  notice  that  the  managers  of  each 
institution  claim  they  feed  their  patients  better  than  those  of  any 
other  institution  are  fed,  but  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  very  much 
difference.  Some  have  claimed  that  they  use  much  better  meat  than 
others  use,  but  inquiry  has  not  confirmed  this.  In  regard  to  the 
standard  of  dieting  I  will  say  that  the  law  does  not  contemplate  that 
the  inmates  of  an  asylum  shall  be  kept  in  luxury,  nor  will  it  permit 
them  to  be  stinted  in  good  wholesome  food  on  the  other  hand.  I 
take  it  that  a  diet  equal  to  that  of  the  average  self-supporting  citizen 
of  Illinois  will  fully  meet  the  requirements  of  the  law.  From  what 
information  I  can  get  I  believe  that  upon  the  whole  the  diet  in  our 
asylums  is  fully  up  to  this  standard,  and  I  also  believe  that  in  those 
cases  in  which  the  expense  of  management  has  not  been  brought 
down  to  the  desired  point,  there  has  been  a  little  too  much  liberality 
either  in  the  business  management  or  else  in  the  employment  of  help. 

Upon  the  last  subject  I  laid  down  some  specific  rules  for  the 
guidance  of  all  the  superintendents  and  trustees  when  they  were 


414  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

first  appointed.     First,  we  do  not  want  any  person  on  the  pay-roll 
whose  services  are  not  absolutely  needed. 

Second,  do  not  employ  any  man  who  is  not  just  the  right  man  for 
the  place,  and  it  makes  no  difference  who  recommends  him  or  what 
his  influence  is. 

Third,  do  not  keep  any  man  an  hour  after  it  is  discovered  that  he 
is  not  exactly  the  right  man  for  the  place,  no  matter  how  many  in- 
fluential men  seek  to  have  him  retained. 

Fourth,  do  not  pay  any  higher  wages  in  an  institution  than  similar 
services  would  command  outside.  These  rules  have  been  reiterated 
on  every  convenient  occasion,  and,  I  think,  have  been  in  a  general 
way  observed,  yet  I  believe  there  are  a  number  of  cases  in  which 
there  has  been  too  much  liberality  shown  on  this  point  and  in  which 
a  revision  of  the  pay-roll  is  necessary.  Wherever  three  men  are  doing 
two  men's  work,  there  you  will  find  not  only  increased  expense,  but 
you  will  find  poor  service.  Each  man  gets  lazy  and  indifferent,  and 
neither  is  at  his  best.  I  am  aware  that  there  is  a  strong  pressure 
all  over  the  State  to  have  men  put  on  the  pay-roll,  but  I  want  to 
say  to  you  that  if  you  yield  to  this  pressure  it  will  be  an  evidence  of 
weakness,  for  it  will  indicate  an  inability  to  say  no,  and  a  man  who 
'cannot  do  that  in  case  of  a  public  trust  is  not  made  of  that  strong 
fiber  that  we  must  .have  in  these  offices.  No  man  should  have  more 
influence  with  you  in  regard  to  putting  men  on  the  pay-roll  than  the 
Governor,  and  the  Governor  has  not  a  man  in  the  entire  State  whom 
he  wishes  to  have  kept  in  place  simply  because  he  is  his  friend.  I 
want  the  officials  of  this  State  to  be  untrammeled  in  order  that  they 
may  give  to  the  public  their  very  best  efforts. 

Let  me  here  again  say  to  you,  if  you  attempt  to  run  yotlr  institu- 
tion on  the  basis  of  favoritism,  or  if  you  allow  the  employment  of 
men  who  are  not  needed,  or  if  you  allow  yourself  to  be  influenced  im- 
properly by  political  pressure,  then  you  cannot  make  a  success  of 
your  administration  and  the  sooner  you  quit  the  better,  for  you  will 
be  losing  not  only  your  own  time,  but  you  will  be  losing  your  own 
self-respect.  The  very  people  who  over-persuade  you  and  get  you  to 
do  things  that  your  best  judgment  does  not  approve  of  will  in  the 
end  despise  you. 

This  being  a  democratic  administration,  the  public  will  find  no 
fault  with  you  for  giving  the  preference  to  democrats  when  other 
things  are  equal,  but  the  moment  you  pass  beyond  that  you  destroy 
the  possibility  of  your  achieving  any  great  success. 

In  this  connection  let  me  say  that  during  the  campaign  in  '92  we 
criticised  the  former  managements  of  these  institutions  because,  in 


SECOND  ADDRESS   TO   TRUSTEES.  415 

their  published  reports,  they  did  not  publish  the  names  of  the  people 
to  whom  salaries  or  wages  were  paid,  nor  what  these  people  did,  nor 
how  much  they  were  paid.  In  other  words,  they  did  not  publish  the 
pay-rolls.  Now,  in  the  reports  which  you  will  be  making  out  soon, 
this  must  be  done.  I  want  you  to  give  the  name  of  every  man  or 
woman  to  whom  any  money  has  been  paid  for  services  of  any  kind 
during-  the  time  covered  by  your  report,  and  also  state  what  such 
employe  did  and  the  amount  of  money  paid  each.  The  public  has  a 
right  to  know  this  and  it  will  be  a  great  deal  better  for  you  to  have 
the  public  know  it.  In  order  to  get  any  comfort  out  of  the  offices  you 
hold  you  must  not  only  manage  affairs  so  that  you  will  be  willing  to 
have  them  held  up  to  the  sun  at  any  time,  but  you  must  hold  them 
up  to  the  sun  yourselves. 

If  any  politician  objects  to  your  following  the  rules  I  have  laid 
down,  tell  him  that  you  were  not  appointed  to  directly  serve  any 
political  party,  that  you  were  appointed  to  serve  your  country,  but 
that  you  believe  that  the  best  way  even  to  serve  a  party  is  to  manage 
affairs  so  as  to  command  the  good  opinion  of  all  patriotic  citizens. 
I  shall  expect  of  you  all  a  rigid  revision  of  the  pay-rolls,  both  as  to 
the  number  of  people  employed  and  as  to  the  salaries  paid  beginning 
with  the  new  fiscal  year.  Let  me  say,  however,  that  if  any  salaries 
are  cut,  you  should  not  begin  at  the  bottom.  I  believe  in  most  cases 
the  ordinary  attendants  are  not  paid  too  much.  This  is  especially 
true  of  the  females.  Simple  justice  requires  that  wherever  female 
attendants  do  the  same  kind  of  work  that  male  attendants  do,  and  do 
it  under  the  same  conditions,  and  are  in  other  respects  as  serviceable 
around  the  institution  as  male  attendants  are,  they  should  be  paid 
exactly  the  same  wages  as  male  attendants  are  paid.  So  that  you  may 
find  it  necessary  to  slightly  reduce  the  salaries  of  male  attendants  and 
correspondingly  raise  the  salaries  of  female  attendants. 

There  is  another  question  I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  and  that 
is  the  turning  of  money  back  into  the  State  treasury.  I  believe  you 
will  all  have  more  or  less  to  turn  back  and  we  want  to  have  every 
dollar  returned  to  the  State  treasury  that  it  is  not  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  spend  for  the  benefit  of  the  inmates.  The  mere  fact  that 
money  has  been  appropriated  for  any  particular  purpose  is  no  reason 
why  it  should  be  spent.  If  money  has  been  appropriated  for  any 
particular  improvement  and  it  should,  on  further  examination,  appear 
to  you  that  that  particular  improvement  was  not  necessary,  then  that 
money  should  not  be  spent.  It  has  grown  to  be  too  much  the  policy 
of  spending  everything  that  can  by  any  manner  or  means  be  gotten 
out  of  the  State  treasury.  This  policy  must  be  reversed.  Expend 


4i6  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

only  what  an  economical  and  enlightened  administration  finds  to  be 
necessary  and  not  a  dollar  more.  There  will  be  pressure  in  the 
communities  in  which  your  institutions  are  situated  to  have  you  spend 
money  for  every  imaginable  purpose.  If  you  allow  yourself  to  be 
influenced  in  the  slightest  degree  by  this  pressure,  then  you  will  not 
get  much  comfort  out  of  having  held  office,  for  your  better  judg- 
ment will  always  tell  you  that  you  failed  to  rise  to  the  occasion  and 
thereby  failed  to  render  your  country  the  highest  service. 

DUTY    OF   TRUSTEES. 

Many  of  the  trustees  are  doing  their  duty  thoroughly.  They  devote 
a  great  deal  of  time  to  the  public  service  and  are  almost  as  familiar 
with  it  and  look  after  it  with  almost  the  same  care  as  their  private 
business,  but  there  are  others  of  whom  this  is  not  true,  who  only  go 
over  and  audit  some  accounts  and  are  of  very  little  assistance  to  the 
institution.  Now,  gentlemen,  this  will  not  pay  you.  You  are  not 
only  frittering  away  your  opportunity,  but  you  are  wasting  your  time. 
If  you  do  not  intend  to  make  yourselves  thoroughly  masters  of  all 
of  the  details  of  your  institutions  and  to  look  after  everything,  even  the 
minutest  matter,  with  scrupulous  care,  then  you  are  making  a  mis- 
take in  holding  on  to  your  office,  for  you  will  never  get  any  satis- 
faction out  of  it.  In  looking  back  over  your  career  you  derive  a 
pleasure  from  the  things  that  you  have  done  exquisitely  well,  and 
if  you  are  ever  to  get  any  pleasure  out  of  the  fact  that  you  held  these 
offices,  it  must  come  from  the  consciousness  that  you  did  things 
better  than  they  had  ever  been  done  and  that  you  rendered  your 
country  a  service  that  surpassed  that  of  other  men.  Let  me  suggest 
to  you  that  serving  the  public  in  that  manner  is  the  highest  order  of 
patriotism,  for  it  consists  of  deeds,  of  acts ;  while  the  speech-making, 
after-dinner,  post-prandial  patriotism,  now  so  common,  is  not  only 
the  cheapest  thing  in  the  market,  but  is  of  no  benefit  to  anyone.  It 
is  pharisaical  in  character  and  never  yet  benefited  a  country. 

I  am  aware  that  you  get  no  pay  for  the  service  you  render,  that  is, 
you  get  no  per  diem,  but  there  are  things  that  cannot  be  settled  for 
across  the  counter.  There  are  sentiments  too  lofty  for  greed  to  under- 
stand. There  are  pleasures  that  are  above  anything  that  money  can 
give,  and  these  sentiments  and  these  pleasures  grow  out  of  a  disin- 
terested and  patriotic  service  of  your  country.  Perform  a  service  of 
that  character  and  your  descendants  will  glory  in  pointing  to  it. 


SECOND   ADDRESS    TO    TRUSTEES.  417 

DANGER    LINE. 

Again  I  believed  it  advisable  to  convene  you  all  at  this  time  be- 
cause I  felt  that  you  were  approaching  the  danger  line.  By  this  I 
mean  that  not  only  you,  but  your  subordinates,  were  beginning  to 
feel  comfortable  in  your  positions,  were  beginning  to  feel  at  home  in 
them,  and  with  that  feeling  of  comfort  there  nearly  always  comes  just 
a  slight  relaxation  of  the  tension  that  prevails  among  new  appointees 
and  new  attendants  for  a  considerable  time  after  they  take  hold,  and, 
when  that  tension  or  alertness  has  slightly  relaxed,  the  danger  to  the 
institution  increases;  not  that  there  will  be  any  specific  neglect  of 
duty  on  the  part  of  anyone,  but  there  will  be  just  a  little  more  easy 
going  tone  to  the  management,  and  this  is  the  condition  in  which 
accidents  happen.  This  is  the  condition  in  which  attendants  are  not 
quite  so  careful  as  they  formerly  were — in  which  cases  of  brutality 
arise,  in  which  scandals  of  one  kind  or  another  spring  up,  and  in 
which  now  and  then  a  destructive  fire  occurs.  So  long  as  there  is  a 
high  degree  of  tension  in  the  management  of  an  institution,  just  so 
long  is  a  fire  almost  an  impossibility  and  just  so  long  are  scandals 
almost  impossible.  Now,  you  have  reached  that  point,  and  unless 
you  make  an  effort  to  keep  up  the  firmness  of  tone  in  your  administra- 
tion, keep  up  the  vigilance,  unless  you  make  a  strong  effort  to  keep 
these  up  from  now  on,  you  will  be  in  a  rather  dangerous  atmosphere. 

If  we  should  hear  of  a  fire  in  any  of  your  institutions  we  might 
not  believe  that  you  or  any  of  your  immediate  subordinates  had  been 
guilty  of  specific  neglect,  but  we  would  feel  that  you  were  feeling 
a  little  bit  too  comfortable  in  your  positions  and  had  become  just  a 
little  easy  going  in  your  management,  and  that  that  easy  going  spirit 
had,  as  it  always  does,  soon  pervaded  the  whole  institution,  and  by 
reason  of  that  easy  going  spirit  some  attendant  or  employe  had  been 
guilty  of  negligence,  and  that  it  would  not  have  happened  if  there 
had  been  a  little  more  firmness  of  tone.  Do  not  imagine  that  I  am 
finding  fault,  for  on  the  contrary  I  am  highly  gratified  with  the  ex- 
cellent work  you  have  done,  and  I  want  you  to  perfect  it  in  order  that 
you  may  enjoy  the  full  fruition  of  your  labors. 

In  conclusion  let  me  say  last  fall  I  requested  the  superintendents 
to  make  an  investigation  and  ascertain  what  were  the  most  approved 
theories  in  vogue  in  this  country  and  in  Europe  in  similar  institu- 
tions to  theirs,  and  what,  if  any,  new  experiments  had  proved  suc- 
cessful, wherein  the  manner  of  treatment  differed  from  that  here,  and 
what  suggestions,  if  any,  they  had  to  make.  I  need  not  say  to  you 
27 


418  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

that  this  was  done  with  a  view  of  appropriating  anything  that  we 
might  find  elsewhere  that  was  better  than  what  we  already  had. 

I  shall  endeavor  to  have  the  special  reports  which  you  have  sent  in 
bound  in  a  separate  volume.  I  think  they  contain  many  valuable 
suggestions  and  we  shall  expect  you  to  put  every  new  idea  of  value 
into  practice  in  your  institution.  It  is  not  intended  that  any  position 
in  any  of  the  asylums  or  institutions  of  this  State  shall  be  a  position 
of  ease.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  intended  that  they  shall  be  positions 
of  labor  and  hard  labor  at  that.  You  are  serving  the  public,  gentle- 
men. You  are  rendering  a  service  to  your  country  which  can  be 
made  even  of  a  higher  order  and  more  valuable  to  mankind  than 
service  on  the  battlefield  or  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  and  we  expect 
not  only  constant  work  of  you,  but  diligent  work,  and  you  must  go 
at  it  with  the  understanding  that  the  only  reward  that  is  worth  talk- 
ing about  is  the  consciousness  of  having  done  right  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  having  served  your  country.  Most  of  you  are  familiar 
with  ancient  history.  You  remember  the  description  which  Demos- 
thenes gives  of  Phillip  of  Macedon,  the  great  enemy  of  Greece. 
He  said  that  Phillip  in  fighting  for  the  glory  of  his  country  had  had 
an  eye  knocked  out,  a  shoulder  broken  and  a  hand  and  a  leg  mangled, 
and  yet  such  was  his  ambition  that  he  was  willing  to  give  up  any  other 
member  of  his  body  if  he  could  continue  to  live  to  serve  his  country 
with  honor.  It  is  that  kind  of  spirit,  gentlemen,  that  you  must  have 
to  serve  the  State  of  Illinois — a  spirit  that  keeps  in  view  only  the  glory 
of  the  State  and  the  welfare  of  the  people. 


INTERVIEW  ON  JUDGE  COOLEY. 

Judge  Cooley,  of  Michigan,  president  of  the  American  Bar  Association,  in 
addressing  that  body  at  Saratoga,  criticised  Gov.  Altgeld  for  protesting  against 
the  action  of  President  Cleveland  in  sending  federal  troops  to  Chicago  during 
the  strikes.  Upon  being  interviewed  on  the  judge's  criticism  the  governor  re- 
plied as  follows: 

Judge  Cooley's  reputation  is  liable  to  have  an  injustice  done  it 
unless  the  people  will  discriminate  between  the  real  Cooley  and  the 
later  Cooley.  In  addressing  the  bar  association  he  was  in  the  position 
of  a  fashionable  preacher  who,  if  he  wished  to  be  popular  with  his 
audience,  must  cater  to  its  tastes.  The  American  Bar  Association  is  a 
small  body  of  men,  most  of  whom  have  corporations  for  clients. 
They  are  shrewd  and  able  men  who  know  where  fat  fees  come  from. 
A  lawyer  whose  clients  are  poor  could  not  afford  to  go  to  Saratoga 


INTERVIEW    ON    JUDGE    COOLEY.  419 

and  have  a  good  time  and  attend  a  bar  meeting.  Judge  Cooley's  ut- 
terance there  must  be  taken  with  some  others  recently  made,  and  the 
question  is,  how  much  importance  attaches  to  them  simply  because 
they  come  from  Cooley?  Nearly  thirty  years  ago,  when  Judge  Cooley 
was  in  his  prime,  when  he  was  a  teacher  in  the  Ann  Arbor  law  school, 
he  wrote  a  book  on  constitutional  law  which  was  an  able  work  and 
gave  him  a  reputation.  In  this  work  he  points  out  the  limitations 
upon  the  federal  government  and  calls  attention  to  the  constant  danger 
that  free  institutions  are  in  from  the  encroachment  of  a  central  power 
through  the  agency  of  a  standing  army.  Among  other  things  he 
says: 

A  standing  army  is  peculiarly  obnoxious  to  any  free  government 
and  is  more  dreaded  by  the  people  as  an  instrument  of  oppression  than 
a  tyrannical  monarch  of  any  foreign  power.  The  alternative  of  a 
standing  army  is  a  well  regulated  militia. 

But  after  writing  this  book,  and  while  a  member  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  State,  he  established  a  reputation  for  being  a  corporation 
judge,  and  made  himself  so  obnoxious  that  when  his  term  was  up 
the  people  of  Michigan  arose  and  put  an  end  to  his  career  in  that 
State.  For  some  years  he  was  out  of  a  job.  Then  Congress  created 
the  interstate  commerce  board,  and  Cleveland  during  his  first  term 
as  President,  appointed  the  judge  on  this  board,  at  a  salary  of  $7,000 
a  year  and  expenses,  which  was  princely  in  comparison  with  what  he 
had  been  receiving.  He  held  on  to  this  place  until  a  couple  of  years 
ago,  when  he  retired  on  account  of  his  old  age,  feeling,  as  he  should, 
very  grateful  to  Cleveland. 

Recently,  after  the  President  had  sent  troops  to  Chicago,  the 
judge's  gratitude  compelled  him  to  rush  into  print  with  a  letter  great- 
ly complimenting  the  President  on  his  act,  but  among  other  things 
in  that  letter  he  uses  this  language:  "I  am  especially  gratified  that  a 
great  and  valuable  lesson  in  constitutional  construction  has  been  set- 
tled for  all  time  to  come  with  remarkably  little  bloodshed,"  thus  ad- 
mitting that  the  Constitution  did  not  clearly  give  the  President  the 
power  to  do  what  he  had  done,  and  that  it  had  been  necessary  for  the 
President  to  give  a  lesson  in  constitutional  construction  in  order  to 
do  it;  and  the  judge  was  gratified  that  this  lesson  in  constitutional 
construction  had  been  given  with  so  little  bloodshed.  Had  the  con- 
stitution clearly  given  the  power,  neither  a  bloodshed  construction 
nor  any  other  construction  would  have  been  necessary. 

The  world  has  heard  of  constitutional  construction  by  means  of  the 
military  before.  It  has  happened  often.  The  operations  were  some- 
times brilliant,  but  were  always  fatal  to  the  patient.  When  Judge 


420  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Cooley  was  in  the  vigor  of  manhood  he  expounded  the  constitution 
like  a  freeman  addressing  a  free  people.  There  was  nothing  sub- 
servient in  his  utterances,  and  the  bright  reputation  he  then  made 
must  not  be  clouded  by  utterances  that  are  born  of  a  grateful  dotage. 


NECESSITY    OF    ORGANIZATION    AMONG    LABORERS. 
(Answer  to  Chicago  Times,  September  3,  1894.) 

Standing  together  is  their  only  salvation.  Respect  the  law  and 
stand  shoulder  to  shoulder.  So  long  as  a  portion  of  the  laboring 
classes  can  be  used  as  a  club  upon  the  backs  of  the  remainder,  just  so 
long  will  there  be  no  hope.  They  cannot  get  a  whole  loaf  so  long 
as  a  portion  of  their  number  are  willing  to  accept  half  a  loaf  and  let 
their  children  go  hungry.  Their  entire  struggle,  not  only  for  bread, 
but  for  life,  will  be  with  organization  and  great  concentrations  of 
capital,  for  individual  employers  are  fast  disappearing.  Instead  of 
dealing  as  they  once  did  with  a  master  who  knew  their  wants  and  felt 
at  least  that  interest  in  them  that  grows  out  of  a  daily  association  and 
living  together,  they  now  have  to  deal  with  the  agent  of  organized 
capital.  This  agent  feels  that  not  only  his  salary,  but  his  position 
depends  upon  his  securing  large  returns  for  the  stockholders  and  is 
therefore  much  more  severe,  more  cruel  and  more  heartless  than  the 
original  master  who  managed  his  own  affairs.  There  used  to  be  hun- 
dreds of  employers  where  there  is  now  one,  each  employing  but  a 
few  men,  and  an  individual  laborer  being  able  to  choose  among  so 
many  employers,  had,  at  least,  some  chance  to  get  fair  wages  and  fair 
treatment.  Now  in  many  cases  the  laborer  has  no  choice.  There  is 
but  one  employer  within  reach.  Combination  and  concentration  has 
wiped  the  others  all  out.  The  agent  of  this  one  employer  can  dictate 
both  wages  and  terms  to  suit  himself  unless  he  is  met  by  organization 
of  the  other  side. 

Combination  and  concentration  on  the  side  of  employers  and  of 
capital  being  already  a  fixed  fact,  the  laborers  have  got  to  pursue  the 
same  path  or  give  up  all  hope  for  the  future  of  their  children. 


THE  PULLMAN  CORRESPONDENCE. 

Early  in  the  summer  of  1894  the  employes  of  the  Pullman  Com- 
pany went  on  a  strike  on  account  of  insufficient  wages.  They  claimed 
that  they  had  long  been  at  starvation  point  and  could  not  live  on  the 
wages  the  company  proposed  to  pay.  Finally  the  organization  of  the 


THE   PULLMAN   CORRESPONDENCE.  421 

American  Railway  Trainmen  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Pullman  em- 
ployes and  refused  to  handle  Pullman  sleeping  cars.  This  brought  on 
the  great  railway  strike  of  that  year.  The  Pullman  employes  were  of 
a  superior  character.  There  were  very  few  old  men  or  men  of  in- 
ferior grade,  the  company  employing  only  the  best.  Yet  in  a  few 
weeks  after  leaving  the  shops,  the  majority  had  to  apply  for  bread  to 
a  public  relief  committee  which  had  been  organized.  But  the  relief 
that  could  be  obtained  from  public  charity  became  exhausted.  The 
Cook  county  officials  did  what  they  could  to  furnish  aid,  but  the  de- 
mand was  too  great.  Finally  numerous  appeals  were  made  to  the 
Governor,  when  the  following  correspondence  took  place: 

Kensington,  111.,  August  17,  1894. 

To  His  Excellency,  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  Illinois:  We,  the 
people  of  Pullman,  who,  by  the  greed  and  oppression  of  George  M. 
Pullman,  have  been  brought  to  a  condition  where  starvation  stares 
us  in  the  face,  do  hereby  appeal  to  you  for  aid  in  this  our  hour  of  need. 
We  have  been  refused  employment  and  have  no  means  of  leaving  this 
vicinity,  and  our  families  are  starving.  Our  places  have  been  filled 
with  workmen  from  all  over  the  United  States,  brought  here  by  the 
Pullman  Company,  and  the  surplus  were  turned  away  to  walk  the 
streets  and  starve  also.  There  are  over  1,600  families  here  in  destitu- 
tion and  want,  and  their  condition  is  pitiful.  We  have  exhausted  all 
the  means  at  our  command  to  feed  them,  and  we  now  make  this  appeal 
to  you  as  a  last  resource.  Trusting  that  God  will  influence  you  in 
our  behalf  and  that  you  will  give  this  your  prompt  attention,  we  re- 
main, Yours  in  distress, 

THE  STARVING  CITIZENS  OF  PULLMAN. 

F.  E.  POLLANS, 

L.  J.  NEWELL, 

THEO.  RODHE, 

Committee. 

Springfield,  August  19,  1894. 

To  George  M.  Pullman,  President  Pullman  Palace  Car  Co.,  Chi- 
cago: Sir: — I  have  received  numerous  reports  to  the  effect  that  there 
is  great  distress  at  Pullman.  To-day  I  received  a  formal  appeal  as 
Governor  from  a  committee  of  the  Pullman  people  for  aid.  They 
state  that  sixteen  hundred  families,  including  women  and  children, 
are  starving;  that  they  cannot  get  work  and  have  not  the  means  to  go 
elsewhere;  that  your  company  has  brought  men  from  all  over  the 
United  States  to  fill  their  places.  Now,  these  people  live  in  your  town 
and  were  your  employes.  Some  of  them  worked  for  your  company  for 


422  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

many  years.  They  must  be  people  of  industry  and  character  or  you 
would  not  have  kept  them.  Many  of  them  have  practically  given 
their  lives  to  you.  It  is  claimed  they  struck  because  after  years  of  toil 
their  loaves  were  so  reduced  that  their  children  went  hungry.  As- 
suming that  they  were  wrong  and  foolish,  they  had  yet  served  you 
long  and  well  and  you  must  feel  some  interest  in  them.  They  do  not 
stand  on  the  same  footing  with  you,  so  that  much  must  be  over- 
looked. The  State  of  Illinois  has  not  the  least  desire  to  meddle  in  the 
affairs  of  your  company,  but  it  cannot  allow  a  whole  community 
within  its  borders  to  perish  of  hunger.  The  local  overseer  of  the  poor 
has  been  appealed  to,  but  there  is  a  limit  to  what  he  can  do.  I  cannot 
help  them  very  much  at  present.  So  unless  relief  comes  from  some 
other  source  I  shall  either  have  to  call  an  extra  session  of  the  Legis- 
lature to  make  special  appropriations,  or  else  issue  an  appeal  to  the 
humane  people  of  the  State  to  give  bread  to  your  recent  employes. 
It  seems  to  me  that  you  would  prefer  to  relieve  the  situation  yourself, 
especially  as  it  has  just  cost  the  State  upwards  of  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars to  protect  your  property,  and  both  the  State  and  the  public  have 
suffered  enormous  loss  and  expense  on  account  of  disturbances  that 
grew  out  of  the  trouble  between  your  company  and  its  workmen.  I 
am  going  to  Chicago  to-night  to  make  a  personal  investigation  be- 
fore taking  any  official  action.  I  will  be  at  my  office  in  the  Unity 
block  at  10  a.  m.  to-morrow,  and  shall  be  glad  to  hear  from  you  if 
you  care  to  make  any  reply.  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD,  Governor. 

(On  the  morning  of  the  20th  Mr.  Wickes,  a  vice-president  of  the  Pullman 
Company,  called  and  offered  to  take  me  in  charge  and  show  me  around.  I  told 
him  that  I  should  be  pleased  to  have  him  go  along  with  me,  but  that  I  did  not 
think  it  best  to  go  under  anybody's  wing.  I  then  went  to  Pullman  where  two 
of  the  company's  representatives  joined  me,  and  I  spent  the  entire  day  making 
an  examination,  and  the  next  morning  sent  by  messenger  the  following  letter 
to  Mr.  Pullman:) 

Chicago,  111.,  August  21  st,  1894. 

Mr.  George  M.  Pullman,  President  Pullman  Car  Company,  Chi- 
cago, 111. :  Sir : — I  examined  the  conditions  at  Pullman  yesterday, 
visited  even  the  kitchens  and  bedrooms  of  many  of  the  people.  Two 
representatives  of  your  company  were  with  me  and  we  found  the  dis- 
tress as  great  as  it  was  represented.  The  men  are  hungry  and  the 
women  and  children  are  actually  suffering.  They  have  been  living  on 
charity  for  a  number  of  months  and  it  is  exhausted.  Men  who  had 
worked  for  your  company  for  more  than  ten  years  had  to  apply  to  the 
relief  society  in  two  weeks  after  the  work  stopped. 

I  learn  from  your  manager  that  last  spring  there  were  3,260  peo- 


THE    PULLMAN    CORRESPONDENCE.  423 

pie  on  the  pay  roll ;  yesterday  there  were  2,220  at  work,  but  over  600 
of  these  are  new  men,  so  that  only  about  1,600  of  the  old  employes 
have  been  taken  back,  thus  leaving  over  1,600  of  the  old  employes 
who  have  not  been  taken  back,  a  few  hundred  have  left,  the  remainder 
have  nearly  all  applied  for  work,  but  were  told  that  they  were  not 
needed.  These  are  utterly  destitute.  The  relief  committee  on  last 
Saturday  gave  out  two  pounds  of  oat  meal  and  two  pounds  of  corn 
meal  to  each  family.  But  even  the  relief  committee  has  exhausted  its 
resources. 

Something  must  be  done  and  at  once.  The  case  differs  from  in- 
stances of  destitution  found  elsewhere,  for  generally  there  is  some- 
body in  the  neighborhood  able  to  give  relief;  this  is  not  the  case  at 
Pullman.  Even  those  who  have  gone  to  work  are  so  exhausted  that 
they  cannot  help  their  neighbors  if  they  would.  I  repeat  now  that 
it  seems  to  me  your  company  cannot  afford  to  have  me  appeal  to  the 
charity  and  humanity  of  the  State  to  save  the  lives  of  your  old  em- 
ployes. Four-fifths  of  those  people  are  women  and  children.  No 
matter  what  caused  this  distress,  it  must  be  met. 

If  you  will  allow  me,  I  will  make  this  suggestion:  If  you  had 
shut  down  your  works  last  fall  when  you  say  business  was  poor,  you 
would  not  have  expected  to  get  any  rent  for  your  tenements.  Now, 
while  a  dollar  is  a  large  sum  to  each  of  these  people,  all  the  rent  now 
due  you  is  a  comparatively  small  matter  to  you.  If  you  would  cancel 
all  rent  to  October  ist,  you  would  be  as  well  off  as  if  you  had  shut 
down.  This  would  enable  those  who  are  at  work  to  meet  their  most 
pressing  wants.  Then  if  you  cannot  give  work  to  all  why  work  some 
half-time  so  that  all  can  at  least  get  something  to  eat  for  their  families. 
This  will  give  immediate  relief  to  the  whole  situation.  And  then  by 
degrees  assist  as  many  to  go  elsewhere  as  desire  to  do  so,  and  all  to 
whom  you  cannot  give  work.  In  this  way  something  like  a  normal 
condition  could  be  re-established  at  Pullman  before  winter  and  you 
would  not  be  out  any  more  than  you  .would  have  been  had  you  shut 
down  a  year  ago. 

I  will  be  at  the  Unity  block  for  several  hours  and  will  be  glad  to 
see  you  if  you  care  to  make  any  reply.  Yours,  respectfully, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  people  of  Pullman  were  all  tenants  of 
the  Pullman  Company,  and  were  charged  very  high  rates  for  rent, 
water,  etc.,  and  when  their  wages  were  reduced  these  charges  were  not 
reduced. 

Mr.  Pullman  made  a  short  answer  to  the  above  letter,  but  did  not 


424  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

offer  to  do  anything  toward  relieving  the  situation,  and  he  declined 
to  abate  any  of  the  rent  due  from  the  tenants.  Thereupon  the  follow- 
ing final  reply  was  sent  to  him: 

Chicago,  August  2ist,  1894. 

George  M.  Pullman,  Esq.,  President  Pullman  Palace  Car  Company, 
City. 

Sir: — I  have  your  answer  to  my  communication  of  this  morning. 
I  see  by  it  that  your  company  refuses  to  do  anything  toward  relieving 
the  situation  at  Pullman.  It  is  true  that  Mr.  Wickes  offered  to  take 
me  to  Pullman  and  show  me  around.  I  told  him  that  I  had  no  ob- 
jections to  his  going,  but  that  I  doubted  the  wisdom  of  my  going 
under  anybody's  wing.  I  was,  however,  met  at  the  depot  by  two  of 
your  representatives,  both  able  men,  who  accompanied  me  every- 
where. I  took  pains  to  have  them  present  in  each  case.  I  also  called 
at  your  office  and  got  what  information  they  could  give  there,  so  that 
your  company  was  represented  and  heard,  and  no  man  there  ques- 
tioned either  the  condition  or  the  extent  of  the  suffering.  If  you  will 
make  the  round  I  made,  go  into  the  houses  of  these  people,  meet  them 
face  to  face  and  talk  with  them,  you  will  be  convinced  that  none  of 
them  had  $1,300,  or  any  other  sum  of  money  only  a  few  weeks  ago. 

I  cannot  enter  into  a  discussion  with  you  as  to  the  merits  of  the 
controversy  between  you  and  your  former  workmen. 

It  is  not  my  business  to  fix  the  moral  responsibility  in  this  case. 
There  are  nearly  six  thousand  people  suffering  for  the  want  of  food 
— they  were  your  employes — four-fifths  of  them  are  women  and  chil- 
dren— some  of  these  people  have  worked  for  you  for  more  than  twelve 
years.  I  assumed  that  even  if  they  were  wrong  and  had  been  foolish, 
you  would  not  be  willing  to  see  them  perish.  I  also  assumed  that 
as  the  State  had  just  been  to  a  large  expense  to  protect  your  property 
you  would  not  want  to  have  the  public  shoulder  the  burden  of  reliev- 
ing distress  in  your  town. 

As  you  refuse  to  do  anything  to  relieve  the  suffering  in  this  case, 
I  am  compelled  to  appeal  to  the  humanity  of  the  people  of  Illinois 
to  do  so.  Respectfully  yours,  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

Immediately  after  the  above  correspondence  an  appeal  was  made 
by  the  Governor  to  the  humane  people  of  the  State,  describing  the 
conditions  at  Pullman  and  asking  for  aid.  Relief  of  all  kinds  soon 
came  and  some  of  the  old  employes  were  enabled  to  move  to  other 
points. 


THE    PULLMAN   ASSESSMENT.  425 

THE  PULLMAN  ASSESSMENT. 

ADDRESS  TO  THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  EQUALIZATION. 
(Relating  to  the  assessment  of  the  Pullman  Company.     Sept.  25th,  1894.) 

In  Illinois  the  stock  of  corporations  is  not  assessed  by  the  local 
assessor,  but  by  the  State  Board  of  Equalization,  composed  of  one 
member  from  each  Congressional  district,,  thus  making  a  board  of 
twenty-two  members.  As  some  corporations  manage  to  almost  en- 
tirely escape  taxation,  this  board  is  often  charged  with  being  con- 
trolled by  improper  influences,  and  cases  are  cited  of  some  members  of 
this  board  growing  wealthy  while  they  had  no  visible  means  of  sup- 
port. As  the  State  was  obliged  to  keep  a  military  force  for  some  time 
to  preserve  order  in  the  town  of  Pullman,  and  was  put  to  a  great 
expense  in  protecting  the  property  of  the  Pullman  Company,  there 
was  much  complaint  over  the  fact  that  the  Pullman  Company  man- 
aged to  escape  taxation  on  most  of  its  property.  Thereupon  I  laid 
the  following  facts  before  the  board: 

Gentlemen:  I  have  received  a  great  many  complaints  from  dif- 
ferent sections  of  the  State  concerning  the  assessment  of  the  capital 
stock  of  the  Pullman  Palace  Car  Company,  and  my  attention  has  been 
called  to  some  facts  which  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  lay  before  you.  In  doing 
this  I  wish  expressly  to  disclaim  any  desire  to  interfere  in  any  way 
with  the  duties  of  your  board.  The  law  imposes  upon  you  the  duty 
of  assessing  corporations,  and  I  call  your  attention  to  the  following 
facts,  in  the  belief  that  they  may  assist  you  in  arriving  at  a  just  assess- 
ment, and  putting  an  end  to  an  injustice.  The  records  in  the  office 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  show  that  the  Pullman  Palace  Car  Com- 
pany has  a  capital  stock  of  $36,000,000.  Recently  Mr.  George  M.  Pull- 
man, the  president  of  the  company,  testified  under  oath  before  a  com- 
mission in  Chicago,  among  other  things  as  follows:  Question:  What 
is  the  present  capital  stock  of  the  Pullman  Company?  Answer:  Thir- 
ty-six million  dollars.  Q.  Is  that  capital  stock  paid  in  cash?  Ans. 
That  capital  stock  is  paid  in  cash.  From  time  to  time  during  the  27 
years  of  its  existence  the  capital  stock  was  enlarged  in  order  to  meet 
the  general  enlargement  of  the  plant.  Q.  Are  the  dividends  which 
you  pay  based  on  the  whole  capital  of  $36,000,000?  Ans.  Yes,  sir; 
on  the  whole  capital  of  $36,000,000.  Q.  What  are  your  dividends? 
Ans.  Our  dividends  are  2  per  cent,  quarterly.  Q.  For  how  long? 
Ans.  The  company  has  paid  dividends  ever  since  its  organization.' 
The  dividends  for  the  first  two  years  were  at  the  rate  of  3  per  cent. 


426  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

quarterly  and  for  a  time  after  that  the  dividends  were  paid  for  two 
years  at  9  1-2  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  then  from  that  day  they  have 
been  8  per  cent,  per  annum  without  any  changes.  Q.  Has  the  com- 
pany any  bonded  debt?  Ans.  It  has  no  bonded  debt.  Q.  And  in 
addition  to  these  dividends  you  have  accumulated  from  $16,000,000  to 
$18,000,000  of  undivided  profits?  Ans.  The  undivided  profits  amount 
to  something  like  $25,000,000.  Q.  In  addition  to  these  annual  divi- 
dends you  have  mentioned  there  has  also  been  accumulated  about 
$25,000,000  of  undivided  profits?  Ans.  Yes,  sir. 

This  is  from  Mr.  Pullman  himself.  Adding  this  $25,000,000  of 
surplus  to  the  $36,000,000  of  stock  makes  $61,000,000  which  the  stock 
of  the  Pullman  Car  Company  represents.  Again  the  market  reports 
for  a  considerable  time  in  the  past  show  that  the  stock  of  this  company 
has  been  selling  for  cash  in  the  market  at  a  figure  which  would  make 
the  market  value  of  all  of  the  stock  amount  to  over  $61,000,000.  On 
April  13,  of  this  year,  it  sold  for  174.  Further  I  attach  hereto  a  copy 
of  a  report  made  by  this  company  for  the  year  ending  July  31,  1893, 
to  its  stockholders  and  Poor's  manual  of  railroads,  and  found  on  page 
1,118  of  that  authority.  In  this  report  it  is  stated  that  the  net  earnings 
of  that  year  were  $6,526,448.  Out  of  this  they  paid  8  per  cent,  divi- 
dend, amounting  to  $2,520,000  and  carried  $4,006,448  to  the  surplus 
which  then  amounted  to  $25,700,000.  That  is  they  carried  nearly  twice 
as  much  to  the  surplus  as  they  paid  to  the  dividend,  although  the 
dividend  was  8  per  cent.  This  was  for  the  year  ending  July  31,  1893. 
The  heavy  world's  fair  travel  came  afterward.  If  the  surplus  for  that 
year  was  $4,006,448  the  surplus  for  next  year  must  be  very  large. 
The  report  shows  that  the  surplus  has  been  upwards  of  $3,000,000  for 
many  years,  consequently  the  surplus  must  now  be  nearly  $30,000,- 
ooo.  The  total  assets  of  the  company  at  that  time  was  $61,791,643; 
they  must  now  be  considerably  larger.  All  this  is  the  company's  own 
showing. 

So  that  whether  you  take  this  statement  of  Mr.  Pullman  or  the 
price  at  which  the  stock  was  selling  in  the  market  or  the  statement  of 
the  company  made  a  year  ago,  there  is  upwards  of  $61,700,000  of 
property  represented.  Under  the  law,  personal  property  follows  the 
residence  of  the  owner  and  pays  taxes  where  he  resides.  This  com- 
pany has  not  much  real  estate  outside  of  Illinois.  The  sleeping  cars 
are  personal  property,  and  as  the  company  is  an  Illinois  corporation 
and  has  its  main  offices  in  this  State,  it  should  pay  taxes  here  on  all 
of  its  personal  property  except  in  cases  where  it  is  actually  shown 
that  it  has  been  legally  taxed  elsewhere.  The  average  assessment  of 
other  property  that  is  assessed  at  all  in  this  State  is  found  to  be  from  20 


THE    PULLMAN   'ASSESSMENT.  427 

per  cent,  to  25  per  cent,  of  its  cash  market  value.  Therefore,  if  the  stock 
of  this  company  were  assessed  in  the  same  proportion  of  its  market 
value  as  other  property  it  would  make  an  assessment  of  $12,360,000 
to  $15,000,000.  Instead  of  this  it  is  assessed  at  only  $1,695,500  in 
this  State,  the  company  having  represented  to  your  board,  as  I  am 
informed,  that  its  property  was  assessed  in  other  States.  But  it  failed 
to  show  where  it  was  taxed  or  how  much.  The  auditor  of  this  State 
has  written  to  the  proper  officers  of  every  State  in  the  Union  and  of 
the  Dominion  of  Canada  inquiring  how  much  the  Pullman  Palace 
Car  Company  was  assessed,  and  what  taxes  it  actually  paid  in  each  of 
those  States.  I  attach  hereto  a  tabulated  statement  showing  the  sub- 
stance of  the  letters  and  telegrams  received  in  answer  to  these  in- 
quiries. The  letters  and  telegrams  themselves  are  in  the  possession 
of  the  auditor  and  can  be  examined  by  you. 

The  tabulated  statement  referred  to  above  showed  that  in  most 
of  the  States  the  Pullman  Company  paid  no  taxes  at  all,  in  some  of 
the  others  it  simply  paid  a  small  license  fee;  that  all  of  the  assess- 
ments on  its  property  made  in  the  United  States,  including  that  in 
Illinois,  would  not  amount  to  even  a  fair  assessment  on  twenty 
millions  of  dollars;  that  consequently  the  company  had  over  forty, 
millions  of  dollars  that  was  liable  to  taxation  in  Illinois,  but  was  not 
assessed  anywhere  and  did  not  pay  taxes  anywhere;  that  as  the  real 
estate  and  other  property  of  the  State  was  assessed  at  from  one-fifth 
to  one-fourth  of  its  value,  it  was  apparent  that  from  eight  to  ten  mil- 
lion dollars  should  be  added  to  the  existing  assessment  of  the  Pull- 
man Company;  that  as  the  rate  of  taxation  in  Chicago,  where  the 
company  was  located,  was  about  eight  per  cent,  on  the  assessment,  it 
was  apparent  that  the  Pullman  Company  had  for  many  years  been 
annually  defrauding  the  public  out  of  from  six  hundred  and  forty  to 
eight  hundred  thousand  dollars  per  year,  and  that  consequently  it  had 
now  in  its  possession  several  millions  of  dollars  that  in  justice  belonged 
to  the  public. 

I  appealed  to  the  board  to  right  this  wrong  and  compel  this  com- 
pany to  bear  its  share  of  the  public  burdens.  But  my  appeal  was  in 
vain.  The  board  left  the  assessment  practically  as  it  was.  I  was  sub- 
sequently told  that  the  only  effect  of  my  address  was  to  cause  some 
of  the  members  of  the  board  to  raise  their  price  and  force  the  Pull- 
man Company  to  come  and  see  them. 


428  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

SPEECH    AT    MATTOON,    OCTOBER    30,    1894,    ON    THE 
POLITICAL  ISSUES  THEN  PENDING. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:    We  have  been  passing 
through  a  period  of  stagnant  trade  and  paralyzed  industry.    Our  mills 
have  been  standing  still  and  the  great  arteries  of  commerce  have  been 
lifeless.     Bankruptcy  and  financial  distress  have  spread  their  blight 
over  the  continent  and  millions  of  our  people  who  are  sober  and  in- 
dustrious have  been  not  only  without  work,  but  without  bread,  and 
millions  more  of  our  people  who  are  sober  and  industrious  are  to-day 
in  want  of  the  common  necessaries  of  life.    As  we  have  had  neither 
famine  nor  pestilence;  as  nature  has  yielded  her  fruits  during  these 
years  in  as  great  abundance  and  variety  as  ever  before;  as  our  people 
have  lost  none  of  their  integrity  or  enterprise,  it  is  evident  that  the 
distress  of  the  country  is  not  due  to  natural  causes,  but  has  been  large- 
ly brought  about  by  the  follies  and  mistakes  of  men.     For  centuries 
the  governments  of  the  earth  have  been  interfering  directly  with  both 
the  laws  of  industry  and  the  laws  of  trade,  and  very  much  of  the  misery 
of  mankind  is  due  to  this  cause.    In  the  United  States  we  have  had 
legislation  affecting  every  branch  of  industry  and  all  the  channels  of 
commerce,  and  the  distressing  condition  of  the  country  which  I  have 
just  described  has  grown  out  of  this  legislation  and  these  government- 
al policies.    None  of  the  leaders  of  either  of  the  great  political  parties 
attribute  the  condition  to  natural  causes.     All  admit  that  they  are  due 
to  artificial  causes,  and  the  leaders  of  each  party  are  endeavoring  to 
shift  the  responsibilities  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  other  party.    One 
would  suppose  that  the  ties  of  parentage  were  so  strong  that  no  men 
would  be  willing  to  deny  their  offspring  and  that  no  political  party 
would  repudiate  its  own  creation,  but  there  have  been  people  who 
laid  their  unhappy  children  on  a  neighbor's   doorstep,  and  to-day 
one  of  the  great  political  parties  of  the  country  is  engaged  in  this  dis- 
honorable act.    It  does  not  even  seek  the  shades  of  darkness,  but  with 
a  brazen  effrontery,  born  of  long  dissipation,  it  seeks  in  broad  day- 
light to  escape  the  responsibility  of  parentage.    For  more  than  thirty 
years  prior  to  the  session  of  the  last  Congress  one  political  party- 
shaped  all  the  legislation  that  went  upon  our  statute  books.     Every 
&ct  relating  to  the  tariff;  relating  to  our  industries;  relating  to  our 
shipping;  relating  to  our  public  lands;  relating  to  our  policy  with 
foreign  nations;  every  act  that  vitally  affected  the  prosperity  of  this 
country,  was  framed  by  a  Republican  Congress  and  had  affixed  to  it 
the  signature  of  a  Republican  President.    The  act  which  struck  down 


SPEECH  AT  MATTOON.  429 

one  of  the  monetary  metals  of  the  world;  that  act  which,  without  re- 
ducing the  great  debts  of  this  country,  National,  State,  municipal 
and  private,  the  vast  indebtedness  of  the  railroads  upon  which  in- 
terest had  to  be  paid ;  that  act  which,  without  in  any  way  reducing  the 
fixed  charges  of  the  world,  did  reduce  the  circulating  medium  of 
the  world;  that  act  which  reduced  the  market  or  selling  values  of  the 
products  of  the  earth  by  more  than  33  per  cent,  on  the  average  and 
thus  compelled  the  debtor  classes  to  practically  pay  50  per  cent,  more 
in  the  discharge  of  their  indebtedness  than  they  otherwise  would  have, 
which  compelled    the  great    producing  classes     of    this    country    to 
contribute  practically  50  per  cent,  more  of  their  labor  and  their  efforts 
to  meet  the  fixed  charges  of  the  country  than  they  otherwise  would 
have;  that  piece  of  legislation  was  framed  by  a  Republican  Congress 
and  signed  by  a  Republican  President.    Legislation  bears  fruit;  gov- 
ernmental policies  bear  fruit.    Whatever  is  sown  in  the  realm  of  gov- 
ernment will  produce  a  harvest  as  surely  as  that  which  is  sown  upon 
the  earth  produces  a  harvest.    This  country  had  almost  the  greatest 
merchant  marine  upon  earth;  its  shipping  was  next  to  that  of  Eng- 
land.    The  mast-heads  of  American  vessels  were  to  be  found  upon 
all  waters  of  the  globe.     This  country  has  the  greatest  natural  re- 
sources, the  most  extensive,  most  fertile  and  most  productive  fields 
and  the  most  desirable  climate  of  any  country  in  the  world.     This 
country  had  a  people  whose  inventive  genius,  whose  industry  and 
whose  enterprise  surpassed  that  of  all  other  nations.    Having  this  in- 
exhaustible wealth  and  this  wonderful  people,  all  this  country  needed 
was  to  be  let  alone.    Yea,  it  had  such  a  wonderful  vitality,  such  a  won- 
derful recuperative  power  that  it  could  for  a  period  prosper  in  spite 
of  unwise  and  injudicious  legislation.     Now  what  has  been  the  his 
tory  of  the  last  twenty  years?    Two  of  the  most  severe  and  destruc- 
tive panics  that  this  country  ever  saw.     Examine  the  reports  of  the 
Comptroller  of  the  Currency  and  you  will  find  that  almost  every  year 
his  report  says  that  it  had  been  a  year  of  great  financial  stringency 
and  disturbance  of  prices.     The  great  commerce  we  had  with  the 
other  nations  of  the  earth  has  been  practically  wiped  out     We  have 
pursued  a  policy  that  has  driven  the  other  people  away  from  us   and 
instead  of  owning  a  large  proportion  of  the  ships  that  float  upon  the 
seas,  we  to-day  send  abroad  what  little  we  do  ship  to  other  countries 
i  an  English  bottom.     The  governmental  policy  of  the  last  thirty 
years  has  practically  wiped  out  not  only  the  foreign  commerce  of  this 
country   but  it  has  absolutely  destroyed  the  shipping  of  this  country 
Some  ill-informed  people  pretend  that  the  course  of  the  Republican 
party  has  been  inimical  to  England.    Why,  ladies  and  gentlemen  the 


430  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

Republican  party  has  done  England  a  service  for  which  England  can 
never  express  her  gratitude.  England  got  what  we  lost;  got  our 
foreign  commerce  and  got  our  shipping,  and  if  the  'English  people 
have  a  particle  of  gratitude  in  their  breasts  they  will  erect  a  monument 
to  the  memory  of  that  American  party  which  made  England  great 
and  glorious  at  the  expense  of  American  prosperity.  Look  back  over 
the  last  twenty  years;  examine  the  reports  sent  out  from  the  large 
centers  as  to  the  number  of  unemployed  and  you  will  notice  that  that 
number  grows  year  by  year.  Why?  Because  the  industry  of  the 
country  was  being  affected  by  paralysis,  working  shorter  hours,  gradu- 
ally reducing  the  forces  and  frequently  shutting  down.  In  1888  the 
Republicans  elected  a  President  and  they  controlled  both  houses  of 
Congress.  Was  the  country  then  prosperous  and  did  they  feel  that 
they  could  let  well  enough  alone?  Not  at  all.  The  conditions  of  the 
country  were  then  such  that  that  Republican  Congress  and  that  Re- 
publican President  felt  that  something  must  be  done.  The  army  of 
unemployed  was  becoming  so  alarmingly  large  and  the  business  inter- 
ests of  the  country  so  gradually  depressed  that  they  realized  that  unless 
they  did  something  to  give  relief  to  these  conditions,  their  career  in  of- 
fice must  be  short.  They  were  shrewd  men  and  had  the  country  then 
been  in  a  prosperous  condition  they  would  not  have  resorted  to  any 
radical  measures.  The  fact  that  they  then  enacted  the  McKinley  law, 
one  of  the  most  radical  measures  ever  enacted  by  an  American  Con- 
gress, settles  all  questions  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  the  country  at 
that  time.  It  is  a  piece  of  evidence  that  can  neither  be  wiped  out 
nor  talked  around.  Although  we  had  a  tariff  that  was  high- 
er than  in  war  times,  a  tariff  that  was  almost  prohibitory 
already,  they  passed  the  McKinley  bill  and  in  many  cases 
they  more  than  doubled  this  tariff.  The  theory  and  the  doc- 
trine of  protection  ran  mad.  They  were  going  to  give  the 
country  prosperity  by  an  act  of  Congress.  Everything  which  the 
average  citizen  has  to  purchase  was  taxed.  They  were  going  to 
guard  against  what  they  called  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe.  But, 
mark  ye,  the  McKinley  bill  contained  no  provision  against  bringing 
the  pauper  labor  of  Europe  over  here  and  putting  it  in  competition 
with  American  labor.  What  was  the  result  of  that  legislation?  Be- 
fore that  Congress  had  had  time  to  adjourn,  almost  before  the  ink  of 
the  President's  signature  to  that  act  had  had  time  to  get  dry,  more 
than  three  hundred  of  the  great  manufacturing  establishments  of  this 
country  reduced  the  wages  of  their  men.  The  law  went  into  effect  and 
in  less  than  two  years  after  it  was  expected  to  cover  the  country  with 
its  blessings  there  occurred  at  Homestead,  in  Pennsylvania,  one  of  the 


SPEECH  AT  MATTOON.  43* 

most  bloody  and  extensive  labor  disturbances  that  we  ever  witnessed 
in  this  country.  Labor  was  in  distress  all  over  the  land.  Why?  Be- 
cause wages  were  steadily  going  down;  because  the  number  of  em- 
ployed were  steadily  being  reduced;  because  business  was  feeling  a 
strain  and  getting  less  and  less  profitable.  That  was  the  condition 
of  affairs  in  1892.  The  country  saw  then  that  the  road  which  we 
were  traveling  led  to  destruction.  The  most  conservative  men  called 
a  halt.  With  a  voice  that  was  almost  unanimous  the  American  people 
said  this  policy  must  be  changed.  Why  did  they  do  this?  Because 
khey  had  seen  the  working  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  it  and  saw 
that  it  meant  ruin.  They  had  heard  much  theorizing,  but  they  had 
in  the  meantime  looked  around  themselves.  They  had  looked  over 
the  Atlantic  into  the  pauper  fields  of  Europe,  and  what  did  they  find? 
They  found  that  in  every  pauperized  country  of  Europe  they  had  a 
high  protective  tariff  and  had  had  it  for  centuries,  and  they  found  that 
the  degradation  and  misery  of  the  great  masses  of  the  people  was 
everywhere  in  proportion  to  the  height  of  that  protective  tariff.  They 
found  that  the  effect  of  such  a  policy  had  been  in  those  countries  to 
concentrate  vast  wealth  into  the  hands  of  a  few  and  to  impoverish 
the  great  masses  of  the  people.  They  found,  in  other  words,  that 
where  this  tariff  had  had  time  to  produce  its  best  fruits  it  had  done 
just  what  it  was  doing  in  America,  enrich  a  few  and  impoverish  the 
masses.  They  noticed  another  thing:  that  England  had  had  a  high 
protective  tariff  down  to  about  forty  years  ago;  that  since  then  she  had 
been  a  free  trade  country.  Wages  in  Germany  had  advanced  a  little 
and  wages  in  most  countries  where  they  had  a  high  protective  tariff 
had  scarcely  changed,  but  in  free  trade  England  they  were  doubled. 
They  were  in  advance  of  the  wages  in  all  of  the  rest  of  Europe.  Yea, 
they  observed  another  thing  and  that  was  that  since  England  had 
thrown  down  the  barrier  which  separated  her  from  the  rest  of  the 
world,  since  she  had  thrown  open  her  doors  and  invited  all  mankind 
to  trade  with  her,  her  commerce  had  increased  five-fold  and  her  in- 
dustries almost  in  the  same  ratio,  and  that  was  not  all.  The  intel- 
lectual and  the  moral  life  of  the  people  seemed  to  have  had  a  new  birth, 
so  that  some  enthusiastic  Englishmen  claim  that  the  greatness 
and  the  grandeur  of  their  country  practically  dates  from  the  time  that 
she  put  herself  into  closer  communication  with  the  rest  of  the  world, 
from  the  time  that  she  struck  down  the  policies  of  favoritism  and 
struck  the  shackles  off  commerce.  So  that  it  was  both  experience 
and  observation  that  led  the  people  of  America  in  1892  to  say  this 
policy  must  be  stopped;  we  must  face  about.  But,  while  the  people 
elected  a  new  President  and  members  of  Congress,  the  laws  which 


432  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

were  in  force  and  the  policies  which  were  at  work  still  operated,  and  the 
drift  of  the  country  which  had  been  observed  for  a  number  of  years 
and  which  the  McKinley  Congress  had  vainly  attempted  to  stop,  went 
right  on.  More  and  more  people  were  out  of  employment.  More 
wheels  were  standing  still.  More  business  establishments  were  going 
into  the  hands  of  receivers,  until  early  in  1893,  before  the  new  admin- 
istration had  had  time  to  get  into  the  saddle,  before  it  had  had  time  to 
put  its  hand  on  the  lever,  before  it  had  had  time  to  repeal  a  single  law 
or  change  a  single  policy,  the  crash  came.  The  string  had  been 
stretching  and  stretching  for  years,  and  it  finally  reached  the  point 
where  it  snapped  before  relief  could  be  given.  Yea,  the  great  fabric 
built  by  thirty  years  of  Republican  legislation,  of  Republican  policy, 
came  down,  roof,  rafters,  walls  and  all,  and  the  country  was  absolute- 
ly prostrate ;  and  besides  this  the  McKinley  law  was  causing  an  annual 
deficit  of  over  $70,000,000  in  the  treasury,  for  by  reducing  our  com- 
merce it  necessarily  reduced  our  revenues.  The  richest  country  in  the 
world,  with  the  most  enterprising  and  ingenious  people  in  the  world, 
had  been  brought  to  a  helpless  condition  and  a  bankrupt  treasury  by 
unwise  governmental  policy.  This  result  was  brought  about  not  alone 
by  the  system  of  protection  which  protected  the  rich  and  not  the  poor, 
which  said  to  the  poor  man  that  he  must  buy  his  necessaries  of  an 
American  manufacturer  at  the  latter's  price,  but  which  left  the  manu- 
facturer free  to  employ  foreign  labor,  also  at  the  manufacturer's  price, 
but,  in  my  opinion,  the  great  distress  of  this  country  was  also  due  to 
the  Republican  policy  of  demonetizing  one  of  the  monetary  metals 
of  the  world.  I  have  nothing  to  say  for  silver  or  for  any  other  kind  of 
money.  I  am  only  speaking  of  the  effect  upon  the  industries  and  the 
commerce  of  the  world,  of  reducing  the  volume  of  money  in  the  world. 
Some  of  the  ablest  financiers  and  statesmen  of  England,  who  favored 
a  gold  standard  for  England  because  she  was  a  creditor  nation  and 
thus  interested  in  reducing  the  selling  value  of  the  products  of  the 
earth,  yet  pointed  out  more  than  fifteen  years  ago  that,  inasmuch  as 
the  leading  nations  of  the  world  had,  not  at  the  request  of  commerce, 
not  at  the  behest  of  business,  but  solely  under  the  influence  of  the 
creditor  class,  practically  wiped  out  between  30  and  40  per  cent,  of 
the  money  of  the  world,  the  effect  must  be  to  reduce  the 
selling  values  of  property  that  much,  must  be  to  reduce  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  producing  and  the  debtor  classes  of  the  world  that  much, 
and,  inasmuch  as  the  great  debts  and  fixed  charges  remain  the  same, 
it  must  follow  that  the  producing  nations  of  the  world  would  be  ob- 
liged to  spend  nearly  all  they  could  make  on  fixed  charges  of  taxes 
and  interest  and  would  not  be  able  to  purchase  freely  either  luxuries 


SPEECH  AT  MATTOON.  433 

or  necessaries  of  life,  and  the  result  must  be  less  consumption,  and 
with  less  consumption  must  come  less  men  employed  in  the  factories, 
in  business  and  in  commerce.  I  do  not  believe  that  we  can  again 
have  great  prosperity  in  this  country  until  some  steps  are  taken  to 
remedy  the  injustice  and  wrong  that  was  done  the  entire  debtor  and 
producing  classes  when  the  selling  values  of  their  products  were  prac- 
tically forced  down  by  law,  while  the  burdens  to  be  borne  remained  the 
same.  That  dollar  which  is  the  result  of  this  legislation  is  the  most  dis- 
honest dollar  that  was  ever  given  to  man,  a  dollar  that  increased  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  security-holding  classes  nearly  50  per 
cent,  and  correspondingly  increased  the  burdens  of  the  world.  Money 
performs  the  same  functions  in  the  world  that  blood  does  in  the  hu- 
man body.  Each  gives  life  to  the  body  by  its  circulation,  and  death 
ensues  when  that  circulation  stops.  Remove  a  large  portion  of 
blood  from  the  body  and  the  remainder  goes  to  the  heart,  while  the 
extremities  grow  cold.  So,  when  a  large  portion  of  the  circulating 
medium  of  the  world  is  wiped  out  the  remainder  rushes  to  the  centers, 
while  the  extremities  become  cold  and  industrial  enterprises  are  par- 
alyzed. 

Well,  the  campaign  of  1892  was  won.  The  Democracy  had  prom- 
ised the  country  a  change  of  policy  on  the  tariff  and  that  promise  has 
been  fulfilled.  The  McKinley  law  has  been  repealed.  Many  of  the 
necessaries  of  life  have  been  placed  on  the  free  list  and  a  general  reduc- 
tion of  over  20  per  cent,  has  been  made.  This  question 
is  now  settled  for  a  considerable  time.  No  possible  good  can  come 
from  further  agitation.  We  still  have  a  high  protective  tariff,  a  tariff 
that  is  much  higher  than  it  was  in  war  times,  but  under  existing  con- 
ditions it  can  not  be  much  further  reduced  at  present  and  the  coun- 
try needs  rest  on  this  subject.  Those  men  are  blind  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  their  country  who  insist  upon  keeping  up  this  agitation, 
and  they  do  not  represent  the  Democratic  party.  Many  of  our  ablest 
men  urged  that  Congress  be  convened  in  the  spring  of  '93  to  at  once 
settle  the  tariff  question,  so  that  the  uncertainty  incident  to  agitation 
might  cease  and  the  interests  of  the  country  might  adjust  themselves 
to  the  new  conditions.  The  country  had  just  spoken  on  this  ques- 
tion and  there  was  no  doubt  about  the  verdict.  Had  this  been  done 
there  would  to-day  be  no  tariff  discussion.  However,  it  was  not 
done,  but  Congress  did  finally  convene  under  the  provisions  of  the 
Constitution.  It  performed  the  pledges  of  the  party,  and  it  did  so 
without  the  aid  of  the  President. 

On  the  question  of  our  finances  no  relief  can  come  to  this  country 
until  it  is  given  by  the  Democratic  party.  The  Republican  party  has 


434  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

become  the  especial  champion  of  the  great  bond-holding  class  and  of 
every  policy  that  builds  up  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many,  so  that 
no  relief  can  possibly  come  from  that  source.  The  Democratic  party 
will  meet  the  demands  of  the  country,  even  though  it  has  to  do  it  with- 
out the  aid  of  the  President,  and  let  me  here  remind  you  that  almost 
every  piece  of  legislation  in  this  country,  favoring  the  working  man  or 
'the  common  people,  was  a  Democratic  measure.  When  the  Repub- 
licans talked  about  the  hard  lot  of  the  laborer,  they  played  the  act  of 
the  weeping  crocodile. 


Now,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  another  ques- 
tion, to  my  mind  of  still  greater  importance,  has  lately  been  forced 
upon  the  attention  of  this  country.  The  questions  I  have  been  dis- 
cussing relate  to  the  material  prosperity  of  our  country.  This  ques- 
tion involves  the  liberty  of  the  American  people;  involves  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  or  not  the  institutions  of  the  fathers  shall  be  pre- 
served and  whether  our  laboring  and  producing  classes  shall  go  on  de- 
veloping as  independent  freemen,  educating  their  children  and  strug- 
gling to  place  themselves  upon  the  highest  plane  of  citizenship: 
whether  the  republic  shall  go  on  developing  a  race  of  men,  every  one 
of  whom  can  stand  up  in  the  sun  and  say  with  a  swelling  heart:  "I 
am  an  American  citizen,  an  American  freeman,"  or  whether  we  shall 
gradually  have  in  this  country  great  aggregations  and  concentrations 
of  capital  ruled  by  haughty  and  supercilious  men,  who  use  the  federal 
courts  as  a  kind  of  convenience,  on  the  one  side  and  an  impoverished 
and  degraded  mass  of  common  people  on  the  other;  a  poor  class  of  la- 
borers unable  to  educate  their  children,  helpless  and  powerless  in  the 
hands  of  mighty  corporations  and  whose  liberties  find  no  protection 
at  the  hands  of  the  law  and  who  can  be  thrown  into  prison  almost 
as  a  matter  of  sport.  We  have  been  taught  to  believe  that  the  ques- 
tion of  political  liberty  and  of  equal  rights  for  this  country  had  been 
settled  by  the  American  Revolution  and  that  we  were  hereafter  at 
liberty  to  devote  our  energies  to  securing  industrial  freedom  and  intel- 
lectual advancement,  but  it  seems  that  this  is  a  mistake,  and  I  am 
sorry  for  it. 

It  is  the  business  of  government  to  protect  life  and  property  and 
to  see  to  it  that  the  law  is  enforced.  It  is  its  business  to  see  to  it  that 


SPEECH  AT  MATTOON.  435 

when  a  crime  has  been  committed  against  person  or  property,  the 
offender  is  brought  to  justice,  and  a  government  that  does  not  do  this 
is  an  abomination.  But  experience  had  taught  the  world  that  there 
is  a  constant  tendency  for  powerful  interests  to  use  the  government  for 
their  own  selfish  purposes  and  under  pretense  of  enforcing  the  law  to 
oppress  or  wrong  some  of  the  people;  that  the  tendency  of  power  was 
to  encroach.  Consequently -our  fathers  were  particular  in  adopting 
a  form  of  government.  They  not  only  provided  that  there  should  be 
three  departments  of  government — the  legislative,  judicial  and  ex- 
ecutive— that  neither  of  these  should  encroach  on  the  domain  of  the 
others,  but  they  also  established  local  self-government.  History  and 
experience  had  taught  them  that  a  far-away,  central  power,  when  per- 
mitted to  meddle  with  the  affairs  of  the  people,  was  dangerous  to  lib- 
erty, so  they  endeavored  to  erect  safeguards  against  this.  As  you 
are  aware,  there  were  then  some  men  who  had  no  confidence  in  the 
people,  men  who  wanted  a  strong,  central  government  bordering  on 
monarchy  and  that  this  government  should  interfere  directly  in  the  af- 
fairs of  the  people.  But,  fortunately  for  mankind,  there  was  another 
class  of  men  who  were  greater  statesmen,  who  had  higher  ideals  of 
government,  who  not  only  believed  that  the  people  were  capable  of  self- 
government,  but  that  men  would  reach  a  much  higher  development  in- 
tellectually, morally  and  industrially  when  left  to  govern  themselves 
than  was  possible  under  a  government  in  which  the  iron  hand  of  a 
central  power  cowed  the  individuality  of  the  citizen.  The  latter  theory 
prevailed,  and  as  a  consequence  the  American  republic  embarked  on 
a  career  that  astonished  the  world.  For  a  century  the  country  had  a 
career  of  greatness  and  of  grandeur  that  could  only  grow  out  of  free 
institutions  where  every  faculty  of  man  is  stimulated  to  the  highest 
activity.  The  foundation  for  everything  that  makes  us  great  and  won- 
derful to-day  was  laid  during  that  time.  But,  while  the  advocates  of  a 
strong  central  power  that  should  directly  interfere  with  the  affairs  of 
the  people  were  defeated  they  were  not  destroyed.  On  the  contrary, 
they  have  of  late  made  great  headway.  During  the  last  thirty  years 
there  have  been  great  fortunes  made  in  this  country,  generally  at  the 
expense  of  the  public,  and  often  by  methods  that  were  criminal.  It 
is  a  peculiarity  of  men  who  make  fortunes  in  this  way  to  clamor  for  a 
strong  government.  Being  in  possession  of  great  power,  they  have 
been  able  to  make  an  impression  on  the  country,  especially  through 
those  agencies  which  influence  public  opinion,  and  they  have  been  able 
to  in  a  great  degree  control  the  appointment  of  federal  judges,  and 
have  thus  succeeded  in  getting  many  of  their  exponents  and  friends 
on  the  federal  bench,  until  they  have  the  country  almost  within  their 


436  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

grasp.  A  century  ago  Thomas  Jefferson,  that  far-seeing  statesman 
who  believed  the  people  were  capable  of  self-government,  said  that  the 
federal  judiciary  of  this  country  were  the  sappers  and  the  miners  that 
would  steadily  and  stealthily  undermine  the  foundations  of  the  Con- 
stitution; would  gradually  extend  their  own  jurisdiction  and  absorb  to 
themselves  functions  of  government  that  did  not  belong  to  them. 
This  has  been  steadily  going  on  until  we.  recently  woke  up  and  found 
that  instead  of  having  three  departments  of  government,  the  execu- 
tive, the  legislative  and  the  judicial,  and  those  of  the  people's  own 
choosing,  there  was  all  at  once  in  full  operation  entirely  new  ma- 
chinery, an  entirely  new  form  of  government  never  before  witnessed 
anywhere  else  upon  earth,  and  that  is  government  by  injunctions, 
whereby  a  judge,  not  content  with  deciding  disputes  that  are  brought 
before  him;  not  content  with  simply  rendering  decisions  upon  ques- 
tions in  litigation  between  man  and  man  and  coming  within  the  jur- 
isdiction of  federal  courts,  at  once  converts  himself  into  an  administra- 
tor and  undertakes  to  administer  the  affairs  of  the  country,  and,  not 
content  with  the  law  as  he  finds  it,  as  the  legislative  branch  of  the  gov- 
ernment has  given  it  to  him,  he  proceeds  to  legislate  himself.  He 
issues  a  ukase  against  an  entire  community  without  notice,  practically 
prohibiting  the  doing  of  anything  that  he  sees  proper  to  prohibit,  and 
in  case  of  the  disregard  of  this  ukase  or  this  injunction  he  takes  it 
upon  himself  to  send  men  to  prison,  although  they  may  have  violated 
no  statute  or  transgressed  no  law.  Where  the  law  forbids  a  thing  no 
injunction  is  necessary,  the  criminal  court  is  the  right  tribunal  to  pun- 
ish violation.  Injunctions  were  issued  in  the  federal  courts  this  year 
forbidding  the  doing  of  things  which  the  legislative  power  had  not  for- 
bidden, making  other  things  punishable  by  imprisonment  which  the 
legislative  power  said  should  be  punishable  only  by  fine  because  they 
were  trifling.  Again,  they  deprived  men  of  the  right  of  trial  by  jury 
when  the  legislative  power  and  the  Constitution  said  they  were  en- 
titled to  trial  by  jury.  During  the  last  summer  we  had  industrial  dis- 
turbances which  were  ridiculously  exaggerated  in  the  newspapers. 
They  were  no  greater  than  similar  disturbances  had  been  at  Buffalo 
only  about  two  years  before;  no  greater  than  riots  which  occurred  in 
Ohio,  and  were  not  as  bloody  as  numerous  riots  which  have  occurred 
in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  It  is  true  some  railroad  cars  were  de- 
stroyed by  mobs,  but  this  happened  in  the  outlying  switching  yards 
on  the  edge  of  the  prairies  at  Chicago.  The  great  city  itself,  far  from 
being  in  danger,  as  was  maliciously  reported,  had  no  knowledge  of 
any  trouble  except  what  it  got  from  the  newspapers.  The  local  au- 
thorities for  a  time  believed  themselves  able  to  control  the  situation, 


SPEECH  AT  MATTOON.  437 

and  when  they  found  they  could  not,  they  applied  to  the  State  for  aid, 
and  in  a  few  hours  after  this  application  five  regiments  of  State  troops 
went  on  duty,  and  in  forty  hours  after  the  State  troops  were  put  on  the 
ground  all  attempts  at  destruction  of  property  ceased  and  the  rioting 
was  practically  over.  The  machinery  created  by  law  to  deal  with 
occasions  of  this  kind  was  found  to  be  ample  and  effective,  and  I  want 
to  say  here  that  there  is  no  government  in  the  world  more  able  to 
enforce  the  law  and  protect  life  and  property  than  the  government  of 
Illinois.  Its  people  are  loyal  and  devoted  and  half  a  million  of  men 
would  go  forward  in  a  few  days  if  necessary  to  protect  our  institutions. 
In  this  case  all  the  men  who  had  violated  the  law  were  promptly  ar- 
rested and  punished  by  the  proper  tribunals.  Hundreds  of  others 
who  had  violated  no  law  were  arrested  merely  upon  the  complaint  of 
a  corporation  agent  and  were  dragged,  sometimes  over  100  miles 
away  from  their  homes  and  their  families,  in  charge  of  officers  and 
were  thrown  into  prison  like  felons,  and  languished  there;  for  doing 
what?  For  having  been  guilty  of  a  contempt  of  court  in  failing  to 
observe  some  requirement  which  that  judge  had  made  and  which  the 
law  had  not  made.  Yea,  when  they  were  brought  to  a  hearing  it  was 
found  that  scores  and  scores  of  them  had  to  be  discharged  because 
they  were  not  even  found  guilty  ~  of  a  contempt  of  court,  and  many  of 
them  found  that  when  set  at  liberty  they  had  not  the  means  to  take 
them  home.  All  this  growing  out  of  the  usurpation  of  the  federal 
judiciary  in  attempting  to  perform  functions  that  the  Constitution  did 
not  contemplate  that  they  should  perform.  This  country  existed  for 
more  than  a  century,  during  which  time  no  such  injunctions  were  heard 
of.  It  grew  great  and  powerful  and  excited  the  admiration  of  the 
world.  It  protected  property,  it  protected  life,  it  suppressed  rioting 
and  it  punished  crime.  It  was  during  this  time  that  these  great  cor- 
porate interests,  these  great  concentrations  of  wealth  grew  up.  The 
law  was  found  ample  every  day  during  all  this  time  for  all  purposes, 
and  even  this  year  these  injunctions  did  not  protect  property;  they 
did  not  prevent  rioting;  they  did  not  prevent  the  burning  of  a  single 
freight  car  or  the  ditching  of  a  single  train.  They  were  all  issued 
before  there  was  any  disturbance  and  furnished  no  protection  during 
the  trouble.  The  Constitutional  machinery  restored  order  and  en- 
forced the.  law,  but  when  the  troubles  were  over,  then  these  injunc- 
tions filled  the  prisons  with  men  who  had  committed  no  crimes  and 
could  not  be  punished  by  Constitutional  tribunals.  And  let  me  add, 
that  in  Illinois  the  regular  machinery  of  justice  is  all-sufficient  to  pro- 
tect life  and  property.  Again,  this  year  has  witnessed  an  encroach- 
ment of  the  federal  power  in  the  use  of  the  military  never  before  at- 


438  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

tempted.  We  had  been  taught  that  as  the  doctrines  of  secession  had 
been  stricken  to  the  ground,  we  had  a  government  based  upon  the 
two  principles  of  federal  supremacy  and  local  self-government,  each 
fundamental  and  inviolable.  We  imagined  that  in  this  respect  we  dif- 
fered from  the  despotisms  of  Europe,  but  this  year  we  have  practical- 
ly been  told  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  under  no  lim- 
itations, that,  under  pretense  of  enforcing  some  law,  he  can  send 
federal  troops  anywhere,  into  any  city  or  any  hamlet  of  the  United 
States,  or  into  a  thousand  cities  at  once  if,  in  his  judgment,  that  means 
in  his  desire,  it  is  necessary  to  do  so ;  that  the  question  as  to  whether 
the  people  are  ready  to  enforce  the  law  and  able  to  enforce  it,  and  to 
preserve  order  and  protect  property  has  nothing  to  do  with  it;  that, 
like  the  Czar  of  Russia  and  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  he  can  send 
troops  when  and  wherever  he  pleases,  because  he  sees  fit,  and  that 
there  is  no  court  beyond  to  which  we  can  appeal.  This  is  a  new  de- 
parture. The  Constitution  gave  no  such  power.  A  Constitutional 
writer  of  some  standing  who  complimented  the  President  upon  this 
act  described  it  as  "a  great  lesson  in  constitutional  construction," 
thus  admitting  that  a  new  step  had  been  taken  in  constitutional  con- 
struction and  something  had  been  done  which  it  had  been  supposed 
the  Constitution  did  not  admit  of.  If  this  construction  is  to  stand, 
then  this  government  has  changed  character.  We  have  passed  a 
turning  point  in  the  road  and  instead  of  being  headed  toward  a  higher 
civilization,  more  general  intelligence  and  the  highest  political  free- 
dom, we  are  surely  headed  toward  despotism.  Governor  Stone,  of 
Missouri,  in  a  profound  address  recently  said  that  the  Civil  war  had 
fortunately  determined  that  the  States  could  not  destroy  the  Union, 
but  we  were  now  confronted  with  the  equally  vital  question,  whether 
the  Union  shall  be  permitted  to  destroy  the  States.  There  is  one 
feature  about  this  usurpation  by  the  federal  judiciary  and  the  use  of 
the  federal  troops  which  must  make  the  heart  of  every  lover  of  his 
country  sad  and  must  make  every  patriot  feel  a  serious  concern  for 
the  future,  and  that  feature  consists  of  the  fact  which  stands  out 
with  such  distressing  bluntness  that  all  these  things  were  done  at  the 
behest  and  under  the  direction  of  the  great  trusts  and  corporations  of 
the  country.  The  government  had  all  of  the  machinery  necessary  to 
administer  justice  in  all  other  cases,  in  Chicago,  but  this  was  not 
relied  on.  The  government  appointed  a  special  representative  to  take 
charge  of  these  matters.  There  were  several  thousand  able  and  disin- 
terested lawyers,  but  they  were  not  wanted.  There  were  hundreds  of 
able  Democrats  capable  of  filling  any  office  in  the  government,  from 
that  of  President  down,  but  they  were  not  trusted.  It  chose  a  man 


SPEECH  AT  MATTOON.  439 

who  was  not  only  a  Republican,  but  one  of  the  most  prominent  cor- 
poration lawyers  in  the  country  and,  although  he  was  at  that  very 
time  the  hired  attorney  of  one  of  the  railroads  involved  in  the  troubles 
and  was  thus  personally  interested  in  the  result  and  therefore  dis- 
qualified from  conducting  the  administration  of  justice,  he  was  clothed 
with  all  the  powers  of  the  government,  and  he  brought  to  the  service 
of  his  clients,  without  any  expense  to  them,  United  States  marshals, 
United  States  grand  juries,  United  States  courts  and  the  United 
States  army.  He  had  men  arrested  almost  at  will.  He  countenanced 
the  illegal  seizure  of  private  papers  and  he  dictated  to  the  Mayor  of 
Chicago  the  conditions  on  which  the  federal  troops  might  be  with- 
drawn from  that  city.  Everything  the  federal  government  had  was  at 
the  disposal  of  a  corporation  lawyer  and  used  by  him  for  his  clients. 
Some  years  ago  Congress  passed  what  was  known  as  the  Inter-State 
Commerce  Act,  intended  for  the  protection  of  the  shipper  against 
excessive  charges  and  against  ruinous  discriminations.  The  corpora- 
tions refused  to  comply  and  carried  it  into  the  courts,  and  first  one 
federal  judge  and  then  another  federal  judge  proceeded  to  hold  sec- 
tion after  section  of  it  unconstitutional  until  it  was  practically  de- 
stroyed, so  far  as  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  created  is  concerned, 
and  then,  after  having  thus  nullified  an  act  of  Congress,  intended  for 
the  protection  of  the  people,  these  same  judges  turned  around  and 
made  of  this  law  a  club  with  which  to  pound  the  men  who  carry 
dinner-pails.  They  made  of  it  an  instrument  of  oppression  against 
the  men  whom  Congress  had  not  thought  of.  It  was  soon  found, 
upon  observation,  that  for  years  no  man  has  been  appointed  to  the 
federal  bench  who  was  not  satisfactory  to  these  corporations;  in  fact, 
most  of  the  appointees  were  corporation  lawyers.  In  most  cases  they 
were  men  of  integrity,  always  men  of  ability  and  learning,  but  they 
carried  with  them  that  bias  and  that  prejudice  which  rendered  them 
incapable  of  being  impartial  judges,  so  that  many  of  them  simply  ceased 
giving  opinions  for  corporations  as  lawyers  and  proceeded  to  render 
opinions  for  corporations  as  judges,  some  of  them  having  gone  so  far 
as  to  hold  that  a  man  working  for  a  corporation  dare  not  quit  when 
he  wishes  and  that  if  two  or  more  quit  together  they  are  liable  to  be 
thrown  into  jail.  Now,  if  this  policy,  this  new  usurpation  on  the 
part  of  the  federal  courts  and  this  usurpation  of  the  use  of  the  mili- 
tary on  the  part  of  the  federal  executive  is  to  continue,  then  the  great 
toiling  masses  of  this  country  are  doomed.  These  courts  will  become 
merely  a  side-door  convenience  for  concentrations  of  capital,  and 
American  citizenship  must  degenerate. 

The  important  question  which  you  must  now  consider  is,  from 


440  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

which  political  party  can  you  probably  get  relief?  You  say  it  was  a 
Democratic  President  who  sent  the  troops  into  Illinois.  That  is  true, 
he  was  elected  as  a  Democrat,  but  the  Democratic  party,  as  a  party, 
always  has  been  and  is  to-day  opposed  to  that  policy,  while  the 
Republican  party,  as  a  party,  is  a  unit  in  favor  of  it.  You  say  that  the 
Attorney  General  of  the  United  States  advised  the  bringing  of  the 
injunctions  I  have  described  and  that  he  is  called  a  Democrat.  Well, 
that  is  true,  but  here  again  the  Republican  party  as  a  unit  supports 
what  he  did.  The  Democratic  party  does  not.  You  must  not  judge 
a  party  by  what  some  man  may  do  who  is  accidentally  lifted  into  power 
by  it  and  then  sets  his  heels  upon  that  which  it  has  regarded  as  sacred. 
Judas  betrayed  his  master,  but  the  world  did  not  therefore  condemn 
all  twelve  of  the  apostles.  The  world  did  not  reject  the  examples  or 
the  teachings  of  the  other  eleven  simply  because  one  of  the  twelve 
had  accepted  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  It  is  true  that  the  Democratic 
party  has  apparently  been  put  into  a  false  position  in  this  matter,  but 
I  repeat  to  you  the  question:  Where  will  you  look  for  relief?  Cer- 
tainly not  to  the  Republican  party.  It  is  a  unit  against  you.  But,  says 
someone,  we  will  look  to  a  new  party.  Well,  my  friends,  let  us 
examine  the  situation.  Let  us  see  where  we  are  going  to  bring  up, 
and  let  me  say  that  many  of  the  principles  advocated  by  the  new 
parties  are  fundamentally  and  eternally  right.  They  have  been  and 
are  now  being  advocated  by  the  Democratic  party.  You  advocate 
an  income  tax,  and  the  Democratic  party  made  it  a  law  and  did  it 
against  the  views  of  its  President.  If  a  new  party  could  give  the 
country  the  relief  which  it  needs;  if  a  new  party  could  check  this 
usurpation  upon  the  part  of  the  federal  judges  and  could  forever 
check  the  tendency  toward  military  despotism,  I  should  say  nothing 
more.  A  man  who  really  loves  his  country,  a  man  who  believes  that 
the  greatness  and  grandeur  of  a  country  depend  upon  the  condition 
of  the  great  masses  of  the  people,  is  not  particular  where  reforms  come 
from  so  long  as  they  do  come.  But,  my  friends,  there  is  an  adage 
that  runs  something  like  this:  "Divide  and  conquer."  When  the 
jealous  Grecians  centuries  ago  wanted  to  conquer  an  enemy  they 
first  managed  to  foment  a  division  among  its  people  and  then  they 
conquered.  When  Rome  wished  to  conquer  a  powerful  nation  it 
managed  to  get  up  a  division  and  then  it  conquered.  Divide  and 
conquer  is  the  watchword  of  the  great  corporate  and  trust  influences 
of  to-day.  The  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  -stand  almost  as  a  unit 
against  the  things  you  wish  to  accomplish.  They  are  against  you 
on  the  tariff  question,  against  you  on  the  money  question,  against 
you  on  the  question  of  the  federal  judiciary  and  against  you  on  the 


SPEECH  AT  MATTOON.  441 

question  of  using  the  federal  troops  as  a  convenience  for  corporations. 
The  great  mass  of  the  Democratic  party  is  with  you.  The  great 
majority  of  its  leaders  is  with  you.  You  and  they  stand  on  the  same 
platform  and  are  struggling  for  the  same  ends  in  this  regard,  but  you 
are  divided,  and  so  long  as  you  are  divided  what  must  be  the  result? 
The  enemy  must  win.  Facts  are  stubborn,  and,  while  they  may  be 
unpleasant,  a  wise  man  will  not  shut  his  eyes  to  them.  It  will  re- 
quire the  united  efforts  of  every  Democrat  and  every  man  who  calls 
himself  an  Independent  to  bring  about  the  objects  for  which  both 
are  striving.  Now,  what  is  the  effect  of  the  new  move?  It  is  simply 
a  division  of  people  who,  on  fundamental  questions,  think  alike. 
Consequently  the  effect  of  a  new  movement  in  this  State  can  simply 
be  to  insure  the  success  of  the  enemy.  Let  me  illustrate.  The  Hon. 
George  Fithian  is  now  running  for  Congress  on  the  Democratic  ticket 
from  this  district.  He  has  been  in  Congress  a  number  of  terms.  He 
has  been  the  strong  and  courageous  and  bold,  open,  outspoken  de- 
fender of  the  principles  you  advocate.  You  could  not  send  a  man 
there  who  would  be  more  conscientious  or  more  able  in  fighting  for 
those  things  that  you  are  fighting  for.  Why  should  he  not  have  your 
support?  A  gentleman  is  running  against  him  on  the  Republican 
ticket  who,  I  understand,  is  the  attorney  for  a  corporation.  I  will 
assume  that  he  is  honest.  What  has  been  his  training?  In  what 
channel  has  his  mind  run?  What  have  been  the  influences  that  have 
surrounded  him  for  the  past  ten  or  fifteen  years?  If  he  goes  to  Con- 
gress, will  he  be  your  friend,  or  against  you?  Can  you  count  on  him 
voting  in  your  favor  on  any  one  of  the  questions  you  advocate?  He 
is  on  the  other  side.  Now,  there  is  running  in  this  district  an  esti- 
mable gentleman  as  a  third  candidate.  What  is  the  effect?  He  stands 
for  the  same  things  that  Mr.  Fithian  stands  for,  but  there  is  a  division. 
Divide  and  conquer,  is  the  watchword  of  the  enemy.  You  are  divided, 
and  unless  you  consider  well  you  will  be  conquered.  Now,  let  me 
ask,  when  you  get  a  man  whom  you  can  rely  on;  a  man  who  will  do 
right;  when  you  find  a  man  who  is  your  friend  at  a  time  when  it 
is  not  popular  to  be  so;  when  you  find  a  man  who  does  not  smile  on 
you  during  the  campaign  and  then  sell  you  out  at  Washington ;  why 
should  you  not  stand  by  him?  Let  any  man  who  goes  to  Washington 
understand  that  so  long  as  he  is  true,  you  will  be  true  to  him,  but  if 
you  divide  and  defeat  him,  then  when  some  measure  comes  up  in 
Congress  and  some  lobbyist  comes  around  to  see  the  members,  he 
says:  "Why,  my  dear  fellow,  you  vote  in  the  interests  of  the  common 
people  and  they  will  defeat  you  at  the  next  election.  Vote  with  my 
clients,  the  corporations,  and  they  will  take  care  of  you." 


442  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

I  appeal  to  every  man  who  toils  with  his  hands  in  this  district. 
I  appeal  to  every  man  who  is  in  favor  of  honest  government  by  the 
people  and  for  them  to  see  to  it  that  this  man  is  not  defeated  by 
reason  of  a  division  in  your  ranks.  What  I  have  said  in  regard  to 
Mr.  Fithian  applies  to  all  other  cases.  Remember  that  the  basic  prin- 
ciples of  the  Democratic  party  are  favorable  to  the  great  masses  of  the 
people,  while  the  basic  principles  of  the  Republican  party  are  favorable 
to  that  class  which  lives  off  the  earnings  of  other  people. 

Let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  legislation  of  this  State  for  a 
number  of  years  past.  There  have  been  more  than  a  dozen  measures 
passed  for  the  protection  of  the  laborer;  laws  relating  to  the  screening 
of  coal,  the  weighing  of  coal,  the  ventilation  of  coal  mines ;  the  pro- 
tection of  coal  miners;  laws  relating  to  the  weekly  payment  of  wages; 
laws  for  the  inspection  of  factories,  so  as  to  put  an  end  to  sweat  shops; 
all  laws  that  were  intended  for  the,  benefit  of  the  men  who  toil  with 
their  hands.  I  ask  you  to  examine  the  records  of  the  Legislature; 
see  who  introduced  these  laws,  who  worked  for  them  and  fought  for 
them,  and  you  will  find  that  in  nearly  every  case  they  were  Demo- 
cratic measures.  Some  of  them  received  the  support  of  a  few  Re- 
publicans, but  the  great  body  of  the  Republicans  voted  against  nearly 
all  of  them.  Here  again  I  ask  you,  as  men  who  toil  with  your  hands, 
why  should  you  not  stand  by  that  party  which  at  least  tried  to  do  some- 
thing for  you? 

Possibly  you  expect  me  to  at  least  refer  to  the  State  administra- 
tion. Let  me  say  that  during  the  campaign  of  two  years  ago  we  made 
some  specific  representations  and  promises" to  the  people  of  this  State 
in  regard  to  the  policy  we  would  pursue  if  elected.  These  representa- 
tions and  promises  are  being  carried  out  to  the  letter.  We  wiped  off 
the  statute  books  an  act  that  struck  at  the  very  basis  of  free  govern- 
ment in  connection  with  compulsory  education,  and  we  enacted  a  law 
which,  while  free  from  these  objections,  prevents  the  children  of  the 
State  from  growing  up  on  the  streets  without  the  rudiments  of  an 
education.  A  law  was  passed  requiring  all  custodians  of  public 
funds  to  account  for  interest  they  may  receive  on  such  funds,  and  a 
factory  inspection  law  was  passed  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  the  sweat 
shops  that  were  a  disgrace  to  the  State.  On  the  management  of  the 
State  institutions  we  are  endeavoring  to  enforce  the  highest  order  of 
civil  service.  Not  a  civil  service  whereby,  when  a  man  once  gets  a 
place  he  keeps  it  as  long  as  he  lives  without  regard  to  his  efficiency, 
but  a  civil  service  in  which  he  has  got  to  do  his  best  every  day.  I 
require  of  the  trustees  and  superintendents  the  rigid  enforcement  of 
the  following  rules: 


SPEECH  AT  MATTOOtf.  443 

First:  There  must  not  be  a  single  man  upon  the  pay-rolls  who  is 
not  absolutely  needed. 

Second:  No  higher  wages  must  be  paid  in  the  institution  than 
similar  ability  commands  outside. 

Third:  No  man  must  be  kept  an  hour  after  it  is  discovered  that 
he  is  not  just  the  right  man  for  the  place,  and  it  makes  no  difference 
who  recommended  him  or  what  his  influence  is. 

Fourth:  That  any  attendant  found  guilty  of  cruelty  to  inmates 
must  be  promptly  discharged. 

Fifth:  Everything  needed  in  the  institutions  must  be  purchased, 
not  under  the  old  system  of  favoritism,  but  of  the  lowest  and  best 
bidder,  everybody  being  given  a  fair  chance  to  bid.  We  have  done 
away  entirely  with  the  office  of  purchasing  agent,  so  that  there  is  not 
to-day  a  single  purchasing  agent  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  the 
saving  resulting  from  this  new  method  far  exceeds  our  expectations. 
The  institutions  generally  are  in  better  condition  than  they  ever  were, 
and  the  patients  are  being,  if  anything,  better  fed  and  better  cared  for, 
and  yet  we  have  already  a  saving  of  over  $300,000,  and  I  believe  that 
this  new  policy  will,  during  the  four  years  of  this  administration,  save 
to  the  State  very  nearly  $1,000,000,  for  it  has  been  enforced  as  yet 
less  than  eighteen  months.  It  took  some  time  to  get  it  well  estab- 
lished. In  our  State  prisons  we  are  carrying  out  the  policy  which  we 
agreed  to,  that  is,  that  while  the  prisoners  must  be  worked,  they  are 
not  being  worked  under  contract,  and  they  are  not  being  bunched  into 
a  few  trades  but  are  divided  up  as  much  as  possible  among  the  dif- 
ferent industries  so  as  to  produce  the  least  competition  in  any  one, 
and,  although  the  times  have  been  hard  and  business  depressed,  we  are 
making  a  success  of  this  system. 

In  brief,  we  are  endeavoring  to  give  the  people  of  this  State  a 
thorough  business  administration  and  to  bring  all  of  our  State  insti- 
tutions onto  the  highest  plane  of  any  in  the  world,  so  that  every  man 
who  loves  his  country,  no  matter  whether  he  be  Republican  or  Demo- 
crat, shall  feel  proud  of  the  State  of  Illinois  and  of  its  institutions.  We 
are  endeavoring  to  place  them,  not  only  upon  a  high  business  plane, 
but  upon  the  highest  scientific  plane. 

Now,  my  fellow  citizens,  do  not  forget  that  you  have  a  great 
country  and  that  the  power  of  governing  it  is  in  your  hands;  that  if 
any  policies  are  carried  out  that  are  injurious  to  you,  or  if  the  gov- 
ernment is  used  in  any  way  that  gives  one  class  of  people  advantage 
over  another  class,  you  have  yourselves  to  blame.  You  have  the 
strength  to  keep  these  matters  all  in  your  own  hands,  and  it  is  only 
when  you  are  defeated  that  you  suffer.  I  ask  of  you  to  stand  to- 


444  LWE  QUESTIONS. 

gether.  Stand  shoulder  to  shoulder.  Stand  firmly  for  the  principles 
established  by  the  fathers,  the  principle  of  equal  rights  to  all  and 
special  privileges  to  none.  Those  principles  which  have  made  this 
republic  grand  and  glorious  and  which,  if  adhered  to,  will  give  it  a 
career  in  the  future  that  will  eclipse  all  of  the  grandeur  of  the  past. 


SPEECH  AT  AURORA  TURNER  HALL,  CHICAGO,  NOV. 
ist,   1894,  ON  THE  POLITICAL  PARTIES. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen:  I  need  not  say  to  you  that  it  is 
gratifying  to  me  to  find  that  I  still  have  your  confidence  and  your 
good  wishes.  I  have  not  come  here  to-night  to  make  you  an  elaborate 
address,  but  I  merely  want  to  talk  with  you.  The  time  has  again 
come  when  the  freemen  of  America  must  cast  their  ballots,  when 
they  must  decide  in  what  direction  the  government  shall  run.  It 
may  seem  to  you  that  these  periods  come  around  very  often,  and  it 
may  seem  to  you  that  a  campaign  is  always  about  the  same  thing  and 
that  politicians  have  always  about  the  same  story  to  tell  you,  and  that 
each  campaign  is  most  important;  but  I  want  to_  say  to  you  that 
in  a  free  country,  where  the  people  govern,  they  never  get  done  gov- 
erning. Managing  the  affairs  of  the  public  is  like  keeping  house  or 
managing  a  business.  It  is  important  and  affects  you  all  directly,  and 
it  never  ceases.  It  needs  attention  every  day,  and  whenever  the  peo- 
ple lose  interest  in  public  affairs  then  they  soon  discover  that  a  selfish 
class  of  men  who  do  not  have  the  interests  of  the  public  at  heart  get 
control  of  affairs,  get  their  hands  upon  the  lever,  and  the  result  is  that 
policies  are  pursued  which  bear  heavily  upon  the  public.  Conse- 
quently. I  say  to  you  that  this  business  of  voting,  this  business  of  gov- 
erning, is  one  with  which  the  people  of  a  free  country  never  get 
through;  they  never  get  done,  and  it  is  always  important. 

Now  this  fall  you  are  to  elect  members  of  Congress,  you  are  to 
elect  members  of  the  Legislature  and  you  are  to  determine  who  shall 
manage  your  county  affairs ;  and  the  first  question  for  every  intelligent 
voter  is,  what  party  promises  or  guarantees  the  best  results  for  the 
great  mass  of  the  people.  Of  course,  during  the  campaign  each  po- 
litical party  will  make  any  quantity  of  promises,  and  any  kind  of  a 
promise  that  may  insure  a  vote;  but  the  parties  in  this  country  are 
not  so  new  that  you  must  rely  upon  the  promises  of  any  of  them.  They 
all  have  a  history,  and  they  have  demonstrated  by  their  careers  that 
they  in  the  main  represent  certain  fundamental  principles,  and  as  you 
glance  back  over  the  history  of  the  two  great  political  parties  of 


SPEECH  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES.  445 

this  country,  you  very  soon  discover  that  there  is  a  fundamental  dif- 
ference between  the  policy  advocated  by  the  one  party  and  the  policy 
advocated  by  the  other  party,  a  difference  that  is  far-reaching  and  that 
seriously  affects  the  public  welfare. 

DIFFERENCE    IN   THE   TWO    PARTIES. 

When  you  glance  back  over  the  history  of  the  parties,  gentlemen, 
you  soon  discover  that  one  of  the  parties  is  the  lineal  descendant  of 
the  old  Federalistic  party,  which  stood  for  strong  government,  stood 
for  a  strong  centralized  power;  a  party  the  leaders  of  which  did  not 
believe  the  people  were  capable  of  self-government,  the  leaders  of 
which  were  in  favor  of  a  government  that  was  bordering  closely  on  a 
monarchy.  The  leaders  of  that  party  believed  it  was  the  business  of 
the  government  to  take  care  of  the  rich  and  then  let  the  rich  take  care 
of  the  poor.  That  was  one  of  the  principles  of  the  original  Federalistic 
party  of  this  country.  That  party  went  out  of  existence.  It  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Whig  party,  which  advocated  mainly  the  same  princi- 
ples, and  that  was  succeeded  by  the  Republican  party,  which  inherits 
all  the  sins  of  its  ancestors.  [Applause.] 

The  Republican  party  has  now  had  control  of  the  legislation  of  the 
United  States,  or  did  have  up  to  the  session  of  the  last  Congress,  for 
upward  of  a  quarter  of  a  century.  While  it  is  true  that  the  Democratic 
party  once  had  a  President  and  at  different  times  had  a  majority  in 
one  house  of  Congress,  it  never  controlled  both  houses ;  consequently, 
every  law  upon  the  statute  books,  every  law  relating  to  the  interests 
of  the  laboring  classes,  every  law  relating  to  shipping,  every  law 
relating  to  the  American  government,  was  framed  by  a  Republican 
Congress  and  had  the  signature  of  a  Republican  President.  Now,  gov- 
ernment policies  bear  fruit  just  as  much  as  the  seed  planted  in  the 
ground  produces  the  harvest.  The  policy  of  this  government  has 
borne  fruit.  Look  at  it  for  a  moment.  This  country  was  the  richest 
country  in  the  world;  more  natural  wealth,  the  best  climate  in  the 
world,  the  most  extensive  farming  district  in  the  world,  with  every 
kind  of  mineral,  and  with  the  most  energetic,  inventive  and  industrious 
people  to  be  found  in  the  world,  and  with  more  natural  resources  than 
any  country  in  the  world.  That  was  not  all.  It  had,  next  to  England, 
the  greatest  commerce  on  earth,  had  almost  the  largest  shipping,  and 
was  the  largest  owner  of  shipping  in  the  world.  That  was  the  condi- 
tion of  this  country.  You  would  suppose  that  all  such  a  country 
needed  was  to  be  let  alone;  it  needed  nothing  except  to  be  let  alone. 
People  with  such  resources  and  wealth,  people  with  such  energy  and 
enterprise,  people  with  all  the  markets  in  the  world  open  to  them, 


446  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

owning  also  one  of  the  largest  fleets  upon  earth,  needed  only  to  be  let 
alone  in  order  to  prosper. 

RESULTS  OF  REPUBLICANISM. 

But  what  has  been  the  result?  Why,  you  have  had  in  this  coun- 
try two  of  the  most  disastrous  and  ruinous  panics  the  world  ever  saw. 
Labor  has  been  disturbed  for  the  last  fifteen  or  more  years;  the  num- 
ber of  unemployed  got  larger;  every  winter  the  number  of  unem- 
ployed in  large  cities  was  greater;  the  great  manufacturing  establish- 
ments were  beginning  to  run  on  half  time,  and  finally  shut  down.  And 
finally,  before  the  new  government  came  in,  before  the  Democratic 
administration  could  get  its  hand  upon  the  lever,  in  the  spring  of 
1893,  what  happened?  The  entire  fabric  came  down.  The  most  ruin- 
ous panic  the  country  has  yet  witnessed  took  place  and  the  fabric  that 
had  been  reared  by  nearly  thirty  years  of  Republican  legislation,  the 
results  of  a  policy  of  twenty-five  years'  endurance,  the  results  of 
twenty-five  years'  Republican  policy  ended  in  what?  Ended  in  utter 
collapse  of  the  industries  and  energies  of  our  country. 

But  that  was  not  all.  It  was  found  that  the  McKinley  law  left  an 
annual  deficit  of  upward  of  $70,000,000.  Meantime,  while  the  laborer 
was  becoming  more  and  more  uncomfortable,  what  did  we  behold? 
We  found  some  of  the  largest  estates  being  collected  in  this  country 
that  the  world  had  ever  seen;  some  of  the  largest  fortunes  being 
amassed  that  mankind  had  ever  heard  of.  In  Pennsylvania  we  found 
that  this  high  protective  tariff  was  making  a  few  men  immensely  rich, 
and  the  same  was  true  in  other  sections  of  the  country.  But  what 
about  the  laborers?  Powderly  told  us  several  years  ago  that  the  great 
manufacturers  in  Pennsylvania,  operating  with  the  steamship  com- 
panies, had  flooded  Pennsylvania  with  the  cheapest  kind  of  pauper 
labor  brought  over  from  Europe — [applause] — brought  over  in  a  week 
or  ten  days  at  any  time,  so  that,  as  he  put  it,  almost  every  American 
born  laborer  and  almost  every  naturalized  laborer  had  been  driven 
out  of  the  State  and  their  places  filled  by  men  brought  over  from 
abroad  by  the  employers,  brought  over  under  a  contract;  laborers 
who  did  not  come  to  educate  their  children  and  support  their 
families.  They  supplanted  the  American  laborer.  What  of  it?  The 
next  thing  we  heard  was  that  Carnegie  was  building  castles  in 
Scotland.  He  had  amassed  so  many  millions  that  he  could  not 
spend  them  in  America  and  was  building  castles  in  Scotland.  But 
what  about  his  laborers?  Pinkerton  rifles  were  taking  care  of  his 
laborers.  [Applause.] 


SPEECH  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES.  447 

MANY    LAWS,    BUT    NONE   FOR   THE   PEOPLE. 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  have  thus  rapidly  sketched  to  you  the  results 
of  twenty-five  years  of  Republican  legislation  in  the  national  Legisla- 
ture, the  results  of  twenty-five  years  of  Republican  policy,  and  I  have 
pointed  out  to  you  that  it  resulted  in  the  utter  collapse  of  our  indus- 
tries and  of  the  enterprises  of  this  country.  I  have  pointed  out  to 
you  that  it  resulted  in  simply  building  up  enormous  wealth,  enormous 
fortunes  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  while  it  resulted  in  subjecting  the 
laborers  of  this  country  to  a  condition  to  which  they  had  never  before 
been  reduced.  It  resulted  in  the  intimidation  of  the  laboring  classes  of 
Jhis  country  by  the  Pinkerton  rifles.  And  that,  my  fellow  citizens,  was 
the  result  of  Republican  legislation. 

During  those  twenty-five  years,  if  you  will  examine  the  statute 
books  of  the  United  States,  you  will  find  acts  bearing  upon  almost 
every  question.  You  will  find  laws  so  numerous  that  you  cannot  load 
them  into  a  wagon.  You  will  find  stacks  of  acts  of  Congress  in  favor 
of  almost  every  measure  under  the  sun  except  a  measure  in  favor  of 
the  common  people  or  in  favor  of  the  laboring  men  of  this  country. 
Now,  why  was  the  Republican  legislation  of  this  country  framed  along 
that  line?  Why?  Because  the  Republican  party  was  true  to  its  prin- 
ciples, those  principles  being  that  it  is  the  business  of  the  government 
to  assist  the  rich  and  then  take  the  chances  of  having  the  rich  take 
care  of  the  poor.  [Applause.]  When  you  look  at  State  legislation 
you  discover  the  same  policy.  During  the  last  twelve  years  there  have 
been  quite  a  number  of  acts  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of 
Illinois  bearing  directly  upon  the  condition  of  labor  in  this  State — 
bearing  directly  upon  the  condition  of  those  men  who  toil  with  their 
hands.  There  have  been  half  a  dozen  laws  passed  bearing  directly 
upon  the  condition  of  the  men  who  mine  coal.  There  have  been  a 
number  of  acts  passed  bearing  upon  the  condition  of  other  laborers 
in  the  State,  and  notably  an  act  passed  by  the  last  Legislature,  known 
as  the  sweat  shop  bill,  that  bill  which  sought  to  root  out  of  this  great 
and  glorious  city  of  ours  that  infamous  and  accursed  system  of  sweat 
shops. 

RECORD  OF  DEMOCRACY. 

Now,  if  you  will  examine  the  journals  of  the  Legislature  of  Illinois, 
the  record  kept  from  day  to  day,  you  will  find  that  almost  every  meas- 
ure ever  passed  by  that  Legislature  in  favor  of  the  laboring  classes  of 
this  State  was  a  Democratic  measure.  [Applause.]  You  will  find  that 
every  one  of  them  was  framed  by  a  Democrat,  introduced  by  a  Demo- 


448  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

crat  and  carried  through  by  a  Democrat.  [Cheers.]  When  you  come 
to  look  at  the  ayes  and  noes  as  they  are  recorded  in  black  and  white 
upon  the  journals  of  the  Legislature, you  will  find  that  while  there  were 
a  few  Republicans  who  voted  for  some  of  these  measures  the  great 
body  of  the  Republican  legislators  voted  against  every  one  of  them. 
Why?  Because  it  was  not  the  policy  of  that  party  to  legislate  for 
common  people.  It  could  not  see  them;  they  were  too  low  down. 
Its  policy  was  aimed  at  the  higher -class. 

So  when  you  look  around  and  glance  back  over  the  history  of  the 
two  parties  you  find  very  soon  that  they  stand  for  opposite  principles. 
I  will  not  impugn  the  honesty  of  the  Republicans.  I  think  they  have 
been  true  to  their  principles,  true  to  that  principle  at  least  which  favors 
governmental  protection  for  the  rich,  governmental  protection  for 
class.  They  carried  that  out.  That  being  so,  if  you  stop  there,  what 
is  the  duty  of  every  man  who  toils  with  his  hands;  of  every  man  who 
has  an  interest  in  his  own  welfare  and  in  the  welfare  of  his  children; 
for  let  me  say  to  you,  governmental  policies  are  far  reaching.  Very 
often  what  government  regulates  and  plants  the  seeds  of  to-day  will 
in  the  harvest  of  after  years  produce  surprising  results,  and  the  policy 
that  may  be  shaped  by  the  next  Congress  and  the  next  Legislature 
may  affect  not  only  your  welfare  but  the  welfare  of  your- children. 

Now,  in  what  direction  are  you  desirous  of  having  the  govern- 
ment move?  Do  you  want  a  continuation  of  what  you  have  had  for 
the  last  twenty-five  years?  [Cries  of  "No."]  Do  you  want  to  see 
a  few  more  Pinkertons  sent  to  Pennsylvania?  Do  you  want  to  see 
more  panics?  Do  you  want  to  see  higher  tariffs?  Do  you  want  to 
see  more  McKinley  laws?  If  you  do,  there  is  a  way  open  to  get  it. 
If  you  do  not,  then  what?  Why  vote  for  the  men,  vote  for  the  party 
that  stands  for  the  opposite  principle.  That  is  the  duty  of  every  man 
that  believes  that  way. 

Now,  another  question  has  been  sprung  upon  the  people  of  this 
State  this  summer  that  I  regret,  and  I  regret  very  much,  but  I  regard 
it  as  being  vital.  I  regard  it  as  being  more  far-reaching  than  any 
other  that  is  to-day  before  the  American  people. 

RESULT  OF  JEFFERSON'S  IDEA. 

You  remember  that  early  in  the  history  of  this  republic  there  were 
two  parties,  one,  as  I  have  said,  that  favored  the  formation  of  a  strong 
government,  of  a  great  central  power  whose  iron  hand  could  come 
down  upon  a  community  of  people  at  any  time;  a  party  that  did  not 
believe  in  local  self-government  and  did  not  believe  the  people  had  the 
capacity  to  govern  themselves.  The  other  party,  represented  by 


SPEECH  ON  POLITICAL  PARTIES.  449 

that  far-seeing  statesman  and  lover  of  mankind,  Thomas  Jefferson — 
[prolonged  cheers] — believed  that  the  world  had  been  governed  too 
much ;  believed  that  men  were  capable  of  producing  and  reaching  the 
highest  results  when  given  more  freedom;  believed  that  the  iron 
hand  of  the  government  held  down  upon  the  people  but  tended  to 
destroy  their  energies  and  enterprise;  believed  the  people  were  capa- 
ble of  self-government,  and  advocated  the  trial  of  a  policy  that  had 
never  been  tried;  advocated  local  self-government — [applause] — a 
party  that  had  seen  that  wherever  there  was  a  great  central  power,  far 
away,  difficult  of  access,  difficult  to  reach,  it  was  nearly  always  con- 
trolled by  class  interests,  and  the  great  mass  of  the  people  suffered 
by  it.  History  had  taught  them  that  power  was  aggressive  and  it 
must  be  curbed  or  the  people  would  be  reduced  to  slavery.  So  they 
determined  that  this  government  should  be  based  upon  the  best  prin- 
ciples. They  determined  that  not  only  should  the  American  people 
govern  themselves  and  that  they  should  have  three  branches  of  gov- 
ernment— the  legislative,  the  judicial  and  the  executive — and  that 
neither  branch  should  encroach  upon  the  domain  of  the  other,  but, 
more  than  that,  they  provided  that  the  central  government  should 
have  no  power  except  what  was  expressly  granted  to  it,  and  any 
power  not  expressly  granted  should  be  reserved  to  the  people.  Now 
that  theory  prevailed,  the  theory  of  administration  advocated  by  Jef- 
ferson prevailed,  and  the  American  Republic  thus  governed  gave  free- 
dom to  everyone,  gave  free  scope  to  the  inventive  genius,  to  the  in- 
tellect and,  enterprise  and  energy  of  the  people,  and  the  new  republic 
launched  out  upon  a  career  such  as  the  world  had  never  seen.  The 
development  of  this  great  country  would  have  been  an  impossibility 
upon  any  other  theory  of  government.  Had  the  opposite  theory  of 
government  of  the  great  federalistic  power  prevailed  the  American 
people  would  simply  have  changed  masters;  they  simply  would  have 
thrown  off  the  English  yoke  and  put  on  the  American  yoke,  and  the 
American  Republic  to-day  would  exist  only  east  of  the  Allegheny 
Mountains.  But,  launched  as  it  was  in  an  atmosphere  of  freedom, 
the  genius  of  the  people  leaped  forth,  and  the  result  was  a  career  of 
invention,  of  progress,  of  advancement,  and  of  development  of  every 
kind  that  brought  to  us  the  industries  and  the  genius  of  every  nation, 
until  in  the  short  space  of  a  century  an  entirely  new  nation  has  been 
created.  [Applause.]  That  was  the  result  of  free  government,  the 
result  of  free  institutions. 


29 


450  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ADDRESS  TO  THE  NATIONAL  GRANGE,  DELIVERED  AT 
SPRINGFIELD,  NOV.  15,  1894. 

Gentlemen:  As  the  executive  of  one  of  the  greatest  agricultural 
States  in  the  world,  I  welcome  you  into  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  I 
trust  you  will  find  our  people  as  hospitable  and  as  cordial  as  our 
fields  are  broad  and  our  prairies  are  fertile.  It  is  fitting  that  the  rep- 
resentatives of  agriculture  should  hold  a  convention  in  a  State  that 
stretches  from  the  great  lakes  to  the  two  great  rivers  of  the  continent, 
stretches  through  400  miles  of  latitude,  and  that  produces  almost 
everything  that  is  grown  in  the  temperate  zone. 

I  trust  that  your  meeting  here  may  be  a  profitable  one,  that  the 
great  interests  you  represent  may  be  advanced  and  that  the  millions  of 
our  people  who  cultivate  the  earth  may  be  helped  onto  a  happier  plane 
by  your  deliberations.    The  condition  of  the  men  who  till  the  soil  has 
always  determined  the  condition  of  the  nation.     When  the  farmers 
prosper  the  nation  is  happy.    When  the  farming  classes  suffer,  then 
there  is  distress  in  both  city  and  country.    You  represent  the  oldest 
industry  known  to  civilized  man,  an  industry  upon  which  rests  to-day 
the  entire   fabric  of  human  institutions.     Not  only  does  the  world 
depend  on  your  industry  in  a  physical  sense,  but  men  have  always 
regarded  the  husbandman  as  a  most  important  pillar  in  the  structure 
of  all  governments.    As  a  rule  he  stands  for  industry,  sobriety  and 
patriotism.     Certainly,  in  our  country,  have  the  agricultural  classes 
been  the  main  stay  of  the  republic.    Cities  may  breed  riots  and  manu- 
facturing centers   may   breed    disturbances,    but   love   of  order  and 
devotion  to  the  flag  is  characteristic  of  farming  communities.     The 
most  powerful  citizens  of  Rome  were  landed  proprietors.    In  England 
it  was  the  land  barons  who  extorted  from  King  John  the  Magna 
Charta  which  is  to-day  the  foundation  of  England's  liberties.    In  the 
great  countries  of  the  European  continent  the  land  proprietors  are 
powerful  and  influential.  In  our  own  great  country  the  farmers  shaped 
almost  every  policy  of  the  government  for  three-quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury.   During  our  Civil  war  the  southern  armies  came  entirely  from 
the  country,  while  in  the  north  it  was  the  agricultural  States  that  fur- 
nished most  of  those  great  armies  that  put  down  the  rebellion.    Being 
used  to  the  hardships  of  the  country  life  of  that  day,  these  men  brought 
the  highest  physical  development,  great  powers  of  endurance,  and, 
what  was  still  more  important,  they  brought  a  lofty  patriotism  and 
love  of  country.    But,  during  the  last  twenty-five  years  the  influence 
of  the  farmer  has  waned  in  this  country.    Other  interests  have  grown 
up  which,  by  reason  of  their  being  more  concentrated,  have  been  able 


ADDRESS   TO  NATIONAL  GRANGE.  451 

ttot  only  to  control  legislation,  but  have  been  able  in  many  cases  to 
control  the  construction  of  the  law  in  their  interest;  and  the  power  of 
construing  the  law  is  more  important  than  that  of  making  the  laws. 
Selfishness  is  a  rule  of  human  action,  and  moving  in  harmony  with  a 
law  that  is  universal  and  eternal  the  powerful  corporations  and  other 
interests  have  steadily  sought  to  gain  the  advantage,  both  in  legisla- 
tion and  in  the  courts.  In  all  ages  government  has  been  a  kind  of 
compromise  between  selfish  and  conflicting  interests.  The  point  at 
which  these  neutralize'  or  check  each  other  marks  the  level  of  the 
law.  The  Darwinian  theory  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  that  is  of 
the  strongest,  is  found  to  prevail  in  governmental  affairs  as  well  as 
in  the  realm  of  nature.  Those  interests  which  take  care  of  them- 
selves survive  and  those  which  can  not  do  so  soon  go  to  the  wall.  To 
be  sure,  the  theory  of  government  in  our  day  and  country  is  that  it 
shall  do  exact  justice  in  all  cases,  and  that  no  one  interest  shall  have 
any  advantage  over  another.  But  bear  in  mind,  that  is  the  ideal  gov- 
ernment and  has  never  yet  been  found  among  men.  Government 
must  be  administered  through  human  agencies  and  men  carry  with 
them  into  the  Legislature  and  on  to  the  bench  and  into  other  offices 
whatever  bias  or  prejudice  they  have  as  private  individuals.  Per- 
sonal interest  affects  the  judgment,  while  environment  and  surround- 
ing influences  shape  the  convictions.  Consequently,  men  of  equal 
ability  and  integrity,  but  who  have  been  subject  to  different  influences, 
will  hold  opposite  views  on  many  questions.  A  man  who  has  been 
a  corporation  lawyer  for  years,  or  who  is  constantly  surrounded  by 
that  influence,  socially,  or  in  business,  will  pursue  a  different  course 
when  sent  to  the  Legislature,  or  elevated  to  the  bench,  than  will  the 
man  who  did  not  have  these  surroundings,  though  both  may  be 
equally  honest.  The  great  concentrations  of  capital  long  ago  recog- 
nized this  fact  and  have  taken  advantage  of  it  and  greatly  profited 
thereby.  They  have  been  able  in  many  cases  to  use  the  government 
as  a  convenience  or  as  an  instrument  with  which  to  get  an  advantage 
over  others.  For  this  purpose,  they  not  only  contributed  money  to 
elect  some  men  and  to  defeat  others,  but  they  keep  their  hired  agents 
in  attendance  on  Legislatures,  lobbying  to  secure  the  passage  of  such 
measures  as  they  desire  and  to  defeat  such  as  they  do  not  like.  These 
lobbyists  very  often  get  the  votes  of  the  country  members  by  using 
arguments  that  have  length,  breadth  and  thickness,  consequently  when 
you  glance  over  the  legislation  for  a  number  of  years  you  find  that 
special  interests  have  gained  great  advantage,  and  where  one  interest 
gains  an  advantage  through  legislation  others  must  suffer.  Again, 
they  know  how  to  escape  paying  their  full  share  of  taxes — they  know 


452  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

how  to  fix  the  assessor  where  they  have  to  deal  with  him,  and  they 
know  what  kind  of  arguments  will  control  a  board  of  equalization, 
where  they  have  to  deal  with  it.  In  Illinois  the  state  board  of  equali- 
zation assesses  corporations  and  we  find  that,  while  most  of  the  cor- 
porations of  the  State  may  pay  their  share  of  taxes,  there  are  $200,- 
000,000  worth  of  property  belonging  to  a  few  corporations  that  es- 
capes all  taxation  of  every  kind.  This  necessarily  increases  the  burden 
of  those  who  do  pay  taxes,  and  I  have  yet  to  learn  of  a  single  farm  in 
the  State  that  is  not  taxed.  But,  more  important  than  all  this:  The 
representatives  of  special  interests  long  ago  learned  the  importance 
of  selecting  their  friends  to  construe  the  law.  They  saw  that  every 
important  question  has  two  sides  and  that  generally  a  strong  argu- 
ment can  be  made  on  either  side.  They  saw  that  simply  elevating 
a  man  to  the  bench  does  not  make  him  over,  does  not  make  him  any 
broader  or  wiser  or  stronger,  that  he  will  have  the  same  prejudices 
and  the  same  leanings  on  the  bench  that  he  had  before,  that  his  mind 
will  run  in  the  same  channel  that  it  did  before  and  be  influenced  by 
the  same  arguments  that  it  was  before,  and  that  one  man  would  be 
perfectly  honest  in  deciding  one  way,  while  another  would  be  equally 
honest  in  deciding  the  opposite  way;  that  it  all  depended  on  mental 
organization,  on  education,  on  interest,  and  on  social,  political  and 
business  environment.  They  therefore  looked  after  both  the  elec- 
tion and  the  appointment  of  judges.  They  made  themselves  felt  in  the 
election  of  judges  for  the  higher  courts,  and  in  the  appointment  of 
federal  judges  they  wielded  such  an  influence  that  no  man  was  ap- 
pointed who  was  unsatisfactory  to  them.  As  a  consequence,  the 
federal  courts  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  have  been  almost  the  guard- 
ians of  corporations.  Their  decisions  paved  the  way  for  the  formation 
of  the  great  trusts  and  combinations  of  the  country.  Wherever  a 
corporation  was  sued  in  a  State  court  it  at  once  tried  to  remove  the 
case  to  the  federal  court,  because  it  expected  to  fare  better  there. 

Years  ago  hundreds  of  the  counties  and  cities  of  the  west  issued 
bonds  to  assist  in  building  railroads.  In  many  cases  the  roads  were 
not  built,  there  was  not  even  a  shovel  stuck  into  the  earth  toward 
building  them,  yet  the  people  were  asked  to  pay  the  bonds.  It 
was  a  glaring  fraud  and  the  State  courts  held  the  bonds  to  be  void,  but 
they  were  carried  into  the  federal  courts  and  these  courts  compelled 
the  people  to  pay  these  bonds  in  spite  of  the  fraud,  and  the  farmers  of 
many  a  county  for  years  found  their  burdens  increased  in  consequence 
of  these  decisions.  Some  years  ago  Congress  passed  the  Inter-State 
Commerce  Law.  Its  purpose  was  to  protect  the  public  and  especially 
the  shippers  against  unjust  charges  and  against  ruinous  discrimina- 


ADDRESS   TO   NATIONAL  GRANGE.  453 

tions.  The  corporations  refused  to  comply  with  its  provisions.  They 
carried  it  into  the  federal  courts  and  first  one  federal  judge  and  then 
another  proceeded  to  hold  section  after  section  of  this  law  to  be  uncon- 
stitutional until  they  had  rendered  it  harmless  for  the  corporations. 
Then,  after  having  thus  destroyed  an  act  of  Congress  that  was  in- 
tended for  the  protection  of  the  people,  these  same  judges  turned 
around  and  made  of  this  law  an  instrument  of  oppression  against 
the  men  who  toil  with  their  hands,  they  made  of  it  a  club  with  which 
to  pound  the  back  of  labor.  According  to  reports  in  financial  cir- 
cles, the  officers  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  defrauded  that  road 
out  of  nearly  sixty  millions  of  dollars.  Knowing  that  this  would 
bankrupt  the  road  they  then  went  into  the  federal  court  of  Milwaukee 
and  had  three  of  their  personal  friends  appointed  receivers,  and  these 
receivers  at  once  proceeded  to  reduce  the  wages  of  the  men  who 
worked  on  and  operated  the  road.  And  that  federal  judge  did  noth- 
ing towards  bringing  the  scoundrels  who  had  robbed  the  road  to  jus- 
tice. He  not  only  refused  to  remove  their  friendly  receivers,  but  he 
issued  an  injunction  restraining  the  men  who  worked  on  the  road 
from  stopping  work  because  of  the  reduction  in  wages  and  threatened 
them  with  imprisonment  if  they  did  so. 

I  do  not  refer  to  these  things  for  the  purpose  of  criticism,  that 
is  not  my  province.  I  refer  to  them  simply  to  show  the  results  that 
follow  when  a  few  special  interests  are  on  the  alert  to  gain  an  ad- 
vantage, while  the  great  producing  classes  are  napping.  Do  not 
condemn  corporations  for  reaching  out  after  everything  in  sight.  They 
are  acting  in  accordance  with  a  law  that  is  eternal,  and  if  they  get 
more  than  they  are  entitled  to  you  have  yourselves  to  blame.  The 
people  who  toil  with  their  hands  constitute  the  overwhelming  ma- 
jority in  this  country.  They  have  the  power  in  their  own  hands,  and 
if  they  will  not  protect  themselves,  they  should  not  complain  when 
they  suffer  at  the  hands  of  others.  Do  not  forget  that  there  are  two 
great  laws  constantly  at  work  throughout  all  human  affairs,  one  draw- 
ing together  and  the  other  tearing  to  pieces.  Competition  between 
the  various  interests  is  fierce  and  only  those  interests  survive  which 
can  maintain  themselves.  The  others  go  down.  Everywhere  there 
is  concentration  and  combination  and  the  exercise  of  that  power  which 
comes  from  combining  and  concentrating.  The  men  who  till  the 
soil  and  the  men  who  toil  with  their  hands  have  to  face  combined 
forces  everywhere,  and  I  can  see  only  one  way  open  for  them;  they 
must  either  meet  combined  force  with  combined  force,  or  else  they 
and  their  children  must  consent  to  permanently  be  the  under  dogs  in 
the  fight.  We  may  talk  against  combinations  as  much  as  we  will, 


454  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

they  have  become  established  facts  in  this  country.  All  of  the  great 
manufacturing,  railroads  and  commercial  interests  of  this  country 
are  controlled  by  combinations.  A  corporation  is  in  itself  a  combi- 
nation. There  is  no  power  under  the  heavens  that  can  change  these 
conditions.  They  are  the  peculiarity  of  the  age  and  the  only  way  to 
prevent  these  great  combinations  of  capital  from  oppressing  the  peo- 
ple is  to  meet  them  with  a  force  strong  enough  to  check  them.  Be 
as  wide-awake  as  they  are.  If  they  try  to  shape  legislation,  be  on  the 
ground  and  prevent  it.  If  they  try  to  name  the  federal  judges,  be  on 
hand  and  recommend  your  man.  I  will  venture  that  during  our  en- 
tire history  no  farmers'  organization  has  tried  to  secure  the  appoint' 
ment  of  a  single  federal  judge,  and  no  farmer  ever  visited  the  White 
House  for  such  a  purpose,  and  yet,  the  interests  of  the  farming  classes 
were  greater  than  those  of  all  the  corporations  combined.  Again,  when 
concentrated  capital  sends  a  man  to  the  Legislature  or  to  Congress, 
it  keeps  an  eye  on  him,  and  when  he  ceases  to  obey  its  wishes,  it  re- 
tires him.  The  farmers  have  not  yet  learned  to  do  that.  If  they  ever 
learn  a  lesson  in  this  regard  there  will  not  be  so  many  men  who 
smile  on  the  farmer  at  home,  and  then  sell  him  out  at  Washington 
or  at  his  State  capital. 

Let  me  say  in  conclusion  that  our  country  is  young  yet;  it  is 
Already  the  richest  and  grandest  on  earth.  All  we  need  to  do  is  to 
keep  our  face  towards  the  sun  and  everything  will  be  well.  The  con- 
dition of  the  farmers  of  this  country  will  be  just  what  they  make  it 
themselves.  They  can  have  a  voice  in  all  of  the  affairs  of  govern- 
ment and  see  to  it  that  they  are  not  made  the  victims  of  injustice,  or 
they  can  allow  others  to  sit  on  the  seat  of  power  and  dole  out  such 
crumbs  as  they  please.  The  great  toiling  masses  of  this  country  made 
it;  they  saved  it  from  destruction;  they  built  our  cities  and  developed 
the  continent.  They  have  made  it  great  and  glorious  in  the  eyes  of 
the. world  and  they  can  rule  it  if  they  will  but  stand  together. 


THE  CAUSE  OF  DEMOCRATIC  DEFEAT  IN  NOVEMBER, 

1894. 

Springfield,  111.,  Nov.  8. 

In  reply  to  the  question :  "Governor,  to  what  do  you  attribute  the 
great  Democratic  reverse  at  the  late  election?"  Governor  Altgeld  to- 
day replied  as  follows: 

It  was  not  due  to  local  causes.  The  causes  that  produced  it  oper- 
ated all  over  the  country  and,  I  think,  were  largely  due  to  the  wide- 


CAUSE   OF  DEMOCRATIC  DEFEAT.  455 

spread  dissatisfaction  with  the  course  pursued  by  the  federal  admin- 
istration. It  first  wore  out  the  patience  and  destroyed  the  confidence 
of  business  interests,  and  then  it  turned  around  and  literally  drove 
away  those  men  who  toil  with  their  hands.  In  the  spring  of  1893 
Cleveland  was  urged  to  convene  Congress  at  once,  for  the  purpose  of 
considering  the  tariff  question.  At  that  time  a  fair  tariff  reform  bill 
could  have  been  passed  in  six  weeks.  The  country  had  spoken  upon  the 
subject,  the  sentiment  of  the  American  people  was  nearly  unanimous, 
and  even  the  corrupt  and  corrupting  agents  of  the  protected  monopo- 
lies were  ready  to  surrender. 

Had  this  course  been  taken  the  great  business  and  manufacturing 
interests  of  the  country  would  have  adjusted  themselves  to  the  new 
conditions  and  gone  to  work,  and  the  country  would  have  again  set- 
tled down  and  there  would  have  been  no  tariff  discussion  in  this  last 
campaign.  No  man  in  the  country  would  have  cared  to  hear  Mc- 
Kinley  talk.  But,  instead  of  listening  to  the  voice  of  the  American 
people,  Cleveland  was  accessible  only  to  the  foreign  and  eastern  money 
manipulators.  He  refused  to  act  upon  the  subject  upon  which  the 
country  had  spoken  and  proceeded  to  act  on  a  subject  upon  which 
the  country  had  not  spoken  and  on  which  there  was  a  divided  senti- 
ment. The  result  was  that  the  conditions  growing  out  of  the  panic 
were  intensified,  and  the  business  and  manufacturing  interests  of  the 
country  were  practically  kept  at  a  standstill  for  eighteen  months,  dur- 
ing which  time  thousands  of  laborers  were  compelled  to  beg  bread. 
The  result  was  not  only  dissatisfaction  but  disgust.  Never  before  in 
the  history  of  this  republic  has  such  a  gigantic  blunder  been  com- 
mitted by  a  President. 

THE    GREAT    STRIKES. 

Second,  while  the  causes  which  I  have  enumerated  did  not  produce 
the  conditions  which  gave  rise  to  the  great  coal  strike  and  the  great 
railroad  strike  of  last  summer,  they  did  intensify  these  conditions. 
In  fact,  there  is  a  doubt  whether  we  would  have  had  either  strike  if  the 
tariff  question  had  been  settled  in  the  spring  of  1893,  and  after  having 
thus  helped  to  produce  these  great  disturbances,  the  federal  adminis- 
tration then  turned  its  face  against  the  great  laboring  classes  of  the 
country  and  placed  all  the  powers  of  the  government  under  the  control 
of  the  corporations. 

In  Chicago  during  the  railroad  strike,  before  there  had  been  any 
rioting,  before  there  had  been  any  destruction  of  property  and  before 
anything  had  happened  to  indicate  that  the  local  authorities  could  not 
maintain  law  and  order,  and  before  the  State  authorities  were  called 


456  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

on  for  assistance,  the  federal  government,  in  violation  of  the  constitu- 
tion and  in  violation  of  those  principles  of  local  self-government  which 
the  Democratic  party  had  advocated  for  a  hundred  years,  interfered, 
both  through  the  federal  judiciary  and  by  the  use  of  federal  troops. 
This  was  done  by  the  direction  of  the  attorney  general  and  of  the 
President. 

The  country  then  discovered  that  we  had  a  corporation  lawyer,  a 
corporation  manipulator,  for  attorney  general,  and,  although  there 
was  in  Chicago  the  complete  machinery  for  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice, yet  so  eager  was  the  federal  administration  to  serve  the  corpora- 
tions the  usual  machinery  for  administering  justice  in  Chicago  was 
not  trusted.  A  man  was  appointed  to  directly  represent  the  govern- 
ment as  prosecutor,  and  the  country  was  amused  at  the  selection  that 
was  made.  There  were  then  in  Chicago  several  thousand  able  and 
conscientious  lawyers  who  were  not  directly  or  personally  interested 
in  the  troubles,  but  they  were  not  wanted.  There  were  in  Chicago 
hundreds  of  able  Democrats  who  were  capable  of  filling  any  position, 
from  that  of  President  down,  but  they  were  not  trusted. 

PROSECUTOR   WHO   WAS    NAMED. 

The  administration  selected  a  man  who  was  not  only  a  Republican, 
but  who  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  corporation  lawyers  in  the. 
country,  and  who  was  at  that  time  the  attorney  for  some  of  the  rail- 
roads involved  in  this  trouble,  and  had  therefore  a  direct  personal  in- 
terest in  the  outcome.  Yet  he  was  put  in  charge  of  the  machinery  of  jus- 
tice, and  he  brought  to  the  service  of  his  clients,  without  any  expense  to 
them,  United  States  marshals,  United  States  grand  juries  and  United 
States  courts,  and  the  United  States  army.  All  the  powers  of  the 
United  States  government  were  placed  at  the  disposal  of  a  corpora- 
tion lawyer  and  used  by  him  for  the  benefit  of  his  clients  against  the 
men  who  toil  with  their  hands.  And  all  this  under  an  administration 
that  had  been  placed  in  power  by  the  Democratic  party. 

Hundreds  of  honest  and  industrious  men  who  had  violated  no 
statute  and  transgressed  no  law  were  thrown  into  prison  on  the  mere 
charge  of  being  guilty  of  contempt  of  court,  and  the  toiling  masses 
became  alarmed,  not  simply  for  their  material  welfare,  but  for  the 
liberty  of  themselves  and  their  children,  and  they  seized  the  first  op- 
portunity to  deliver  a  body  blow  to  that  administration  which  was 
fraudulently  claiming  to  be  Democratic  while  violating  every  known 
principle  of  Democracy.  They  joined  hands  with  the  dissatisfied  busi- 
ness men  of  the  country  and  the  result  is  universal  disaster  to  that 
party  which  has  been  twice  deceived  and  twice  betrayed  by  one  man. 


STATE  INSTITUTIONS.  457 

It  has  had  the  misfortune  to  be  stricken  down  by  the  man  to  whom 
it  had  handed  a  sword. 


ON    CHANGE    OF    MANAGEMENT    IN    STATE    INSTITU- 
TIONS. 

Executive  Office,  Springfield,  Nov.  20,  1894. 
J.  W.  Babcock,  Esq.,  Columbia,  S.  C.: 

Dear  Sir:  Answering  your  letter  of  inquiry  of  the  2d  inst.,  I  will 
say  that  I  was  once  imbued  with  the  idea  that  the  management  of  an 
insane,  or  any  other  asylum,  should  be  subject  to  as  few  changes  as 
possible  and  that  it  should  be  divorced  from  all  outside  influence,  but 
since  I  have  been  brought  into  closer  relations  with  the  management 
of  these  institutions  and  have  studied  the  character  and  watched  the 
tendency  of  them  I  have  entirely  changed  my  mind  on  this  subject. 
I  now  feel  that  a  ^complete  change  of  management  at  reasonable  inter- 
vals is  an  absolute  necessity  to  the  welfare  of  an  asylum.  There  seems 
to  be  everywhere  an  irresistible  tendency  to  get  into  a  rut.  For  a  time 
after  their  appointment  new  officers  are  vigilant,  wide-awake  and 
thorough,  and,  even  if  they  are  inexperienced,  the  institution  fares 
reasonably  well  during  this  time,  for  the  attendants  and  underlings  of 
an  institution  are  apt  unconsciously  to  catch  the  spirit  of  the  head, 
especially  if  they  wish  to  retain  their  places.  But,  after  a  time,  officers 
begin  to  feel  comfortable  in  their  positions,  and  then  easy,  and  next 
lazy,  and  soon  a  kind  of  easy-going  spirit  pervades  the  whole  estab- 
lishment, and  out  of  this  condition  grows  brutality  on  the  part  of 
some  attendants,  inattention  and  negligence  on  the  part  of  others, 
and  looseness  of  the  business  management.  The  head  may  still  pre- 
pare learned  papers  to  read  before  a  congress,  but  the  patients  in  the 
institution  suffer.  I  am  convinced  that  a  new  broom  is  needed  every 
now  and  then,  not  only  in  a  kitchen,  but  in  every  public  position. 
Nearly  all  the  scandals  connected  with  the  institutions  of  this  coun- 
try were  found  when  the  management  was  old,  and  rarely  have  we 
heard  of  any  trouble  when  the  management  was  new.  I  am  aware 
that  men  who  make  it  a  profession  to  serve  in  institutions  will  de- 
nounce this  view  and  will  cite  the  fact  that  in  the  management  of  a 
private  business  a  man  finds  out  who  are  the  best  servants  and  keeps 
them.  This  illustration  is  entirely  misleading  and  has  absolutely  no 
application  to  the  public  service.  In  the  management  of  a  private 
business  the  head,  being  obliged  to  supply  ways  and  means,  is  forced 
to  be  constantly  on  the  alert  to  keep  an  eye  on  everything.  He  is 
never  permitted  to  sink  into  an  easy  and  comfortable  frame  of  mind, 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

or  if  he  does  do  so,  he  soon  finds  that  his  business  is  not  prospering. 
Consequently,  in  private  affairs  the  employes  are  constantly  in  the 
situation  that  attendants  are  for  a  while  under  a  new  management. 
The  very  atmosphere  watches  them,  but  in  the  public  service  the  head 
of  an  institution  is  not  required  to  be  eternally  vigilant  in  order  to  get 
ways  and  means.  These  are  furnished  him,  and,  not  having  this 
necessary  spur  to  keep  him  on  the  alert,  he  in  time  feels  comfortable 
and  then  easy,  and  that  spirit  soon  gets  through  the  entire  institu- 
tion. 

As  to  the  influence  of  politics;  it  should  never  have  anything  to 
do  with  the  management  of  an  institution;  that  is,  if  the  appointing 
power  is  influenced  by  political  considerations,  a  set  of  men  will  be 
appointed  who  will  not  have  the  necessary  high  aspirations  and  there 
will  not  be  the  effort  to  bring  the  institution  on  the  highest  plane 
possible.  Men  should  be  selected  for  their  fitness  and  given  a  reason- 
able time  in  which  to  work,  but  should  not  be  allowed  to  remain  in  an 
institution  long  enough  for  dry-rot  to  set  in,  and  nowhere  are  the 
conditions  so  conducive  to  dry-rot  as  in  a  public  institution. 

My  idea  of  the  public  service  is: 

First:    Select  men  solely  with  reference  to  their  fitness. 

Second:  Do  not  put  a  man  on  the  pay-roll  who  is  not  absolutely 
needed. 

Third:  Do  not  pay  more  money  in  the  institution  than  similar 
ability  or  service  would  command  outside. 

Fourth:  'Do  not  keep  a  man  an  hour  after  it  is  found  that  he  is  not 
just  the  right  man  for  the  place,  and  let  it  make  no  difference  who 
recommended  him  or  what  influence  is  back  of  him. 

Fifth:  Keep  the  standard  of  living  of  the  inmates  on  the  plane 
of  that  of  the  average  self-supporting  citizen,  except  where  special 
diet  is  prescribed  by  physician. 

Sixth:  Make  out  requisitions  for  everything  needed  in  the  institu- 
tion; have  the  clerk  make  a  dozen  copies  and  send  these  for  bids 
to  that  many  different  houses  dealing  in  the  line  of  goods  needed, 
and  buy  all  supplies  of  the  lowest  and  best  bidder. 

Seventh:  Keep  the  institution  on  the  highest  scientific  plane  pos- 
sible. 

Eighth:  Do  not  keep  any  man  in  an  institution  after  he  ceases  to 
show  high  aspiration  and  that  constant  vigilance  which  holds  the 
spirit  of  an  institution  firm  and  on  a  very  high  plane. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Very  respectfully, 

JOHN   P.    ALTGELD. 


THE  DEBS  CASE.  •  459 

UNITED  STATES  SUPREME  COURT  IN  DEBS  CASE,  JUNE 

2,  1895. 

Governor,  what  have  you  to  say  on  the  decisions  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  in  the  Debs  case? 

The  remanding  of  Debs  to  jail  is  in  itself  a  matter  of  small  conse- 
quence compared  with  the  principle  established,  which  is  of  transcend- 
ent importance.  This  decision  marks  a  turning  point  in  our  history, 
for  it  establishes  a  new  form  of  government  never  before  heard  of 
among  men,  that  is  government  by  injunction.  Under  this  procedure 
a  federal  judge  sitting  in  a  rear  room  can  on  motion  of  some  corpora- 
tion lawyer  issue  a  ukase  which  he  calls  an  injunction  forbidding  any- 
thing he  chooses  to  and  which  the  law  does  not  forbid.  Where  the 
law  forbids  a  thing  no  injunction  is  necessary.  In  other  words  he  can 
legislate  for  himself,  and  having  done  so  can  then  turn  around  and 
arrest  and  imprison  as  many  people  as  he  pleases;  not  for  violating 
any  law  but  on  the  mere  pretext  that  they  had  disregarded  his  injunc- 
tion, and,  mark  you,  they  are  not  tried  by  a  jury  according  to  the 
forms  of  law,  but  the  same  judge  who  issued  the  ukase  and  who 
claims  that  his  dignity  was  offended  himself  tries  the  case,  and  whether 
anything  is  proven  or  nothing  is  proven  he  can  send  men  to  prison  at 
pleasure  and  there  is  no  remedy. 

The  provision  of  the  constitution  "That  no  man  shall  be  deprived 
of  his  liberty  without  a  trial  by  an  impartial  jury"  is  practically  wiped 
out  by  this  decision  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  and  the 
theory  that  ours  was  exclusively  a  government  of  law  is  now  at  an 
end,  for  every  community  is  now  subject  to  obey  any  whim  or  caprice 
which  any  federal  judge  may  promulgate.  And  if  federal  judges  can 
do  this  then  it  will  not  be  long  until  State  judges  will  follow  this 
example.  The  Constitution  declares  that  our  government  has  three 
departments,  the  legislative,  judicial  and  executive,  and  that  no  one 
shall  trench  on  the  other,  but  under  this  new  order  of  things  a  federal 
judge  becomes  at  once  a  legislator,  court  and  executioner. 

For  over  a  century  our  government  moved  along  the  lines  of 
the  Constitution  and  we  became  great  and  powerful.  Life  and  prop- 
erty-were protected  and  the  law  was  enforced.  Now  we  have  made  a 
departure,  the  bulwark  of  liberty  has  been  undermined,  trial  by  jury 
has  been  stricken  down. 

You  know  there  were  two  separate  proceedings  against  Debs.  One 
was  according  to  the  established  forms  of  law;  he  was  indicted  by  a 
grand  jury  for  acts  alleged  to  have  been  committed  during  the  strike, 
and  he  was  regularly  tried  by  a  jury  and  it  turned  out  there  was  abso- 


460  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

'  lutely  no  case  against  him.  Nothing  was  proven.  It  is  true  the  jury 
were  not  allowed  to  bring  in  a  verdict  because  near  the  end  of  the 
trial  one  of  the  jurors  became  ill  and  the  prosecution  refused  to  go  on. 
Debs'  attorneys  offered  to  proceed  with  the  remaining  eleven  or  to 
add  a  new  man  and  proceed,  but  the  railroad  lawyer,  who  also  repre- 
sented the  government,  feeling  that  he  had  no  case  at  all,  would  not 
consent,  and  he  thereby  prevented  a  verdict  of  acquittal  and  had  the 
case  postponed. 

The  other  proceeding  was  by  injunction.  A  federal  judge  on  mo- 
tion of  some  railroad  attorneys  issued  a  ukase  against  the  people  of  all 
the  States  in  that  judicial  circuit,  in  which  he  forbade  nearly  every- 
thing that  the  ingenuity  of  man  could  think  of  and  which  the  law 
did  not  forbid,  and  having  thus  legislated  he  then  turned  around  and 
had  Debs  and  others  arrested,  not  for  violating  any  law  but  for  failing 
to  respect  his  ukase  or  injunction.  And  then  this  judge  not  only 
refused  to  give  a  jury  trial  but  he  himself  proceeded  to  determine 
whether  his  own  dignity  had  been  offended,  and  he  promptly  sent 
the  defendants  to  prison,  the  judge  being  legislator,  court  and  execu- 
tioner. 

Had  there  been  a  jury  trial  the  defendants  would  have  been  dis- 
charged, because  it  was  not  proved  that  they  had  violated  any  law. 
This  would  have  been  in  harmony  with  the  Constitution,  with  the  law 
of  the  land  and  with  eternal  justice.  But  the  corporations  wanted  the 
Constitution  brushed  aside,  and  the  federal  judge  kindly  obliged  them, 
and  the  Supreme  Court  ha§  now  approved  his  acts. 

For  a  number  of  years  it  has  been  marked  that  the  decisions  of 
the  United  States  courts  were  nearly  always  in  favor  of  corporations. 
Then  it  was  noticed  that  no  man  could  be  appointed  to  a  federal  judge- 
ship  unless  he  was  satisfactory  to  those  interests.  Over  a  year  ago  the 
New  York  World  talked  about  a  packed  Supreme  Court,  and  that 
court  has  within  a  few  days  rendered  two  decisions  which  unfortu- 
nately tend  to  confirm  this  charge.  A  week  ago  it  did  violence  to 
the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  land  by  holding  that  the  government 
had  no  power  to  tax  the  rich  of  this  country.  Now  it  has  stricken 
down  trial  by  jury  and  has  established  government  by  injunction. 

Forty  years  ago  the  slave  power  predominated;  to-day  it  is  capi- 
talism. 

George  William  Curtis  described  the  slave  power  of  forty  years 
ago  as  follows :  "Slavery  sat  in  the  White  House  and  made  laws  in  the 
capitol ;  courts  of  justice  were  its  ministers  and  legislatures  were  its 
lackeys.  .It  silenced  the  preacher  in  the  pulpit;  it  muzzled  the  editor 
at  his  desk  and  the  professor  in  his  lecture-room.  It  set  the  price  upon 


MEDICAL    PRACTICE    ACT.  461 

the  heads  of  peaceful  citizens;  it  robbed  the  mails  and  denounced  the 
vital  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  as  treason.  Even 
in  States  whose  laws  did  not  tolerate  slavery  it  ruled  the  club  and  the 
drawing-room,  the  factory  and  the  office.  It  swaggered  at  the  dinner 
table  and  scourged  with  scorn  a  cowardly  society.  It  tore  the  golden 
rule  from  school  books  and  the  pictured  benignity  of  Christ  from  the 
prayer  book." 

Now  substitute  the  word  "capitalism"  for  the  word  "slavery"  and 
the  above  is  an  exact  picture  of  our  condition  to-day.  The  American 
people  crushed  the  slave  power,  they  washed  its  stain  off  our  flag  and 
saved  our  institutions.  Can  they  rescue  them  again?  Many  say  yes, 
but  they  have  not  reflected  that  the  crushing  force  which  now  con- 
fronts them  is  greater  than  was  ever  the  slave  power.  Besides,  slavery 
itself  was  sectional  and  in  the  end  it  was  possible  to  unite  the  rest  of  the 
country  against  it.  But  the  corrupt  money  power  has  its  withering 
finger  on  every  pulse  in  the  land  and  is  destroying  the  rugged  man- 
hood and  love  of  liberty  which  alone  can  carry  a  people  through  a 
great  crisis.  What,  then,  is  the  situation  to-day?  for  over  twenty 
years  foreign  and  domestic  capitalism  has  dominated.  "It  sits  in  the 
White  House  and  legislates  in  the  capital.  Courts  of  justice  are  its 
ministers  and  legislatures  are  its  lackeys.'"  And  the  whole  machinery 
of  fashionable  society  is  its  handmaid. 

Just  see  what  a  brood  of  evils  has  sprung  from  the  power  of 
capitalism  since  1870. 

1.  The  striking  down  of  over  one-third  of  the  money   of  the 
world,  thus  crushing  the  debtor  class  and  paralyzing  industry. 

2.  The  growing  of  that  corrupt  use  of  wealth  which  is  under- 
mining our  institutions,  debauching  public  officials,  shaping  legislation 
and  creating  judges  who  do  its  bidding. 

3.  Exemption  of  the  rich  from  taxation. 

4.  The  substitution  of  government  by  injunction  for  government 
by  the  Constitution  and  laws. 

5.  The  striking  down  of  trial  by  jury. 

Never  has  there  been  so  much  patriotic  talk  as  in  the  last  twenty 
five  years  and  never  were  there  so  many  influences  at  work  strangling 
Republican  institutions.  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


462  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

THE  MEDICAL  PRACTICE  ACT  OF  ILLINOIS. 

December  28,  1894. 
J.  R.  Price,  M.  D.,  927  Polk  street,  Chicago: 

Dear  Sir: — I  have  your  favor  and  thank  you  for  the  friendly  senti- 
ments you  express.  I  have  read  the  articles  you  referred  to  and  it 
seems  to  me  that  you  labor  under  some  misapprehension  as  to  the  ob- 
ject of  the  laws  of  Illinois  governing  the  practice  of  medicine  in  this 
State.  As  I  understand  the  law,  it  does  not  prescribe  any  school  or 
any  method  or  any  system,  but  permits  every  man  who  is  once  author- 
ized to  practice  at  all  to  practice  anything  he  pleases  and  to  deal  with 
disease  in  any  manner  he  sees  fit,  whether  with  or  without  medicine. 
The  object  of  the  law  was  to  compel  everybody  to  get  a  certain  degree 
of  education  before  attempting  the  art  of  healing,  and  among  other 
things  everyone  was  required  to  understand  some  system  of  medicine, 
but  when  he  has  once  met  those  requirements  then  he  can  disregard 
it  all  and  adopt  other  methods  that  in  his  judgment  are  better.  Until 
a  man  once  understands  some  system  of  medicine  he  is  not  in  a  position 
to  say  whether  there  is  anything  better  or  not,  and  if  the  law  were  to 
make  no  requirement  in  this  regard  and  anybody  could  go  to  practic- 
ing without  having  a  knowledge  of  either  the  human  system  or  of  even 
the  most  common  remedies  used,  it  would  hardly  be  a  good  thing 
for  the  public,  for  thousands  and  thousands  of  our  people  know  noth- 
ing about  the  abilities  of  a  doctor  and  are  forced  to  rely  on  the  mere 
fact  that  he  has  his  shingle  out  and  calls  himself  a  doctor,  and  upon 
the  strength  of  this  they  employ  him.  Further,  under  such  a  system 
the  profession  as  a  body  could  not  attain  any  high  degree  of  excel- 
lence. The  law  in  reality  aims  simply  to  fix  a  standard  of  education 
and  then  let  everyone  who  has  once  met  this  standard  exercise  his  own 
judgment  and  the  greatest  liberty.  I  am  fully  aware  that  even  this 
will  not  make  good  doctors  of  all  who  do  meet  the  standard  and  I  am 
also  fully  aware  that  there  are  thousands  of  men  who  by  reason  of 
their  ambition  would  reach  a  high  degree  of  excellence  and  become 
successful  healers  if  there  were  no  law  at  all.  I  am  also  aware  of  the 
fact  that  some  very  able  statesmen  of  both  this  country  and  of  Europe 
have  questioned  the  wisdom  of  laws  of  this  character  and  I  must  con- 
fess there  is  a  great  deal  of  force  in  their  arguments.  Still,  when  the 
whole  subject  is  considered  I  am  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  the  pub- 
lic in  the  end  will  be  best  served  by  requiring  a  certain  degree  of  edu- 
cation on  the  part  of  those  who  want  to  practice  the  art  of  healing, 
and  that  so  long  as  this  legislation  does  not  attempt  to  compel  the 
adoption  of  any  particular  school  or  system,  it  cannot  do  much  harm. 


STATE  UNIVERSITY.  463 

Certainly  the  raising  of  the  standard  of  intelligence  and  requiring 
greater  effort  in  this  regard  than  would  otherwise  be  necessary  can- 
not hurt  us.  I  am,  however,  very  much  in  doubt  about  the  wisdom 
of  giving  license  to  practice  to  young  men  merely  because  they  have 
graduated  at  certain  colleges,  for  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  some 
of  the  graduates  of  our  best  colleges  will  not  know  much,  while  some 
of  the  graduates  of  colleges  that  are  not  recognized  may  possess  great 
ability.  My  own  impression  is  that  all  should  be  put  on  the  same 
footing  and  everybody  should  be  examined  before  being  given  a  li- 
cense to  engage  in  the  art  of  healing.  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


ON  NEED  OF  GREAT  STATE  UNIVERSITY. 

January  28,  1895. 

Hon.  M.  W.  Robinson,  Attorney-at-Law,  161  La  Salle  street,  Chicago: 
My  Dear  Robinson: — It  is  not  the  intention  to  give  instruction 
free  in  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  case  it  should  be- 
come a  part  of  the  university.  On  the  contrary,  the  tuition  will  prob- 
ably remain  about  as  it  has  been.  Of  late  years  everything  is  tending 
to  consolidation.  This  is  true  in  the  case  of  institutions  of  learning 
and  as  a  consequence  only  the  larger  and  stronger  survive.  I  agree 
with  you  in  that  the  government  should  not  furnish  instruction  free 
when  it  comes  to  teaching  professions.  On  the  other  hand,  however, 
it  is  the  duty  of  our  State  to  place  the  appliances  and  facilities  for  ac- 
quiring this  instruction  within  the  reach  of  our  young  men  and  women 
so  that  they  can  get  it  at  home  as  cheaply  at  least  as  they  could  get 
it  by  going  abroad.  At  present  a  great  many  thousands 
of  your  young  men  and  young  worried  go  to  the  eastern  States 
every  year  to  get  that  which  we  should  at  least  give  them  an  op- 
portunity to  procure  at  home.  In  order  to  do  this  we  must  have 
here  in  our  own  State  one  of  the  greatest  educational  institutions 
in  the  world.  This  requires  so  much  of  an  outlay  that  the  smaller 
private  colleges  cannot  afford  it.  It  is  true  there  are  already  two 
universities  in  and  near  Chicago  that  are  doing,  I  suppose,  very 
good  work,  still,  they  are  both  sectarian  and  are  moving  along  sec- 
tarian lines.  I  have  looked  the  ground  over  very  carefully 
and  do  not  see  any  way  open  to  get  the  kind  of  a  great 
educational  institution  necessary  unless  we  can  make  it  out 
of  the  university  at  Champaign.  This  is  already  a  great  in- 
stitution. It  has  already  eight  hundred  students,  and  our 


464  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

people  as  yet  know  scarcely  anything  about  it.  It  is  regarded  as  one 
of  the  best  equipped  engineering  schools  in  this  country  and  some  of 
its  professors  have  a  reputation  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  for  being 
great  scientists.  To  make  a  complete  university  of  it,  it  is  necessary 
that  it  should  have  both  a  law  school  and  a  medical  school.  The  law 
school  can  be  carried  on  at  Champaign.  The  medical  school  can  not. 
It  must  be  located  in  Chicago  on  account  of  the  hospital  advantages, 
etc.  To  start  a  new  medical  school  in  Chicago  would  be  an  up-hill 
business.  There  is  therefore  nothing  left  except  to  take  one  of  the 
old  schools,  and  the  only  one  that  is  of  a  high  character  and  not  already 
absorbed  by  other  universities  is  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Sur- 
geons. I  am  informed  that  it  is  one  of  the  best  equipped  medical 
schools  and  one  of  the  highest  standing  in  America.  It  owns  real 
estate  and  other  property  .worth  fully  the  sum  asked  for  it  and  it  has  for 
several  years  been  a  little  more  than  self-sustaining,  but  it  also  finds 
that,  as  the  other  medical  schools  have  connected  themselves  with 
some  university,  they  have  somewhat  the  advantage  of  it  and  that  it 
is  going  to  become  necessary  for  it  to  take  a  similar  step.  It  is  be- 
lieved by  all  who  have  considered  the  matter  that  to  unite  this  medical 
college  with  the  State  University  would  be  greatly  for  the  benefit  of 
both.  For  the  reasons  above  given  I  am  at  present  favorable  to  this 
move,  for  I  am  exceedingly  anxious  to  give  this  State,  before  my. 
administration  ends,  an  institution  of  learning  of  which  all  our  people 
will  feel  proud.  I  have  already  suggested  to  the  board  the  advisabil- 
ity of  charging  a  moderate  tuition  in  all  the  departments  of  the  univer- 
sity, so  that  the  charge  that  the  State  is  furnishing  free  education  in 
the  higher  branches  will  no  longer  stand  against  the  institution,  at 
least,  not  in  the  sense  in  which  it  now  does.  While  it  will  require  some 
money  from  the  State  to  keep  it  up,  it  will  be  only  for  the  purpose 
of  furnishing  facilities,  opportunities,  etc.,  etc.,  which  our  young  people 
are  now  obliged  to  procure  elsewhere,  as  heretofore  explained.  We 
must  have  a  university  that  shall  not  stand  on  such  a  narrow  basis 
as  to  be  called  sectarian  but  shall  be  in  truth  and  in  fact  a  university 
'of  Illinois,  and  shall  be  second  to  none  on  earth.  With  my  kind 
regards,  I  am,  very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

THE  SUPREME  COURT  AND  THE  INCOME  TAX. 

"Governor,  what  do  you  think  of  the  income  tax  decision?" 
For  more  than  a  century  the  Supreme  Court  in  numerous  decisions 
held  such  a  law  to  be  constitutional  and  valid.    But  this  time  all  con- 
centrated wealth  opposed  the  law  and  the  court  has  declared  it  void. 


SUPREME   COURT  AND   INCOME    TAX.  465 

It  is  all  a  question  of  constitutional  construction,  and,  as  this  depends 
on  opinion  or  prejudice,  one  is  reminded  of  ihe  distinguished  English- 
man who,  in  speaking  of  the  Court  of  Chancery,  said  that  the  pro- 
ceedings were  all  a  matter  of  conscience  and,  as  the  consciences  of  the 
different  chancellors  varied  as  much  as  did  the  size  of  their  feet,  so  did 
their  decisions  on  any  question.  Now,  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  has  been  construed  in  more  different  ways  than  all  of  the  judges 
together  had  feet,  but  always  in  harmony  with  what  was  the  controlling 
influence  or  power  of  the  times.  Before  the  war  the  slave  power  and 
the  South  dominated  the  court.  Since  the  war  concentrated  wealth 
and  the  East  have  dominated  the  court,  and  the  time  will  come  when 
justice  and  the  great  Mississippi  Valley  will  dominate  the  court. 

This  particular  decision  recognizes  the  divinity  of  wealth  by  ex- 
empting it  from  taxation,  and  it  breathes  a  curse  against  enterprise 
by  making  it  bear  all  the  burdens  of  government.  But  it  is  in  perfect 
accord  with  the  Republican  and  mugwump  theory  of  government  now 
being  applied  in  this  country.  It  also  shows  that  at  least  two  of  the 
co-ordinate  branches  of  our  government  receive  their  inspiration  at 
the  same  altar.  You  remember  that  the  President  opposed  the  income 
tax  and  would  not  sign  the  tariff  bill,  and  Mr.  Wilson,  who  represented 
him  in  Congress,  opposed  the  income  tax.  Congress,  however,  know- 
ing that  almost  every  civilized  country  had  an  income  tax,  that  our 
Supreme  Court  had  sustained  it  for  a  century,  and  believing  it  to  be 
the  most  just  form  of  taxation  passed  the  measure,  both  Republicans 
and  Democrats  supporting  it.  For  a  time  there  was  bitterness  in  the 
camp  of  Mammon,  but  the  Supreme  Court  has  come  to  the  rescue 
and  now  the  Standard  Oil  kings,  the  Wall  Street  people,  as  well  as  the 
rich  mugwumps,  are  again  happy.  To  be  sure,  the  great  business  and 
producing  classes  are  not  relieved ;  their  burden  is  made  a  little  heavier 
and  the  whip  has  made  a  new  welt  on  their  backs,  but  what  of  it  ?  In 
fact,  what  are  they  for,  if  not  to  bear  burdens  and  to  be  lashed  ? 

This  decision  is  radically  defective  in  a  number  of  particulars. 

First,  it  should  contain  a  panegyric  on  the  majesty  of  the  law  and 
the  exalted  character  of  eternal  justice. 

Second,  it  should  have  contained  a  stinging  rebuke  to  the  growing 
discontent  of  the  times. 

But  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  the  court  to  think  of  every- 
thing. Besides,  it  will  have  other  opportunities  from  time  to  time  to 
solidify  our  institutions  and  to  teach  patriotism  by  coming  down  with 
terrific  force  on  some  wretch  whose  vulgarity  and  unpatriotic  char- 
acter will  be  proven  by  the  fact  that  he. is  poor. 

This  decision,  however,  suggests  a  most  important  question  to  the 


466  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

American  people.  You  know  that  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
when  in  session,  wear  large  black  gowns,  such  as  were  worn  in  the 
middle  ages.  In  other  countries  and  in  other  times  this  was  done  to 
make  little  men  seem  great.  In  this  country  it  is  done  to  impress  the 
populace  with  the  infallibility  of  the  court.  Now,  as  these  gowns 
are  not  very  thick,  and  as  some  people  might  be  able  to  see  through 
them  and  be  unpatriotic  enough  to  question  the  justice  of  having  to 
bear  the  burdens  of  government  while  the  rich  escape,  and  as  there 
is  danger  that  some  of  these  men  may  doubt  the  infallibility  of  the 
court,  would  it  not  be  well  to  have  each  judge  wear  two  gowns  for  a 
while,  until  the  storm  blows  over? 


LETTER  ON  GENERAL  GRANT. 

(On  February  8.  1895,  Gen.  G.  M.  Dodge,  chairman  of  the  Grant  Banquet 
Association,  asked  each  of  the  Governors  of  the  United  States  to  give  their 
views  of  General  Grant's  worth  and  of  the  lessons  taught  by  his  career.  The 
following  letter  was  an  answer  to  this  request:) 

General  George  M.  Dodge,  Chairman  Grant  Banquet  Association, 
N.  Y.,  Dear  Sir : — Here  in  Illinois  we  adxnire  the  personal  career  of 
General  Grant  because  of  his  sturdy  manhood,  his  strong  common 
sense  and  the  utter  absence  in  his  character  of  all  pretense.  He  never 
claimed  glory  where  there  was  none.  General  Grant  never  strutted, 
he  never  posed,  he  never  tried  to  make  an  impression  by  lofty  bearing 
or  overwhelming  dignity.  He  left  all  these  things  where  they  belonged 
— to  parlor  generals,  club-room  heroes  and  weak  men.  While  he  was 
silent  he  made  no  effort  to  look  wise.  He  disliked  cant,  hypocrisy 
and  sham,  and  had  little  regard  for  that  ever  increasing  army  of  men 
who  during  the  war  smelled  the  battle  afar  off,  but  have  been  invincible 
(and  insatiable)  ever  since.  With  him  patriotism  meant  something,  and 
he  felt  that  a  good  citizen  should  bring  something  more  substantial 
to  the  altar  of  his  country  than  fine  talk. 

While  Illinois  glories  in  his  public  career  and  the  great  services 
he  rendered  his  country,  she  is  especially  proud  of  having  given  to  the 
world  such  a  splendid  example  of  American  manhood.  I  have  the 
honor  to  be, 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

March  16,  1895. 


LETTER  ON  GROVER  CLEVELAND.  467 

LETTER  TO  ELA  ON  GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

Chicago,  March  27,  1895. 

Dear  Ela : — I  am  in  receipt  of  a  letter  purporting  to  be  signed  by 
you  as  chairman  of  a  committee  of  the  Iroquois  Club,  stating  that  the 
annual  banquet  of  this  club,  to  commemorate  the  birth  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  will  be  given  April  22d,  and  requesting  me  to  be  present 
and  deliver  an  address  of  welcome.  I  also  learn  that  a  program  has 
been  prepared  which  will  make  the  entire  exercises  simply  a  laudation 
of  the  financial  policy  and  of  the  general  course  of  the  present  federal 
administration.  In  other  words,  that  the  program  has  been  so  ar- 
ranged as  to  convert  the  whole  proceeding  into  a  kind  of  Cleveland 
love-feast.  As  this  is  simply  a  repetition  of  what  has  been  done  several 
times,  I  take  it  that  you  did  not  prepare  this  program,  but  that  it  was 
prepared  by  a  few  gentlemen  who  for  a  number  of  years  have  talked 
reform  and  then  pursued  office  with  the  appetite  of  a  wolf.  In  making 
this  program  they  remembered  the  hand  that  had  given  the  spoils 
and  at  the  same  time  they  cast  a  hopeful  anchor  toward  the  future. 

Last  summer  one  of  the  great  newspapers  gave  an  account  of  the 
greatest  timber  stealing  and  homestead  robbing  operations  ever  car- 
ried on  in  the  Northwest,  involving  even  the  prostitution  of  high  office. 
Recently  the  country  was  alarmed  at  seeing  in  Washington  the  most 
powerful  and  the  most  corrupt  lobby  ever  known  engaged  in  trying  to 
force  the  railroad  pooling  bill  through  Congress.  I  notice  that  two  of 
the  men  whose  names  were  prominent  in  connection  with  one  or  the 
other  of  these  scandals  have  been  selected  to  point  out  the  beauties 
of  Clevelandism,  and  I  will  admit  that  they  are  the  right  men  for  the 
purpose.  Coupled  with  these  is  at  least  one  other  whose  fame  in  the 
East  is  co-extensive  only  with  his  ability  to  injure  his  party.  These 
three  are  to  discuss  the  great  questions  now  before  the  country.  All 
three  stand  for  Clevelandism,  but  not  for  the  Democracy  of  the  country. 
They  stand  in  practice  for  the  theory  that  government  is  a  convenience 
for  the  strong,  and  were  it  Hamilton's  birthday  you  wished  to  celebrate 
this  would  all  be  in  accordance  with  the  eternal  fitness  of  things.  But 
not  even  a  resolution  of  Congress,  supported  by  a  speech  from  a  Sen- 
ator and  an  opinion  of  the  Attorney-General  and  backed  by  the  federal 
army,'  can  keep  Thomas  Jefferson's  bones  still  while  you  attempt  to 
dump  this  program  into  his  cradle.  These  men  represent  a  class  which 
in  his  day  called  Jefferson  a  demagogue,  derided  his  statesmanship  and 
sneered  at  his  patriotism. 

Jeffersonism  was  the  first-born  of  the  new  age  of  liberty  and  human 
progress,  while  Clevelandism  is  the  slimy  off-spring  of  that  unhallowed 


468  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

marriage  between  Standard  Oil  and  Wall  Street.  Jeffersonism 
brought  liberty,  prosperity  and  greatness  to  our  country  because  it 
gave  its  benediction  to  the  great  toiling  and  producing  masses,  while 
Clevelandism  has  put  its  heel  upon  the  neck  of  our  people,  has  in- 
creased the  burdens  and  the  sorrows  of  the  men  who  toil,  and  has 
fattened  a  horde  of  vultures  that  are  eating  the  vitals  of  the  nation. 

To  make  a  dollar  out  of  paper  by  a  fiat  of  government  may  not  be 
wisdom,  but  to  double  the  purchasing  power  of  a  gold  dollar  by  the 
fiat  of  a  number  of  governments  in  striking  down  the  competitor  of 
gold  is  ruin.  To  paralyze  the  energies  of  a  nation  by  doubling  the 
burden  of  the  debtor  is  statesmanship  under  Clevelandism,  but  a  crime 
under  Jeffersonism.  The  Republican  papers  praise  Clevelandism,  but 
they  honor  Jefferson  by  abusing  him. 

•  Jefferson's  eye  took  in  the  continent  .from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific.  Cleveland  is  to-day  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  there  is  a  country 
west  of  the  Alleghenies.  Jefferson  belonged  to  the  American  people ; 
Cleveland  to  the  men  who  devour  widows'  houses.  Jeffersonism  is 
an  illumination  in  the  American  firmament;  Clevelandism  merely  a 
swamp-light  floating  around  in  the  Standard  Oil  marsh.  To  laud 
Clevelandism  on  Jefferson's  birthday  is  to  sing  a  Te  Deum  in  honor 
of  Judas  Iscariot  on  a  Christmas  morning. 

You  will  excuse  me,  Ela,  if  I  decline  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
it,  and  you  will  also  allow  me  to  say  that,  as  I  am  not  conscious  of 
having  done  you  a  wrong,  I  do  not  understand  why  you  should  have 
asked  me  to  come  and  bid  a  welcome  after  the  program  had  been 
practically  "packed,"  as  to  important  issues,  so  as  to  stand  for  hostility 
to  all  that  is  Jeffersonian  or  Democratic,  and  to  favor  those  measures 
and  acts  which  tend  toward  the  choking  of  liberty,  the  impoverishment 
of  our  people  and  the  ultimate  destruction  of  our  institutions. 

Respectfully, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


THE  SILVER  CONVENTION  OF  JUNE,  1895. 

Springfield,  April  i6th,  1895. 
Albert,  G.  Webber,  Attorney  at  Law, 

Decatur,  111. 

Dear  Mr.  Webber : — I  have  read  your  letter  several  times  with  care 
and  am  inclined  to  think  that  on  careful  examination  you  and  I  would 
not  be  so  very  far  apart  in  our  views  on  the  money  question.  But 
it  is  not  necessary  at  this  time  to  go  into  the  detail  of  the  subject  very 
far,  because  the  first  question  we  are  confronted  with  is  whether  or 


THE   SILVER   CONVENTION.  469 

not  the  country  shall  submit  to  the  absolute  dictation  of  the  Eastern 
manipulators  who  control  the  President  and  whether  the  country 
shall,  without  a  protest,  accept  the  single  gold  standard  and  protract 
indefinitely  the  universal  depression  and  business  paralysis  prevailing 
throughout  the  world.  As  I  understand  it,  the  State  Committee  called 
a  convention  of  Democrats  to  meet  in  June  for  the  purpose  of  ascer- 
taining the  sentiment  of  the  party  in  the  State  and,  if  that  sentiment 
should  be  overwhelmingly  against  the  single  gold  standard,  to  issue 
a  protest  against  it.  The  gold  people  seem  to  be  very  angry  over 
this  step.  They  wanted  both  the  Republican  and  the  Democratic 
parties  to  go  on  straddling  this  question  as  they  have  been  doing,  feel- 
ing confident  that  in  that  case,  no  matter  which  party  elected  a  Presi- 
dent, the  Eastern  bondholders  could  control  the  situation,  and  from 
advices  which  we  get  from  Washington  and  other  points  East  it  seems 
that  they  have  determined  to  make  a  desperate  fight  to  prevent  Illinois 
from  taking  a.  decided  stand  on  this  question,  for  they  recognize  the 
fact  that  this  might  in  the  end  result  in  their  overthrow.  They  have 
resolved  on  making  a  hard  fight  and  by  means  of  various  federal 
officers  and  by  means  of  numerous  national  banks  over  the  country 
expect  to  be  able  to  accomplish  something.  It  has  already  assumed 
the  nature  of  a  fight  between  the  President  and  his  friends  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  Democratic  party  of  Illinois  on  the  other.  This  being 
the  case,  I  feel  that  it  is  important  that  all  good  citizens  who  feel  that 
this  country  has  suffered  enough  at  the  hands  of  the  Eastern  manip- 
ulators should  do  their  utmost  to  assist  the  Democracy  of  Illinois  at 
this  crisis.  For,  so  long  as  these  Eastern  people  can  hold  the  govern- 
ment by  the  throat,  just  so  long  it  will  be  utterly  impossible  to  adopt 
any  financial  policy  which  will  again  give  health  and  vigor  to  our 
country  and  put  an  end  to  the  misery  and  ruin  now  so  widely  prevalent. 

Since  I  have  been  Governor  I  have  taken  no  active  part  in  politics, 
but  have  devoted  all  of  my  energies  to  the  affairs  of  the  State  and 
have  endeavored  to  place  its  institutions  on  the  highest  plane  possible. 
I  feel,  however,  that  this  money  question  affects  the  very  life  of  our 
people  and  consequently  feel  greatly  concerned  about  it,  and,  while  not 
interfering  in  politics,  I  do  hope  that  our  friends  everywhere  will  do 
what  they  can  to  make  the  June  convention  a  thorough  success,  and 
see  to  it  that  its  declarations  shall  have  no  uncertain  meaning.  If  you 
feel  that  you  can  consistenly  help  in  this  matter,  it  would  greatly 
please  me,  as  well  as  your  friends  over  in  this  section. 

Assuring  you  of  my  high  regard,  I  am, 
Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 


470  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  NEW  BUILDINGS. 

(Sent  to  all  the  trustees  of  public  institutions.) 

We  have  in  this  State  upwards  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  large 
and  expensive  public  buildings,  but  scarcely  any  of  them  have  any 
character.  Nearly  all  of  them  look  like  warehouses  or  shops.  The 
time  has  come  in  this  State  when  we  must  insist  on  two  things :  First, 
all  buildings  hereafter  built  must  be  absolutely  fireproof.  Second, 
they  must  have  more  character,  that  is,  they  must  have  stronger  ex- 
terior architectural  effects.  As  we  are  always  pressed  for  room,  and 
as  our  appropriations  are  always  small,  we  cannot  indulge  in  expensive 
ornamentation.  As  a  rule  we  cannot  employ  granite  columns,  carved 
capitals  or  expensive  arches. 

A  thorough  and  careful  examination  of  the  subject,  as  well  as  an 
examination  of  the  pictures  of  some  of  the  most  striking  buildings  in 
the  world,  has  satisfied  me  that  the  cheapest  and  by  all  odds  the  most 
effective  method  of  ornamentation  for  buildings  that  are  to  stand  alone, 
is  a  kind  of  Tudor  Gothic  architecture,  generally  called  the  "English 
Castle  style."  It  consists  chiefly  in  carrying  the  wall  above  the  cornice 
and  then  breaking  the  lines  in  such  a  manner  as  to  produce  open 
towers,  battlements  and  so  on.  Being  plain  masonry,  it  is  compara- 
tively inexpensive  and  when  properly  treated  it  produces  the  very 
strongest  effects.  For  the  ordinary  public  buildings  it  should  be 
treated  in  a  manner  as  not  to  make  it  look  too  heavy.  As  there  is  no 
other  style  of  effective  ornamentation  that  is  within  our  means  we  must 
insist  that  this  style  be  adopted. 

We  have  no  desire  whatever  to  interfere  with  the  arrangement  of 
the  floor  plans  nor  with  the  details  in  other  respects,  but  we  desire  to 
co-operate  with  the  trustees  in  each  case  so  as  to  erect,  at  the  lowest 
expense  possible,  buildings  that  the  people  of  the  State  will  be  proud 
of. 

In  arranging  a  floor  plan  it  is  important  to  avoid  curves  and  many 
angles,  because  of  the  expense  involved  in  framing  the  steel  work  in 
such  cases.  Straight  lines  should  be  employed  as  much  as  possible 
and  the  plan  for  the  steel  work  should  be  made  as  simple  as  it  can 
possibly  be  made.  Any  complicated  work  of  that  sort  or  any  work 
that  requires  special  patterns  or  designs  to  be  made  at  the  mills  not 
only  greatly  swells  the  expense,  but  is  certain  to  produce  delays  and 
vexations. 


COMMENTS   ON   PRESIDENT'S  LETTER.  471 

SUGGESTIONS  TO  INSERT  IN  CONTRACTS  WITH  CON- 
TRACTORS OR  BUILDERS. 

First.     That  only  union  labor  shall  be  employed  on  the  buildings. 

(Note. — I  make  this  suggestion  for  several  reasons.  I  have  found  that  in 
my  private  affairs  it  was  advisable  to  do  it  and  the  same  will  hold  good  with 
the  State,  because  as  a  rule,  union  labor  is  of  a  higher  grade  than  the  non- 
union labor.  It  is  true  that  sometimes  an  able  mechanic  is  found  in  a  large 
city  who  does  not  belong  to  a  union,  but  experience  has  demonstrated  that 
the  average  is  very  much  higher  among  organized  than  it  is  among  unor- 
ganized laborers.  Further,  sometimes  a  contractor  will  sublet  his  work  and 
the  sub-contractor  will  pick  up  what  is  called  "scab  labor;"  that  is,  a  cheap 
grade  of  labor,  and  set  it  to  work  on  the  building.  This  enables  him  to  pocket 
the  difference  between  what  he  gets  that  labor  for  and  what  he  would  have  to 
pay  to  organized  labor,  while  the  State  not  only  derives  no  benefit  from  it,  but 
gets  an  inferior  grade  of  work.  And  again,  it  frequently  happens  that  four 
or  five  different  lines  of  work  are  carried  on  simultaneously.  If  some  is  being 
clone  by  union  labor  and  an  attempt  is  made  to  introduce  scab  labor,  it  gener- 
ally results  in  a  strike  on  the  part  of  the  union  laborers,  and  this  produces 
delay  and  occasionally  bloodshed,  and  as  it  in  no  instance  does  the  State  any 
good,  I  suggest  that  it  be  avoided,  and  by  having  such  a  clause  in  the  contract 
the  board  can  always  control  it.  It  will  happen  in  small  cities  that  there  is  no 
organization  among  mechanics.  Where  this  is  the  case  there  will  be  no  trouble 
in  setting  the  better  class  of  them  to  work,  but  the  whole  subject  should  be  kept 
in  a  position  in  which  the  board  can  control  it.) 

Second.  Insert  in  contract  that  the  Governor  can  at  any  time 
send  an  inspector  to  inspect  the  work,  and  that  in  points  where  the 
inspector  may  differ  with  the  architect  the  decision  of  the  inspector, 
when  approved  by  the  board,  shall  govern. 

Third.  I  regard  time  as  important  in  all  buildings.  If  a  building 
is  pushed  right  along  the  men  keep  wide-awake  and  they  do  a  higher 
grade  of  work  than  they  do  when  a  spirit  of  delay  and  languor  per- 
vades the  whole  force.  Some  of  the  poorest  buildings  in  this  country 
are  those  that  dragged  their  weary  length  through  years  in  being 
constructed.  With  the  modern  methods,  the  exterior  walls  and  roof 
of  the  largest  kind  of  a  building  can  be  erected  in  a  few  months. 


COMMENTS  ON  THE  PRESIDENT'S  LETTER  ON  SILVER. 

(After  the  calling  of  the  convention  for  June,  1895,  the  President  wrote  a 
letter  on  honest  money,  to  which  the  following  was  a  reply,  April  15,  1895.) 

"Governor,  what  do  you  think  of  the  President's  letter?" 
"If  it  had  any  other  name  than  that  of  the  President  signed  to  it, 
nobody  would  give  it  any  attention.     In  fact,  if  I  had  signed  such 


472  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

a  document,  it  would  be  ridiculed  all  over  the  country,  for  its  weakness 
almost  excites  pity.  But,  the  letter  is  remarkable  in  this,  that  it  is  the 
first  instance  in  the  history  of  the  republic  in  which  a  President  of  the 
United  States,  after  using  all  the  powers  of  the  government,  has,  in 
addition,  condescended  to  write  for  the  newspapers  in  order  to  serve 
his  masters.  For  this  letter  was  not  only  written  expressly  for  pub- 
lication, but  was  intended  to  start  a  boom  and  has  been  advertised 
for  a  week  in  order  to  give  it  an  audience.  Other  Presidents  have 
been  used  as  a  convenience  by  class  interests,  but  this  is  the  first  time 
in  which  a  President's  name  has  been  dragged  eight  hundred  miles 
outside  of  Washington  City  for  that  purpose.  After  nominating 
Cleveland  three  times  and  electing  him  twice  to  the  Presidency,  the 
Standard  Oil  and  Wall  Street  people  get  him  to  use  all  the  powers 
of  government  to  further  their  schemes.  The  country  has  been 
astounded  to  see  postorfices  and  patronage  used  to  coerce  Congress 
into  doing  the  bidding  of  the  East  from  striking  down  of  silver  to 
packing  of  a  Supreme  Court.  In  the  meantime  the  country  has  been 
going  from  bad  to  worse.  With  abundant  crops  and  with  the  most 
industrious,  intelligent  and  enterprising  people  to  be  found  on  earth, 
we  are  in  a  paralyzed  condition,  brought  on  by  no  natural  cause,  but 
by  the  arbitrary  acts  of  a  number  of  the  governments  of  the  world 
controlled  by  the  influence  of  the  official  salaried  classes  and  of  the 
bond-holding  classes  of  Europe  and  America.  These  wanted  to  make 
all  property  and  commodities  cheap  and  money  dear,  and  they  have 
succeeded.  The  result  is  that  the  purchasing  power  of  the  produc- 
ing classes  has  been  destroyed,  while  all  the  debts,  taxes  and  other 
fixed  charges  remain  the  same.  It  takes  all  that  the  people  can  get 
together  to  meet  the  fixed  charges ;  consequently  labor  is  idle  and  the 
great  producing  classes  are  in  distress,  and  they  are  finding  out  the 
cause.  They  have  learned  that  the  so-called  'honest  dollar'  is  the 
most  dishonest  dollar  ever  given  to  man,  for  it  compels  the  debtor  to 
give  twice  as  much  property  to  pay  his  debt  as  would  have  been  neces- 
sary at  the  time  that  the  debt  was  created.  Now,  does  the  President's 
letter  offer  a  remedy  to  these  people?  None.  They  have  been  bled 
until  they  can't  stand  up  and  he  simply  tells  them  to  be  content.  They 
know  that  until  they  get  more  blood  they  cannot  do  business.  They 
have  submitted  to  this  ruinous  policy  long  enough,  and  demand  a 
change.  The  Eastern  manipulators  saw  this  and,  in  order  to  keep  their 
grip  on  the  government,  were  arranging  to  again  delude  the  people. 
For  this  purpose  they  were  going  to  start  a  boom  and,  as  it  was  the 
Western  people  who  were  to  be  duped,  it  was  decided  to  start  the  boom 
in  Chicago,  and  in  order,  to  draw  the  crowd  they  concluded  to  take  the 


VN  VEILING   OF  STATUE.  473 

President  out,  and  they  got  some  Chicago  men  to  invite  him,  but  be- 
fore they  got  him  there  the  atmosphere  became  chilly  and  they  had 
to  give  this  up.  Then  they  did  the  next  best  thing;  they  got  him  to 
write  a  letter  for  publication.  It  has  come,  and  the  boomlet  that  will 
be  born  of  this  will  be  'such  a  little  one'  that  it  will  not  reflect  on  the 
virtue  of  its  mother." 


UNVEILING  STATUE  OF  ILLINOIS. 

(Note. — The  Legislature  of  Illinois  had  by  law  created  a  Woman's  Expo- 
sition Board  to  make  an  exhibit  at  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  of  the 
results  of  woman's  work  in  Illinois.  This  Board  caused  to  be  cast  in  bronze 
a  beautiful  statue  of  a  woman  extending  her  hands  as  if  in  friendly  greeting. 
They  called  it  "Illinois  welcoming  the  world."  Both  the  designing  and 
modeling  were  done  by  a  woman,  so  that  women  were  entitled  to  all  the  credit 
for  it.  On  account  of  both  its  beauty  and  its  sentiment  it  was  much  admired 
at  the  Exposition  and  afterward  was  presented  by  the  ladies  to  the  State  of 
Illinois.  It  was  removed  to  the  rotunda  of  the  capitol  at  Springfield,  and  there 
unveiled  May  16,  1895.  Mrs.  Martia  Louise  Gould,  the  President  of  the 
Board,  presented  the  statue  to  the  State  in  an  eloquent  address,  and  the  follow- 
ing speech  was  made  accepting  it:) 

Madam  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 

Our  action  here  to-day  may  not  seem  of  much  importance  to  us, 
and  yet  its  voice  will  reach  further  into  the  future  and  will  tell  more  to 
the  generations  that  are  to  come  than  will  many  things  to  which  we 
give  more  time  and  effort.  As  a  rule  those  matters  which  arouse  the 
greatest  interest  of  a  people  relate  to  their  material  welfare,  and  are  soon 
forgotten.  Only  those  acts  which  denote  the  birth  of  a  new  principle 
or  which  commemorate  an  important  event  are  noticed  by  the  pencil 
of  time  or  are  permitted  to  linger  in  the  realm  of  tradition.  That 
entire  world  of  practical  affairs  which  absorbs  our  thoughts  and  ex- 
hausts our  strength,  which  harnesses  us  in  the  morning  and  drives  us 
until  night-fall,  changes  from  day  to  day  and  then  disappears  not  only 
from  sight  but  from  memory.  As  we  glance  back  over  the  past  it  is 
not  the  everyday  work  and  worry  of  men,  not  the  fashion  and  gossip 
of  the  women,  not  the  absorbing  cares  of  life  that  greet  the  eye.  These 
have  all  faded  into  the  unknown.  We  see  only  headlands — we  see  only 
a  succession  of  eras — we  see  mankind  slowly  struggling  up  onto  higher 
ground,  catching  more  and  more  of  the  rays  of  justice  as  they  progress 
and,  wherever  a  new  ascent  was  made,  there  we  find  a  landmark,  and 
in  many  cases  the  landmark  is  all  there  is  left  to  tell  the  story.  Some 
one  has  said  that  "the  clock  strikes  the  changes  from  hour  to  hour,  but 
no  hammer  in  the  horologe  of  time  peals  through  the  universe  the 


474  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

changes  from  era  to  era."  This  may  be  true,  but  there  are  all  over 
the  world  silent  sentinels  that  do  proclaim  to  the  universe  the  changes 
from  age  to  age.  All  along  the  highway  of  humanity  there  are  mile- 
stones, big  and  little,  planted  by  nations  that  left  no  other  trace  of 
their  existence,  and  we  try  to  determine  the  progress  of  civilization 
by  studying  these  monuments.  Men  gaze  at  the  ruins  of  mighty  cities 
and  speculate  as  to  the  character  of  their  inhabitants.  Men  look  with 
awe  at  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  built  before  the  beginning  of  history, 
and  say  that  the  people  who  built  them  must  have  been  familiar  with 
both  the  sciences  and  the  mechanical  arts ;  men  examine  the  statues  of 
Greece  and  wonder  from  what  altar  Phidias  drew  his  inspiration. 

The  traveler  in  a  strange  land  searches  for  monuments  and  statues 
because  they  tell  him  in  a  silent  but  eternal  language  the  great  events 
of  the  country,  and  frequently  he  finds  that  these  silent  historians  tell 
of  centuries  that  have  gone  and  have  left  no  other  trace  of  their  exist- 
ence. 

Now,  my  fellow  citizens  of  Illinois,  all  of  our  affairs,  our  politics, 
our  business,  all  that  makes  up  our  life  will  pass  away  and  will  leave 
but  little  trace  behind  it,  and  in  the  centuries  to  come,  when  not 
even  our  burial  place  can  be  found,  philosophers  and  historians  will 
examine  the  statue  which  we  unveil  here  to-day  and  will  try  to  interpret 
its  meaning.  They  will  admire  its  graceful  form  and  its  artistic  de- 
sign, and  they  will  say  that  the  people  who  erected  it  possessed  taste 
and  cultivation  and  had  a  knowledge  of  the  arts.  But  they  will  do 
more.  They  will  see  that  its  face  is  turned  toward  the  morning;  that 
it  looks  toward  the  rising  sun.  They  will  see  that  its  arms  are  out- 
stretched as  though  in  the  act  of  cordial  greeting.  They  will  read  the 
inscription,  "Illinois  Welcoming  The  World,"  and  I  fancy  I  can  hear 
them  say :  "What  a  beautiful  idea ;  what  a  lofty  sentiment.  The 
State  of  Illinois  welcoming  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Surely  this  is 
grand.  But  why  does  Illinois  welcome  the  world?  Has  she  invited 
the  nations  of  the  earth  to  come  within  her  borders?  If  yea,  then  for 
what  purpose?"  I  fancy  now  that  I  can  hear  these  questions  asked 
and  that  I  see  the  inquirers  looking  again  and  reading  an  inscription 
about  a  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  and  on  inquiring  they  learn 
that  toward  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  was  held  in  our 
State,  on  the  shores  of  the  great  lake,  the  most  wonderful  exposition 
ever  seen  by  man ;  that  representatives  of  all  nations  came  into  our 
midst  and  brought  with  them  the  finest  and  best  productions  of  the  in- 
dustry, the  enterprise,  the  learning  and  the  genius  of  their  people ;  they 
will  learn  that  at  this  exposition  there  were  shown  the  various  stages 
in  the  development  of  the  human  race,  from  the  beings  who  dwelt  in 


UNVEILING  OF  STATUE.  475 

caves  to  the  men  who  study  the  universe  and  lay  the  foundations  of 
empires.  Never  before  was  a  State  so  honored,  and  it  seems  to  me 
that  coming  generations  will  gaze  with  ever  increasing  interest  on  this 
statue  which  we  to-day  unveil  and  dedicate  to  the  future  when  they  re- 
member that  it  stood,  as  it  were,  at  the  threshold  of  this  great  assem- 
blage of  nations,  and  with  its  graceful  figure  and  outstretched  hands 
personified  the  people  of  Illinois  in  bidding  our  guests  a  welcome. 

My  fellow  citizens,  these  facts  alone  would  make  this  statue  worthy 
of  everlasting  preservation,  not  only  as  a  memento  of  the  grandest 
occasion  of  all  history,  but  also  as  representing  the  attitude  of  our 
people  at  that  time. 

But  the  future  historian  and  philosopher  will  discover  that  this 
statue  is  not  only  a  memento  of  a  past  event,  but  that  it  stands  for  a 
living  principle ;  that,  if  it  does  not  mark  the  beginning  of  a  new  era, 
it  does  stand  for  a  higher  justice  as  applied  to  women ;  and  that  it  does 
commemorate  one  of  the  most  important  steps  ever  taken  in  the  whole 
history  of  her  emancipation.  They  will  notice  from  the  inscription 
that  it  was  erected  by  a  woman's  board  and  that  it  was  shaped  by  the 
hand  and  modeled  by  the  genius  of  a  woman,  and  they  will  further 
learn  that  there  was  an  Illinois  woman's  board  which  gave  an  exhibi- 
tion of  woman's  work  in  this  State  which  was  highly  successful  and  re- 
flected honor  on  the  board  and  on  the  women  of  Illinois,  and,  what  is 
much  more  significant,  that  this  board  was  absolutely  independent 
in  its  work  and  possessed  the  same  powers  and  privileges  that  were 
possessed  in  their  respective  spheres  by  the  boards  composed  of  men. 
They  will  further  learn  that  there  was  a  national  woman's  exposition 
board  which  erected  one  of  the  finest  buildings  on  the  ground,  designed 
and  superintended  by  a  woman,  and  that  this  board  gave  an  exhibition 
of  the  work  of  women  of  all  nations,  and  that  it  was  likewise  independ- 
ent and  possessed  the  same  powers  within  its  domain  as  did  boards 
composed  of  men. 

The  future  philosopher  and  historian  will  see  that  here  for  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  the  race  the  principle  was  recognized  that,  no 
matter  what  her  ability  or  experience  may  be,  woman  possesses  the 
same  inherent  rights  that  man  does.  During  her  whole  history  she 
had  been  a  dependent.  First,  as  a  chattel,  scarcely  noticed  by  the  law. 
Then  came  a  period  in  which  she  was  treated  much  like  a  beast  of 
burden.  Later  the  law  gave  her  more  recognition  and  began  to  define 
her  status,  but  always  as  a  dependent.  She  had  to  beg  of  man  and 
accept  what  was  given.  She  had  no  voice  in  affairs  and  it  was 
an  evidence  of  weakness  to  talk  of  her  having  inalienable  rights.  By 
degrees  the  chains  which  bound  the  world  to  the  wrongs  of  the  past 


476  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

were  broken.  The  torch  of  civilization  gave  the  world  a  higher  sense 
of  right  until,  finally,  towards  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
in  connection  with  this  great  exposition,  the  principle  was  recognized 
that  in  the  sight  of  the  Almighty  and  at  the  bar  of  eternal  justice 
woman  has  the  same  inherent  rights  that  man  has.  And  this  statue 
will  proclaim  this  principle  to  the  world  just  as  long  as  this  granite 
and  this  bronze  shall  endure. 

Madam  President,  I  thank  you  and  your  board  for  the  work  'you 
have  done  for  the  State,  and  especially  for  conceiving  and  carrying  out 
the  grand  idea  of  erecting  and  dedicating  to  the  future  this  beautiful 
statue,  and,  as  the  chief  executive  of  this  mighty  commonwealth,  I  am 
proud  to  accept  it  and  add  it  to  the  glories  of  Illinois. 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A  MILLION. 

Springfield,  March  17,  1895. 
C.  R.  Macloon,  The  Tribune,  Chicago : 

Dear  Sir : — You  ask  what  would  be  my  advice  to  the  young  man 
of  to-day  who  is  ambitious  to  become  a  millionaire. 

While  I  am  not  the  right  man  to  answer  your  question,  I  should 
say  to  the  young  man,  "Go  it  alone  and  hustle."  That  is,  rely  on 
yourself — keep  your  word — keep  your  manhood — keep  your  own  coun- 
sel— do  your  own  errands  and  look  ahead.  No  matter  how  often  you 
fail,  keep  on.  But  if  you  wish  to  get  very  rich  quickly,  then  bleed  the 
public  and  talk  patriotism.  This  may  involve  bribing  public  officials 
and  dodging  public  burdens,  the  losing  of  your  manhood  and  the 
soiling  of  your  fingers,  but  that  is  the  way  most  of  the  great  fortunes 
are  made  in  this  country  now. 

Respectfully, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


SPEECH  AT  GALESBURG  TO  THE  AMERICAN  RAILWAY 
TRAINMEN,  MAY  20,  1895. 

Mr.  President : 

It  was  once  said  that  genii  travel  in  squads,  and  it  has  more  re- 
cently been  observed  that  the  creations  of  men  go  in  groups.  The 
institutions  that  have  grown  out  of  modern  development  have  a  ten- 
dency to  bunch  together  as  if  they  courted  or  needed  each  other's 
society.  Nature  may  scatter  her  gifts  and  give  to  one  state  this  and 
to  another  state  that  advantage,  but  this  rarely  holds  good  in  the  realm 


SPEECH  AT  GALESBURG.  477 

of  human  activity.  At  the  point  where  one  man  locates  his  shop 
another  will  want  to  locate  his  store.  Where  one  man  locates  his 
factory  another  will  bring  in  his  railroad,  and  thus  by  degrees  there 
grows  up  a  center  which  constitutes  a  commercial  and  industrial  heart 
for  a  large  territory.  The  State  of  Illinois  is  a  most  conspicuous  illus- 
tration of  this  fact.  It  is  true,  nature  made  her  the  greatest  agricul- 
tural State  in  the  world  and  gave  her  one  of  the  largest  coal  deposits 
on  earth  and  gave  her  a  most  unique  geographical  location,  but  the 
hand  of  man  made  her  acreage  of  orchards  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  State  in  the  Union ;  made  her  bee  industries  great,  her  dairy  in- 
dustries great,  her  quarrying  and  clay  industries  great,  built  her 
wonderful  cities,  reared  her  wonderful  institutions,  and  gave  her  a 
greater  diversity  of  factories  and  of  industries  than  are  found  any- 
where else  in  America ;  and  made  her  the  great  railroad  center  of  our 
country.  The  heart  of  the  American  railway  system  is  in  Illinois. 
Here  the  various  lines  begin  that  go  to  the  Atlantic,  to  the  Gulf,  to 
the  Pacific,  to  the  far  North,  that  go  toward  every  point  of  the  compass. 
Here  in  our  State  can  be  felt  the  heartbeats  of  the  railroad  world  and 
the  quiver  of  every  nerve  in  the  system.  We  have  more  miles  of  rail- 
road than  any  other  State,  more  money  invested  in  railroad  properties 
of  various  kinds,  more  men  employed  in  the  service,  and  more  families 
depending  on  the  railroads  for  bread  than  has  any  other  State.  Our 
people,  like  those  of  other  States,  have  so  adjusted  both  their  domestic 
and  business  affairs  that  they  are  absolutely  dependent  upon  the  rail- 
roads, so  that  the  continued  and  regular  operation  of  the  railroads  is 
not  only  important  to  their  convenience  and  their  prosperity,  but  is  . 
vital  to  their  existence.  Being  thus  situated,  feeling  that  the  railroads 
with  all  that  belongs  to  them  constitute  one  of  the  most  important  in- 
stitutions in  our  State  and  that  our  very  existence  is  tied  up  with  them, 
I  need  not  say  to  you  that  our  people  feel  the  deepest  interest  in  the 
men  who  operate  these  railroads,  the  men  who  by  day  and  by  night, 
in  sunshine  and  in  storm  keep  in  motion  the  mighty  lines  of  com- 
merce. We  are  glad  to  see  you  here ;  we  are  glad  to  have  you  among 
us ;  we  feel  that  we  can  perhaps  better  than  others  appreciate  the  true 
character  of  the  work  you  are  doing  and  its  importance  to  the  world, 
and  we  therefore. feel  that  in  some  way  you  are  kith  and  kin  with  us 
and  belong  to  our  family,  and  that  those  of  you  who  have  come  in  from 
other  States  have,  as  it  were,  gathered  at  a  family  reunion.  You  have 
come  from  different  States  of  the  Union  and  you  represent  a  following 
there.  You  are  trying  to  formulate  measures  that  shall  be  to  the 
interest  of  your  order  and  of  your  families,  'and  the  people  of  Illinois 
wish  you  well,  and  knowing  the  inhabitants  of  this  lively  and  progress- 


47«  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ive  city  of  Galesburg  as  well  as  I  do,  I  am  safe  in  saying  to  you  that 
you  will  be  royally  treated  here,  and  that  everything  will  be  done  to 
make  your  meeting  not  only  a  pleasant  one,  but  a  successful  one. 

Again,  gentlemen,  feeling  as  I  do  that  not  only  the  success,  but  the 
very  existence  of  republican  institutions  in  this  country  depends  upon 
the  men  who  have  to  struggle  for  a  living,  who  have  to  struggle  to 
maintain  their  families,  and  not  upon  the  men  whose  souls  are  shrivel- 
ing while  they  are  hoarding  riches,  I  want  to  say  a  word  about  some 
of  the  important  questions  that  we  must  meet  in  the  immediate  future 
and  which  will  vitally  affect  not  only  yourselves,  but  your  descendants 
for  generations,  and  which  therefore  call  for  the  most  thorough  and 
patriotic  consideration.  During  the  last  twenty-five  years  a  spirit  of 
combination  and  concentration  has  been  at  work  all  over  the  world 
and  in  all  lines  of  human  activity.  Small  governments  give  way  to 
great  ones ;  small  stores  to  large  ones ;  little  factories  to 
enormous  establishments ;  small  railroads  to  great  consolidated 
lines ;  everywhere  there  is  going  on  the  process  of  annihilat- 
ing the  small  and  combining  the  great.  So  universal  is  this 
spirit  and  with  such  irresistible  power  is  this  force  run- 
ning that  no  human  hand  or  agency  has  been  able  to  stay  it.  Laws 
have  forbidden  it  and  courts  have  condemned  it,  but  it  did  not  even 
stop  to  notice  the  law  or  listen  to  the  courts.  It  is  the  distinguishing 
feature  of  this  century  and  it  is  not  only  changing  all  economic  and 
commercial  conditions,  but  it  is  going  to  force  a  change  in  some  of 
our  theories  of  government.  For  centuries  the  world  depended  on 
competition  to  regulate  wages  on  the  one  hand  and  to  regulate  prices 
of  commodities  on  the  other.  As  no  one  employer  employed  many 
men,  there  were  hundreds  of  employers,  and  if  one  did  not  pay  reason- 
able wages,  the  mechanic  might  at  least  expect  to  find  some  other  one 
who  would.  So  in  the  selling  of  goods,  the  public  was  protected 
against  unreasonable  prices  by  the  fact  that  there  were  scores  of  dealers 
competing  with  each  other.  Now,  owing  to  the  great  concentrations 
of  capital,  nearly  all  lines  of  industry  and  of  commerce  are  passing  into 
the  control  of  a  few  hands  in  each  line.  In  very  many  lines  competi- 
tion has  already  been  entirely  wiped  out,  especially  in  so  far  as  relates 
to  the  manufacturing  and  to  the  handling  in  large  quantities.  There 
is  scarcely  a  great  industry  in  this  country  but  what  is  now  controlled 
by  what  they  call  a  trust,  which,  while  controlling  practically  all  of  the 
establishments  in  its  line,  is  able  to  regulate  the  output  arbitrarily  and 
is  able  arbitrarily  to  fix  wages  on  the  one  hand  and  the  selling  price 
of  its  commodities  on  the  other.  It  is  idle  in  these  cases  to  say  to  a 
laboring  man  that  if  he  is  dissatisfied  he  can  quit  and  go  to  some  other 


SPEECH  AT  GALESBURG.  479 

employer,  because  there  is  no  other  employer  to  go  to.  This  process 
of  combination  is  still  going  on.  It  looks  now  as  if  the  era  of  universal 
competition  was  drawing  to  a  close  and  as  though  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  make  new  adjustments,  and  the  question  will  arise,  if  every- 
thing that  the  public  needs  is  in  the  end  to  be  controlled  by  gigantic 
combinations  of  capital,  handled  by  a  few  individuals,  how  can  labor 
be  protected  on  the  one  hand,  and  how  can  the  public  be  protected 
on  the  other?  In  other  words,  what  can  be  substituted  for  competi- 
tion? If  we  cannot  prevent  combination  and  monopoly,  then  it  is 
idle  to  rant  about  it,  and  it  becomes  our  duty  to  meet  it  as  an  existing 
fact  and  to  restrain  its  power  for  evil.  And  to  do  this  will  require  a 
strong  force.  It  is  a  universal  law  in  nature,  in  religion,  in  politics, 
in  society,  that  the  stronger  force  will  destroy  the  weaker,  and  only 
those  individuals,  those  agencies,  and  those  combinations  will  survive 
that  are  able  to  maintain  themselves.  The  government  of  the  world  is 
not  a  philanthropic  affair.  It  is  based  on  force,  although  rarely  brute 
force  as  was  once  the  case.  It  has  become  more  refined  in  its  method, 
but  nevertheless  the  underlying  principle  is  force,  legal  force ;  and  this 
legal  force  is  often  shaped  and  directed  by  social,  financial  and  political 
force.  Enormous  wealth  when  controlled  by  a  few  individuals  is  some- 
times a  very  powerful  factor  in  shaping  the  policy  of  government,  be- 
cause it  can  frequently  control  the  press  and  the  agencies  which  form 
public  opinion ;  it  can  control  fashionable  society  and  the  sentiments  of 
many  men  who,  although  occupying  high  positions,  are  often  influ- 
enced through  that  agency.  Frequently  by  looking  after  the  matter  of 
selecting  candidates  it  can  control  not  only  the  construction  of  the  laws, 
but  the  making  and  the  execution  of  the  laws.  If  our  institutions  are 
to  undergo  great  change,  it  is  vital  that  the  men  of  America,  and  not 
the  money,  should  direct  the  change.  Money  may  be  a  blessing  as  a 
servant,  but  it  is  a  curse  as  a  master.  Money  never  established  repub- 
lican institutions  in  the  world.  It  has  no  natural  affinity  with  them, 
and  does  not  understand  them.  Money  has  neither  soul  nor  senti- 
ment. It  does  not  know  the  meaning  of  liberty,  and  it  sneers  at  the 
rights  of  man.  It  never  bled  on  the  battlefield  in  time  of  war,  and  it 
never  voluntarily  sought  the  public  treasury  in  time  of  peace.  To 
safely  guide  our  country  through  important  changes  requires  the  same 
characteristics  which  were  possessed  by  the  men  who  founded  it. 
There  must  be  lofty  sentiment,  honesty  of  purpose,  love  of  country, 
love  of  fellowman,  and,  above  all,  love  of  justice.  Money  possesses 
none  of  these  virtues.  Men  in  time  acquire  the  nature  of  those  things 
which  absorb  their  lives.  Unconsciously  and  invisibly  they  undergo 
a  change  until  those  things  which  occupy  their  daily  thoughts  seem 


480  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

actually  to  circulate  in  their  veins.  Consequently  in  all  countries, 
in  all  ages,  and  among  all  peoples,  it  has  been  found  that  as  a  rule 
the  possessors  of  great  wealth  were  not  the  patriots.  On  the  contrary, 
they  seemed  to  care  little  what  flag  floated  over  them,  provided  it  was 
a  flag  that  would  give  them  a  bayonet  with  which  to  protect  their  gold. 
The  men  who  in  the  late  war  left  their  millions  of  hoarded  treasure 
and  shouldered  a  musket  to  fight  for  the  Union  were  as  scarce  as  the 
camels  that  have  passed  through  the  eye  of  the  needle.  The  soldiers' 
cemeteries  of  patriotic  dead  are  filled  with  men  who  when  alive  had  to 
struggle  for  a  living.  It  is  the  great  masses  of  the  people  who  defend 
the  government  in  time  of  war,  and  who  bear  its  burdens  in  time  of 
peace,  and  these  alone  know  the  full  value  of  free  institutions.  It  is 
therefore  important  that  the  destinies  of  our  government  should  be 
shaped  by  this  class,  and  they  can  be  relied  upon  to  do  justice  to 
capital.  They  appreciate  the  fact  that  capital  is  not  only  a  conven- 
ience, but  may  be  of  the  greatest  possible  use  to  man  when  properly 
directed.  While  money  may  have  done  a  great  injustice  to  the  masses, 
the  masses  have  never  done  an  injustice  to  money. 

Now,  how  will  you  meet  these  problems  ?  Standing  as  individuals 
in  the  presence  of  mighty  combinations  you  will  be  crushed  and  there 
will  be  no  hope  for  you  or  your  children.  I  can  see  no  other  course  for 
you  than  to  stand  together,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  intelligently  and 
patriotically.  A  great  force  never  holds  itself  in  check,  whether  in  the 
phenomena  of  nature,  in  politics,  in  government,  or  in  religion.  Only 
a  counter  or  resisting  force  will  check  it.  If  concentrated  capital  shall 
meet  with  no  checking  influence,  or  force,  then  republican  institutions 
must  come  to  an  end,  and  we  will  have  but  two  classes  in  this  country, 
an  exceedingly  wealthy  class  on  one  hand,  and  a  spiritless,  crushed, 
poverty-stricken  laboring  class  on  the  other.  The  hope  of  the  country 
depends  upon  having  a  number  of  forces  that  will  counterbalance  or 
check  each  other.  And  in  this  connection  let  me  suggest  to  you  that 
the  world  has  progressed  to  a  point  where  intelligence  will  always 
defeat  brute  force,  and  any  method  of  contest  that  involves  violence 
belongs  to  a  bygone  age.  The  modern  methods  of  warfare  in  society 
are  of  an  entirely  different  character.  You  complain  sometimes  that 
you  do  not  get  a  fair  show,  that  capital  controls  legislation,  that  by 
selecting  the  candidates  for  the  judicial  offices  it  in  many  cases  con- 
trols the  courts  and  that  the  same  is  true  in  the  execution  of  the  laws. 
But  you  have  yourselves  largely  to  blame.  You  have  neglected  all 
these  things,  while  the  corporations  have  looked  after  them.  They 
have  attended  to  business  and  reaped  an  advantage  by  it.  You  have 
neglected  your  interests  and  have  suffered  by  it.  It  has  happened  fre- 


SPEECH  AT  GALESBURG.  481 

quently  in  the  past  in  this  State  and  in  other  States  that  you  wanted 
legislation  which  you  thought  was  necessary  and  just,  and  you  sup- 
ported men  for  the  legislature  whom  you  believed  were  honest,  but 
who  as  soon  as  they  received  their  certificate  of  election  crept  up  the 
rear  stairway  to  the  office  of  some  corporation  and  tendered  their 
services  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  some  financial  or  other  advantage. 
Did  you  afterwards  spot  those  men  as  being  unworthy  of  your  con- 
fidence? Not  at  all.  Their  chances  for  public  preferment  were  just 
as  good  thereafter  as  they  were  before.  Again,  corporations  have  for 
many  years  looked  after  the  matter  of  selecting  judges,  especially  of 
the  federal  courts.  They  realized  the  fact  that  the  construction  of 
the  laws  is  even  more  important  than  the  making  of  laws,  and  to  have 
a  friend  on  the  bench  is  much  more  important  than  to  have  a  law- 
maker at  the  capitol.  It  is  asserted  that  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
no  man  has  been  appointed  to  the  federal  bench  unless  he  was  either 
a  corporation  lawyer  or  was  known  to  hold  views  which  made  him 
satisfactory  to  those  interests,  and  when  these  judges  afterwards 
distorted  the  law  and  usurped  powers  to  assist  corporations  and  smite 
you  they  were  not  necessarily  corrupt.  They  were  simply  giving  force 
to  prejudices  which  they  had  imbibed  during  their  former  association 
with  corporate  influences.  It  has  never  happened  in  this  country  that 
you  or  any  other  organization  of  labor  men  or  of  farmers  sent  a  dele- 
gation to  wait  upon  the  President  in  reference  to  the  appointment  or  re- 
jection of  any  particular  man  to  any  judicial  office.  You  have  not  looked 
after  your  interests  and  you  have  no  right  to  complain  if  you  are  dis- 
criminated against  under  these  circumstances.  Every  man  who  seeks 
office  in  this  country  will  need  your  support,  and  once  let  him  under- 
stand that  you  are  capable  of  acting  intelligently  and  standing  together, 
and  that  you  insist  on  being  honestly  dealt  with,  and  you  will  see  a  great 
change.  Fall  in  with  what  is  the  spirit  of  the  times.  Practice  intelli- 
gent combination.  Move  along  the  lines  of  law  and  of  justice  and 
practice  foresight  and  you  will  be  able  to  right  almost  any  grievance. 
In  conclusion  let  me  say  that  you  and  the  laboring  men  of  this 
country  are  more  interested  in  maintaining  republican  institutions 
than  any  other  of  our  people.  You  are  more  interested  in  making  the 
stripes  and  stars  stand  for  free  institutions  than  any  other  people  in  this 
country.  Wealth  has  always  courted  aristocracy  and  bowed  to  mon- 
archy. It  is  manhood  alone  that  is  interested  in  liberty  and  in  main- 
taining those  conditions  under  which  the  greatest  possible  opportuni- 
ties are  opened  to  every  citizen  of  the  commonwealth.  You  cannot 
leave  your  children  millions  to  squander.  It  is  therefore  important 
for  you  to  endeavor  to  leave  them  a  country  in  which  intelligent  and 
31 


482  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

honest  effort  will  be  properly  rewarded  and  in  which  the  laborer  will 
not  only  be  worthy  of  his  hire,  but  will  have  open  to  him  and  to  his 
posterity  all  of  the  fields  of  honor  and  the  paths  of  glory. 


CHAUNCEY  DEPEW. 

i 

Springfield,  111.,  April  7,  1895. — Governor  Altgeld  this  afternoon 
gave  free  expression  to  his  opinion  of  Chauncey  M.  Depew.  The  occa- 
sion for  the  criticism  was  the  speech  recently  delivered  by  Mr.  Depew 
at  the  Auditorium  in  Chicago,  when  he  took  occasion  to  find  fault  not 
only  with  the  mayor  of  Chicago,  but  with  Governor  Altgeld  as  well. 

In  conversation  with  a  reporter  this  afternoon  the  governor  spoke 
of  Mr.  Depew,  and  he  was  asked  if  he  had  read  the  speech. 

"No,  I  have  not,"  replied  the  governor.  "Some  years  ago  I 
listened  to  Mr.  Depew  for  two  hours  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
so  long  as  the  Lord  insisted  on  limiting  human  life  to  about  three 
score  and  ten  years  two  hours  was  all  the  time  that  the  average  man 
could  afford  to  spend  out  of  the  foregoing  allotment  on  Depew." 

"Well,  he  said  in  substance  that  you  as  governor  surrendered  to  the 
railroad  strikers  last  summer,  and  that  the  mayor  of  Chicago  took  his 
instructions  from  the  leader  of  the  strike.  Do  you  care  to  say  anything 
in  reply?" 

"Oh,  that  is  not  necessary.  A  deliberate  falsehood  of  that  kind 
does  no  harm,  but  has  a  certain  dash  about  it  which  challenges  ad- 
miration. He  claims  to  keep  informed  on  current  events.  Hence  he 
knew  that,  although  the  federal  troops  were  on  the  ground  three  days 
in  advance  of  any  serious  rioting,  and  during  the  whole  of  the  trouble, 
they  not  only  failed  to  prevent  disorder  but  proved  to  be  an  irritant, 
and  did  not  prevent  the  ditching  of  a  train  or  the  throwing  of  a  brick. 
Had  they  done  the  one-hundredth  part  of  what  is  claimed  for  them 
it  would  not  have  been  necessary  to  order  out  the  State  troops.  Yet 
the  mayor  found  that  the  federal  troops  were  useless  to  him  in  enforc- 
ing the  law  and  he  was  obliged  to  ask  for  assistance  from  the  State. 
Mr.  Depew  knows  that  in  a  few  hours  after  the  State  was  asked  the 
State  troops  were  on  the  ground,  although  many  of  them  had  to  travel 
over  150  miles  to  get  there.  He  also  knows  that  inside  of  a  few  hours 
after  arriving  on  the  ground  they,  together  with  the  Chicago  police, 
stopped  the  rioting  and  restored  order.  The  State  troops  and  the  Chi- 
cago police  did  more  in  a  few  hours  than  all  the  federal  troops  did 
during  all  the  time  they  were  in  Chicago. 

"Had  he  been  ignorant  of  the  facts  and  then  made  such  a  state- 


CHAUNCEY  DEPEW.  483 

merit,  it  would  have  been  a  blunder  which,  for  him,  would  be  worse 
than  a  crime.  But  the  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  every  syllable  he 
uttered  was  a  fabrication  not  only  changed  the  character  of  the  per- 
formance by  lifting  it  above  the  commonplace,  but  brought  it  into  har- 
mony with  what  has  apparently  been  the  philosophy  of  his  life." 
"How  is  that,  governor?"  was  asked. 

STARTED  THE  FLOOD  OF  CORRUPTION. 

"Well,  he  is  the  most  conspicuous  product  of  the  doctrine,  'do  evil 
that  good  may  come  of  it'  that  this  country  has  ever  seen.  He  first  at- 
tracted attention  many  years  ago  as  a  lobbyist  at  Albany,  where  he 
for  a  long  time  was  engaged  in  the  highly  honorable  business  of  put- 
ting metaphorical  collars  on  the  New  York  legislators,  so  that  to  the 
public  they  appeared  to  belong  to  the  Vanderbilts  and  the  New  York 
Central  railroad.  According  to  reports  this  business  was  reduced  to 
such  a  science  that  whenever  the  New  York  Central  railroad  wished  to 
buy  a  legislator  they  did  not  even  stop  to  negotiate  with  him,  but  simply 
put  him  on  the  scales  and  weighed  him.  A  train  of  slime  and  corruption 
was  stretched  across  the  State  from  New  York  city  by  way  of  Albany 
to  Buffalo,  and  from  there  it  spread  over  the  whole  country,  corrupting 
public  officers,  polluting  legislative  halls  and  even  filling  courts  of 
justice  with  its  odor.  This  was  the  beginning  of  that  flood  of  cor- 
ruption which  is  to-day  washing  the  foundations  from  under  our  whole 
governmental  fabric. 

"No  man  could  be  a  dealer  in  this  leprosy  without  soiling  his  fin- 
gers, and  I  am  told  that  since  that  time  Mr.  Depew  has  never  been 
seen  without  gloves." 

"If  all  this  is  true  why  was  not  Mr.  Depew  sent  to  prison?"  was 

asked. 

SET  OUT  FOR  THE  WHITE   HOUSE. 

"Oh,  that  would  have  been  vulgar  and  Mr.  Depew  would  not  do 
so  vulgar  a  thing  as  go  to  prison.  On  the  contrary  he  made  of  all  this 
a  stepping-stone  to  greatness.  He  wrapped  the  stars  and  stripes 
about  him.  He  became  a  red,  white  and  blue  orator — he  changed  his 
calendar  so  as  to  make  the  Fourth  of  July  embrace  365  days,  leaving 
but  six  hours  for  the  remainder  of  the  year,  and  then  he  started  for  the 
white  house. 

"Subsequently  the  Vanderbilts,  finding  him  to  be  a  great  conven- 
ience, made  him  president  of  the  New  York  Central  railroad  and  paid 
him  a  salary  of  $50,000  a  year.  The  old  railroad  men  smiled  at  the 
idea,  but  they  had  not  yet  learned  that  one  of  the  most  important 
features  of  modern  railroading  is  to  construct  a  railroad  near  court 


484  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

houses  and  operate  a  line  through  State  capitals.  Soon  thereafter  the 
Union  Stock  Yards  of  Chicago  made  Mr.  Depew  an  official  and  gave 
him  $25,000  a  year ;  this  in  addition  to  the  other  salary.  It  was  claimed 
that  he  had  never  seen  the  stock  yards  and  did  not  know  on  which  end 
of  a  steer  the  horns  belonged.  But  all  this  was  of  no  consequence, 
as,  instead  of  slaughtering  cattle,  he  was  expected  to  earn  his  salary 
by  slaughtering  the  innocents  who  talk  about  protecting  the  public. 
"I  understand  he  gets  still  other  salaries,  and  have  no  doubt  he 
earns  them  all,  for  in  the  art  of  engineering  money  out  of  the  public 
and  into  the  pockets  of  private  individuals  he  has  no  superior.  And 
it  looks  as  if  his  career  will  compel  the  American  people  to  adopt  an 
eleventh  commandment  reading  as  follows :  'Go  thou  and  do  evil  that 
thou  mayest  live  on  the  fat  of  the  land,  and  that  thy  sleekness  may  be 
the  wonder  of  men.' : 


INSTALLATION  OF  DR.  DRAPER  AS  PRESIDENT  OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS,  MAY,  1895. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

The  growth  of  an  educational  institution  is  like  that  of  a  man  and 
cannot  be  accomplished  in  a  day  or  in  a  year.  There  must  be  a  period 
of  infancy,  of  childhood  and  of  boyhood  before  the  vigor  of  manhood 
is  reached.  So  with  an  institution  of  learning.  There  is  the  weak  begin- 
ning, the  early  struggle,  the  later  growth,  and  then  the  fullgrown  uni- 
versity, and  as  the  ultimate  greatness  of  the  man  is  often  in  proportion 
to  his  early  struggles,  so  the  final  career  and  usefulness  of  an  institution 
is  frequently  determined  by  the  difficulties  it  surmounts  in  its  infancy. 
A  college  or  university  is  not  simply  a  machine.  It  is  not  negative, 
but  positive  in  character.  It  does  more  than  teach  algebra  and  Latin. 
It  has  an  independent  existence  and  makes  its  impression  on  all  who 
come  in  contact  with  it.  Its  character  is  a  force  that  creeps  silently 
over  the  land,  and  by  day  and  by  night  molds  the  sentiments  of  men. 
It  is  this  character  by  which  an  institution  is  judged.  The  world  does 
not  care  so  much  for  the  number  of  students  but  it  asks  what  is  the 
character  of  the  institution?  What  does  it  stand  for?  Does  it  stand 
for  a  sturdy,  stalwart,  patriotic  manhood,  and  the  earnest,  serious, 
hard  work  that  goes  with  it?  If  yea,  then  great  will  be  its  influence. 
But  if  it  represents  only  the  easy-going  standards  of  mediocrity  or  a 
duclish  dilettanteism,  then  it  will  not  shape  the  destinies  of  the  nation. 
There  have  been  colleges  that  were  small  and  financially  poor  and  were 
attended  mostly  by  the  sons  of  the  poor,  but  they  gave  to  their  coun- 
try whole  constellations  of  great  men,  while  others  that  were  both 


INSTALLATION  OF  DR.  DRAPER.  485 

large  and  rich  did  little  more  than  furnish  amusement  for  inherited 
wealth.  The  University  of  Illinois  has  passed  through  the  stages 
of  infancy  and  youth,  and  has  arrived  at  a  point  where  it  should  em- 
bark on  a  career  of  fullgrown  and  vigorous  manhood.  Much  conscien- 
tious work  has  been  done.  The  men  who  builded  it  toiled  hard  and 
laid  the  foundations  broad  and  deep,  and  I  believe  that  the  structure 
which  has  been  reared  on  these  foundations  is  an  enduring  one,  but  we 
must  broaden  its  influence  and  enlarge  its  work ;  we  must  bring  it  to 
the  attention  of  our  people.  Few  of  them  know  of  its  great  advan- 
tages. Few  of  them  know  that  the  agricultural  experiment  station 
does  not  constitute  all  that  there  is,  but  is  only  incidental  and  gives 
so  much  of  an  additional  advantage.  Few  of  them  know  that  the 
students,  without  extra  expense  and  without  loss  of  time,  have  the 
advantage  of  being  trained  in  the  military  art  by  a  United  States  mili- 
tary officer.  And  very  few  of  them  know  that  we  have  here  one  of 
the  best  equipped  engineering  schools,  particularly  in  the  department 
of  electrical  engineering,  that  there  is  in  the  whole  country. 

As  the  executive  of  the  State  I  feel  a  deep  interest  in  all  of  its  in- 
stitutions, and  I  feel  an  especial  interest  in  this  university.  The  State 
of  Illinois  leads  all  others  in  point  of  material  grandeur,  in  point  of 
natural  wealth.  It  leads  all  others  in  the  energy  and  enterprise  of  its 
people,  and  it  leads  all  others  in  having  a  most  romantic  and  wonderful 
history.  Illinois  already  stands  foremost  among  the  great  States 
of  the  earth.  The  achievements  of  its  people  have  already  won  the  ad- 
miration of  the  civilized  world,  and  we  must  have  an  educational  insti- 
tution that  will  be  on  the  same  plane  of  greatness  and  of  the  same 
high  character.  We  have  over  this  State  numerous  colleges  and  sem- 
inaries that  are  doing  excellent  work  and  we  should  have  here  a 
university  which  could  offer  to  the  graduates  of  those  institutions 
higher  advantages.  We  should  have  here  all  of  the  machinery,  the 
instruments,  the  models,  and  the  specimens  that  are  necessary  in  mod- 
ern education.  I  am  anxious  to  have  a  university  here  to  which  our 
people  can  send  their  young  men  and  their  young  women,  instead  of 
sending  them  East ;  a  university  that  shall  perpetuate  the  rugged 
strength  and  stalwart  manhood  which  characterizes  the  people  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  We  want  an  institution  which  shall  be  free  from 
the  dilettanteism  that  is  weakening  the  East,  and  that  shall  inculcate 
those  fundamental  principles  of  liberty,  of  national  union  and  suprem- 
acy, and  of  local  self-government  that  have  given  our  country  its 
marvelous  career  of  progress  and  development.  We  want  an  institu- 
tion that  shall  be  thoroughly  modern  in  spirit  and  effort,  and  from 
whose  halls  shall  go  forth  men  and  women  of  such  strong  moral  fiber, 


486  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

such  industry  and  such  fervor  of  soul,  that  they  will  lead  our  people 
on  to  loftier  planes  and  to  greater  glory.  We  must  have  in  this  State 
a  university  that  will  hold  aloft  the  flame  of  American  civilization  so 
that  all  the  people  in  the  world  may  be  blessed  by  its  light.  We  must 
have  a  university  whose  fame  shall  be  co-extensive  with  civilization.  / 

I  trust  that  this  occasion  may  prove  to  be  more  than  merely  an 
entertainment,  more  than  a  passing  event  that  leaves  only  a  pleasant 
recollection.  I  trust  that  there  may  go  forth  from  this  meeting  a 
spirit  that  will  arouse  all  of  our  people,  and  that  all  of  us  who  are  in 
any  way  connected  with  this  institution  may  have  renewed  inspiration 
and  may  go  forth  with  higher  and  nobler  resolves  in  our  efforts  to  make 
this  university  represent  the  great  common  people  of  this  country ; 
make  it  the  friend  and  the  helper  of  the  toiling  masses,  of  those  people 
who  do  the  work  of  the  world,  the  people  who  lay  the  foundation  of 
empires,  who  subdue  rebellions,  who  fight  for  liberty,  who  build  cities, 
railroads,  churches  and  schools,  the  people  who  make  our  civilization. 

We  have  met  to  install  a  new  chief.  I  have  told  you  what  we  want 
to  make  of  this  institution.  We  needed  a  man  to  put  in  charge  of  this 
work  who  was  more  than,  a  scholar,  more  than  an  educator,  more  even 
than  a  general ;  a  man  who,  while  possessing  all  of  these  qualifications, 
was  also  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  with  a  sense  of 
the  needs  of  our  people;  a  man  who  was  not  only  progressive,  but 
aggressive.  We  believe  we  have  found  that  man. 


LETTER  TO  GOVERNOR  STONE  ON  POSITION  OF  DEMO- 
CRATIC PARTY  ON  MONEY  QUESTION,  JUNE  20, 

1895. 

Hon.  Wm.  J.  Stone,  Governor  of  Missouri, 

Jefferson  City,  Mo. 

Dear  Governor : — Great  pressure  of  business  is  the  only  excuse  I 
can  offer  for  not  answering  your  favor  of  June  2d  earlier.  I  felt  that 
there  was  much  force  in  the  objections  you  made  to  having  the  Silver 
Convention  here  take  steps  toward  calling  a  national  convention  or 
conference  and  yet  I  also  felt  that  that  step  was  a  necessity.  Of  course 
we  do  not  want  to  split  the  Democratic  party  and  I  am  convinced 
that  so  far  as  this  State  is  concerned  there  are  not  5  per  cent  of  the 
members  of  the  party  who  would  leave  it  on  account  of  the  position 
the  party  has  taken  on  the  money  question ;  in  fact,  they  are  almost 
united  for  silver  here.  A  very  few  men  who  have  absolutely  no  fol- 
lowing, but  who  for  some  reason  or  other  have  access  to  newspaper 


LETTER  TO  GOVERNOR  STONE. 

columns,  do  all  the  talking  on  the  other  side  and  have  succeeded  in 
creating  an  impression  abroad  that  there  is  serious  division  in  the 
party  here.  The  question  is,  how  can  we  prevent  the  delegates  who 
are  to  be  selected  to  attend  next  year's  Democratic  convention  from 
being  controlled  by  the  Eastern  manipulators  who  use  the  Democratic 
party  only  as  a  convenience.  Men  who  are  not  Democrats  and  who 
in  reality  have  no  business  in  the  Democratic  party,  and  who  have 
done  everything  in  their  power  to  rob  it  of  its  mission  and  make  it 
stand  for  absolutely  nothing.  You  have  noticed  that  the  party  ma- 
chinery in  many  States  is  controlled  by  these  men.  So  much  so  that 
taking  your  State  as  an  example,  while  a  great  many  Democrats  in- 
sisted on  having  a  convention  called  to  consider  the  money  question, 
the  leaders  have  been  able  to  prevent  it.  In  order  for  these  leaders 
to  control  the  situation  next  year  it  is  necessary  that  there  should  be 
as  little  agitation  as  possible,  so  that  everything  can  be  quietly  manipu- 
lated. If  things  are  left  in  status  quo,  if  this  whole  agitation  shall  now 
end,  then  with  the  aid  of  unlimited  money  which  will  be  furnished  next 
year  the  conventions  in  nearly  all  of  the  Southern  and  even  Western 
States  can  be  manipulated  and  the  national  convention  will  be  made 
up  of  merely  time-serving  politicians,  who  will  straddle  every  issue 
and  who  will  nominate  a  man  for  the  Presidency  whom  the  great 
masses  of  the  party  will  not  support  and  who  will  lead  us  to  the  worst 
defeat  that  the  Democratic  party  has  ever  encountered. 

The  only  possible  way  that  I  can  see  to  prevent  this  condition  of 
affairs  is  to  keep  up  an  active  agitation,  so  that  the  Democrats  will 
be  thoroughly  aroused  and  it  will  be  impossible  for  a  few  men  to  con- 
trol the  situation.  To  my  mind  it  seems  absolutely  necessary  to  build 
a  fire,  arid  a  big  one,  in  the  rear  of  those  committeemen  and  of  those 
individuals  who  are  willing  to  do  the  bidding  of  Eastern  manipulators 
and  who  can  see  in  the  Democratic  party  nothing  except  an  organiza- 
tion through  which  some  spoils  may  now  and  then  be  distributed. 

Those  men  who  talk  of  leaving  the  party  on  account  of  its  position 
on  the  money  question  are  not  the  strong,  stalwart,  everyday  Demo- 
crats. With  scarcely  an  exception  they  belong  to  the  "dilettante,"  the 
ones  whom  Roscoe  Conkling  described  as  "the  man-milliners  and 
the  carpet-knights  of  politics,"  who  are  never  of  much  use  to  the  party 
and  are  always  on  hand  when  some  offices  are  to  be  distributed,  and 
in  my  judgment  if  every  one  of  these  men  would  leave  us  we  would 
get  twenty  strong,  active,  honest  men  in  return  for  every  man  who 
left  us. 

More  than  one-half  of  the  Republicans  of  our  State  are  outspoken 
and  active  free-silver  men,  and  if  our  party  takes  a  firm  position  on 


488  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

this  subject  and  the  Republican  party  straddles  this  question,  as  it  will 
be  obliged  to  do,  we  will  sweep  the  country  and  achieve  a  greater  vic- 
tory than  we  ever  have.  On  the  other  hand,  if  this  agitation  dies  out 
and  our  convention  next  year  straddles  the  money  question  and  leaves 
us  in  a  position  where  we  stand  for  nothing,  then  I  can  see  no  object 
in  the  world  in  even  making  a  campaign,  for  there  will  not  be  enough 
left  of  us  to  bury  the  dead  when  the  fight  is  over. 

Let  me  say  further,  in  conclusion,  that  the  silver  movement  in  this 
State  has  stirred  up  our  people  and  has  put  new  life  into  the  Demo- 
cratic party  here,  so  that  I  am  convinced  that  we  could  make  as  good 
a  fight  here  to-morrow  as  was  ever  made  by  the  party  in  this  State. 

With  assurances  of  my  high  regard,  I  am, 

Yours  very  truly,  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


SPEECH  AT  MILWAUKEE  IN  AUGUST,  1895, 
(Celebrating  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  organization  of  the  city.) 

Mr.  Mayor,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 

The  different  forces  of  this  world  nearly  always  go  in  groups. 
Scholars  are  found  in  companies,  each  profiting  by  the  association 
with  the  other.  Strong  men  rarely  come  singly,  but  in  numbers,  and 
each  grows  stronger  by  constant  contact  with  his  fellows.  Even  bright 
stars  go  in  clusters,  each  being  made  more  lustrous  by  the  light  of  the 
other. 

There  is  in  human  affairs  a  law  of  competition,  which,  in  its  best 
form,  is  known  as  a  friendly  rivalry.  This  law  which  gives  the  im- 
petus to  all  progress  affects  individuals,  affects  societies,  affects  cities, 
affects  State,  and  affects  nations.  When  this  spirit  of  friendly  rivalry 
ceases,  retrogression  sets  in  and  growth  is  at  an  end.  Every  progres- 
sive city  needs  to  have  progressive  cities  around  it.  A  powerful  State 
needs  to  have  powerful  States  around  it  and  every  great  nation  needs 
the  influence  of  other  great  nations. 

Down  in  Illinois  we  recognize  this  principle,  and  we  glory  in  being 
surrounded  not  only  by  progressive  cities,  but  by  powerful  and  aggres- 
sive States.  We  feel  the  keenest  interest  in  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  the  wonderful  State  to  the  north  of  us.  Wre  watch  your 
progress  day  by  day  and  rejoice  in  all  of  your  successes.  For  years 
our  people  have  spoken  of  your  city  as  "that  beautiful  city  of  Mil- 
waukee," and  every  time  that  you  launch  a  new  vessel,  build  a  new 
building,  or  take  a  forward  step  you  receive  the  hearty  applause  of 
our  people.  Your  career  is  wonderful.  It  is  proper  that  you  should 


SPEECH  AT  MILWAUKEE.  489 

rejoice  over  it.  We  rejoice  with  you.  It  is  proper  that  you  should 
glance  back  over  the  fifty  years  in  order  to  see  what  was  the  ruling 
principle  which  produced  this  marvelous  growth  in  the  past  and 
which,  if  followed,  will  lead  to  yet  far  greater  achievements  in  the 
future. 

In  your  case,  as  in  nearly  every  other  similar  case  known  to  man, 
it  was  the  spirit  of  democracy,  it  was  the  recognition  of  republican 
institutions  that  set  in  motion  the  limitless  forces  that  have  made  you 
great.  It  was  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  wisdom  and  justice  alone 
are  eternal  which  has  kept  you  on  the  high  road  to  glory.  It  is  a  strik- 
ing fact  that  all  of  those  nations  and  cities  of  the  world  which  recog- 
nized only  brute  force,  which  held  the  dollar  so  close  to  the  eye  as 
to  shut  out  the  sun,  and  which  trampled  on  the  rights  of  man  and 
crushed  the  noblest  aspirations  of  humanity,  soon  failed.  They  rotted 
to  the  ground  and  their  very  abiding  places  seem  to  have  disappeared 
from  the  earth.  And  those  cities  of  the  world  which  have  written  their 
names  in  history  prospered  only  in  proportion  to  the  extent  which 
they  recognized  the  principle  of  the  equality  of  man ;  and  it  is  notice- 
able that  every  one  of  these  cities  and  these  nations  ceased  their  de- 
velopment and  moved  rapidly  toward  extinction  the  moment  they 
reached  the  point  where  government  became  only  a  vast  machine 
wielded  by  the  few  to  crush  the  many  and  where  courts  of  justice 
became  only  a  side  door  convenience  for  rapacity  and  greed. 

The  mind  and  the  energies  of  men  when  oppressed  by  superstition 
or  cowed  by  the  iron  hand  of  government  become  dwarfed,  while  when 
left  free  they  leap  into  activity  in  every  field  of  knowledge  and  give  to 
the  world  the  creations  of  genius. 

You  have  all  the  elements  to  make  a  glorious  career.  You  have  in- 
dustry, enterprise,  perseverance.  You  have  sturdy  character,  lofty 
purpose  and  high  aim  and  if  you  will  keep  out  upon  the  broad  field 
of  equal  rights  and  fair  play — if  you  will  bear  in  mind  that  injustice 
done  to  the  weakest  member  of  your  society  is  like  a  leprous  touch 
upon  your  body ;  if  you  will  bear  in  mind  that  the  cause  of  human- 
ity reaches  nearer  to  the  throne  of  Omnipotence  than  all  the  struggle 
and  strife  for  pelf,  then  these  fifty  years  which  you  celebrate  to-day 
will  constitute  but  the  early  morning  hour  of  your  existence.  Your 
sun  has  scarcely  passed  its  horizon.  Your  career  is  before  you.  Your 
noon-tide  is  yet  afar  in  the  future,  and  your  field  of  action  stretches 
far  down  the  centuries.  Keep  your  face  toward  truth  and  only  time 
can  limit  your  achievements.  From  over  the  border  line  on  the  south 
the  people  of  our  State  will  watch  your  every  step  with  interest,  and  as 
you  grow  in  riches,  as  you  advance  in  learning,  as  you  elevate  the 


490  LIVE  QUEST  ION  3. 

standard  of  justice,  as  you   move  up  onto  the   high   plane  of  the 
equality  of  man,  you  will  be  applauded  by  the  nations  of  the  earth. 


SPEECH    ON    THE    BATTLEFIELD    OF    CHICKAMAUGA, 
SEPTEMBER  18,  1895. 

(Dedicating  the  monuments  erected  by  the  State  to  mark  the  positions 
held  by  Illinois  troops  in  that  battle.) 

Fellow  Citizens :  We  are  here  under  one  flag,  all  lovers  of  one 
common  country,  all  citizens  of  this  mighty  republic,  and  we  have 
come  to  perform  an  act  of  unusual  significance.  A  great  battlefield  is 
to  be  dedicated — is  to  be  made  sacred  ground.  Upon  that  field  are 
the  foot -prints  of  the  sons  of  Illinois,  and  we  have  journeyed  from  afar 
to  place  enduring  monuments  on  the  spots  where  they  stood,  where 
they  fought,  where  they  bled  and  where  hundreds  of  them  died.  And 
we  to-day  put  them  in  the  keeping  of  the  federal  government. 

But  why  consecrate  a  battlefield?  Battlefields  cover  the  earth. 
From  the  time  man  devoured  his  fellow-man  in  the  forests  down  to 
the  present,  when  he  seeks  to  devour  his  substance,  there  has 
been  a  continuous  conflict.  The  method  is  becoming  more  refined, 
but  the  conflict  goes  on.  Is,  then,  every  spot  that  has  witnessed  a 
fatal  struggle  sacred?  If  not,  then  why  erect  monuments  on  any? 

Ah,  it  is  not  the  fact  that  a  struggle  took  place,  but  it  is  the  char- 
acter of  the  struggle — the  principles  involved,  and  the  deeds  done 
there,  that  move  us  to  action. 

Monuments  are  erected  to  give  perpetual  expression  to  a  senti- 
ment which  language  is  too  limited  to  portray  and  too  ephemeral  to 
preserve. 

The  world  erects  monuments  in  honor  of  heroic  deeds — of  patri- 
otic sacrifice,  and  of  great  achievements.  It  does  this,  not  as  a  solace 
for  the  dead,  but  as  an  inspiration  for  the  living. 

Again,  monuments  are  erected  to  mark  the  successive  upward 
movements  of  the  human  race.  They  are  milestones,  not  of  space,  but 
of  time.  They  are  index  fingers  upon  the  great  dial  of  civilization. 
These  monuments  which  we  dedicate  are  to  be  an  inspiration  to  the 
youth  of  America  for  all  time,  and  are  to  tell  their  eloquent  story  to 
all  coming  generations.  What,  then,  is  that  story  ? 

Over  a  third  of  a  century  ago  there  raged  across  this  continent 
the  greatest  conflict  the  world  had  ever  seen.  Never  had  war  been 
waged  on  so  gigantic  a  scale.  There  was  almost  a  continuous  line  of 


SPEECH  AT  CHICKAMAUGA.  491 

hostile  armies  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  there 
was  a  navy  stretching  from  New  York  around  to  the  shores  of  Mexico. 

The  primary  question  involved  was,  "Shall  this  government  be 
destroyed  or  preserved?"  But  this  question  itself  grew  out  of  the 
more  fundamental  question  of  slavery.  Through  dark  centuries  the 
cry  of  the  oppressed  had  gone  up  toward  heaven,  filling  the  air  with 
thunderbolts,  which  finally  exploded  in  one  prolonged  and  bloody 
drama.  More  than  a  million  of  men  in  all  came  down  from  the  North, 
shouting  as  they  marched,  "This  Union  forever  and  equal  rights  for 
all."  The  world  had  never  seen  such  a  spectacle.  Here  were  great 
armies  fighting,  not  for  aggrandizement,  not  for  conquest,  but  for  the 
integrity  of  the  flag  and  the  principle  of  universal  freedom.  Over  two 
hundred  thousand  men  came  down  from  our  great  prairie  State  of 
Illinois.  They  were  not  the  children  of  effeminate  luxury — they  did 
not  come  from  the  paths  of  ease — they  came  from  the  varied  fields  of 
industry.  They  represented  the  best  type  of  American  manhood ;  they 
had  character,  intelligence  and  grit ;  they  knew  the  value  of  the  Union, 
and  of  freedom  for  mankind,  and  were  prepared  to  die  for  them.  They 
met  one  of  the  bravest  foes  that  ever  drew  steel,  men  who  rushed  into 
battle  with  a  yell  even  when  they  saw  destruction  written  in  the  sky. 
Men  who  were  honest;  men  who  believed  they  were  right,  and  who 
rode  forth  to  death  without  a  quiver.  But  the  principle  these  men 
fought  for  meant  the  perpetuation  of  human  slavery.  They  were  fight- 
ing for  a  condition  against  which  the  humanity  of  the  age  protested. 
They  were  fighting  for  the  prolongation  of  an  era  which  on  the  calen- 
dar of  the  Almighty  was  marked  to  close — and  they  failed. 

In  the  fall  of  1863  one  of  the  great  acts  of  that  awful  drama  of  war 
took  place  here.  On  September  igth  and  2Oth  of  that  year  there  was 
fought  in  these  valleys,  over  these  fields  and  on  yonder  hillsides  one 
of  the  most  bloody  battles  of  which  history  makes  any  mention.  You 
are  familiar  with  its  details  and  I  will  not  dwell  on  them.  The  sons  of 
Illinois  fought  here.  There  are  men  here  to-day,  there  are  thousands 
in  the  walks  of  civil  life  at  home,  and  thousands  more  are  dead,  who 
were  actors  in  this  immortal  and  bloody  drama.  We  are  here  to  mark 
the  positions  they  occupied.  We  are  placing  monuments  of  solid 
granite  where  they  stood.  We  are  doing  this  for  the  benefit  of  our- 
selves and  of  posterity,  for  nothing  that  we  can  do  can  add  to  their 
glory.  Their  fame  is  fixed  and  their  reward  is  immortality. 

There  have  been  thousands  of  battles  of  which  the  actors  were  for- 
gotten almost  as  soon  as  the  groans  of  the  dying  had  ceased,  because 
there  was  no  principle  involved ;  it  was  simply  human  butchery.  But 
not  so  with  the  battles  of  this  war.  Here  was  hanging  in  the  balance 


492  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  very  existence  of  republican  institutions  among  men,  and  the  lib- 
erty of  millions  of  human  beings  yet  unborn.  Never  before  was  there 
such  an  issue ;  and  when  the  smoke  of  war  had  cleared  away,  when 
the  sun  again  rose  over  a  peaceful  land,  the  world  beheld  not  only  a 
united  country,  not  only  the  triumph  of  republican  institutions,  but  it 
saw  that  the  human  race  had  made  a  long  march  upward,  and  had 
camped  on  a  higher  plane ;  that  it  had  gotten  nearer  the  fountain 
of  justice,  and  that  the  principle  that  had  long  strutted  in  the  garb 
of  law,  namely,  that  one  man  can  hold  a  property  right  in  his  fellow- 
man,  was  expurged  from  the  books  forever. 

The  world  then  saw  that  the  battles  and  horrors  of  the  war  had  been 
the  birth  pains  of  a  new  era  with  which  time  had  been  pregnant ; 
that  they  were  hammers  in  the  great  clock  of  Omnipotence  pealing 
through  the  universe  the  dawn  of  a  new  day  for  millions  of  the  human 
race. 

That  in  brief  is  the  sublime,  the  imperishable  story  which  these 
monuments  tell. 

My  friends,  you  and  I  will  soon  pass  away  and  be  forgotten.  These 
granite  monuments  may  dissolve,  and  these  hills  may  disappear,  but 
Chickamauga  will  shine  forever  in  the  firmament.  No  matter  whether 
there  was  an  immediate  victory  or  not,  those  men  who  here  faced 
death,  and  struck  a  staggering  blow  for  country  and  for  equal  rights, 
belong  to  the  immortal. 

You  observe  we  are  marking  positions,  we  are  celebrating  actions, 
we  are  pointing  to  what  the  living  did  ;  we  are  not  building  tombs,  we 
are  not  decorating  graves,  for  not  many  of  our  heroes  are  buried  here. 
Go  to  the  lonely  places  in  deserted  fields,  go  to  the  sunken  spots  in 
Southern  woods,  go  to  the  decaying  bones  in  dismal  swamps,  and  go 
to  those  hilltops  where  thousands  of  little  marble  slabs,  all  of  the  same 
size,  are  standing  in  rows,  modestly  facing  the  morning,  modestly  tell- 
ing a  story  of  patriotism  and  of  honor,  and  you  will  find  the  graves  of 
many  of  our  dead.  'Tis  not  their  graves,  'tis  their  deeds  that  live. 
Men  look  toward  the  firmament  for  the  names  of  heroes  and  rarely  ask 
where  their  bones  are  buried. 

Standing  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  more  than  two  thous- 
and years  ago,  the  great  Pericles,  while  pronouncing  a  funeral  oration 
over  the  Greeks  who  had  fallen  in  defense  of  their  country,  said :  "The 
world  is  their  sepulcher,  and  wherever  there  is  speech  of  noble  deeds, 
there  they  will  be  remembered."  So  with  our  heroes.  They  rest  in 
the  hearts  of  their  countrymen,  and  all  time  is  the  custodian  of  their 
glory.  To  us,  and  to  all  that  believe  in  republican  institutions,  there 
is  a  peculiar  pleasure  in  dedicating  these  monuments,  because  they 


SPEECH  AT  CHICKAMAUGA.  493 

commemorate  the  deeds  of  the  volunteer  soldiers,  the  citizen  soldiers 
who  came  from  the  walks  of  every-day  life,  and  who  represented  the 
common  sense,  the  rugged  character,  the  love  of  country  and  the 
earnestness  of  the  great  American  people.  For  on  this  continent,  as 
elsewhere,  the  great  battles  that  gave  liberty  to  a  nation  were  fought 
by  men  who  came  directly  from  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  and  added 
the  superior  patriotism  and  character  of  a  citizen  to  the  stern  qualities 
of  a  soldier. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  last  century  the  raw  levies  coming  from  the 
citizens  of  France  defeated  all  Europe,  and  overthrew  a  despotism  of 
centuries. 

Frederick  the  Great  did  say  that  officers  ought  to  be  chosen  from 
the  nobility  because  a  higher  sense  of  honor  prevailed  there ;  but  in 
1806,  only  twenty  years  after  his  death,  a  Prussian  army  of  a  quarter 
of  a  million  of  men,  the  best  equipped  in  Europe,  and  officered  en- 
tirely by  so-called  noblemen,  who  were  professional  soldiers,  was 
routed  and  destroyed  by  a  greatly  inferior  force  of  republican  soldiers, 
because  its  officers  lacked  honor,  capacity  and  patriotism.  The  record 
of  their  blunders  and  surrenders  is  one  unparalleled  tale  of  shame,  dis- 
honor and  disgrace. 

In  less  than  ten  years  thereafter  a  new  army  was  formed,  not  of 
professional  soldiers,  boasting  of  their  lineage,  but  of  the  citizens  of 
Prussia.  This  army,  these  citizen  soldiers,  not  only  restored  the  in- 
dependence of  their  country  and  wiped  out  the  disgrace  put  on  it  by 
the  cowardice  and  treachery  of  the  nobility,  but  they  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  German  empire,  and  of  constitutional  government. 

In  our  country  the  Revolutionary  armies  were  made  up  of  citizens, 
commanded  by  men  from  the  varied  walks  of  life.  They  met  and  in 
the  end  routed  the  armies  that  were  composed  of  professional  soldiers, 
and  officered  by  men  whose  chief  boast  was  that  they  had  noble 
ancestors. 

Armed  citizens,  with  the  love  of  freedom  burning  in  their  souls, 
laid  the  foundations  of  liberty  in  our  country  and  the  same  class  of 
men  afterwards  came  to  its  rescue  and  saved  it  from  destruction.  The 
American  people  had  spent  millions  in  maintaining  West  Point  for 
the  purpose  of  protecting  the  country,  but  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war  the  armies  that  fired  on  our  flag  were  mostly  led  by  graduates  of 
that  institution. 

There  were  men  in  the  North  who  had  a  military  education,  but 
they  did  not  form  a  leisure  class,  making  arms  a  profession.  Grant 
was  a  tanner  and  Sherman  a  school  teacher,  and  all  had  to  develop 
to  meet  the  situation. 


494  LIFE   QUESTIONS. 

Patriotism  does  not  take  root  in  the  soil  of  leisure  and  dissipation. 
The  hot  air  of  the  drawing  room  is  not  conducive  to  its  growth,  it 
finds  no  nourishment  in  either  pride  or  pretense  and  it  famishes  and 
withers  in  the  hollow  glare  of  fashion. 

Patriotism  thrives  among  the  hard  lines  of  care  and  vigilance,  it 
becomes  robust  on  a  diet  of  justice  and  fair  play  and  is  always  found 
in  its  most  vigorous  form  among  the  intelligent,  upright  and  industri- 
ous masses  of  the  people.  A  leisure  class  making  arms  a  profession 
may  fight  for  glory  or  selfish  advantage,  caring  little  for  the  principle 
involved,  but  the  citizen  soldier  fights  for  country  and  for  liberty. 

Now,  my  friends,  we  owe  our  country  more  than  talk,  we  can  not 
discharge  our  duty  by  simply  celebrating  the  glorious  deeds  of  the 
past.  The  men  who  only  do  this  proclaim  to  the  world  their  im- 
becility and  the  humiliating  fact  that  they  are  not  capable  of  directing 
the  great  institutions  which  the  fathers  founded.  And  those  nations 
which  stand  with  their  face  toward  the  past  are  rotten  at  heart  and  are 
on  the  road  to  extinction. 

The  law  of  disintegration  and  destruction  never  sleeps  and  only 
eternal  vigilance  can  check  it.  Every  age  brings  its  own  dangers, 
and  those  that  come  stealthily  are  frequently  more  fatal  than  those 
that  come  with  a  mighty  noise.  The  war  has  settled  that  we  have 
nothing  to  fear  from  armed  foes,  we  have  nothing  to  fear  from  powder 
and  bullet.  But  to  destroy  liberty  by  poison  and  slow  strangulation 
is  just  as  fatal  to  a  nation  as  to  strike  it  down  by  the  sword. 

Instead  of  an  armed  foe  that  we  can  meet  on  the  field,  there  is  to- 
day an  enemy  that  is  invisible,  but  everywhere  at  work  destroying  our 
institutions ;  that  enemy  is  corruption. 

Born  of  vast  concentration  of  capital  in  unscrupulous  hands,  cor- 
ruption is  washing  the  foundations  from  under  us,  and  is  tainting 
everything  it  touches  with  a  moral  leprosy. 

It  seeks  to  direct  official  action,  it  dictates  legislation,  and  en- 
deavors to  control  the  construction  of  laws. 

Wealth  is  necessa'ry,  let  us  not  declaim  against  it,  every  nation 
needs  it  to  attain  the  highest  achievements  in  civilization.  But  it  is 
a  blessing  only  as  a  servant  and  is  destructive  as  a  master.  This 
spirit  of  corruption  seeks  to  control  the  press,  to  set  the  fashions  and 
to  shape  public  sentiment.  It  has  emasculated  American  politics,  and 
placed  it  on  the  low  plane  of  jugglery.  Once  political  parties  stood 
for  definite  principles,  and  their  platforms  proclaimed  these  boldly  to 
the  world.  The  tendency  now  is  for  political  parties  to  shirk  principle 
and  follow  expediency,  and  their  platforms  are  often  drawn  to  evade 
or  straddle  every  live  issue. 


SPEECH  AT  CHICKAMAUGA.  495 

The  idea  now  is  to  cajole  rather  than  convince,  to  ignore  great 
wrongs  and  wink  at  abuses,  to  court  the  support  of  conflicting  inter- 
ests, though  it  involves  the  deception  of  one  or  both.  We  are  sub- 
stituting office-seeking  and  office-holding  in  place  of  real  achievement 
and  instead  of  great  careers  in  public  life,  we  are  facing  a  harvest  of 
slippery,  blear-eyed  and  empty  mediocrity,  which  glides  into  oblivion 
without  even  the  assistance  of  death  and  leaves  almost  the  entire  field 
of  honor  to  the  successful  private  individual. 

To  be  an  eligible  candidate  now  often  means  to  stand  for  nothing  in 
particular,  and  to  represent  no  definite  principle,  but  be  all  things  to 
all  men,  and  in  the  end  be  contemptible.  Thirty-five  years  ago  the 
call  was  for  men  to  fight  an  open  enemy  in  the  field,  to-day  our  coun- 
try is  calling  for  men  who  will  be  true  to  republican  institutions  at 
home.  Never  before  did  this  republic  call  so  loudly  as  it  does  to-day 
for  a  strong,  sturdy  manhood  that  will  stand  up  defiantly  and  dare 
to  do  right. 

For  more  than  a  decade  the  tendency  in  this  country  has  been 
toward  a  colorless  and  negative  dilettanteism,  having  the  countenance 
of  the  Pharisee,  with  the  greed  of  the  wolf,  and  drawing  all  its  in- 
spirations from  the  altar  of  concentrated  and  corrupting  wealth. 

The  flag  has  been  praised  at  champagne  dinners,  while  the  very 
pole  from  which  it  floated  was  being  eaten  off  by  corruption,  and  re- 
publican institutions  were  being  stabbed  to  the  vitals.  A  new  gospel 
has  come  among  us,  according  to  which  "It  is  mean  to  rob  a  hen- 
roost or  a  hen,  but  plundering  thousands  makes  us  gentlemen." 

My  friends,  the  men  of  the  past  did  their  duty.  Shall  we  do  ours? 
They  were  asked  to  face  death,  you  may  have  to  face  calumny  and 
obloquy.  No  man  ever  served  his  country  without  being  vilified,  for 
all  who  make  a  profit  out  of  injustice  will  be  your  enemies,  but  as  sure 
as  the  heavens  are  high  and  justice  is  eternal,  will  you  triumph  in  the 
end. 

Let  me  say  to  the  young  men,  the  age  is  weary  of  the  polite  and 
weak  camp  followers,  weary  of  servility,  weary  of  cringed  necks  and 
knees  bent  to  corruption.  This  age  is  calling  for  soldiers,  calling  for 
strong  character,  calling  for  men  of  high  purpose,  calling  for  men 
who  have  convictions  of  their  own  and  who  have  the  courage  to  act 
on  them.  And  the  doors  of  fame's  bright  temple  never  opened  so 
widely  and  beckoned  so  earnestly  as  they  do  to-day.  Rise  to  the  oc- 
casion, steer  our  country  away  from  the  shoals  toward  which  it  is 
drifting,  keep  it  on  the  great  ocean  of  justice  and  of  liberty,  and  monu- 
ments of  granite  will  tell  the  story  of  your  lives  and  you  will  taste  the 
nectar  of  the  gods. 


WE  QUESTIONS. 

DRIFT    OF   THE   REPUBLICAN    PARTY. 

(August,    1895.) 

"Governor,  what  effect  will  the  conduct  of  the  Legislature  have  on 
the  Republican  party?" 

Political  parties  sometimes  begin  their  career  at  one  pole  and  then 
move  towards  the  opposite  pole.  The  Republican  party,  when  founded, 
stood  for  humanity,  stood  for  broad  principles,  stood  for  honesty  and 
the  highest  and  best  interests  of  the  masses  of  the  common  people. 
While  it  was  guided  by  Lincoln  and  his  associates  its  needle  always 
pointed  to  the  pole  of  justice,  but  in  the  rapid  concentration  of  wealth 
and  the  accumulation  of  great  fortunes  by  means  of  legislation  it  has 
moved  so  far  away  from  its  starting  point  that  its  needle  now  points 
almost  without  variation  to  the  opposite  pole.  To-day  the  great  cur- 
rents in  the  Republican  party  all  run  toward  the  aggrandizement  of  the 
few  at  the  expense  of  the  many — toward  trusts  and  universal  corrup- 
tion. No  matter  what  the  great  majority  of  the  party  may  believe  or 
may  advocate,  or  may  desire,  the  party  has  passed  into  the  control  of 
influences  that  absolutely  unfit  it  and  disqualify  it  to  deal  with  the 
problems  of  the  State. 

There  are  a  number  of  burning  questions  in  this  State  that  demand 
legislation.  In  connection  with  our  revenue  system,  with  our  police 
court  system  in  large  cities,  with  our  child  labor  system,  with  our  sys- 
tem for  administering  justice,  and  in  connection  with  a  number  of 
other  subjects  there  are  conditions  of  such  great  injustice  as  reflect 
seriously  upon  our  capacity  for  self-government. 

The  people  elected  a  Legislature  to  deal  with  these  problems  and 
to  right  these  wrongs.  The  Republicans  had  an  overwhelming  ma- 
jority in  both  Houses  and  were  absolutely  masters  of  the  situation, 
yet  when  called  upon  to  act,  they  demonstrated  either  an  incapacity 
or  an  unwillingness  to  do  anything.  Some  of  them  treated  the  serious 
questions  flippantly  by  contemptuously  speaking  of  them  as  "chest- 
nuts," "old  timers,"  etc.  Thus  showing  not  only  an  incapacity  to  deal 
with  them,  but  an  utter  incapacity  to  understand  their  importance,  and 
the  majority  seemed  to  be  unwilling  to  give  any  serious  attention  to 
the  business  of  the  State,  but  appeared  to  devote  all  of  their  energies 
to  further  their  own  selfish  interests. 

The  lobbyists  and  the  rotten  and  slimy  "go-betweens"  who  rep- 
resented the  corruptionists  of  the  State  seemed  to  be  able  to  defeat  any 
measure  which  they  disliked. 

Now  the  same  machinery  which  sent  the  Republican  delegation  to 


DRIFT    OF    THE    REPUBLICAN   PARTY.  497 

the  last  Legislature  will  probably  determine  who  shall  go  to  the  next, 
and  as  the  influences  which  I  have  spoken  of  seem  to  be  in  absolute 
control  of  the  Republican  party  and  will  probably  continue  to  control 
it,  and  as  the  last  Legislature  is  a  fair  specimen  of  what  may  be  ex- 
pected from  these  influences,  it  is  apparent  that  the  State  of  Illinois 
has  little  to  hope  from  the  Republican  party. 


LAYING  THE  CORNER-STONE  OF  THE   NEW  NORMAL 
UNIVERSITY  AT  DE  KALB,  ILL.,  OCTOBER  i,  1895. 

Mr.  Chairman  :  Ten  days  ago  I  stood  on  one  of  the  world's  great- 
est battlefields,  a  field  which  will  be  remembered  as  long  as  the  chil- 
dren of  men  love  liberty  and  cherish  free  institutions.  Scores  of  monu- 
ments now  mark  the  positions  held  by  different  troops,  and  you  can 
trace  the  line  of  battle  for  miles,  over  fields  and  through  woods,  and 
as  you  do  so  you  are  struck  with  the  fact  that  wherever  the  struggle 
was  the  hardest  and  the  slaughter  the  greatest,  there  were  the  soldiers 
of  Illinois.  As  I  stood  there  overwhelmed  by  the  spirit  that  hovers 
over  those  grounds,  I  exclaimed,  "Great  was  Illinois  on  this  field,  and 
immortal  are  her  sons  who  here  fought  for  freedom." 

To-day  as  I  gaze  over  this  vast  multitude  of  our  citizens  represent- 
ing all  classes  and  conditions  of  our  people,  and  drawn  together,  ndt  by 
lucre,  not  by  passion,  not  by  prejudice,  but  by  the  most  lofty  impulse 
that  can  move  men  to  action — drawn  together  by  a  common  desire  to 
elevate  the  standard  of  education — I  am  forced  to  exclaim,  great  are 
the  people  of  Illinois  wherever  found,  and  glorious  will  be  their  career. 

Your  presence  here  tells  the  world  that  there  is  something  superior 
to  houses  and  lands,  greater  than  office,  or  honor,  something  that  can- 
not be  purchased  across  the  counter,  and  does  not  depend  upon  the 
market ;  something  that  does  not  grow  in  a  night,  but  must  be  nurtured 
by  truth  and  illumined  by  wisdom ;  and  that  is  true  manhood,  true 
womanhood,  lofty  character  and  high  purpose. 

By  your  presence  here  you  tell  the  world  that  material  achieve- 
ment is  not  the  highest  destiny  of  man,  but  that  in  order  to  grasp  the 
imperishable  he  must  move  upward  toward  the  sunlit  peaks  of  in- 
telligence. 

All  of  the  creations  of  man  that  rested  only  upon  a  foundation  of 
matter  have  crumbled  to  dust.  There  were  mighty  people  possessing 
power  and  wealth  of  whom  the  recording  angel  took  no  note,  for  they 
possessed  nothing  that  was  worth  preserving.  Egypt  was  one  of  the 
greatest  nations  of  ancient  times,  but  her  memory  is  preserved  largely 
33 


498  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

by  the  fact  that  she  once  held  in  slavery  a  people  whose  history,  liter- 
ature and  laws  glow  with  immortality. 

For  centuries  the  Greeks  were  a  powerful  people,  yet  their  fleets, 
their  houses,  and  their  vast  wealth  all  have  disappeared.  But  the  grove 
in  which  Plato  taught  philosophy  has  given  its  name  to  institutions  of 
learning  for  more  than  two  thousand  years.  The  world  still  admires 
the  sculpture  and  the  architecture  of  Phidias  and  his  colleagues,  it  is 
still  thrilled  with  her  oratory,  and  reads  the  creations  of  her  poets  and 
dramatists  with  delight. 

Rome  possessed  a  material  splendor  and  power  such  as  had  never 
before  been  seen,  but  her  armies,  her  granaries,  her  slaves  and  her 
office-holders  all  have  passed  away ;  yet  we  still  listen  to  the  orations 
of  Cicero,  and  the  songs  of  her  poets,  while  her  laws  formed  the 
foundation  for  the  systems  of  jurisprudence  of  all  of  the  great  empires 
of  modern  Europe. 

We  grow  weary  of  hearing  about  the  workshops,  and  counting- 
rooms  of  England ;  we  lose  interest  in  the  story  of  her  factories,  her 
fleets,  her  commerce  and  her  banks,  for  there  is  nothing  in  all  this  to 
satisfy  the  soul.  We  grow  weary  even  of  hearing  it  said  that  the  sun 
never  sets  upon  her  empire,  and  that  her  morning  drum-beat  is  heard 
around  the  world,  for  while  this  is  a  splendid  figure  of  speech,  it  sug- 
gests physical  force,  it  suggests  the  tax-gatherer,  it  suggests  the  hand 
of  the  oppressor,  it  suggests  a  despoiled  and  weary  people,  who  eat 
their  bread  in  sadness  and  for  whom  this,  drum-beat  has  no  music. 
We  turn  rather  to  the  England  of  Shakespeare,  of  Milton  and  of  Gold- 
smith ;  the  England  of  literature,  and  philosophy,  and  of  oratory ;  and 
long  after  all  of  her  material  grandeur  shall  have  been  forgotten  the 
creations  of  her  intellectual  genius  will  live. 

In  this  country  we  have  had  a  career  that  is  without  parallel  in  all 
history  ;  but  while  the  extraordinary  growth  and  splendor  of  our  coun- 
try are  due  to  the  superior  intelligence  and  patriotism  of  our  people, 
the  future  will  not  ask  about  our  railroads  and  our  factories  ;  it  will  not 
ask  about  our  warehouses  and  our  fields,  it  will  not  inquire  about  our 
factions,  nor  our  men  of  authority.  The  future  will  ask :  W'hat  did 
these  people  of  America  do  for  humanity  ?  What  was  the  high-water 
mark  of  intelligence  which  they  reached?  Fortunate  shall  we  be  if 
when  measured  from  that  standpoint  we  shall  surpass  the  nations  that 
have  preceded  us.  The  Almighty  uses  the  centuries  as  a  yard  stick 
with  which  to  measure  the  achievements  of  nations,  and  unless  we  can 
offer  works  which,  when  measured  by  his  great  rule,  shall  surpass  the 
people  who  have  gone  before  us,  little  will  be  set  down  to  our  credit. 

Fortunately  we  are  moving  along  great  highways  that  were  closed 


SPEECH   AT    DE   KALB.  499 

to  the  ancients,  we  are  tilling  fields  that  were  unknown  to  the  past, 
and  we  are  producing  a  harvest  that  only  poets  had  dreamed  of.  In 
the  centuries  that  have  gone,  few  were  counted  worthy  of  notice ;  we 
are  helping  the  many.  Once  the  children  of  the  few  only  were  led  up 
the  hill  of  knowledge ;  now  we  labor  to  bring  the  whole  human  family 
into  the  regions  of  light.  As  a  result  of  this  democratic  spirit,  guided 
by  sturdy  character,  both  the  physical,  the  moral  and  the  intellectual 
conditions  of  all  classes  of  men  have  been  greatly  advanced.  Learning 
is  no  longer  confined  to  the  three  professions,  but  every  line  of  industry 
has  its  educated  and  distinguished  men,  who  often  overshadow  their 
brethren  in  the  profession,  and  we  have  a  variety  of  beneficent  insti- 
tutions that  are  the  children  of  this  century.  This  spirit  and  this 
character  are  especially  seen  in  the  growth  of  the  State  of  Illinois. 
We  are  but  three-quarters  of  a  century  old,  but  we  have  one  of  the 
most  romantic  and  thrilling  histories  to  be  found  in  song  or  story, 
and  our  advancement  in  every  line  of  human  activity  has  astonished 
the  world.  Without  being  conscious  of  it  themselves,  our  people 
pushed  ahead  until  they  surpassed  all  the  States  of  the  earth  in  agri- 
culture, in  mining,  in  manufacturing,  in  railroading,  in  merchandising, 
in  the  founding  of  institutions,  in  the  building  of  cities  and  in  the  cease- 
less struggle  for  human  advancement.  Moved  by  a  lofty  impulse  we 
invited  the  nations  to  come  within  our  borders  to  exhibit  the  high- 
est and  best  productions  of  the  genius  and  industry  of  their  people ; 
and  although  our  expectations  were  high,  we  were  amazed  at  the  re- 
sult. We  had  called  into  being  the  great  Columbian  Exposition,  the 
crowning  wonder  and  glory  of  all  the  centuries.  The  nations  came  and 
gazed  with  rapture,  while  we  unconsciously  took  a  position  at  the 
head  of  the  mighty  States  of  the  earth.  We  were  so  overwhelmed 
with  emotion  as  we  beheld  the  indescribable  grandeur  of  the  White 
City  that  we  took  no  note  of  the  responsibility  we  were  assuming. 
Now  we  must  go  ahead,  there  is  no  retreat.  The  same  energy,  the 
same  industry  and  the  same  high  purpose  which  has  distinguished 
our  people  in  the  past  must  guide  us  in  the  future. 

Look  at  a  map  of  America  a  moment  and  you  will  see  that  our 
State  was  designed  to  be  the  heart  of  this  continent.  It  stretches  from 
the  Great  Lakes  to  the  two,  yea,  three  great  rivers  through  nearly 
four  hundred  miles  of  latitude,  and  possesses  the  best  climate  and  the 
most  wonderful  resources  that  Providence  could  give.  Man  has  en- 
deavored to  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  Almighty  and  has  placed  Illinois 
at  the  head  of  the  column  of  mighty  States,  and  the  time  is  near  at  hand 
when  from  her  will  go  out  to  the  other  States  and  to  all  countries  that 
vivifying  and  elevating  spirit  that  moves  the  world.  The  intellectual 


Soo  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

and  literary  activity  is  already  being  shifted  from  the  hills  of  New 
England  to  the  prairies  of  Illinois,  and  the  time  is  near  at  hand  when 
from  this  State  will  go  out  the  most  advanced  ideas  in  all  the  fields 
of  human  knowledge.  The  time  is  near  at  hand  when  the  young  men 
and  young  women  of  this  State  will  no  longer  go  beyond  our  borders 
to  be  educated,  but  the  sons  and  daughters  of  other  States  and  of 
other  countries  will  come  here  to  perfect  their  education,  for  they  will 
find  here  the  vigor  and  strength  of  youth  instead  of  the  paralysis  of 
age  now  seen  elsewhere.  In  education  we  have  laid  the  foundations 
for  institutions  that  will  grow  stronger  with  the  centuries.  Aside  from 
the  numerous  small  colleges  over  the  State  that  have  given  great  men 
to  their  country  in  all  fields  of  activity,  we  have  a  Presbyterian  uni- 
versity at  Lake  Bluff  that  is  an  excellent  institution.  We  have  the 
Northwestern  Methodist  University  at  Evanston  that  is  doing  splendid 
work.  We  have  the  Baptist  University  of  Chicago  that  is  famous 
for  the  distinction  of  its  instructors,  and  we  have  the  University  of 
Illinois  at  Champaign,  an  institution  which,  in  many  respects,  is  al- 
ready one  of  the  best  in  the  world,  especially  in  all  matters  relating 
to  modern  engineering  and  the  sciences. 

We  have  met  to  lay  the  corner-stone  of  an  institution  that  is  de- 
signed to  produce  the  perfect  teacher,  who  shall  in  the  school-room 
make  of  the  young,  as  near  as  human  effort  can,  perfect  men  and  wo- 
men. If  this  institution  shall  instill  the  right  spirit,  if  it  shall  teach  the 
diversity  of  toil,  if  it  shall  make  of  the  youth  of  the  land  strong,  inde- 
pendent and  liberty-loving  men  and  women,  then  only  the  centuries 
can  measure  the  good  that  will  flow  from  it. 

Institutions  frequently  partake  of  the  character  of  the  people  whose 
influence  surrounds  them.  When  the  question  arose  last  winter  of 
founding  a  new  institution  of  learning  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the 
State  we  favored  the  measure,  not  simply  because  it  was  just  to  this 
great  section  of  the  State,  but  for  the  higher  reason  that  here  was 
found,  in  as  great  a  degree  as  anywhere,  the  industry,  the  intelligence, 
the  sturdy  character  and  the  high  aim  which  would  make  an  institu- 
tion a  success.  Above  all  things,  we  want  this  institution  to  stand  on 
the  basic  principle  that  all  men  are  born  equal,  and  that  only  industry, 
intelligence  and  effort  shall  lead  to  preferment. 

If  I  had  not  believed  that  here  a  university  would  be  free  from  a 
weakening  dilettanteism,  that  here  industry  and  character  would  rank 
above  all  other  things,  then  the  bill  would  have  been  vetoed  or  we  would 
have  told  the  gentlemen  who  were  pushing  the  measure  not  to  revive  it 
after  it  had  been  defeated.  For  there  was  serious  opposition  to  it : 
and  but  for  the  persistent,  able  and  determined  efforts,  through  an  en- 


CARE    OF    DEPENDENT    CHILDREN.  501 

tire  winter,  of  a  distinguished  gentleman  of  this  town,  the  bill  never 
would  have  passed.  To  him  you  are  indebted  at  this  time,  and  if  this 
institution  is  properly  managed,  then  all  coming  generations  in  this 
section  of  the  State  will  appreciate  his  efforts.  Let  me  say  to  you  now 
that  should  it  'at  any  time  in  the  future  be  used  as  a  convenience  by 
the  trustees  to  furnish  places  or  a  living  for  relatives  and  favorites  so 
that  the  standing  of  the  university  would  be  lowered,  then  go  to  the 
Executive  at  Springfield,  no  matter  who  he  may  be,  and  demand  a 
change,  and  if  you  do  it  in  earnest,  you  will  succeed. 

Aside  from  private  institutions  we  have  already  two  great  Normal 
universities  in  this  State,  and  they  are  doing  a  grand  work.  We  are 
founding  two  more,  not  because  we  are  behind  our  neighbors,  for  we 
are  far  in  the  lead,  but  we  shall  not  rise  to  the  occasion  unless  we  put 
all  four  on  a  plane  that  shall  surpass  everything  in  this  country.  The 
Illinoisan  never  has  been  and  dare  not  in  the  future  be  content  to  rest 
where  his  neighbor  does.  He  can  recognize  only  time  and  space  as 
limitations  to  his  efforts ;  he  must  draw  his  inspiration  from  the  stars, 
and  so  long  as  there  are  highlands  ahead  that  have  hanging  over  them 
the  enchantment  of  unsolved  mysteries,  so  long  must  he  push  forward. 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  this  is  the  position,  this  is  the  mission, 
this  is  the  grand  destiny  of  Illinois.  I  care  not  for  your  politics,  I  care 
not  what  you  think  of  this  or  that  public  man,  I  care  not  to  what  sect 
you  belong,  or  at  what  shrine  you  kneel,  but  I  do  ask  that  you  bring 
your  best  offerings  to  the  altar  of  our  State,  whose  spirit  will  surely 
shape  the  future  of  this  country. 

Let  this  new  institution  and  all  existing  ones  be  guided  by  the  high 
character,  the  steady  industry  and  the  love  of  freedom  for  which  our 
people  are  noted  and  only  the  eye  of  Omniscience  can  survey  the  future 
grandeur  and  glory  of  our  State. 


CARE  OF  DEPENDENT  CHILDREN. 

"State  of  Illinois,  Executive  Office,  Springfield,  Oct.  10,  1895.— 
The  Hon.  Harvey  B.  Kurd,  President  Children's  Aid  Society  15 
Washington  Street,  Chicago,  111.— Dear  Mr.  Kurd:  Answering  your 
favor  I  will  say,  a  somewhat  extended  observation  has  forced  the  con- 
viction into  my  mind  that  our  whole  system  of  caring  for  dependent 
children  in  public  institutions  is  to  a  great  extent  a  failure  and  should 
be  changed.  As  yon  are  aware,  the  entire  institutions  system  is  of  re- 
cent origin  and  there  are  serious  objections  to  it  in  all  of  its  branches. 


502  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

But  in  most  cases  we  have  nothing  better  to  substitute  and  therefore  are 
obliged  to  continue  it. 

"For  example,  we  have  as  yet  no  satisfactory  substitute  for  insane 
asylums.  We  must  have  prisons,  and  we  take  care  of  the  feeble- 
minded and  the  physically  helpless,  as  well  as  of  the  aged  who  have  no 
means  of  support.  For  all  these  the  institutions  system  will  have  to  be 
continued,  and  as  to  these  it  is  only  a  question  of  bringing  the  in- 
stitutions onto  the  highest  plane  possible. 

GREAT  WRONG  TO  THE  YOUNG. 

"But  when  it  comes  to  the  young  the  case  is  different.  They  soon 
become  institutionized,  which  means  that  they  are  forever  disqualified 
from  making  their  own  living.  During  the  impressionable  part  of  their 
lives  their  character  is  shaped,  their  habits  become  fixed  and  the  spirit 
of  self-reliance  is  either  destroyed  or  dwarfed,  so  that  wh,en  they  leave 
the  institution  they  are  helpless. 

"In  all  conditions  life  is  in  a  sense  competitive,  and  the  boys  and 
girls  who  have  grown  up  in  private  homes  possess  a  degree  of  self- 
confidence  and  self-reliance,  to  say  nothing  of  a  knowledge  of  the 
world  and  of  affairs,  which  places  them  far  in  advance  of  the  institu- 
tion girl  or  boy  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  It  is  a  common  thing 
to  see  in  institutions  both  girls  and  boys  who  are  bright  and  industrious 
and  spirited,  and  possess  excellent  principles,  but  who  are  absolutely 
helpless  when  they  leave  the  institution.  They  become  accustomed  to 
work  with  a  large  number  and  become  accustomed  to  being  provided 
for  and  to  being  guided  in  all  particulars,  so  that  as  a  rule  they  are 
weakened  for  life,  while  the  children  coming  from  even  the  poorest 
private  homes  are  found  to  be  self-reliant,  and  often  become  the  most 
successful  men  and  women. 

SHOULD  BE  PLACED  IN  PRIVATE  FAMILIES. 

"I  am  convinced  that  the  best  method  yet  devised  for  dealing  with 
homeless  children  is  to  place  them  at  once  in  private  homes  where 
they  may  be  treated  as  members  of  the  family  and  begin  early  to  learn 
the  hard  realities  of  life  and  the  best  ways  of  meeting  them,  and  for 
this  purpose  they  should  be  detained  in  an  institution  only  until  it  is 
possible  to  find  some  place  for  them. 

"If  there  are  any  legal  difficulties  in  the  way  of  having  those  public 
officials  who  deal  with  the  poor  carry  out  this  policy,  then  the  law 
should  be  changed  as  speedily  as  possible  so  as  to  permit  it  and  put  an 
end  to  the  herding  of  children  together  in  institutions  where  they  are 


LINCOLN  PARK  EXTENSION.  503 

prisoners  without  being  guilty  of  any  offense  except  that  of  being 
friendless  and  poor.  Very  respectfully  yours, 

"JOHN  P.  ALTGELD." 


LINCOLN  PARK  EXTENSION. 

(Note.— On  the  recommendation  of  the  Governor  an  act  was  passed  by 
the  Legislature  in  1893  to  extend  Lincoln  Park  northward  by  utilizing  the 
ground  under  the  shallow  waters  of  the  lake.  This  act  was  found  to  be  de- 
fective, and  a  new  act  was  passed  in  1895.) 

October  21,  1895. 
Hon.  Egbert  Jamieson,  Cor.  Clark  and  Division  Streets,  Chicago,  111. 

Dear  Judge :  I  feel  that  the  time  is  fast  slipping  round  and  that 
we  are  not  getting  the  Lincoln  Park  extension  under  headway,  and  as 
our  term  of  official  life  is  short,  a  very  little  delay  through  litigation  or 
from  some  other  cause  will  defeat  the  whole  measure  so  far  as  we  are 
concerned,  and  possibly  delay  the  improvement  so  long  that  it  can 
never  be  made.  For,  even  if  after  the  end  of  this  administration  you 
were  to  remain  on  the  Board  the  Board  will  be  so  radically  reorganized 
that  it  will  refuse  to  carry  out  any  policy  which  we  have  favored.  It 
is  imperative  that  we  take  steps  at  once  to  get  the  riparian  rights  and 
also  to  begin  the  driving  of  piles  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  outer 
drive  and  breakwater  in  the  lake.  You  know  the  theory  is  to  build 
the  drive  parallel  with  the  shore  from  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand 
feet  out  in  the  lake  and  thus  get  the  land  which  is  covered  by  the  shal- 
low waters  between  that  line  and  the  shore.  If  the  piles  were  once 
driven  and  the  work  started,  then  it  will  be  completed,  for  public  senti- 
ment would  then  compel  succeeding  boards  to  go  on  with  the  work 

But  in  order  to  get  the  piles  driven  and  the  work  done  there  dare 
not  be  a  delay  of  an  hour,  and  I  wish  to  say  that  the  entire  job  of  ex- 
tending the  drive  and  thus  laying  the  foundation  for  a  park  should  be 
carried  up  to  the  line  of  the  town  of  Evanston.  It  will  take  but  little 
more  work  to  carry  on  the  whole  than  it  will  to  proceed  with  a  part 
and  I  desire  that  your  Board  lay  the  foundation  for  the  whole  fabric 
and  not  simply  for  a  small  part  of  it.  I  want  this  improvement  to  be 
the  creation  of  your  Board. 

Mr  Crawford  has  given  the  Park  so  much  time  and  has  so  many 
other  details  to  look  after  that  he  cannot  concentrate  so  much  of  his 
attention  to  the  preliminary  steps  which  are  necessary  to  go  on  with 
this  improvement,  and  I  consequently  hesitate  to  press  him  verv 
much. 

In  my  judgment,  if  this  drive  out  into  the  lake  is  extended  to 


504  'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Evanston  and  the  Park  ultimately  carried  there,  it  will  be  one  of  the 
grandest  things  ever  done  about  Chicago  and  will  alone  make  the 
city  famous,  and  must  cover  with  honors  those  who  will  devote  a  part 
of  their  lives  and  their  energies  to  creating  it.  Opportunities  of  this 
kind  do  not  come  to  a  man  every  day.  You  are  young  and  ambitious 
and  I  want  you  to  make  the  most  of  it.  Let  your  twelve  or  fifteen  or 
twenty  great  corporations  go  out  to  pasture  awhile,  and  devote  your- 
self to  achieving  glory  and  doing  something  for  your  city  and  for  the 
great  masses  of  the  people — for  this  park  must  in  the  end  be  for  them. 

I  have  not  examined  the  subject  sufficiently  to  say  just  what  steps 
should  be  taken  first,  but  it  is  necessary  to  get  the  riparian  rights  im- 
mediately and  to  have  an  assessment  made  that  will  enable  you  to 
start  the  work  at  once.  I  understand  very  many  of  the  owners  along 
the  shore  are  willing  to  deed  the  riparian  rights  and  as  to  all  those  who 
are  not  willing  to  do  so  condemnation  proceedings  should  be  begun 
immediately  and  if  possible  be  set  for  immediate  hearing,  and  I  think 
it  would  be  well  to  embrace  in  the  proceedings  every  piece  of  land 
up  to  the  Evanston  line.  Likewise  the  assessment  should  be  made  to 
cover  the  whole  ground  and  pushed  to  a  judgment. 

Now,  unless  somebody  will  make  this  his  immediate  and  particular 
business  weeks  and  months  will  slip  around  without  accomplishing 
anything.  In  my  judgment  your  Board  should  employ  all  the  help 
necessary  of  every  kind  and  character.  Do  not  hesitate  a  moment, 
but  drive  ahead.  Do  not  be  alarmed  about  the  expense  or  the  taxation, 
for  the  people  of  Chicago  are  always  willing  to  pay  if  they  get  an  ade- 
quate return  for  their  money.  There  will,  of  course,  be  opposition,  for 
there  are  people  who  will  fight  the  best  move  on  earth.  And  there 
will  be  people  who  will  try  to  rob  you,  for  sharks  are  numerous  in  the 
world.  But  all  of  these  features  must  be  met  in  the  end,  and  therefore 
had  better  be  met  at  once.  Ascertain  at  once  what  the  riparian  rights 
are  to  cost  and  be  done  with  it.  Ascertain  at  once  what  it  will  cost 
to  build  the  breakwater  and  drive  up  to  Evanston.  The  filling  is  some- 
thing that  will  take  care  of  itself  later,  besides  much  of  the  water  be- 
tween the  proposed  drive  and  the  shore  should  be  left  open. 

Your  long  career  at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench  has  made  you  fa- 
miliar with  this  kind  of  proceeding.  Ascertain  what  is  the  very  earliest 
moment  at  which  you  can  let  contracts  and  proceed  with  the  work. 

I  will  endeavor  to  have  a  conference  with  you  and  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  as  soon  as  possible,  but  in  the  meantime  allow  me 
to  repeat,  I  hope  you  will  push  ahead. 

With  my  best  regards,  I  am 

Truly  yours,  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


'COAL  MINE  INSPECTORS.  505 

INSTRUCTIONS  GIVEN  TO  COAL  MINE  INSPECTORS  ON 
OCTOBER  24,  1895. 

Gentlemen :  I  have  invited  you  to  meet  me  to-day  in  order  to 
more  forcibly  impress  upon  you  certain  matters  relating  to  your 
duties. 

The  law  providing  for  coal  mine  inspectors  was  passed  for  the 
purpose  of  protecting  the  miners,  of  protecting  the  lives  and  health 
of  the  men  who  toil  in  the  earth  and  of  preventing  accidents.  As  a  rule, 
the  mine  owners  and  wealthy  property  owners  are  able  to  take  care 
of  themselves.  We  feel  that  there  have  been  too  many  accidents  in 
the  coal  mines  of  this  State  during  the  last  two  years  and  that  some 
of  them  could  have  been  avoided.  Not  that  there  have  been  any  more 
than  formerly,  in  fact,  there  were  not  as  many,  but  still  we  are  con- 
vinced that  they  have  not  yet  been  reduced  to  the  minimum. 

We  find  it  is  common  for  the  mine  owner  or  his  agent  to  meet  the 
inspector  when  he  comes,  and  accompany  him  on  his  tour  of  inspec- 
tion. This  makes  it  embarrassing  for  the  miners,  who  fear  that  they 
might  lose  their  jobs  if  they  were  to  call  the  inspector's  attention  to 
anything,  and  as  the  miners  are  very  poor,  many  of  them  in  almost 
desperate  condition,  and  as  the  losing  of  the  job  means  that  there  will 
be  no  bread  for  their  children,  they  refrain  from  saying  anything  un- 
der these  circumstances.  Now,  in  the  future  we  wish  you  to  be  guided 
by  these  specific  instructions : 

Make  an  entire  inspection  alone  and  say  to  the  mine  owner  and  his 
agent  that  you  are  not  permitted  to  have  him  present  on  I  your  tour, 
and  during  this  tour,  as  you  go  along,  ask. the  miners  whether  they 
have  anything  they  desire  to  suggest  to  you.  It  will  not  take  much  of 
your  time  and  will  give  the  miners  courage.  At  the  same  time  give 
them  to  understand  that  you  do  not  care  to  know  their  names  and  that 
they  will  not  be  reported.  And  when  they  call  your  attention  to  any- 
thing, examine  into  it  at  once.  After  having  made  this  tour,  then  if 
the  mine  owner  or  his  agent  desire  to  call  your  attention  to  anything, 
you  will,  of  course,  be  with  them. 

Your  demeanor  toward  the  owner  and  his  people  should  be  re- 
spectful and  free  from  all  bluster.  When  there  is  anything  that  needs 
attention,  call  the  attention  of  the  owner  to  it  in  writing,  so  that  no 
question  may  arise  as  to  whether  you  did  notify  them  or  not.  Always 
give  your  notice  in  writing.  Do  it  in  respectful  language  and  then 
see  to  it  that  the  law  is  complied  with. 

As  an  example  of  the  accidents  that  we  think  can  be  prevented 
there  was  one  mine  where  they  had  been  lowering  the  cage,  in  which 


506  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  men  rode  up  and  down,  so  rapidly  as  to  make  ic  exceedingly  un- 
comfortable. The  mine  inspector  came  there  and  was  lowered  down 
with  great  care,  and  as  he  was  accompanied  by  the  mine  manager  no 
miner  complained.  Soon  thereafter  the  cage  was  lowered  with  such 
rapidity  and  struck  the  bottom  with  such  force  that  it  broke  the  legs 
of  two  of  the  occupants.  Now,  if  the  mine  inspector  had  gone  down 
the  cage  alone,  and  in  passing  through  the  mine  had  asked  the  miners 
whether  there  was  anything  to  complain  of,  some  one  would,  in  all 
probability,  have  told  him  about  the  manner  of  lowering  the  elevator. 
He  could  then  have  spoken  to  the  manager  about  it  and  prevented  the 
accident. 

We  want  you  to  be  thorough  in  your  work.  See  that  everything 
which  the  law  requires  is  attended  to  properly. 

It  is  also  your  duty  to  do  what  you  can  to  prevent  the  miners  being 
cheated  in  weighing.  As  to  the  best  method  of  testing  scales,  that  is 
a  matter  which  will  be  considered  later,  but  it  has  been  found  in  the 
past  that  miners  are  swindled,  not  so  much  by  the  scales  as  they  are 
by  the  figures,  that  is,  the  check  weighman  has  sometimes  been  found 
to  put  down  reduced  figures.  In  order  to  ascertain  whether  this  has 
been  going  on  or  not,  it  would  be  well  for  you  to  take  a  stand  at  the 
mine  for  several  hours  and  weigh  every  car  yourself  until  you  have 
weighed  some  hundred  cars.  Ascertain  what  they  average,  then  in- 
quire and  see  what  the  cars  averaged  for  several  weeks  prior  under 
the  same  conditions  and  in  that  way  you  can  tell  whether  there  has 
been  any  false  reporting. 

Lei  me  say  in  conclusion  that  every  time  an  accident  happens  in 
a  mine  hereafter  we  shall -feel  a  little  suspicious  about  our  inspector, 
and  if  it  is  found  that  the  accident  is  one  which  could  have  been  pre- 
vented by  closer  attention,  he  will  be  liable  to  lose  his  job. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SUBSTITUTE  FOR  COMPETITION? 
(Speech  at  the  St.  Andrew's  Society  banquet,  November  30,  1895.) 

Mr.  President :  Is  competition  dying  out  ?  If  so,  what  shall  we 
substitute  for  it?  This  question  is  now  confronting  the  American 
people  and  particularly  the  people  of  this  State,  and  as  I  will  not  have 
to  deal  with  it  in  an  official  capacity  I  may  discuss  it  from  the  same 
standpoint  and  with  the  same  freedom  that  any  other  citizen  could. 

For  centuries  competition  has  been  regarded  as  the  regulator  of 
wages  and  especially  as  the  protection  of  the  public  against  the  ex- 
tortions of  monopoly.  In  all  civilized  countries,  particularly  in  Eng- 


SUBSTITUTE  FOR  COMPETITION.  507 

land  and  the  United  States,  it  has  been  the  aim  of  government  to  pre- 
vent combinations  that  would  in  any  way  affect  prices.  In  England, 
as  well  as  in  this  country,  the  legislation  and  the  decisions  of  the 
courts,  excepting  our  Federal  courts,  has  been  most  strongly  against 
trusts  and  other  forms  of  combination  that  were  thought  to  prevent 
free  competition. 

But  about  the  middle  of  this  century,  with  the  extended  use  of 
steam  and  machinery,  there  appeared  in  Europe,  as  well  as  here,  a 
tendency  toward  concentration,  enlargement,  and  consolidation  in  civil 
affairs.  Numerous  little  independent  governments  were  united  into 
great  ones,  and  in  the  financial,  commercial  and  manufacturing  world 
small  establishments  gave  way  to  great  ones,  and  little  railroads  to 
great  trunk  lines.  Everywhere  individual  effort  is  giving  way  to  com- 
bined effort. 

Notwithstanding  the  laws  against  trusts,  the  most  of  the  States 
have  passed  laws  under  which  corporations  can  be  formed  with  ease, 
and  this  fact,  making  concentration  of  capital  possible,  gave  a  tre- 
mendous impetus  to  the  new  movement,  and  brought  about  conditions 
which  would  have  been  impossible  under  individual  or  mere  partnership 
effort,  so  that  now  there  is  scarcely  a  field  of  enterprise  but  what  is 
controlled  by  combinations. 

Lists  have  been  published  giving  the  names  of  several  hundred 
great  trusts  and  combinations  that  arbitrarily  fix  prices,  control  out- 
put, and  regulate  wages.  Especially  has  competition  ceased  in  those 
lines  in  which  the  public  is  served  directly.  For  instance  in  the  mat- 
ter of  gas,  electric  lighting  and  street  railway  service.  In  nearly  all 
of  the  large  American  cities  consolidations  have  gone  on  until  there 
is  absolutely  no  competition.  Take  Chicago  as  an  example :  Years 
ago  gas  was  selling  in  the  central  part  of  the  city  at  a  dollar  a  thous- 
and, then  the  trust  was  formed  by  which  all  of  the  gas  companies  in 
the  city  were  put  under  one  control  and  gas  was  marked  up  to  a  dol- 
lar and  a  quarter,  and  no  competition  has  existed  since  that  time.  In 
the  street  railway  service  there  is  absolutely  no  competition  possible 
now,  and  as  the  elevated  roads  are  passing  into  the  control  of  the  same 
people  who  own  the  surface  roads,  there  can  be  no  competition  from 
that  source.  Everywhere  there  are  signs  that  indicate  that  the  era  of 
competition  which  has  existed  for  several  centuries  is  drawing  to  a 
close,  that  we  are  entering  upon  new  conditions.  We  may  deplore  the 
tendency,  but  cannot  stop  it.  The  forces  of  concentration,  of  consoli- 
dation and  enlargement  are  so  powerful  and  their  sweep  is  so  broad 
and  universal,  that  they  constitute  perhaps  the  most  important  feature 
of  this  marvelous  century,  and  no  counter  force  has  in  any  way  been 


•508  'LIVE  'QUESTIONS. 

able  to  check  their  progress.  Legislatures,  both  national  and  State, 
have  passed  most  stringent  laws  against  trusts  and  consolidations,  and 
the  State  courts  have  rendered  decisions  sustaining  these  laws  and 
holding  combinations  to  be  illegal,  but  without  avail.  The  movement 
has  gone  right  on  like  a  mighty  river  that  is  unconscious  of  what  is  said 
and  done  upon  its  banks.  The  State  courts  of  New  York  declared  the 
Sugar  Trust  to  be  illegal,  but  instead  of  subsiding  it  went  ahead  and 
held  the  national  government  by  the  throat  until  it  secured  its  de- 
mands. The  courts  of  Ohio  held  the  Standard  Oil  Trust  to  be  illegal, 
but  the  trust  is  mightier  than  ever.  The  courts  of  Illinois  held  the 
Gas  Trust,  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  to  be  illegal,  but  its  power  is  un- 
diminished. 

These  new  conditions  are  not  ephemeral,  they  are  permanent  in 
their  character.  First,  because  it  will  not  be  possible  to  dissolve  the 
corporations  and  concentrations  of  this  country  and  reduce  matters  to 
their  former  condition ;  and  second  because  these  great  combinations 
and  concentrations  in  themselves  are  beneficial.  They  can  cheapen 
production  and  in  many  ways  give  to  the  world  a  degree  of  comfort 
and  pleasure  that  would  not  be  possible  under  former  conditions.  This 
is  especially  true  as  relates  to  transportation,  telegraphing,  etc.  The 
question  is  how  to  give  the  public  its  share  of  this  benefit,  or  if  this 
cannot  be  done,  then  how  to  protect  the  public  against  extortion. 

If  it  is  true  that  the  era  of  competition  is  drawing  to  a  close,  and 
that  we  have  entered  upon  new  conditions,  and  that  these  are  perma- 
nent, then  it  is  the  business  of  government  to  recognize  these  condi- 
tions and  legalize  them,  seeing  to  it  at  the  same  time  that  the  public 
is  protected.  A  government  that  stands  with  its  face  toward  the  past 
and  cannot  adjust  itself  to  the  new  conditions  that  are  constantly  being 
evolved  is  not  suited  to  this  age. 

What,  then,  shall  we  substitute  for  competition?  We  have  tried  by 
means  of  legislation  and  by  means  of  the  courts  to  stem  this  tide,  to 
arrest  this  mighty  tendency,  and  it  has  been  in  vain.  We  have  been 
trying  to  kick  back  the  waters  with  our  feet  and  they  have  surrounded 
us  and  are  rolling  on  apparently  unconscious  of  our  effort,  and  so  far 
as  can  be  seen  these  trusts  and  combinations  do  not  bring  with  them, 
nor  are  they  followed  by  any  natural  check  or  regulation.  The  process 
of  combining  simply  goes  on  until  a  few  men  absolutely  control  a  whole 
situation,  and  the  public  is  at  their  mercy,  while  labor  is  helpless. 

There  being  no  natural  regulator  to  which  the  public  can  look,  it 
is  obliged  to  look  in  the  end  toward  government,  and  the  question  is : 
What  can  government  do  in  the  premises?  It  is  the  business  of  gov- 
ernment to  conserve  and  protect  all  interests ;  to  conserve  and  protect 


SUBSTITUTE  FOR  COMPETITION.  509 

the  producer  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  consumer  on  the  other ;  to  see 
to  it  that  each  gets  his  rights  and  that  neither  is  subjected  to  an  in- 
justice by  the  other.  There  is  here  presented  for  solution  one  of  the 
most  serious  problems  that  has  confronted  civilized  government  for 
a  long  time,  and  no  complete  remedy  is  as  yet  in  sight.  We  are  still 
in  a  transition  state  and  do  not  know  exactly  what  the  ultimate  con- 
ditions will  be,  but  the  situation  has  developed  far  enough  to  indicate 
that  for  a  considerable  time  at  least  there  will  be  no  remedy  except 
what  government  may  furnish  and  it  must  be  a  remedy  applicable  to  all 
cases  of  monopoly. 

In  some  of  the  best  governed  cities  of  Europe  and  in  a  few  of  this 
country  there  exists  municipal  ownership  of  water  service,  gas  service, 
electric  light  service,  and  street  railway  service.  This  is  being  tried  in 
Europe  with  great  success;  in  this  country  the  experiment  has  not 
been  on  a  scale  sufficiently  broad  to  effectually  test  it,  except  in  so 
far  as  relates  to  furnishing  water  by  large  cities  to  their  inhabitants. 
This  is  a  complete  and  pronounced  success.  But  municipal  ownership 
could  apply  only  to  a  few  cases  of  monopoly  and  would  not  apply  to 
the  great  number  of  trusts  and  combinations  which  do  not  deal  so 
directly  with  municipalities  and  against  which  the  public  must  be 
protected.  And  no  matter  what  may  be  said  in  favor  of  a  municipal 
ownership  of  gas  and  street  railways,  our  people,  in  most  cases,  are 
not  ready  to  make  the  experiment,  although  public  sentiment  moves 
rapidly  in  this  country  and  one  cannot  tell  what  will  take  place  in  the 
near  future. 

Lately  I  heard  a  very  wealthy  man  of  wide  experience  in  municipal 
and  in  railroad  affairs  declare  himself  strongly  in  favor  of  governmental 
ownership  of  railroads,  not  because  it  could  operate  them  more  eco- 
nomically than  private  individuals  could,  but  he  favored  it  because  it 
would  stop  the  dishonest  management  and  the  favoritism  now  so  com- 
mon ;  and  second,  he  thought  if  the  government  owned  the  railroads 
and  the  municipalities  themselves  furnished  gas  and  owned  the  street 
railways,  it  would  take  away  from  the  State  and  national  legislatures 
the  powerful  lobbies  which  now  corrupt  legislation  in  every  direc- 
tion, and  would  take  away  from  our  city  councils  the  corrupting  in- 
fluence which  seems  to  be  destroying  our  government.  But  while 
governmental  ownership  is  being  discussed  by  thoughtful  men,  gov- 
ernmental control  or  regulation  is  being  tried.  For  example,  we  have 
in  the  State  of  Illinois  a  commission  which  has  the  power  to  determine 
what  shall  constitute  reasonable  freight  and  passenger  rates  and 
charges  for  storing  grain  in  public  elevators ;  and  what  shall  constitute 
reasonable  accommodations  to  be  furnished  by  the  railroads  to  the 


5io  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

public.  This  commission  stands  between  the  public  and  the  great 
carrying  interests  of  this  State,  so  that  if  all  of  the  railroads  of  the 
State  were  under  one  management  it  could  determine  what  shall  con- 
stitute fair  rates  and  in  that  way  prevent  extortion.  It  is  true  that  its 
actions  can  be  reviewed  in  the  courts  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining 
whether  it  has  acted  reasonably  or  not  and  it  may  be  that  in  many 
cases  this  Board  would  be  under  the  control  of  the  railroads.  But 
assuming  that  it  were,  whenever  the  public  was  aroused  and  de- 
manded a  revision  it  would  in  most  cases  get  a  fair  hearing.  It  would 
be  entirely  feasible  to  put  the  street  railways  and  the  elevated  railways 
of  our  State  under  the  control  of  this  same  Board,  so  that  the  public 
would  have  a  tribunal  to  go  to  for  the  purpose  of  having  any  com- 
plaint relating  to  the  accommodations  furnished,  or  .  to  excessive 
charges,  considered  and  adjusted. 

In  Massachusetts  they  have  a  State  board,  which  has  the  power  to 
tix  the  price  of  gas  in  every  city  in  the  State.  It  is  required  to  make 
an  examination  of  the  value  of  the  plant,  the  cost  of  making  gas  and 
the  various  facts  that  should  be  considered,  and  it  then  fixes  a  price  for 
gas  which  shall  produce  simply  a  fair  income  on  the  investment  and 
conduct  of  the  business.  This  is  intended  as  a  protection  of  the  public. 
On  the  other  hand  the  law  aims  to  protect  the  company  against  black- 
mail by  city  councils,  and  provides  that  no  new  company  shall  be 
chartered  to  go  into  the  gas  business  unless,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Board,  the  public  interests  require  it. 

Here  again  it  may  be  said  that  the  gas  companies  would  soon 
control  the  Board  and  there  is  much  force  in  the  suggestion.  So  far 
but  few  complaints  of  this  character  have  been  made  in  Massachu- 
setts. It  is  claimed  that  the  Board  appointed  was  of  so  high  a  char- 
acter that  it  was  free  from  suspicion  of  this  kind. 

I  cite  these  examples  only  as  illustrating  just  how  far  governmental 
regulation  has  gone  in  some  cases  of  monopoly  that  now  exist  and  I 
ask  can  the  same  remedy  be  applied  in  all  cases  ?  I  will  not  discuss, 
I  do  not  even  offer  governmental  regulation  as  an  absolute  remedy, 
I  am  simply  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  era  of  competition 
seems  to  be  drawing  to  a  close  in  our  country  and  that  governmental 
regulation,  weak  as  it  may  be,  seems  to  be  the  only  practicable  remedy 
or  protector  of  the  public  that  is  yet  visible.  It  is  true  that  many  ef- 
forts at  governmental  regulation  have  been  farcical  and  almost  added 
insult  to  injury.  At  present  we  have  only  political  organizations, 
which  divide  the  people  almost  equally.  They  stand  for  little  or  noth- 
ing and  leave  the  trusts  a  clear  field  in  which  to  plunder  the  public. 
But  whether  governmental  regulation  succeeds  or  not,  this  question 


THE  NEW  SOUTH.  511 

must  receive  the  serious  attention  and  consideration  of  all  patriotic 
men,  for  it  is  vital  to  the  country  that  it  should  be  decided  right ;  a 
wrong  decision  of  it  will  in  the  end  injure  all  concerned. 

It  will  come  up  in  some  form  in  every  session  of  the  Legislature.  It 
arose  in  different  forms  during  the  last  session.  Some  bills  were 
passed  to  legalize  the  present  gas  monopoly  of  Chicago.  I  was  fully 
aware  of  the  fact  that  there  was  not  and  had  not  been  for  many 
years  any  competition,  therefore  the  attempted  consolidation  of  all  the 
companies  here  might  as  well  be  legalized,  and  had  the  bills  created 
any  substitute  for  competition,  had  they  had  any  provision  for  the 
protection  of  the  public,  they  would  have  met  with  my  approval ;  but 
as  they  simply  attempted  to  place  this  great  city  at  the  mercy  of  a 
gigantic  corporation  for  all  time  to  come,  with  respect  to  gas  and 
street  railway  service,  I  was  obliged  to  withhold  my  approval. 

These  questions  will  come  up  again  and  unless  the  public  sees  to 
it  that  any  new  legislation  on  this  subject  shall  adequately  protect  all 
interests,  some  measure  will  be  passed  in  the  interest  of  one  side  or  the 
other  out  of  which  will  grow  injustice  and  wrong. 

The  American  people  have  met  all  the  great  problems  of  the  past 
and  they  must  meet  this  one.  By  their  industry,  their  intelligence, 
their  enterprise  and  their  love  of  freedom  they  have  made  this  land 
the  wonder  and  the  hope  of  man.  To-day  we  stand  at  the  entrance  of 
a  new  field.  A  new  condition  faces  us,  and  if  we  are  true  to  ourselves, 
true  to  the  great  principles  of  popular  government  we  shall  enter  upon 
a  new  career  of  glory  and  brighten  the  light  which  our  republic  is 
shedding  over  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

(Note.— More  recent  developments  have  satisfied  me  that  the  attempt  to 
regulate  is  futile,  and  will  not  solve  the  problem.) 


ACHIEVEMENTS  OF  THE  NEW  SOUTH. 
(Speech  at  the  Atlanta  Exposition,   November  18,   1895.) 

Mr.  President  and  People  of  the  South :  If  our  great  State  were 
making  an  exhibit  here,  if  we  had  come  to  promote  our  material  ad- 
vancement and  display  our  products,  then  I  should  talk  to  you  about 
the  brilliant  career,  the  limitless  resources,  the  great  riches,  and  the 
high  development  of  the  State  of  Illinois.  I  should  tell  you  about  the 
progress  of  her  people,  the  glory  of  her  institutions  and  the  wonder 
of  her  cities.  But  such  is  not  the  case.  We  have  come  upon  a  differ- 
ent and  a  nobler  mission— a  mission  that  rises  above  profit,  and  all 
pecuniary  considerations— indeed,  most  of  those  gentlemen  who  by 


512  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

their  great  liberality  have  made  this  journey  from  the  North  possible, 
are  so  situated  that  they  can  get  no  pecuniary  profit  from  it.  Our  peo- 
ple have  come  upon  a  mission  of  good-fellowship.  The  people  of  the 
South  have  invited  us  within  their  gates  and  we  have  accepted  the  in- 
vitation. The  people  of  the  South  have  held  out  a  friendly  hand  and 
we  have  come  down  to  grasp  it.  In  a  sense,  we  are  the  guests,  in- 
vited to  see  the  creations  and  treasures  of  a  host,  and  in  judging  of  their 
merit  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  conditions  out  of  which  they  grew 
and  the  difficulties  which  had  to  be  overcome ;  for  this  determines 
the  character  of  the  genius  and  the  effort  that  was  required. 

This  magnificent  exposition  becomes  clothed  with  a  mighty  im- 
portance when  we  consider  that  thirty  years  ago  the  Southern  States 
lay  prostrate.  They  had  just  emerged  from  the  most  gigantic  war  the 
world  had  ever  seen.  A  war  carried  on  within  their  borders.  To  the 
west  the  great  Father  of  Waters  flowed  for  hundreds  of  miles  by 
fields  that  lay  waste,  and  by  villages  whose  inhabitants  were  ruined ; 
and  toward  the  east,  the  morning,  the  noon  and  the  evening  rays  of 
the  sun  fell  upon  land  that  was  desolate.  For  four  years  the  pas- 
sions had  been  unchained  and  the  waters  of  bitterness  and  hatred 
had  been  lashed  into  a  fury.  Industry  was  dead  and  agriculture 
lay  helpless.  Farmers  were  without  stock,  without  food,  without 
money  and  without  seed.  The  institutions  of  society  had  been  de- 
stroyed. The  only  class  that  possessed  intelligence,  and  which  had 
once  ruled  the  land,  was  dethroned  as  well  as  impoverished.  More 
than  this,  nearly  one-third  of  the  population  that  had  existed  in  a 
condition  of  slavery  and  of  ignorance,  was  at  once  freed  from  re- 
straint and  clothed  with  all  the  powers  of  citizenship.  Some  of  these 
poor  people  thought  freedom  meant  not  simply  the  possession  of  lib- 
erty, but  the  release  from  toil.  They  had  yet  to  learn  the  hard  fact 
that  life  is  everywhere  a  struggle.  Formerly  they  had  done  the  work 
of  the  South ;  under  the  new  conditions  this  could  not  be  expected  of 
them.  This  was  not  all ;  after  a  great  battle,  the  vultures  swoop  down 
upon  the  field  and  tear  the  flesh  off  of  the  bones  of  the  prostrate — 
so  after  the  close  of  this  struggle  there  came  to  the  South  from  different 
parts  of  the  country  many  good  men,  indeed,  bringing  industry,  char- 
acter and  capital  with  them  and  bent  upon  an  honorable  career ;  but 
there  also  came  a  cloud  of  vultures  swooping  down  upon  the  un- 
fortunate land  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  ignorance  and  the  credulity 
of  some  of  the  people,  they  proceeded  to  still  farther  lacerate  this  great 
country.  They  developed  methods  of  plunder  that  the  ancients  knew 
not  of.  The  Goths  and  the  Vandals  took  what  there  was  in  sight. 
Cromwell  in  Ireland  took  only  what  his  soldiers  could  carry,  but  these 


THE  NEW  SOUTH.  513 

men  operated  not  only  laterally,  but  by  means  of  issuing  bonds  and 
mortgaging  the  future  they  projected  their  slimy  fingers  a  century 
ahead,  and  ate  of  the  inheritance  of  coming  generations.  They  loaded 
the  country  with  a  burden  of  taxation  under  which  a  more  prosperous 
people  would  have  groaned. 

In  addition  to  these  there  was  yet  another  evil,  and  that  was  an  at- 
tempt by  the  Federal  government  to  interfere  in  the  local  affairs  of  the 
South  in  times  of  peace,  with  the  usual  result  of  making  matters  worse 
instead  of  better.  It  simply  intensified  the  bitterness  and  increased  the 
difficulties.  Only  one  thing  has  been  clearly  established  by  the  vari- 
ous acts  of  Federal  interference  in  local  affairs  in  this  country,  and 
that  is  the  fact  that  while  such  interference  is  always  ordered  osten- 
sibly for  the  purpose  of  upholding  and  enforcing  the  law,  it  is  never 
done  at  the  request  of  a  community,  but  is  always  due  to  the  schemings 
and  solicitations  of  selfish  private  interests  that  seek  to  derive  a  per- 
sonal advantage  from  such  a  step — interests  that  would  sacrifice  re- 
publican institutions  at  any  time  for  personal  aggrandizement  or 
profit. 

This  was  the  condition  of  the  South  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Never 
before  in  the  history  of  government  was  so  difficult  a  problem  pre- 
sented as  the  re-establishment  of  civil  institutions  in  the  Southern 
States.  But  fortunately  for  the  South,  amid  all  this  turmoil  and  wrong, 
she  had  some  men  who  stood  upon  a  plane  sufficiently  high  to  discern 
the  grand  principle  that  there  can  be  no  prosperity  or  greatness  unless 
it  rests  upon  a  basis  of  universal  intelligence — that  there  can  be  no 
growth  or  development  without  universal  industry.  Fortunately  for 
the  South,  she  had  men  whose  vision  was  not  dimmed,  and  whose 
spirit  was  not  broken  by  the  din  of  daily  happenings,  but  who  recog- 
nized the  great  fact  that  fair  play  and  equal  rights  are  necessary  to 
the  healthy  circulation  of  the  blood  in  the  arteries  and  the  veins  of  a 
great  State.  They  recognized  the  fact  that  the  Goddess  of  Liberty 
will  not  smile  upon  a  people  so  long  as  the  least  of  God's  creatures 
is  denied  the  privilege  of  gazing  upon  her  countenance.  They  per- 
ceived the  grand  truth  that  the  Goddess  of  Justice  dare  not  recognize 
either  color  or  sex  or  condition — that  her  needle  must  point  to  the 
great  pole  star  of  eternal  right,  and  that  whenever  it  varies  from  that 
high  point  then  the  germs  of  disease,  the  germs  of  dissolution  and  de- 
struction begin  their  work. 

While  these  men  could  not  at  once  calm  the  troubled  waters,  draw 
order  out  of  chaos,  breathe  new  life  into  prostrate  industries,  nor  re- 
store agriculture,  yet  they  made  their  influence  felt.    Silently  and  with- 
out noise,  they  began  to  lay  the  foundations  of  new  institutions.    While 
33 


5i4  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  outside  world  censured,  they  went  on  calmly  doing  the  best  they 
could.  By  slow  degrees  they  established  order,  school  houses  began 
to  appear  all  over  the  South,  courts  of  justice  resumed  their  functions, 
and  the  industries  again  became  active;  old  cities  renewed  their  life, 
new  ones  were  founded,  and  in  time  the  God  of  nations  again  smiled 
upon  the  South. 

This,,  in  brief,  is  her  history.  She  is  not  yet  perfect ;  wrongs  both 
great  and  dark  are  still  committed  upon  her  soil,  wrongs  done  in  viola- 
tion of  law  and  wrongs  done  in  the  name  of  the  law.  But  this  can 
also  be  charged  against  the  North.  Our  safety  lies  in  the  fact  that  the 
great  masses  of  our  people  are  becoming  imbued  with  a  sense  of  jus- 
tice, and  even  when  at  times  wrong  or  misinformed  they  endeavor  to 
right  themselves ;  and  this  same  sense  of  justice  is  permeating  the 
mind  of  the  South. 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  considering  the  conditions  out  of  which 
this  exposition  has  grown,  the  difficulties  that  had  to  be  met,  the  almost 
insurmountable  obstacles  that  have  been  overcome,  it  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  creations  of  civilization.  It  is  proper  the  people  of 
the  South  should  rejoice  over  it.  We  rejoice  with  them.  They  are 
proud  of  it  and  we  share  their  pride  with  them.  Considering  the 
conditions  out  of  which  it  grew,  this  exposition  has  demonstrated  to 
the  world,  as  never  was  demonstrated  before,  the  vitality,  the  life-giv- 
ing principle  of  republican  institutions.  No  other  form  of  govern- 
ment could  have  dealt  successfully  with  this  problem.  If  we  had  had 
a  monarchy  and  the  iron  hand  of  brute  force  had  reached  over  to  gov- 
ern these  States,  instead  of  this  magnificent  exposition,  instead  of  this 
product  of  high  civilization,  we  should  find  here  another  edition  of 
Poland,  or  another  chapter  of  Armenian  horrors. 

Only  a  few  hundred  miles  to  the  south  of  us  lies  the  richest  island 
of  the  globe,  blest  with  all  that  nature  could  give  it.  For  over  a  cen- 
tury a  foreign  military  force  has  ruled  and  robbed  this  island  until 
to-day  instead  of  standing  with  civilized  nations  and  giving  the  world 
an  exhibition  of  its  products  as  the  South  has  done,  it  can  only  show 
to  the  world  its  bleeding  heart  and  cry  in  anguish  for  assistance. 

My  fellow-citizens,  the  friends  of  justice  have  a  right  to  hope  that 
there  will  come  a  time  when  our  government  will  have  enough  regard 
for  the  principles  of  home  rule — enough  respect  for  republican  institu- 
tions, enough  concern  for  our  own  safety  and  enough  Americanism  in 
its  blood  to  rest  from  its  solicitude  for  corporate  interests  just  long 
enough  to  proclaim  to  all  the  world  that  noon-day  robbery,  noon-day 
outrage,  and  noon-day  butchery  of  a  helpless  people,  even  though 


THE  NEW  SOUTH.  515 

done  in  the  name  of  the  law,  must  cease  upon  the  American  continent 
and  in  American  waters. 

But  this  brief  backward  glance  tells  us  something  more.  It  tells 
us  that  a  people  who  could  overcome  these  great  obstacles  and  could 
lay  the  foundation  of  prosperity  under  these  adverse  conditions,  have 
a  capacity  for  a  great  career.  Yea,  this  exposition  tells  us  that  the 
war  was  but  a  storm  in  the  night,  for  these  people — terrible  and  de- 
structive it  is  true,  but  having  in  its  wake  a  day  that  is  pregnant  with 
a  grandeur  and  a  glory  such  as  would  have  been  impossible  under 
former  conditions. 

People  of  the  South,  we  have  watched  your  career,  we  have 
watched  your  struggle,  and  we  rejoice  in  your  successes,  and  these 
gentlemen  and  ladies  who  have  come  down  from  our  great  State 
have  come  on  a  mission  of  friendship.  They  want  to  know  you 
better,  and  want  you  to  understand  them  better.  They  do  not  ask 
whether  (as  you  develop)  your  trade  will  go  to  the  north,  to  the  east, 
to  the  south  or  to  the  west.  They  do  not  ask  where  you  sell  your 
cotton,  or  where  you  buy  your  supplies.  They  know  that  the  great 
laws  of  commerce  will  determine  these  questions.  They  know  that 
the  great  rivers  of  the  world  were  once  not  only  highways  of  com- 
merce but  were  the  dividing  lines,  not  simply  between  States  but  be- 
tween different  civilizations,  and  they  have  noticed  in  the  progress 
of  time  that  the  new  agencies  given  to  the  world  by  science  and  by 
civilization  have  almost  wiped  the  rivers  off  of  the  map  so  far  as 
commerce  is  concerned,  the  railroads  leaping  over  them  with  such 
ease  as  to  almost  ignore  them.  And  our  people  feel  that  the  time  is 
come  when  rivers  should  no  longer  be  dividing  lines  between  civiliza- 
tions or  between  different  people  in  this  country ;  that  whether  a  man 
stands  upon  the  north  bank  or  the  south  bank  of  the  Ohio,  he  should 
be  surrounded  by  the  same  institutions,  the  same  civilization  and  the 
same  spirit.  That  not  only  should  the  citizens  of  this  entire  Republic 
stand  under  one  flag,  but  that  they  should  be  actuated  by  the  same 
motives  and  the  same  high  aim  and  struggle  toward  the  same  end. 
Our  people  are  imbued  with  the  idea  that  this  great  continent,  from 
the  Aurora  tinted  skies  of  the  north  to  the  warm  waters  of  the  south, 
from  the  morning  to  the  evening  ocean,  should  be  inhabited  by  a 
great,  intelligent,  liberty  loving,  justice  loving,  law  abiding  brother- 
hood of  men.  That  is  the  spirit  that  has  brought  our  people  into 
your  midst  and  they  will  more  than  reciprocate  your  every  act  of 
friendship,  and  your  every  expression  of  fraternal  sentiment.  And 
as  opportunity  offers  in  the  future  they  will  make  every  Southern  man 
feel  that  there  is  a  welcome  for  him  in  the  country  by  the  great  lakes. 


Si6  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

LETTER   TO   MR.   GILES  ON   THE  PARDONING  OF   Mc- 
NULTA  AND  CHAPMAN. 

(Note. — McNulta  and  Chapman  had  been  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  for 
obstructing  and  delaying  voters  at  an  election.  Subsequently  there  was  an 
application  for  a  pardon,  and  such  a  strong  showing  of  facts  was  made  that 
the  State's  Attorney  wrote  to  the  Governor  that  farther  imprisonment  would 
be  an  outrage.  After  careful  examination  the  pardon  was  granted.  There- 
upon Mr.  William  A.  Giles — a  prominent  citizen  of  Chicago  and  a  member 
of  THE  CIVIC  FEDERATION,  a  voluntary  association  which  had  raised  a 
large  sum  of  money  to  carry  on  certain  reforms,  and  particularly  to  prosecute 
certain  cases — addressed  an  open  letter  to  the'  Executive,  severely  criticising 
his  action  in  granting  the  pardon.  The  following  letter  was  written  in  reply:) 

December  n. — William  A.  Giles,  Esq.,  University  Club,  Chicago, 
111. — Dear  Sir : — Your  letter  of  Saturday,  published  in  Sunday's 
papers,  reached  me  on  Monday.  You  complain  of  the  pardoning  of 
McNulty  and  Chapman.  I  have  never  yet  taken  any  notice  of  per- 
sonal attacks  upon  me  on  account  of  any  official  action,  and  I  do  not 
care  to  do  so  now,  but  you  say  that  from  the  course  pursued  by  me 
in  regard  to  legislation,  from  our  pleasant  personal  intercourse  and 
from  some  of  my  utterances  upon  reform  you  had  confidently  hoped 
for  better  things  from  me.  In  a  sense  your  letter  has  the  air  of  a 
friend  who  is  aggrieved,  and  it  may  be  that  upon  this  ground  com- 
mon civility  requires  me  to  notice  it. 

Let  me  say,  first,  these  men  were  pardoned  because  in  my  judg- 
ment justice  required  it,  and  my  course  in  this  case  is  based  upon  the 
same  principles  that  have  guided  me  in  everything  else  that  I  have 
done,  and  that  is  to  do  what  I  believe  to  be  absolutely  right,  and  never 
for  a  moment  ask  whether  my  act  will  meet  with  the  approval  or  dis- 
approval of  any  man  or  organization  of  men. 

A  moment's  reflection  will  satisfy  you  that  I  had  nothing  in  the 
world  to  gain  by  granting  these  pardons.  If  it  pleased  any  Demo- 
crats it  is  sufficient  to  say  they  were  already  my  friends.  On  the 
other  hand  I  knew  full  well  that  the  facts  would  be  misrepresented 
to  the  public,  so  that  many  good  men  like  yourself,  who  may  have 
had  a  kindly  feeling  toward  me.  would  be  more  than  grieved.  I  knew 
full  well  that  it  would  be  used  for  partisan  capital,  for  nearly  every- 
thing that  I  do  is  for  a  time  at  least  misrepresented. 

For  example,  the  records  show  that  in  proportion  to  the  number 
of  convicts  in  our  prisons  the  pardons  and  commutations  granted 
by  me  each  year  are  only  a  little  more  than  half  of  what  they  have  been 
on  an  average  for  twenty  years  before  the  beginning  of  this  admin- 
istration. The  records  show  that  I  have  been  more  strict  in  this  re- 


LETTER    TO    MR.    GILES.  517 

gard  than  had  been  the  practice  for  twenty  years  preceding  me,  yet 
the  partisan  press,  by  deliberate  and  willful  misrepresentation  and  by 
dishonest  insinuations,  have  made  the  impression  upon  the  public 
mind  that  I  have  run  riot  in  the  matter  of  pardoning  prisoners. 

This  particular  application  for  pardon  came  up  in  the  usual  way. 
I  could  have  shirked  it,  but  I  have  thus  far  shirked  nothing  since  I 
have  been  in  office,  and  I  could  see  no  good  reason  for  beginning  at 

present. 

M'NULTY'S  CASE  DIAGNOSED. 

Now,  take  the  case  of  McNulty,  charged  with  assault  and  interfer- 
ing with  voters.  The  undisputed  facts  as  stated  by  all  sides,  and 
even  by  the  judge,  were  that  he  had  been  induced  to  enter  a  plea 
of  guilty  on  the  express  assurance  by  the  attorneys  for  the  Civic 
Federation,  who  were  prosecuting  the  case,  that  he  should  only  be 
fined  and  could  then  go  home,  but  instead  of  being  fined  he  was  sent 
to  the  penitentiary.  There  were  two  lawyers  getting  $100  a  day 
each  for  conducting  the  prosecution.  They  were  assisted  by  a  num- 
ber of  detectives  to  hunt  up  the  evidence,  and  they  were  backed  by 
ample  meney  to  supply  everything  needed.  Had  they  believed  that 
they  could  convict  McNulty  of  any  serious  offense  they  would  have 
put  him  on  trial.  The  very  fact  that  they  went  to  him  and  made  the 
offer  shows  that  they  did  not  believe  they  could  convict  him  of  any 
serious  crime.  McNulty  protested  his  -innocence  and  emphatically 
denied  every  charge  against  him,  but  he  was  poor.  He  had  already 
lost  many  weeks'  time  in  this  matter,  and  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
get  to  doing  something,  and  when  he  was  told  that  if  he  would  enter 
a  plea  of  guilty  he  would  simply  be  fined  and  then  he  could  go  home, 
he  agreed  to  do  it,  and  he  withdrew  his  plea  of  not  guilty  and  put  in 
a  plea  of  guilty  upon  that  express  condition. 

Some  of  the  lawyers  state  positively  that  all  this  was  done  with  the 
knowledge  and  consent  ef  the  judge.  The  judge  himself  says  that 
he  had  heard  about.the  agreement  outside  of  court,  and  had  told  Mr. 
Miller  that  he  (the  judge)  would  not  agree  to  be  bound  by  outside 
arrangements.  No  matter  where  the  exact  blame  may  lie,  after  Mc- 
Nulty had  been  induced  to  put  in  fhis  plea,  then  the  judge  did  sentence 
him  to  the  penitentiary  and  refused  to  allow  the  plea  to  be  withdrawn 
and  to  give  McNulty  a  trial,  so  that  we  have  the  spectacle,  in  a  court 
of  justice,  of  a  man  being  tricked  out  of  a  trial  and  being  entrapped 
into  the  penitentiary.  At  least  one  of  the  attorneys  for  the  Civic 
Federation  condemned  this,  and  the  State's  attorney  calls  it  an  out- 
rage. 

It  is  easy  to  call  McNulty  hard  names,  but  remember  he  was 


Si8  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

never  tried  or  convicted  of  anything.  But  even  if  he  were  guilty 
the  law  would  still  require  that  he  must  have  a  fair  trial  before  he  is 
sentenced  to  the  penitentiary.  Now,  Mr.  Giles,  I  have  too  much 
respect  for  you  to  believe  that  you  in  your  heart  approve  of  this 
proceeding. 

CHAPMAN  OF  GOOD  CHARACTER, 

As  to  Chapman,  he  was  shown  to  be  a  man  of  good  character,  and 
he  was  charged  with  obstructing  or  delaying  votes  by  means  of  un- 
reasonable challenging.  It  appeared  that  nearly  all  of  the  voters  in 
that  precinct  were  foreigners,  whose  names  did  not  appear  correctly 
upon  the  register  lists,  and  whenever  a  voter  appeared  who  gave  his 
name  differently  from  what  it  appeared  on  the  list,  Chapman  chal- 
lenged him  and  required  him  to  show  his  identity.  Naturally  this 
would  produce  some  delay,  yet  notwithstanding  that  there  were  nearly 
400  votes  polled  in  that  precinct.  His  offense,  if  there  was  any,  con- 
sisted in  carrying  his  challenges  too  far.  If,  for  the  moment,  we  as- 
sume that  this  was  so,  then,  according  to  Judge  Tuley,  this  was  an 
offense  punishable  only  by  a  fine  of  $50  if  committed  outside  of  Chi- 
cago, and  an  offense  which  had  been  committed  at  every  election 
by  both  parties  for  many  years,  and  which  had  never  been  consid- 
ered a  criminal  offense  and  no  one  had  ever  been  prosecuted  for  it. 
Now,  let  us  further  assume  that  the  prosecution  in  this  case  was 
prompted  by  honest  motives ;  then,  under  all  the  circumstances,  the 
question  would  be  whether  he  should  in  the  first  instance  have  been 
sent  to  the  penitentiary  at  all  or  not,  and,  having  been  sent-  there, 
then  whether  any  possible  good  can  come  to  the  State  by  his  further 
detention.  I  say  that  would  have  been  the  question  under  the  as- 
sumed circumstances. 

Now,  let  us  look  at  the  facts.  There  were  hundreds  of  Republican 
challengers  over  the  city  at  the  same  election,  all  of  them  challenged 
to  the  full  extent  of  their  inclination,  scores  of  them  went  as  far  as 
Chapman  did,  yet  not  one  of  them  was  indicted.  Two  policemen 
were  indicted  for  interfering  with  voters  at  that  election,  and  the 
evidence  against  them  was  so  strong  that  the  jury  found  them  guilty 
and  sentenced  them  to  the  penitentiary,  but  it  was  then  discovered 
that  they  were  Republicans,  and  the  records  of  the  court  show  that 
the  verdict  has  been  set  aside  and  they  are  at  large.  Instead  of  an 
attempt  to  prosecute  violators  of  the  law,  the  whole  proceeding  seemed 
to  take  the  form  of  a  partisan  prosecution,  of  one  political  party  using 
the  machinery  of  justice  in  an  effort  to  get  an  advantage  over  the  other 
political  party. 


LETTER    TO    MR.    GILES.  519 

I  shall  not  enumerate  all  of  the  facts  in  the  case,  but  allow  me  to 
quote  to  you  what  Judge  Tuley,  who  presided  over  the  trial,  says  of  it : 
"The  trial  of  this  case  has  been  the  most  disagreeable  that  I  have  been 
called  upon  to  preside  over.  Disagreeable  because  of  the  extreme 
partisanship  which  the  case  has  developed  on  both  sides.  It  is  like 
a  private  litigation  or  a  case  of  slander  for  damages.  It  is  the  last 
case  in  which  I  will  ever  permit  a  special  state's  attorney  or  attorneys 
to  appear  alone  in  a  prosecution.  The  speech  of  the  opening  counsel 
for  the  prosecution  was  certainly  of  a  very  objectionable  nature,  and 
I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  had  it  been  the  concluding  speech  I 
would  not  have  felt  compelled  on  that  account  to  have  overturned  the 
verdict.  Mr.  Forrest  did  overstep  the  limit  entirely,  and  I  think  he 
would  not  have  done  so  had  he  been  in  the  position  of  the  regular 
state's  attorney.  For  that  reason  I  think  hereafter  I  shall  not  permit 
any  specially  retained  attorney  to  act  as  state's  attorney." 

This  statement  of  the  judge  alone  shows  that  instead  of  the  trial 
being  a  public  prosecution,  it  was  in  the  nature  of  a  private,  partisan 
persecution,  backed  up  by  large  funds  of  money,  worked  up  by  hired 
detectives,  and  conducted  by  specially  employed  lawyers.  Certainly, 
Mr.  Giles,  you  do  not  believe  that  this  kind  of  proceeding  is  calculated 
to  create  respect  in  the  public  mind  for  the  law  and  for  its  tribunals, 
and  when  this  is  considered  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  hundreds 
of  Republicans  had  done  exactly  what  Chapman  did,  and  that  only 
Democrats  were  prosecuted,  the  whole  proceeding  becomes  still  more 
repugnant  to  every  sense  of  justice. 

You  say  that  the  mere  fact  that  some  Republican  scoundrels  were 

not  punished  is  no  reason  for  turning  out   Democratic  scoundrels 

who  were  fairly  tried  and  convicted.     This  is  certainly  correct      It 

s  the  want  of  fairness  that  is  complained  of  here.     The  very  essence 

of  justice  is  fairness.     Robbed  of  this,  none  will  respect  it,  it  must 

affect  all  alike,  and  its  method  must  be  alike  toward  all,  and  whenever 

this  is  not  the  case  then  it  ceases  to  be  justice,  and  I  believe  you  will 

that  when  a  practice  is  once  established  of  indicting  several 

hundred  men  of  one  political  party  and  shielding  those  of  the  other 

party,  and  doing  this  with  the  regularity  with  which   the   seasons 

come  as  has  been  the  case  in  Chicago  for  four  or  five  years,  that  then 

Clement  of  fairness  is  wanting  and  the  machinery  of  the  courts  is 

prostituted,  especially  when  it  turns  out,  as  it  has  in  nearly  every  case 

in  the  past,  that  the  indicted  men  have  been  discharged  because  there 

is  no  evidence  against  them. 

(  You  ask  sarcastically  in  what  month  of  the  year  prosecutions  of 
this  character  might  be  conducted  in  order  to  be  free  from  the  charge 


520  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

of  influencing  elections.  I  will  say  that  both  the  law  and  the  Almighty 
contemplate  that  a  wrongdoer  can  be.  punished"  any  week  or  even 
any  day  of  the  year,  but  that  no  calendar  has  yet  been  made  by  man 
which  has  upon  it  a  time  in  which  the  machinery  of  justice  can  be 
safely  robbed  of  its  high  functions  and  prostituted  to  partisan  pur- 
poses. 

I  do  not  wish  in  the  least  to  reflect  upon  you  nor  upon  any  of  the 
honorable  men  and  women  connected  with  your  association  who  had 
no  other  ambition  than  to  serve  their  country  and  fondly  imagined 
they  were  doing  so,  but  the  outside  world-  noticed  that  in  the  rear 
of  these  respectable  people  there  were  a  few  unseen  hands  which  were 
directing  detectives  and  manipulating  the  whole  situation,  and  which 
presented  such  evidence  only  as  they  saw  fit,  to  your  body,  to  the 
committees,  to  the  lawyers  and  to  the  court,  and  these  hands  would 
have  been  powerless  if  so  respectable  a  body  of  men  and  women  had 
not  unconsciously  lent  them  their  influence. 

CAUSE   OF  CHICAGO'S   CONDITION. 

You  say  the  conditions  in  our  great  city  of  Chicago  are  deplorable, 
that  there  is  rottenness,  plundering,  corruption  everywhere.  I  agree 
with  you.  This  is  foreign  to  the  subject,  but  as  you  have  introduced 
it,  let  me  ask,  Who  caused  this  rottenness  and  this  corruption?  Not 
the  poor,  not  the  great  masses  of  the  people.  It  was  the  corrupting 
hand  of  unscrupulous  wealth  which,  no  matter  how  infamous  its  work, 
always  wore  the  glove  of  respectability.  That  is  to  a  great  extent  the 
source  of  the  corruption  which  is  destroying  us.  In  recent  years  we 
have  witnessed  the  remarkable  spectacle  of  seeing  men  who  made 
great  pretensions  to  respectability  bribing  the  assessors,  bribing  city 
councils,  corrupting  public  officers,  debauching  legislatures,  all  for 
personal  advantage,  and  then  turning  around  and  contributing  money 
for  the  prosecution  of  small  offenders ;  and  if  you  will  look  over  the 
list  of  subscribers  to  the  large  sum  your  association  raised  you  will 
find  there  the  names  of  some  men  who  are  stockholders  in  various 
corporations  which  spent  money  in  Chicago  and  at  Springfield  to 
secure  legislation,  to  defeat  legislation,  which  spent  money  to  cor- 
rupt public  officials  in  order  to  gain  an  unjust  advantage,  and  which 
then  paid  to  its  stockholders  the  fruits  that  were  obtained  by  bribery 
and  corruption. 

If  your  association  desires  to  right  sortie  of  the  great  wrongs  of 
the  age  and  to  rescue  our  institutions  from  destruction,  why  do  you  not 
look  occasionally  toward  the  source  of  the  evil? 

Let  me  say  in  conclusion  that  it  is  not  the  small  offenders,  and  it  is 


LACK  OF  PATRIOTISM.  521 

not  the  common  people  who  destroy  the  institutions  of  government 
anywhere,  but  in  all  countries,  in  all  times,  and  in  all  nations  it  has 
been  the  unscrupulous  and  dishonest  rich,  and  the  professional  and 
semi-professional  class  that  courts  this  favor,  who  destroyed  the  in- 
stitutions of  their  country.  It  is  the  class  that  clothe  robbery  with 
respectability,  bribery  with  pretense,  and  corruption  with  patriotism. 
Very  respectfully, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

LACK  OF  PATRIOTISM  AMONG  BUSINESS  INTERESTS. 

December  18,  1895. 
Horatio  W.  Seymour,  Esq., 

Editor  "Chicago  Chronicle,"  Chicago,  111. 

Dear  Mr.  Seymour: — I  have  found  time  to  read  but  few  of  the 
books  which  have  been  sent  me  since  I  have  been  in  Springfield.  Dur- 
ing the  summer  I  received  a  book  entitled  "Government  &  Co.,  Lim- 
ited," which  was  from  your  pen.  Owing  to  the  pressure  of  other  matters 
I  was  not  able  to  read  it  through  until  recently,  and  I  am  so  strongly 
impressed  with  your  masterly  treatment  of  the  subject  of  protection 
and  with  the  eloquent  and  fearless  expression  of  your  views,  that  I 
want  to  congratulate  you.  I  recognized  in  a  few  of  the  chapters  the 
essence  of  some  of  those  remarkable  editorials  that  appeared  in  the 
"Chicago  Herald"  several  years  ago,  but  every  sentence  glows  with 
as  much  fire  now  as  it  did  then. 

What  especially  pleases  me  is  the  fact  that  you  do  not  seem  to  stand 
in  awe  of  that  false  god  misnamed  "business  interests,"  or  you  never 
would  have  written  the  following  sentence: 

"Every  surrender  of  principle  is  applauded  in  business  circles, 
every  standard  that  comes  down,  every  flag  that  is  struck  for  the 
sake  of  peace,  brings  security  and  confidence  to  business  interests. 
Consult  business  interests,  and  there  is  no  wrong  too  offensive  to  be 
borne  in  behalf  of  peace,— left  to  the  sagacious  men  who  speak  for 
business  interests,  every  great  evil  would  be  permitted  to  cover  the 
land  with  infamy  and  to  involve  a  nation  in  ruin  before  they  would 
risk  a  dollar  of  trade  in  an  attack  upon  it." 

There  is  a  ring  in  this  that  should  be  heard  down  the  centuries. 
Allow  me  to  suggest  that  you  will  do  both  yourself  and  your  country 
an  injustice  if  you  lay  down  your  pen. 

Assuring  you  of  my  high  regard,  I  am, 
Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


522  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

THE  CALL  OF  THE  AGE.    A  LETTER  TO  THE  CHRISTIAN 
ENDEAVORITES,  JANUARY  3,  1896. 

"Springfield,  111.,  January  4.  S.  L.  Mershon,  Room  214,  185  Dear- 
born street,  Chicago.  Dear  Sir : — You  ask  what  the  2,000,000  Chris- 
tian Endeavorers  can  do  to  advance  the  welfare  of  the  country.  As 
you  look  to  other  sources  for  light  from  a  religious  standpoint,  you 
naturally  expect  me  to  answer  from  a  purely  secular  point  of  view. 

"Your  country,  like  your  God,  demands  reality,  demands  earnest 
purpose.  It  demand  absolute  honesty  and  candor. 

"This  country  never  before  called  so  loudly  and  so  earnestly  as  it 
does  to-day  for  character,  for  real  manhood  and  womanhood,  not  of 
the  dazzling,  showy  kind  that  depends  on  wealth  and  fashion,  but  that 
quiet,  self-reliant  manhood  and  womanhood  that  seeks  only  the  right 
and  dares  to  do  it.  This  country  is  calling  loudly  for  strong  public 
men  who  shall  stand  for  principle  and  be  leaders  of  thought  instead 
of  being  only  torchlight  heroes. 

"In  some  portions  of  the  world  governments  seem  to  be  only 
gigantic  machines  which  serve  as  a  convenience  for  despoiling  the 
people,  and  these  governments  do  all  in  their  power  to  prevent  the 
enlightenment  of  the  masses. 

"In  this  country,  government,  being  in  the  hands  of  the  people, 
has  been  conducted  for  a  century  on  the  theory  that  it  should  be  their 
protector  and  not  despoiler. 

GOVERNMENT  AS   IT  IS   CREATED. 

"I  will  not  discuss  the  question  as  to  what  effect  the  recent  great 
concentrations  of  capital  and  consequent  corruptions  are  going  to  have. 
They  will,  however,  produce  the  same  results  here  that  they  have  pro- 
duced in  all  countries  and  in  all  times  where  they  abounded,  unless 
we  can  find  some  different  method  of  dealing  with  them.  The  result 
has  been  summed  up  in  the  lines : 

"111  fares  the  land,  to  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates  and  men  decay. 

"Everything,  therefore,  depends  on  character,  on  manhood  and 
womanhood — if  these  shall  decay  there  will  be  little  left  worth  pre- 
serving. The  government  will  be  what  the  people  make  it.  If  they 
possess  earnestness  and  high  principle,  so  will  the  government.  If 
they  are  rotten  at  heart,  it  will  be  also. 

"Among  all  people  and  in  all  countries  wealth,  power  and  fashion 
go  together ;  they  arrange  themselves  at  the  top,  and.  impelled  by  the 


THE   CALL    OF   THE   AGE.  523 

eternal  law  of  selfishness,  they  assume  to  control  everything  in  their 
own  interest,  without  considering  how  others  may  be  affected  As 
the  press  is  controlled  by  wealth,  it  is  on  that  side,  and  the  elements 
at  the  top,  whether  in  society  or  nature,  tend  to  form  a  crust  which 
bears  more  or  less  heavily  on  the  elements  beneath,  and  naturally 
tends  to  resist  any  upward  movement  of  what  there  is  below.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Almighty  seems  to  have  decreed  that  for  a  healthy 
existence  of  society  there  must  be  a  constant  development,  a  constant 
growth  from  the  bottom  upward. 

"All  great  reform  movements  have  emanated  from  the  bottom. 
Even  the  Christian  religion  came  not  through  the  splendor  at  the  top 
but  through  the  suffering  at  the  bottom. 

Under  the  fierce  law  of  competition  any  upward  struggle  en- 
counters resistance  from  the  elements  above.  In  some  cases  the  crust 
had  become  so  hard  and  formidable  that  it  could  only  be  broken  with 
human  blood.  But  under  republican  institutions  there  should  be 
such  a  constant  upward  movement  from  the  people  and  such  a  devel- 
opment that  no  formidable  crust  could  be  formed  to  resist  farther 
growth. 

OPPOSITION   FROM   CULTURE. 

"As  the  elements  at  the  top  are  the  most  attractive  and  possess  those 
things  that  are  sought  after  by  men,  theirs  is  always  the  fashionable 
and  even  popular  side,  and  those  people  who  constitute  what  is  some- 
times called  the  'hanging  on  class'  are  always  arrayed  on  that  side 
and  are  generally  the  most  loud  in  denouncing  any  innovation 

"At  the  time  of  the  revolution  the  fashionable  people  were  tories 
ring  the  slavery  agitation  most  of  the  wealthy  sympathized  with  the 
slaveholders-even  cultured  Boston  closed  its  doors  to  such  a  splendid 
specimen  of  noble  and  cultured  manhood  as  Wendell  Phillips  The 
early  temperance  workers  were  not  only  denounced,  but  were  egged 
In  fact,  every  movement  that  has  benefited  humanity  has  met  the 
fierce  hostility  of  those  people  who  claimed  to  possess  the  intelligence 
and  culture  of  the  time,  and  who  should  have  been  friendly 

"What  is  still  more  remarkable  is  the  fact  that  this  hostility  as- 
sumes to  speak  for  patriotism.  The  tories  talked  patriotism..  The 
abolitionists  were  denounced  as  agitators  who  disturbed  the  peace 
of  the  country.  The  temperance  advocates  were  condemned  as  fan- 
atics who  disturbed  the  good  order  of  the  community  The  legisla- 
tion  to  take  women  and  children  out  of  the  mines  in  England  and  the 
subsequent  movement  to  shorten  the  hours  of  labor  from  fourteen  and 
ifteen  to  ten  was  bitterly  opposed  even  by  the  bishops  in  Parliament 
on  the  ground  that  it  threatened  the  supremacy  of  England 


524  LIFE   QUESTIONS. 

"In  this  country  every  effort  to  bring  about  a  permanent  improve- 
ment in  the  conditions  which  surround  the  men  who  toil  with  their 
hands  is  denounced  as  dangerous  agitation.  No  matter  what  wrong 
you  attempt  to  right  there  will  be  people  to  denounce  you,  and  gen- 
erally they  will  be  people  who  are  in  some  ways  good  people  and  who 
make  much  pretension  to  respectability.  You  will  find  that  the  side 
of  the  strong  will  always  be  the  most  ably  and  the  most  forcibly  pre- 
sented through  the  press  and  otherwise,  while  from  the  very  nature  of 
the  case  the  side  of  the  weak,  even  when  right,  will  be  imperfectly 
presented.  Consequently  the  public  is  often  misinformed,  so  that 
public  sentiment,  for  a  while,  will  often  run  against  the  right.  It 
was  so  even  in  Christ's  time.  Yet,  if  you  would  serve  your  country 
you  must  do  justice — justice  to  the  weak  as  well  as  the  strong — and 
you  must  not  stop  to  inquire  what  will  be  popular. 

WAY  OF  THE  GREAT  MAJORITY. 

"Therefore,  unless  you  are  prepared  to  stand  alone  and  be  utterly 
independent  and  indifferent  as  to  who  approves  or  who  disapproves, 
it  will  not  be  worth  your  while  to  think  about  doing  much  for  your 
country.  In  that  case  it  will  not  be  worth  while  to  get  accurate  in- 
formation on  any  public  question  nor  to  have  convictions  on  any  sub- 
ject, for  it  might  be  inconvenient  to  suppress  them.  Just  accept 
newspaper  statements  and  misstatements  and  go  with  the  crowd.  That 
is  the  course  usually  pursued  by  the  people  who  seek  popularity, 
and  although  it  is  a  sign  of  weakness,  yet  it  is  the  easy  way. 

"On  the  other  hand,  if  you  are  prepared  to  serve  your  country  in 
the  same  manner  as  you  must  serve  your  God  to  be  heard  by  Him  at 
all,  that  is,  be  deeply  in  earnest,  ask  only  what  is  the  riglit ;  seek  for 
facts ;  have  convictions  and  act  on  them  and  care  not  who  approves 
or  disapproves.  If  you  believe  that  public  men  should  be  positive 
leaders  instead  of  weak  followers,  then  I  repeat  that  your  country  is 
calling  for  you,  and  I  will  remind  you  that  the  despised  teachers 
of  one  age  often  become  the  heroes  of  the  next,  and  that  those  meas- 
ures which  have  to  be  nursed  through  great  tribulation  in  one  age 
frequently  become  the  controlling  forces  of  the  next,  in  fact,  become, 
in  turn,  themselves  a  part  of  the  crust  and  have,  in  time,  to  give  way 
to  new  forces.  I  will  further  remind  you  that  the  great  men  and 
women  of  the  past  who  led  the  human  race  onward  were  not  reared, 
as  a  rule,  in  the  lap  of  luxury.  They  came,  as  a  rule,  from  the  bot- 
tom, and  not  from  the  top:  they  were  familiar  with  hardships  and  were 
acquainted  with  sorrow. 

'The  lesson  of  their  careers  is  that  one  hour  spent  in  contemplat- 


THE  PRESIDENTIAL  BEE.  525 

ing  the  stars  and  gazing  into  the  silent  depths  of  the  universe  will  lift 
you  higher  and  carry  you  farther,  will  give  you  more  lofty  purpose 
and  elevation  of  soul  than  would  a  whole  year  spent  in  the  most 
splendid  drawing-rooms  of  the  land. 

"Very  respectfully  yours, 

"JOHN  P.  ALTGELD." 


THE  PRESIDENTIAL  BEE. 

June  8,  1896. 
Hon.  James  S.  Hogg, 

Attorney  at  Law,  Austin,  Texas. 

Dear  Governor: — The  delay  in  answering  your  favor  of  the  1st 
was  due  to  absence  from  the  city  on  my  part. 

I  feel  highly  flattered  by  your  inquiry,  but  am  glad  to  be  able  to 
say  that  I  am  not  eligible  to  the  Presidency.  I  was  born  in  Germany 
and  came  to  this  country  when  I  was  three  months  old. 

While  I  am  an  enthusiastic  American  and  almost  a  crank  on  the 
ibject  of  republican  institutions  and  of  government  by  the  people 
still  I  do  not  know  what  effect  the  buzzing  of  a  Presidential  bee  might 
have  upon  my  nervous  system.  I  notice  that  it  weakens  most  men 
Ihey  are  in  constant  fear  of  spoiling  their  chances,  and  consequently 
accomplish  nothing. 

We  have  had  three  or  four  great  Presidents,  but  as  a  rule  the 
great  men  of  this  country  have  not  been  Presidents.  In  fact  the  men 
whose  labors  made  republican  institutions  possible  in  America  and 
most  of  the  men  who  later  on  shaped  our  destinies,  were  men  who 
could  not  have  been  elected  President.  It  requires  positive  and  ag- 
gressive men  to  do  much  for  their  country.  Could  I  have  my  choice 
m  the  matter  I  should  prefer  belonging  to  the  latter,  but  as  it  is  I 
expect  to  walk  in  the  shady  valleys  and  to  seek  contentment  in  the 
humbler  walks  of  life. 

Many  of  us  up  here  have  watched  you  with  much  interest  for 
several  years,  and  have  come  to  look  upon  you  as  one  of  the  most 
able  and  aggressive  men  in  the  country,  who  has  never  bent  before 
the  winds  that  have  been  blowing  so  hard  against  Democratic  prin- 
ciples  and  I  hope  that  I  shall  soon  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you 
With  my  kind  regards,  I  am, 
Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


526  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

OBJECTIONS  TO  NOMINATING  A  REPUBLICAN  AT  CHI- 
CAGO FOR  PRESIDENT. 

(Note. — Mr.  Harvey  had  written  a  note  suggesting  that  the  Democratic 
Convention  should  give  recognition  to  both  Populists  and  Silver  Republicans 
by  promising  to  each  certain  cabinet  positions  as  a  guaranty  that  certain 
principles  would  be  carried  out.) 

June  25,  1896. 
W.  H.  Harvey,  Esq., 

362  Washington  Boulevard,  Chicago,  111. 

Dear  Mr.  Harvey : — Your  note  of  the  23d  is  at  hand.  The  object 
aimed  at  is  most  excellent,  and  personally  I  would  have  no  objection 
to  the  method,  but  you  have  noticed  that  while  politicians  can  make 
bargains,  they  cannot  deliver  the  people,  and  I  fear  that  an  arrange- 
ment of  the  kind  you  suggest  would  be  so  complicated  that  in  the  in- 
tense, fierce  and  desperate  struggle  which  is  going  to  ensue  it  would 
be  in  great  danger  of  going  to  pieces. 

Having  a  limitless  corruption  fund,  the  enemy  is  going  to  resort  to 
every  trick  and  device  to  create  dissensions,  jealousies  and  disin- 
tegration in  our  ranks.  You  note  that  in  '72  we  tried  to  swing  the 
Democratic  party  over  and  failed  ignominiously.  While  the  Demo- 
cratic party  has  not  control  of  many  of  the  States  just  now,  still  in 
'92  it  swept  the  country,  and  is  after  all  the  most  powerful  political 
organization  opposed  to  the  Republicans  that  there  is  in  existence 
and  has  in  it  a  larger  element  of  the  rock  rooted  kind  than  any  of  the 
newer  organizations.  For  example,  the  Populists  and  the  independ- 
ent silver  people  are  in  a  sense  new,  while  there -is  a  very  large  per  cent, 
of  the  Democratic  party  which  will  insist  on  having  a  Democratic 
ticket  or  nothing,  and  if  we  do  not  nominate  a  Democrat,  the  gold 
clique  will  nominate  one  on  a  straddle  platform  and  thus  divide  and 
beat  us.  No  matter  whether  our  leaders  like  it  or  do  not  like  it, 
this  is  the  case. 

Now  the  question  is,  how  can  we  hold  these  men  and  also  secure  the 
support  of  those  men  who  do  not  care  much  for  party  but  are  inter- 
ested in  the  great  principle  for  which  we  are  fighting,  and  it  seems 
to  me  now  as  if  the  only  way  it  can  be  done  is  to  put  at  the  head  of  our 
ticket  two  men  who  will  be  satisfactory  to  the  Democrats  and  who  yet 
are  sufficiently  broad  to  be  satisfactory  to  the  Populists  and  the  silver 
people. 

In  regard  to  parceling  out  the  cabinet  positions  now,  I  will  say 
that  this  is  a  very  serious  question.  I  see  no  objection  to  the  can- 
didate for  President  making  his  selection  of  a  cabinet  now  if  he  deems 
it  wise  to  do  so,  but  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  it  would  be  well 


OLNEY  FOR  PRESIDENT.  52? 

to  make  these  selections  in  a  convention  or  in  such  public  manner 
that  it  would  look  like  a  trade,  for  the  enemy  would  seize  on  it  at  once, 
would  charge  that  it  was  going  to  be  a  hybrid  affair,  and  inasmuch  as 
this  was  one  of  the  features  of  the  Cleveland  administration  which 
made  it  so  unpopular,  it  is  probable  that  an  attack  upon  this  point 
would  weaken  us. 

Mr.  Teller  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  country, 
and  if,  for  example,  we  should  select  Mr.  Bland  as  our  candidate  for 
President,  and  he  should  give  private  assurances  to  some  of  the 
leaders  of  the  silver  States  of  the  West  that  in  the  event  of  his  elec- 
tion he  would  appoint  a  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  who  would  be 
satisfactory  to  them,  it  would  probably  answer  every  purpose.  Some 
such  method  as  this  would  leave  the  ticket  a  unit  and  not  a  combination 
affair  and  would  enable  it  to  make  a  better  fight  than  it  otherwise 
could,  for  it  would  hold  the  Democratic  party  solid  to  start  with  and 
would  at  the  same  time  secure  the  confidence  and  support  of  all  those 
reasonable  men  in  the  Populist  and  silver  parties  who  want  the  move- 
ment to  succeed  above  all  things  else.  I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  going 
to  be  possible  to  keep  Populist  candidates  and  straight  out  silver 
candidates  and  other  independent  candidates  out  of  the  field.  The 
Wall  street  men  will  see  to  it  that  tickets  of  this  sort  are  launched. 
Their  motto  is  going  to  be,  "Divide  and  Conquer,"  but  I  believe  that 
if  we  have  prudence  we  can  put  out  a  ticket  which  will  get  practic- 
ally all  of  the  votes  in  these  parties. 

Assuring  you  of  my  very  high  regard,  I  am, 
Truly  yours, 
JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

OLNEY  FOR  PRESIDENT. 

Springfield,  111.,  Feb.  25,  1896. 

A  Boston  paper  this  evening  wired  Governor  Altgeld  the  following: 
query: 

"Will  you  kindly  telegraph  us  your  opinion  on  the  possibility  of 
Secretary  of  State  Olney  of  Massachusetts  as  a  Democratic  candidate 
for  the  Presidency?" 

The  Governor  replied  as  follows: 

"Inasmuch  as  Mr.  Olney  has  never  come  any  nearer  to  the  Demo- 
cratic fold  than  to  play  hide-and-seek  in  a  mugwump  alley  and  inas- 
much as  the  great  trusts  have  not  yet  driven  him  out  of'  their  rear 
yard,  his  chances  should  be  very  good,  especially  in  the  light  of  the 
last  three  Democratic  conventions." 


528  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ILL  FORTUNE  OF  THE  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY. 

Springfield,  111.,  February  27,  1896. — Governor  Altgeld  has  some 
interesting  things  to  say  about  the  Democratic  party  in  the  following 
interview: 

"Governor,  according  to  the  newspaper  reports  you  take  a  gloomy 
view  of  the  prospects  for  the  Democratic  party.  What  do  you  at- 
tribute this  condition  to  ?  Are  there  fewer  Democrats  in  the  country 
now  than  formerly?" 

"On  the  contrary,  there  are  more  men  in  America  to-day  who  hold 
to  Democratic  principles  and  who  are  alarmed  over  the  growing  power 
and  corrupting  influences  of  concentrated  wealth,  who  feel  that  our 
country  is  getting  rotten  at  the  core  and  is  drifting  toward  destruction, 
than  there  ever  were  before;  but  many  of  them  feel  that  our  party 
no  longer  represents  Democratic  principles,  and  they  are  therefore 
against  us.  And  then  there  is  a  large  body  of  men  who  are  discon- 
tented because  the  times  are  hard,  and  they  want  a  change." 

"Is  there  any  ground  for  this  loss  of  confidence  you  speak  of?" 

"Well,  glance  back  a  moment.  In  1864  a  New  Yorker  was  nom- 
inated for  President.  In  1868  a  New  Yorker  was  nominated.  In  1872 
a  New  Yorker  was  nominated.  In  1876  it  was  again  a  New  Yorker. 
In  1880  it  was  a  man  born  in  Pennsylvania,  but  at  that  time  a  New 
Yorker.  In  1884  it  was  a  New  Yorker,  in  1888  a  New  Yorker,  and  in 
1892  a  New  Yorker. 

REPUBLICAN  POLICY  CONTRASTED. 

"Now  see  what  the  Republicans  did  during  that  time — beginning  in 
1860  with  an  Illinois  man,  in  1868  and  in  1872  an  Illinois  man,  in  1876 
an  Ohio  man,  in  1880  an  Ohio  man,  in  1884  they  went  to  Maine,  and 
in  1888  an  Indiana  man,  and  in  1892  an  Indiana  man;  and  when  they 
went  to  Maine  in  1884  it  was  not  the  work  of  a  small  crowd  of  schem- 
ing politicians,  but  they  went  there  because  at  that  time  Mr.  Elaine 
was  the  most  prominent  man  in  their  party,  and  even  then  they  were 
defeated.  They  have  succeeded  every  time  they  went  West,  except  in 
1892,  and  then  they  were  defeated  by  what  was  called  the  'McKinley 
law.'  No  matter  about  the  merits  of  this  law,  the  country  sort  of 
choked  on  it.  It  aroused  active  hostility,  and  as  it  was  followed  by 
the  great  strike  and  Homestead  riots  among  Carnegie's  workmen, 
the  country  determined  to  have  a  change.  It  was  the  McKinley  law, 
the  rapid  growth  of  trusts,  and  Carnegie  strikes  which  defeated  Har- 
rison. 

"While  the  Republican  party  is  the  representative  of  Hamiltonism, 


ILL  FORTUNE  OF  THE  DEMOCRATS.  529 

and  leans  toward  the  theory  of  having  the  government  help  the  power- 
ful, and  then  let  the  powerful  take  care  of  the  poor,  and  while  that 
party  is  owned  by  the  great  trusts,  still  in  their  whole  history  they  have 
not  allowed  a  small  clique  of  political  schemers  in  one  State  to  name 
their  candidates  and  dictate  their  platform.  The  Republicans  have 
recognized  the  fact  that  the  great  American  republic  lies  mostly  west 
of  the  Allegheny  range,  while  we  have  gone  on  the  theory  that  there 
is  only  one  State  in  the  Union.  We  have  always  gone  there  for  our 
candidates,  we  have  been  defeated  every  time  but  twice,  and  when  we 
did  win  we  were  worse  off  than  when  we  were  beaten. 

THE  "ALBANY  REGENCY." 

"If  you  will  look  again  you  will  see  that  it  was  not  even  the  great 
Democratic  party  of  New  York  that  controlled,  but  a  small  body  of 
schemers  who  seemed  to  hold  everything  by  the  throat.  For  a  number 
of  years  they  were  known  as  the  'Albany  Regency,'  made  up  of  cor- 
poration agents  and  speculators. 

"If  you  remember,  in  1884  it  was  Dan  Manning,  representing  Wall 
street,  arid  the  agents  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  who  controlled 
the  Chicago  convention  and  nominated  Cleveland.  In  1888  Manning 
was  dead,  but  the  same  influences  went  to  St.  Louis  and  renominated 
Cleveland.  In  1892  it  was  the  same  influence  led  by  Mr.  Whitney 
that  dominated  the  Chicago  convention  and  gave  Cleveland  a  third 
nomination.  At  all  of  our  conventions  these  influences  dictated  plat- 
forms which  meant  nothing,  which  were  intended  to  deceive,  which 
were  to  receive  one  construction  in  one  locality  and  another  con- 
struction in  another  locality.  In  1892  the  convention  rejected  the 
platform  which  had  been  drawn  by  the  Cleveland  managers,  and 
adopted  a  positive  declaration  in  favor  of  tariff  reform,  but  when  the 
election  was  over  this  was  practically  disregarded. 

"So  you  see  that  for  a  third  of  a  century  a  small  band  of  political 
schemers  in  New  York,  who  have  not  a  drop  of  Democratic  blood  in 
their  veins,  whose  sympathies  are  entirely  with  the  great  corporations, 
who  have  not  even  a  conception  of  a  Democratic  principle,  but  who 
treat  the  American  republic  as  foraging  ground  in  which  to  amass 
vast  fortunes,  and  who  want  to  control  the  American  government 
for  that  purpose,  have  constantly  labored  to  use  our  party  as  a  con- 
venience. Of  course,  in  carrying  out  their  schemes  they  have  from 
time  to  time  had  the  assistance  of  such  Western  men  as  were  willing 
to  overlook  the  interests  of  the  great  West  and  even  the  entire  coun- 
try, for  the  purpose  of  gaining  a  personal  advantage. 
34 


530  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

FALSE  TO  ITS  PRINCIPLES. 

"It  is  true  that  the  Republican  party  has  become  a  rich  man's 
party,  but  in  being  so  it  is  true  to  its  principles,  while  we  are  false 
to  ours.  Then  the  present  national  administration,  although  called 
Democratic  and  placed  in  power  by  the  Democratic  party,  has  ruth- 
lessly trampled  into  the  mud  every  cardinal  principle  of  Democracy, 
and  the  great  body  of  the  American  people  are  not  only  disgusted  but 
are  alarmed  and  are  determined  to  have  a  change,  and  it  is  this  disgust 
and  determination,  added  to  the  discontent  growing  out  of  the  hard 
times,  which  is  creating  the  tidal  wave  that  is  running  against  our 
party ;  and  the  Republican  party  is  being  wafted  toward  victory,  not 
because  of  anything  it  has  done,  but  because  the  people  have  lost  con- 
fidence in  the  men  who  assume  to  speak  for  Democracy  and  because 
the  party  in  power  always  suffers  when  times  are  hard. 

"If  the  Democratic  party  will  free  itself  from  the  grasp  of  these 
political  birds  of  prey  and  will  stand  for  these  great  principles  which 
run  through  the  ages  and  upon  which  the  greatness  of  this  republic 
rests ;  if  it  will  nominate  real  Democrats  for  office  and  will  make  a 
declaration  of  principles  which  can  be  held  up  to  the  sun,  then  it  will 
be  but  a  short  time  until  it  will  again  sweep  the  land  and  guide  the 
destinies  of  this  country." 


SPANISH  BARBARITIES  IN  CUBA. 

Springfield,  111.,  March  7,  1896. — Governor  Altgeld  was  asked  the 
following  questions  by  a  New  York  paper : 

1.  Should  the   United   States  grant  to  the   Cubans   belligerent 
rights  ? 

2.  Do  you  recommend  the  independence  of  Cuba? 

3.  Should  the  United  States  make  a  personal  matter  of  the  Cuban 
efforts  toward  independence  ? 

The  governor  replied  to  these  questions  as  follows : 
Answer  to  first  question :  Yes ;  the  Spanish  have  been  sending 
large  armies  to  the  island.  The  Cubans  have  an  army  nearly  as  large 
as  that  commanded  by  George  Washington,  and  have  maintained  it 
for  a  considerable  time.  They  have  an  established  government,  at 
the  head  of  which  is  a  man  of  high  character,  and  they  are  in  possession 
of  the  greater  part  of  the  island.  They  have  defeated  the  Spanish  re- 
peatedly in  regular  battles.  It  is  nonsense  to  say  that  this  is  not  war. 
At  the  time  Spain  extended  belligerent  rights  to  the  South  in  1861 


COMMENTS  ON  CARLISLE.  531 

not  half  as  many  battles  had  been  fought  and  won  by  the  South  as 
have  been  fought  and  won  by  the  Cubans.  If  we  extend  belligerent 
rights  it  will  give  the  Cubans  a  market  in  which  they  can  buy.  Con- 
sidering that  they  have  thus  far  been  obliged  to  carry  on  their  war 
without  having  a  single  open  market  in  which  they  could  buy  their 
necessities,  it  is  probable  that  these  advantages  would  enable  them 
to  rid  the  island  of  the  Spanish  marauders. 

2.  The  Spanish  held  Cuba  for  over  a  century.     It  was  once  the 
richest  and   most  prosperous   island   in   the   world.     By   systematic 
robbery  and  butchery  they  have  reduced  it  to  its  present  deplorable 
state.     Both  civilization  and  humanity  demand  that  an  end  be  put 
to  these  outrages. 

3.  Yes.     In  1878,  after  a  ten-year  struggle  for  liberty,  the  Cubans 
were  defeated.     According  to  the  Cyclopedia  Britannica,  during  these 
ten  years  Spain  sent  145,000  soldiers  to  the  island,  and,  according  to 
the  American  Cyclopedia,  the  Spanish  authorities  subsequently  ad- 
mitted that  during  that  war  they  had  captured  and  then  shot  43,500 
prisoners.     During  that  war,   seventeen  boys,  who   were  attending 
school  at  Havana,  gave  expression  to  some  patriotic  sentiments  in 
favor  of  their  native  island,  and  for  this  offense  they  were  uncere- 
moniously marched  out  by  the  Spanish  soldiers  and  shot  down  like 
wild  beasts.     The  civilized  nations  cannot  permit  a  repetition  of  these 
atrocities,  and  the  United  States  of  America  cannot  permit  a  per- 
petual robbery  and  perpetual  butchery  to  be  carried  on  so  near  that 
the  shrieks  of  the  tortured  and  dying  victims  are  heard  at  our  doors. 
The  nations  of  the  earth  recognize  the  right  to  interfere  in  foreign 
matters   in   cases  where  the  moral  sense  of  the  civilized  world   is 
shocked,  as  in  the  cases  of  cannibalism  and  the  slave  trade.     But  these 
are  innocent  amusements  compared  with  the  atrocities  which  the  Span- 
ish have  practiced  for  over  a  century  in  Cuba. 


COMMENTS    ON    SECRETARY    CARLISLE'S    CHICAGO 

SPEECH. 

(Note.— In  April,  1896,  Secretary  Carlisle  came  to  Chicago  and  delivered 
a  speech  at  the  Auditorium  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  support  of  the 
western  democracy  for  the  gold  standard.  The  Associated  Press  asked  for 
an  article  on  this  speech,  and  the  following  was  given  out:) 

You  ask  me  for  1,000  words  on  Mr.  Carlisle's  speech.  As  Car- 
lisle's speech  contained  nearly  10,000  words,  but  little  of  it  can  be  no- 
ticed in  1,000  words. 


532  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

A  teacher  should  be  willing  to  answer  questions.  At  the  close 
of  Mr.  Carlisle's  speech  a  number  of  gentlemen  arose  and  asked  for 
further  information,  but  he  turned  his  back  and  slipped  off  the  stage, 
and  by  direction  of  his  managers  the  questioners  were  hustled  out 
by  policemen.  He  could  have  made  himself  very  interesting  on  a 
number  of  points  which  he  persistently  ignored.  In  1878,  when  dis- 
cussing the  money  question  in  Congress,  he  expressed  his  convictions 
in  the  following  language : 

"I  shall  not  enter  into  an  examination  of  the  causes  which  have 
combined  to  depreciate  the  relative  value  of  silver  and  to  appreciate  the 
value  of  gold  since  1873,  but  I  am  one  of  those  who  believe  that  they 
are  transient  and  temporary  in  their  nature,  and  that  when  they  have 
passed  away  or  have  been  removed  by  the  separate  or  united  actions 
of  the  nations  most  deeply  interested  in  the  subject,  the  old  ratio  of 
actual  and  relative  value  will  be  re-established  on  a  firmer  foundation 
than  ever.  I  know  that  the  world's  stock  of  precious  metals  is  none 
too  large,  and  I  see  no  reason  to  apprehend  that  it  will  ever  become  so. 
Mankind  will  be  fortunate  indeed  if  the  annual  production  of  gold 
and  silver  coin  shall  keep  pace  with  the  annual  increase  of  population, 
commerce  and  industry.  According  to  my  view  of  the  subject,  the 
conspiracy  which  seems  to  have  been  formed  here  and  in  Europe  to 
destroy  by  legislation  and  otherwise  from  three-sevenths  to  one-half 
the  metallic  money  of  the  world  is  the  most  gigantic  crime  of  this  or 

any  other  age. 

WOULD  RESULT  IN  MISERY. 

["The  consummation  of  such  a  scheme  would  ultimately  entail 
more  misery  on  the  human  race  than  all  the  wars,  pestilence  and  famine 
that  ever  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The  absolute  and  in- 
stantaneous destruction  of  half  the  movable  property  of  the  world,  in- 
cluding horses,  ships,  railroads  and  all  other  appliances  for  carrying  on 
commerce,  while  it  would  be  felt  more  sensibly  at  the  moment,  would 
not  produce  anything  like  the  prolonged  distress  and  disorganization 
of  society  that  must  inevitably  result  from  thepermanent  annihilation 
of  one-half  of  the  metallic  money  of  the  world."] 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  language  is  clear  and  emphatic,  and  has 
none  of  the  sophistry  and  pettifogging  about  it  that  are  found  in  his 
Chicago  speech.  His  awful  predictions  made  in  1878  came  to  pass. 
He  not  only  saw  his  own  prophecy  fulfilled,  but  he  saw  the  misery  of 
his  country  become  even  greater  than  he  had  predicted.  Finding  that 
his  views  had  been  correct,  he  continued  to  hold  them  until  he  entered 
Mr.  Cleveland's  cabinet,  when  in  some  mysterious  manner  there  was 
a  change  of  heart,  but  for  some  reason  he  seems  unwilling  to  talk 


COMMENTS  ON  CARLISLE.  533 

about  it.  There  are  two  other  members  of  the  cabinet,  Hoke  Smith, 
of  Georgia,  and  Herbert,  of  Alabama,  who  like  Carlisle  had  made  their 
voices  heard  for  nearly  a  lifetime  in  demanding  the  restoration  of 
silver,  and  in  denouncing  the  great  conspiracy  that  struck  it  down; 
and  strange  to  say,  when  these  two  men  entered  Mr.  Cleveland's 
cabinet  they  underwent  a  change  of  heart,  and  like  Carlisle  they  avoid 
talking  about  it.  When  Saul  of  Tarsus  saw  a  great  light  and  changed 
his  views,  he  was  anxious  to  tell  all  the  world  about  it ;  but  these  three 
statesmen  seem  to  be  ashamed  to  discuss  the  manner  of  their  con- 
version. Why  did  not  Carlisle  throw  a  little  light  on  this  question? 

Second.  All  of  these  men  now  denounce  those  people  who  are  op- 
posed to  the  single  gold  standard  as  being  scoundrels  and  lunatics.  Yet 
they  are  only  following  the  doctrines  which  Carlisle  &  Co.  preached. 
Are  we  then  to  infer  that  Mr.  Carlisle  and  his  two  cabinet  associates 
were  scoundrels  and  lunatics  until  they  got  to  be  old  men,  and  that 
then  the  tinsel  of  a  cabinet  position  not  only  made  them  honest,  but 
gave  them  brains?  If  not,  then  how  are  we  to  know  which  end  of 
their  career  was  honest,  intelligent  and  patriotic?  For  in  the  ab- 
sence of  any  explanation  some  of  us  might  think  that  they  were  honest 
and  patriotic  when  in  the  vigor  of  their  manhood  they  were  standing 
by  a  wronged  people,  and  that  it  is  the  latter  end  of  their  career  that 
is  destitute  of  honesty,  intelligence  or  patriotism.  Carlisle  should  have 
told  us. 

[Third.  Mr.  Carlisle  should  have  explained  why  it  was  that  for  200 
years  gold  and  silver  held  the  market  ratio  of  about  15!  to  i.  The 
ratio  fixed  by  law  was  15  to  i  in  some  countries,  15^  to  i  in  most  coun- 
tries, and  for  a  while  16  to  i  in  our  country.  In  other  words,  the  mar- 
ket ratio  as  shown  by  the  tables  remained  practically  the  same  as  the 
statutory  ratio  during  all  that  time.  If  the  two  metals  cannot  stand  to- 
gether, how  does  it  happen  that  they  did  so  without  serious  fluctuation 
for  200  years,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  annual  production 
of  each  metal  varied  greatly  from  time  to  timejj 

Fourth.  If  only  one  of  the  metals  can  be  a  standard  and  a  measure 
of  the  value  of  things,  and  if  a  combined  standard  of  both  gold  and 
silver  is  as  impossible  as  it  is  to  have  two  yardsticks  of  different 
lengths,  why  was  it  that  some  of  the  greatest  financiers  of  the  world, 
and  particularly  Baron  Rothschild,  stated  in  1869  that  it  was  the  sum 
of  the  two  metals  taken  together  which  formed  the  measure  o(.  the 
value  of  things?  No  matter  which  metal  might  for  a  time  predom- 
inate, nevertheless  the  sum  of  the  two  taken  together  was  the  measure 
of  the  value  of  all  property. 

Fifth.    Mr,  Carlisle  should  have  explained  why  it  was  that  in  every 


534  LiyE   QUESTIONS. 

country  where  silver  was  stricken  down,  it  was  done  by  the  arbitrary 
act  of  government,  and  that  neither  commerce  nor  business  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  it.  If  the  same  countries  had  stricken  down  gold 
by  law  and  destroyed  it  for  monetary  uses  and  made  silver  the  sole 
standard,  would  not  silver  have  gone  up  and  gold  down  in  purchas- 
ing power? 

Sixth.  It  is  a  fundamental  law,  recognized  by  all  gold  standard 
financiers,  except  recent  converts,  that  when  the  volume  of  money 
in  the  world  is  reduced,  the  selling  price  of  all  property  and  com- 
modities goes  down  correspondingly.  Therefore,  the  wiping  out  by 
law  of  nearly  half  the  money  of  the  world  reduced  the  selling  prices 
of  commodities  proportionately?  And  inasmuch  as  the  debts 
were  not  reduced,  as  interest  was  not  reduced,  and  as  taxes  were  not 
reduced,  does  not  Mr.  Carlisle  think  even  now,  just  as  he  did  in  1878, 
that  a  great  crime  was  committed  against  the  entire  debtor  class  and 
against  the  producing  class  by  bringing  about  a  condition  of  affairs 
by  law  which  compelled  the  debtor,  the  producer,  and  the  laborer  to 
sell  twice  as  much  property  or  labor  as  were  formerly  necessary  to  get 
the  same  amount  of  money  ? 

Seventh.  If  prices  are  so  reduced  that  it  takes  everything  the 
debtor  can  get  together  to  pay  his  fixed  charges,  and  everything  the 
laborer  can  get  together  to  buy  a  little  coarse  clothing  and  plain  food 
for  his  family,  can  either  the  debtor  or  the  laborer  spend  much  money 
buying  other  articles?  And  if  he  cannot,  then  must  that  not  result 
in  the  destruction  of  what  we  once  called  our  great  home  market? 
If  this  is  destroyed,  so  that  our  great  factories  and  industries  are  un- 
able to  dispose  of  their  productions,  must  they  not  shut  down  and 
throw  labor  out  of  employment?  Is  not  that  exactly  what  has  hap- 
pened in  this  country? 

Eighth.  As  the  laborer  prospers  most  when  there  is  a  large  de- 
mand for  the  articles  he  creates,  does  it  not  necessarily  follow  that  until 
there  is  a  rise  in  prices,  so  that  the  debtor  class  and  the  producing 
class  can  again  do  large  miscellaneous  buying,  there  is  no  hope  for  the 
laborer  ? 

Ninth.  As  there  cannot  be  a  general  rise  in  prices  without  an  in- 
crease in  the  volume  of  money,  must  not  the  present  paralysis  and  stag- 
nation continue  in  the  world  until  the  volume  of  money  is  again  re- 
stored to  what  it  was  before  silver  was  stricken  down? 

Tenth.  There  are  in  the  United  States  over  9,000  banks,  includ- 
ing national,  State  and  private.  The  comptroller  of  the  currency, 
one  of  Mr.  Carlisle's  assistants,  received  reports  from  these  banks 
showing  the  total  amount  of  money  of  every  kind  that  each  bank 


COMMENTS  ON  CARLISLE.  535 

had  on  July  n,  1895.  From  this  report  it  appears  that  there  were 
in  round  numbers  only  $127,000,000  of  gold  in  all  of  the  banks  of  the 
United  States.  This  was  all  of  the  available  gold  in  this  country. 
There  were  about  $100,000,000  in  the  treasury  at  that  time,  but  this  is 
not  available.  Mr.  Carlisle  did  not  refer  to  these  figures,  which  are 
known  to  be  accurate.  But  instead,  he  cited  the  figures  given  out  by 
the  director  of  the  mint,  also  one  of  his  assistants,  in  which  it  is  claimed 
that  there  are  about  $600,000,000  of  gold  in  this  country.  Mr.  Carlisle 
must  know  that  these  figures  are  incorrect,  and  that  the  tables  given 
out  by  the  director  of  the  mint  are  worthless  because  it  appears  from 
his  report  for  1892  that  he  assumes  that  every  dollar  put  in  circula- 
tion in  this  country  since  1872  is  still  in  circulation,  except  where  a 
record  was  made  of  its  exportation,  and  that  he  has  made  no  allowance 
for  the  money  that  was  carried  over  the  northern  boundary 
and  our  southern  boundary  for  twenty-four  years,  nor  for 
the  money  carried  back  by  Chinese  during  that  time,  nor 
for  gold  coin  used  in  the  arts  and  not  reported  during  that  time, 
nor  for  all  that  was  lost,  nor  for  all  that  was  carried  across  the  ocean 
in  the  pockets  of  our  people  during  all  those  years.  Yet  the  director 
says  in  his  report  for  1891  that  during  the  Paris  Exposition  the  total 
sum  spent  by  our  people  abroad  in  one  year  was  over  $90,000,000. 
Why  does  Mr.  Carlisle  use  figures  that  he  knows  are  incorrect  and  are 
manifestly  given  out  only  for  the  purpose  of  misleading  the  American 
people  on  the  question  as  to  the  amount  of  money  they  have  in  circu- 
lation ? 

Eleventh.  A  year  ago  Mr.  Cleveland  sent  for  his  former  law  part- 
ner and  close  friend,  and  through  him  Cleveland  and  Carlisle  together 
made  a  secret  contract  with  another  friend  who  was  a  former  client 
of  Cleveland's,  by  which  that  friend  and  his  associate  speculators  were 
enabled  to  make  over  ten  million  dollars  out  of  the  government  in  a 
few  weeks  on  a  small  bond  transaction.  And  the  reason  given  for 
this  extraordinary  and  even  criminal  procedure  was  that  the  speculators 
had  agreed  to  protect  the  government  against  the  gold  raids  until  the 
following  November.  That  is,  the  wealthiest,  the  most  enterprising, 
most  powerful,  most  industrious  and  thrifty  nation  on  the  globe  paid 
tribute  to  a  small  band  of  speculators  for  protection.  And  when  the 
month  of  November  arrived  these  speculators  withdrew  their  pro- 
tection, and  then  the  government  proceeded  to  issue  another  $100,- 
000,000  of  bonds,  thus  increasing  the  burdens  of  our  people.  Now, 
Mr.  Carlisle  might  have  expatiated  on  this,  and  pointed  out  to  the 
American  people  the  lofty  character  of  the  statesmanship  involved  in 
these  transactions :  for  strange  to  say,  many  of  our  intelligent  people 


536  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

are  utterly  unable  to  comprehend  it.  While  Mr.  Carlisle  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  a  success  in  the  capacity  of  bunco  steerer  among  the 
laboring  men  of  Chicago,  there  are  many  points  upon  which  he  could 
be  very  interesting,  and  I  would  suggest  that  they  bring  him  back 
and  let  him  talk  about  matters  in  which  he  is  at  home. 


SPURNED  THE  ENDORSEMENT  OF  GOLD  STANDARD 

MEN. 

(Note. — In  April,  1896,  the  gold  standard  Democrats  held  a  meeting  and 
endorsed  the  then  existing  State  administration  and  the  re-election  of  the 
Governor.  In  answer  to  this  the  following  interview  was  given  out:) 

Springfield,  111.,  April  19,  1896. — Governor  Altgeld  was  asked  to- 
night to  say  something  in  regard  to  his  endorsement  as  a  candidate 
for  re-election  by  "sound  money"  Democrats  at  Chicago  last  Friday 
night.  In  answer  he  said : 

"On  the  part  of  some  of  these  gentlemen  this  was  honestly  meant, 
and  I  feel  obliged  to  them,  but  on  the  part  of  others  it  was  simply  a 
sly  move  to  mislead  my  friends.  There  are  a  few  men  in  Chicago  who 
have  undertaken  to  help  the  bond  jobbing  Federal  administration  to 
make  Illinois  tamely  submit  to  the  single  gold  standard  and  thus  per- 
petuate the  paralysis,  distress  and  suffering  that  exist  in  our  country, 
in  order  that  the  process  of  fattening  Eastern  vampires  on  the  life 
blood  of  the  land  may  not  be  interrupted.  Some  of  the  men  who  met 
on  Friday  night,  while  disliking  me,  are  anxious  to  get  my  friends  to 
assist  in  this  unholy  scheme,  and  their  vote  was  a  kind  of  a  blind.  But 
it  will  not  work.  None  of  my  true  friends  will  be  deceived  by  this. 
As  I  am  not  a  candidate  for  Governor  or  any  other  position,  I  do  not 
want  the  indorsement  of  anybody.  Even  were  I  a  candidate  and  were 
I  anxious  to  be  elected,  I  would  not  for  a  hundred  Governorships 
stifle  my  convictions  on  so  momentous  a  question  as  that  which  lies  at 
the  bottom  of  our  miseries. 

HE  RIDICULES  AN   IDEA. 

"The  idea  that  prosperity  can  be  restored  to  the  world  with  only 
half  the  money  that  was  formerly  needed  to  do  the  world's  business 
is  too  absurd  to  be  seriously  discussed,  especially  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  taxes,  interest,  the  great  debts,  and  other  fixed  charges  have 
not  been  diminished.  Consequently,  a  continuation  of  low  prices 
means  the  absolute  destruction  of  the  purchasing  power  of  the  entire 
debtor  class. x  This  first  reduces  the  volume  of  business,  then  forces 


GOLD  DEMOCRATS  'AND  PRIMARIES.  537 

the  shutting  down  of  factories,  and,  by  destroying  the  market  for  labor, 
soon  destroys  the  purchasing  power  of  the  entire  laboring  class  and 
fills  the  land  with  distress. 

"None  of  the  sophists  hired  to  maintain  the  gold  standard  has  yet 
told  the  laborers  how  they  can  get  the  valuable  gold  they  talk  about. 
The  laborer  can  prosper  only  when  there  is  a  demand  for  his  labor. 

"The  gold  dollar,  by  reducing  prices,  while  all  fixed  charges  remain 
the  same,  destroyed  the  purchasing  power  of  the  country,  and  thus 
destroyed  the  market  for  the  only  thing  the  laborer  had  to  sell ;  that 
is,  his  labor.  Until  this  purchasing  power  is  restored,  there  can  be 
no  great  demand  for  labor,  and  this  purchasing  power  of  the  country, 
especially  of  the  debtor  classes,  can  be  restored  only  by  a  rise  in  the 
selling  price  of  things,  and  this  can  come  only  through  an  increaee  in 
the  volume  of  money.  The  continuation  of  the  single  gold  standard 
means  the  permanent  degradation  of  the  great  toiling  and  producing 
masses  of  this  country,  and  I  shall  do  what  little  I  can  to  prevent  this. 
I  shall  do  what  I  can  to  restore  the  free  coinage  of  gold  and  silver  ex- 
actly as  it  stood  when  a  Republican  Congress  corruptly  struck  down 
silver.  This  restoration  once  made,  if  the  subject  needs  legislation, 
it  can  be  had ;  but  the  first  duty  of  Americans  is  to  right  the  great 
wrong,  and  I  ask  all  my  friends  to  do  what  they  can  to  bring  this  about. 
We  have  been  led  off  the  correct  road  into  desolation,  and  the  first 
thing  to  do  is  to  get  back  to  the  highway.  Once  again  there,  if  it  is 
necessary  to  mend  harness  or  wagon,  we  can  do  it." 


GOLD  DEMOCRATS  AND  THE  PRIMARY  ELECTION. 
(Springfield,  111.,  May  8,  1896.) 

Governor  Altgeld  returned  from  Chicago  this  afternoon  and  when 
seen  by  a  reporter  he  was  asked  : 

"Governor,  how  are  the  Democrats  of  Chicago  on  the  money  ques- 
tion ?"  He  answered : 

"The  people  of  Chicago  are  overwhelmingly  opposed  to  the  single 
gold  standard  and  the  whole  bond-jobbing  policy  of  the  federal  ad- 
ministration, and  will  send  practically  a  solid  delegation  to  the  State 
convention  in  favor  of  the  restoration  of  the  free  coinage  of  silver. 
There  are  a  few  men,  mostly  adherents  of  or  office-holders  under  the 
federal  administration,  and  some  of  the  corporations'  hired  men,  who, 
acting  under  instructions  from  Washington  and  New  York,  are  trying 
to  secure  a  delegation  to  the  national  convention  that  shall  misrep&- 
resent  the  people  of  this  State ;  but  these  men  are  all  generals  they 


538  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

are  all  great  men  who  have  no  constituency,  they  have  no  privates, 
they  are  men  who  manage  to  eat  the  bread  that  others  sweat  for.  But 
these  men  do  not  hesitate  to  resort  to  any  means  to  carry  their  point. 
This  whole  gold  movement  is  a  part  of  that  wave  of  corruption  that 
is  deluging  our  land.  It  started  by  controlling  governments  through 
improper  influences  and  it  progresses,  not  by  appealing  to  the  nobler 
manhood  of  the  American  citizens,  but  by  buying  its  way.  Owning 
the  press  and  having  many  rich  men  in  their  ranks  it  must  be  ex- 
pected that  the  whole  'hanging-on  class' — the  men  who  like  to  pose 
in  drawing  rooms,  the  club-loungers  and  those  fine  young  men  who 
require  an  hour  and  a  half  to  wash  their  teeth  and  comb  their  hair — 
should  be  on  that  side.  But  the  argument  the  managers  rely  on  is 
'boodle.' 

"Several  weeks  ago  a  Chicago  banker  in  a  conference  stated  that 
they  must  win,  and  that  he  alone  would  guarantee  to  raise  $20,000 
for  this  purpose.  According  to  the  boasting  of  some  of  the  men  in 
their  employ,  they  have  since  then  received  $50,000  from  New  York, 
in  addition  to  what  is  raised  at  home.  While  using  this  fund  they 
employ  catch  phrases  to  deceive  the  people,  such  as  'honest  money,' 
'honest  primaries,'  etc.,  while  they  are  all  the  time  working  for  just 
the  opposite  ends.  During  the  last  ten  days,  many  Democrats  from 
different  sections  of  the  State  have  visited  Chicago.  Naturally  they 
went  around  to  see  what  they  could  learn.  They  visited  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Cleveland  Democrats,  and  according  to  the  reports 
which  they  brought  to  me  they  were  asked  only  a  few  questions 
in  regard  to  the  sentiments  of  their  people,  but  in  each  case  they 
were  at  once  asked  the  question:  How  much  money  will  it  take  to 
carry  your  county  for  us?  That  is,  in  each  case  they  sought  to  put 
a  price  on  the  manhood  of  American  citizens. 

"In  order  to  handle  this  boodle  fund  effectively,  the  Cleveland  man- 
agers tried  to  get  control  of  the  Democratic  County  Committee,  con- 
sisting at  present  of  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  men.  As  they 
had  a  small  number  of  men  to  deal  with  they  felt  that  with  all  the 
money  at  their  command  they  could  easily  buy  their  way  through  and 
succeed.  According  to  reports  coming  directly  the  price  offered  for 
committeemen  in  some  cases  reached  $500.  But  when  the  final  test 
came  there  were  more  than  two  to  one  against  the  Cleveland  people. 
They  were  routed,  horse,  foot  and  dragoon.  A  number  of  gold  stan- 
dard men  were  so  disgusted  with  the  hypocrisy  and  fraud  of  it  all  that 
they  voted  with  the  silver  men." 

"Governor,  the  newspapers  say  that  the  committee  refused  to  grant 
honest  primaries?" 


GOLD  DEMOCRATS  AND  PRIMARIES.  539 

"That  is  a  slander  and  a  part  of  the  campaign  of  misrepresentation 
and  deception  that  is  being  carried  on." 

"Then,  why  did  not  the  committee  call  the  primaries  under  what  is 
known  as  the  Crawford  law?" 

"The  committee  adopted  all  of  the  Crawford  law  that  is  of  value 
and  tends  to  secure  honest  primaries  and  it  rejected  only  that  part 
of  the  Crawford  law  which  opens  the  door  wide  to  fraud." 

"How  was  that?" 

"Well,  the  so-called  Crawford  law  is  a  law  on  our  statute  books 
governing  primary  elections  and  whenever  a  political  committee 
passes  a  resolution  to  hold  its  primaries  under  this  law  then  the  law 
at  once  applies  and  the  committee  has  no  more  control  over  the  mat- 
ter. Under  this  law  the  regular  judges  and  clerks  of  elections,  ap- 
pointed by  the  board  of  election  commissioners  for  Chicago,  and  who 
sit  at  the  regular  elections,  hold  the  primaries.  This  is  an  excellent 
provision  and  the  Democratic  committee  on  Tuesday  night  adopted 
this  part.  But  unfortunately,  under  the  primary  law  it  is  not  com- 
pulsory on  the  regular  judges  to  sit  at  a  primary  election,  and  when- 
ever they  do  not,  then  instead  of  having  other  capable  and  honest 
men  appointed  for  that  purpose,  the  vacancy  is  to  be  filled  by  the  by- 
standers at  the  time  the  polls  open,  and  in  such  a  case  if  one  faction 
has  a  crowd  of  rough  by-standers  present  it  can  put  in  three  of  its  tools  - 
and  then  the  primary  election  becomes  a  farce,  although  it  is  osten- 
sibly held  under  the  primary  law. 

"When  I  went  to  Chicago  last  week  I  suggested  to  some  of  the 
embers  of  the  committee  that  they  should  call  the  primary  elections 
under  the  so-called  Crawford  law  and  thus  avoid  all  further  contro- 
versy, but  they  replied  that  this  would  make  a  farce  of  the  whole  busi- 
less,  that  some  of  the  worst  primaries  ever  held  were  conducted  under 
this  law.  It  was  urged  by  these  committeemen  that  if  the  committee 
adopted  such  a  resolution  and  relinquished  all  control  in  the  matter 
that  then  the  gold  people,  with  their  corruption  fund,  could  induce  a 
number  of  the  regular  judges  to  stay  away,  and  as  the  ordinary  citizen 
does  not  like  a  squabble  and  as  the  committee  had  no  funds  with 
which  to  secure  the  presence  of  by-standers,  the  gold  people  would 
have  a  crowd  of  roughs  at  the  polling  places  and  would  put  in  three 
of  their  hired  men  as  judges  and  that  then  the  whole  matter  would 
be  farcical.  In  view  of  these  facts  the  committee  did  right  in  de- 
claring that  the  regular  judges  of  elections  shall  hold  these  primaries 
in  so  far  as  they  will  agree  to  serve  and  that  in  cases  where  they  will 
not  act  that  then,  instead  of  calling  in  by-standers  brought  there  for 


540  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

that  purpose,  the  committee  shall  see  that  men  of  character  are  ap- 
pointed." 

"But  the  gold  standard  men  threaten  to  bolt  if  they  don't  get  their 
rights." 

"Oh,  that  is  simply  to  carry  out  a  prearranged  plan  settled  on  by 
the  Eastern  manipulators.  The  crowd  that  has  made  millions  out  of 
the  government  during  the  present  administration  is  determined  to 
keep  its  fingers  on  the  treasury.  For  this  purpose  they  have  de- 
termined to  control  both  national  conventions.  They  care  nothing 
about  political  parties  except  as  they  are  a  convenience.  They  already 
have  the  coming  St.  Louis  Republican  convention  in  their  hands  and 
they  are  bound  to  control  the  Democratic  convention.  They  are  deter- 
mined to  rule  at  all  hazards.  You  notice  they  are  starting  contests  in  al- 
most every  State  where  they  are  defeated  by  the  people  and  they  hope 
by  fraud,  or  by  force  if  necessary,  to  seat  enough  contesting  delegates 
to  control  the  convention.  You  see  they  practically  own  a  majority  of 
the  National  Democratic  Committee.  They  regard  it  as  so  many  as- 
sets for  future  business  purposes  in  making  raids  on  the  treasury  and 
they  hope  through  this  committee  to  control  the  organization  of  the 
convention  and  in  that  way  to  unseat  enough  of  the  regularly  elected 
delegates  and  seat  a  lot  of  their  spurious  delegates.  Consequently  if 
Christ  himself  were  to  hold  the  primaries  and  even  if  these  gentlemen 
did  not  have  one  vote  in  ten  they  would  still  organize  a  bolt,  because 
they  are  instructed  to  do  so.  Securing  their  rights  simply  means  that 
the  tail  shall  have  the  undisputed  right  to  wag  the  dog. 

"Some  weeks  ago  these  gentlemen  talked  harmony.  They  insisted 
that  we  must  have  harmony  in  the  party,  and  did  you  notice  how  this 
harmony  was  to  be  effected?  The  great  masses  of  the  Democrats 
were  to  surrender  their  convictions  and  were  to  let  this  small  squad 
of  men  have  their  way  and  in  this  manner  we  were  to  have  harmony. 
The  party  has  been  controlled  by  the  Eastern  manipulators  for  a  third 
of  a  century.  One  would  suppose  that  the  tail  might  for  once  make 
a  little  concession  to  the  dog — but  not  so  with  these  men.  Instead  of 
coming  forward  and  saying:  'Now  we  have  not  only  had  our  way  for 
thirty  odd  years,  but  we  have  used  you  as  a  convenience  during  all 
that  time  and  we  will  now  let  you  have  your  way  for  once  in  order 
that  we  may  have  harmony.' 

"Instead  of  saying  this  they  demanded  a  continuation  of  submis- 
sion. They  practically  said :  'Now,  all  of  you  fellows  of  the  great 
West  and  the  great  South,  just  lay  down  and  let  us  continue  to  walk- 
over you  with  the  nails  in  our  shoes  and  we  will  be  harmonious.'  But 
there  is  an  end  to  all  things  mundane.  There  is  an  end  to  patience 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  541 

and  there  is  an  end  to  deception  and  fraud  and  the  time  has  come 
when  the  great  masses  of  the  Democracy  are  going  to  speak  for  them- 
selves. And  the  Democrats  of  Chicago  are  determined  to  do  this, 
and  when  their  voice  is  heard  there  will  be  nothing  in  it  that  will 
comfort  those  men  who  are  doing  chores  for  the  East." 


NON-PARTISAN  SPEECH  ON  MONEY  QUESTION. 
(At  the  Auditorium,  Chicago,  May  16,  1896.) 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  For  a  number  of  years  there  has  existed 
throughout  the  civilized  world  a  severe  depression  with  a  constantly 
increasing  train  of  bankruptcy,  ruin,  and  misery.  Nature  has  yielded 
her  harvests  as  bountifully  as  ever,  and  the  intelligence,  energy,  and 
ingenuity  of  man  are  as  great  as  ever.  We  must  therefore  conclude 
that  this  sad  condition  is  due  to  some  unnatural  and  extraordinary 
cause.  That  cause  is  the  great  reduction  in  the  volume  of  money  in 
the  world,  incident  to  destroying  silver  as  a  money  metal. 

xTJie  financial  question,  in  its  relation  to  the  commerce,  the  in- 
dustry, the  enterprise,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  world,  is  governed  by 
certain  fundamental  la\  ;  or  principles.  When  these  are  followed 
all  is  well.  One  of  these  fundamental  laws  now  universally  recog- 
nized is  that  increase  in  the  volume  of  money  in  the  world  raises  the 
selling  price  of  things,  while  a  reduction  in  the  amount  of  money  in 
the  world  lowers  the  selling  price  of  things.  Another  of  these  funda- 
mental laws  now  universally  recognized  is  that  with  rising  prices  go 
increased  activity,  industry,  enterprise,  and  prosperity.  Putting  more 
money  into  the  world  is  like  putting  more  blood  into  the  body ;  it  gives 
new  life ;  while  falling  prices  stop  enterprise,  check  industry,  and  pro- 
duce stagnation  and  distress  because  debts,  taxes,  and  fixed  charges 
never  fall  with  the  price  of  things,  consequently  more  property  has  to 
be  sold  to  get  the  same  amount  of  money  in  order  to  pay  the  debts, 
taxes,  etc.,  so  that  the  debtor  has  no  money  left  to  spend.  This  soon 
destroys  the  market  for  commodities  so  that  manufacturers  cannot  sell 
their  products  and  are  consequently  obliged  to  shut  down.  This  in 
turn  destroys  the  purchasing  power  of  the  laborer,  so  that  there  is 
paralysis  and  distress  around  the  entire  circle  of  business  and  in- 
dustry.' 

When  carefully  examined  it  is  found  that  all  of  the  panics  we  have 
had  in  this  country  were  the  result  of  a  contraction  of  the  currency, 
brought  about  by  one  cause  or  another.  Inasmuch  as  the  panic  of  1873 
is  sometimes  mixed  up  in  the  discussion  of  the  silver  question,  I  desire 


542  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

to  say  a  few  words  in  regard  to  it,  simply  to  point  out  at  the  beginning 
it  had  no  direct  connection  with  it.  That  panic  was  local  to  the  United 
States  and  was  due  to  causes  which  were  local  to  this  country.  The 
panic  which  struck  this  country  in  1893  was  not  local,  but  extended 
over  the  civilized  world,  and  had  been  felt  in  other  countries  for  a 
number  of  years  before  it  reached  us. 

During  our  civil  war  the  government  issued  paper  money  in  large 
amounts  and  there  was  neither  gold  nor  silver  in  circulation  in  this 
country.  After  the  war  the  government  began  to  contract  the  amount 
of  paper  which  was  outstanding  by  issuing  bonds  with  which  to  take  it 
up.  In  recent  years  attempts  have  been  made  to  revise  the  treasury 
reports,  in  order  to  make  it  appear  that  the  contraction  had  not  been 
great.  But  John  J.  Knox,  who  was  for  a  time  Comptroller  of  the 
Treasury,  and  is  regarded  as  an  accurate  authority,  published  an  article 
in  Laylor's  Cyclopedia  based  on  the  Treasury  reports  issued  during 
and  after  the  war,  in  which  he  gives  a  table  showing  the  amount  of 
paper  money  the  Treasury  had  outstanding  on  July  i  of  each  year  for 
a  number  of  years  and  the  character  of  each  kind  of  notes. 

According  to  this  table  the  largest  amount  of  paper  money  we  had 
in  circulation  at  any  time  during  and  immediately  after  the  war  was  in 
1866,  when  we  had  $1,261,415,475  in  government  paper  and  $281,479,- 
908  in  national  bank  notes,  making  a  total  of  $1,542,895,383.  By  1870 
the  government  paper  was  reduced  to  $396,894,212,  while  there  were 
$299,766,984  of  national  bank  notes,  making  a  total  of  $696,661,196. 
In  other  words,  there  was  a  reduction  in  the  total  amount  of  paper 
money  in  circulation  in  this  country  from  1866  to  1870  of  $846,234,177. 
Inasmuch  as  the  enterprise,  industry,  and  ingenuity  of  our  people  had 
loaded  every  dollar  of  this  paper  money  which  had  been  in  circulation 
with  as  much  business  as  it  could  possibly  carry,  it  was  inevitable  that 
a  fall  in  prices  corresponding  to  the  reduction  in  the  volume  of  money 
must  follow. 

Senator  John  Sherman  recognized  this  fact,  and  in  a  discussion  of 
the  currency  question  in  the  United  States  Senate  in  1869  he  said: 

The  contraction  of  the  currency  is  a  far  more  distressing  operation  than 
the  Senators  suppose.  Our  own  and  other  nations  have  gone  through  that 
operation  before.  It  is  not  possible  to  take  that  voyage  without  the  sorest 
distress.  To  every  person  except  a  capitalist  out  of  debt  or  a  salaried  officer 
or  annuitant  it  is  a  period  of  loss,  danger,  lassitude  of  trade,  fall  of  wages,  sus- 
pension of  enterprises,  bankruptcy,  and  disaster.  It  means  ruin  of  all  dealers 
whose  debts  are  twice  their  business  capital  though  one-third  less  than  their 
total  property.  It  means  the  fall  of  all  agricultural  production  without  any 
great  reduction  of  taxes.  What  prudent  man  would  dare  to  build  a  house,  a 
railroad,  a  factory,  or  a  barn  with  this  certain  fact  before  him? 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  543 

Notwithstanding  this  warning  of  danger  the  government  went  on 
with  its  policy  of  contraction,  and  Sherman's  predictions  were  more 
than  verified.  Universal  bankruptcy,  ruin,  and  distress,  with  their 
attendant  increase  in  suicides,  crime,  and  insanity,  constituted  the 
price  which  the  American  people  paid  to  get  on  what  was  then  called 
a  "specie  basis."  I  will  not  stop  here  to  ask  the  question  whether  the 
American  nation  ever  received  any  equivalent  for  the  awful  price 
which  it  here  paid  or  not ;  I  am  only  commenting  upon  an  historical 
fact. 

Toward  1880  the  balance  of  trade  was  largely  in  our  favor  for  a 
number  of  years,  which  fact  tended  to  increase  the  volume  of  money  in 
our  country.  The  productions  of  our  mines  were  very  large  for  several 
years,  so  that,  including  Treasury  and  national  bank  notes,  there  were, 
according  to  the  Treasury  tables  in  the  year  1880,  between  $1,100,000,- 
ooo  and  $1,300,000,000  of  money  in  this  country,  being  an  increase  of 
from  60  to  80  per  cent  over  the  sum  which  we  had  when  the  govern- 
ment had  ceased  contracting  the  currency,  and  there  followed  a  cor- 
responding increase  in  the  price  of  property.  This  was  accompanied 
by  general  activity  and  prosperity,  which  was,  however,  local  to  our 
country,  and  lasted  only  a  few  years  until  we  began  to  be  affected  by 
that  general  depression  which  followed  the  demonetization  of  silver. 

DEMONETIZATION  OF  SILVER. 

While  the  subject  of  demonetizing  silver  had  been  agitated  in  Eu- 
rope for  many  years,  it  had  not  been  in  the  United  States,  but  inasmuch 
as  neither  gold  nor  silver  was  circulating  here  the  manipulators  got  our 
government  to  take  the  initiative  in  striking  down  silver.  Accordingly 
the  American  Congress,  in  February,  1873,  by  law  demonetized  silver, 
so  that  it  was  no  longer  a  part  of  our  standard  coinage  and  was  no 
longer  a  legal  tender  as  money  for  large  sums,  thus  depriving  it  of  its 
function  as  money.  The  effect  of  this  was  not  at  once  noticed  here. 
In  the  fall  of  the  same  year  the  German  empire  not  only  demonetized 
silver  by  law,  but  gradually  threw  nearly  $400,000,000  of  silver  quietly 
onto  the  market  as  a  commodity.  Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and 
some  smaller  States  more  or  less  dependent  upon  Germany,  demon- 
etized silver  by  law  immediately  thereafter.  Holland  struck  down 
silver  by  law  in  1875 ;  Russia  in  1876;  France  and  the  countries  of  the 
Latin  Union  by  law  stopped  the  coinage  of  silver  in  1878.  Austria 
established  a  gold  standard  in  1879. 

In  1878  Congress  attempted  to  remonetize  silver,  but  the  opposition 
was  able  to  partially  frustrate  the  movement.  The  Bland-Allison  bill 
was  passed,  but  it  limited  the  amount  to  be  coined  to  from  two  to  four 


544  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

millions  per  month,  and  it  did  not  make  this  full  legal  tender,  and  the 
coinage  was  not  free  as  it  formerly  was  and  as  that  of  gold  is.  In  1890 
this  law  was  repealed  and  the  Sherman  law  was  passed,  under  which 
the  government  purchased  $48,000,000  worth  of  silver  every  year  and 
issued  certificates  against  it.  This  added  $48,000,000  to  our  currency 
every  year,  and  helped  slightly  to  keep  up  prices.  But  President 
Cleveland  convened  Congress  in  special  session  to  repeal  this  law  in 
1893,  and  a  further  disturbance  of  prices  ensued.  The  Indian  mint 
continued  coinage  of  silver  until  June,  1893,  and  inside  of  six  days 
from  the  day  it  closed  there  was  a  fall  in  prices  of  nearly  25  per  cent. 

BEGINNING  OF  THE  MOVEMENT. 

Although  the  subject  had  been  mooted  before,  there  was  no  agita- 
tion in  favor  of  adopting  a  single  standard  until  about  the  beginning 
of  this  century,  when  a  number  of  writers  discussed  it.  In  1802  Citizen 
Berenger,  who  had  been  deputized  by  the  French  government  to  make 
a  report  on  this  question,  reported  in  favor  of  a  single  silver  standard. 
Not  gold,  but  silver.  Berenger  was  one  of  the  ablest  men  that  have 
written  upon  this  question,  and  it  is  noticeable  that  he  advanced  in 
1802  practically  all  of  the  arguments  in  favor  of  a  silver  standard  that 
have  since  been  advanced  in  favor  of  a  gold  standard.  Like  the  single 
standard  men  of  to-day,  he  took  the  ridiculous  position  of  fiercely  con- 
tending that  the  government  could  not  increase  or  decrease  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  a  metal ;  that  the  whole  matter  was  regulated  by 
commerce ;  and  yet,  instead  of  leaving  it  to  commerce,  he  labored  for 
years,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  to  get  the  government  to  adopt  one 
metal  and  strike  down  the  other  by  law. 

In  1816  Lord  Liverpool  succeeded  in  getting  the  English  govern- 
ment to  adopt  the  gold  standard  by  law,  and  his  principal  argument  in 
favor  of  it  was  that  the  other  nations  of  the  world  were  using  silver 
almost  exclusively,  and  if  England  adopted  gold  and  coined  it  in 
denominations  that  were  not  in  use  in  other  countries  her  money  would 
be  less  liable  to  be  drawn  from  the  island,  and  that  when  it  was  drawn 
from  the  island  it  would  have  a  constant  tendency  to  return.  The 
idea  of  getting  an  advantage  over  other  countries  by  the  use  of  gold 
was  not  then  thought  of.  This  advantage  arose  later,  out  of  the  fact 
that  England,  having  become  the  great  commercial  and  ship-owning 
nation  of  the  world  and  London  the  great  financial  center,  her  people 
got  the  benefit  of  the  exchanges  and  in  time  got  the  benefit  of  all  those 
advantages  which  are  reaped  by  men  who  handle  large  sums  of  money 
and  are  in  a  situation  to  compel  others  to  come  and  deal  with  them. 

There  were  a  number  of  minor  steps  taken  by  some  of  the  govern- 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  545 

ments,  which  need  not  be  noticed  in  this  brief  survey,  butfthe  advocates 
of  a  single  standard  increased  in  number  and  were  finally  divided  into 
three  classes  :  One  class  that  wanted  uniformity  of  coinage  in  order  to 
escape  the  confusion  which  resulted  from  a  great  variety  of  coins  is- 
sued by  different  small  principalities.  This  class  did  not  believe  that 
there  was  enough  of  either  metal  in  the  world  to  do  the  world's  busi- 
ness, and  favored  the  theory  of  having  some  countries  adopt  gold  and 
other  countries  adopt  silver.  Another  class  was  made  up  chiefly  of 
professors,  who  advanced  various  theories  which  they  wanted  to  have 
put  into  practice.  The  third  and  more  powerful  branch  consisted  of 
the  great  creditor  classes,  who  wanted  to  make  money  dear,  and  of 
nearly  all  the  official  classes  who  hold  office  for  life  and  draw  salaries 
from  the  government.  | 

The  charter  of  the  Bank  of  England  being  about  to  expire  was 
renewed  by  Parliament  in  1844,  and  in  the  act  renewing  the  charter 
Parliament  provided  that  the  bank  must  buy  up  all  gold  of  lawful 
standard  that  should  thereafter  be  offered  at  £3  173.  gd.  per  ounce  of 
standard  gold.  In  other  words,  it  fixed  the  minimum  price  for  gold  by 
law  and  furnished  the  world  a  purchaser  for  it.  Had  it  provided  by 
law  that  the  bank  must  buy  every  pound  of  wool  thereafter  offered  at 
30  cents  per  pound,  it  is  evident  that  30  cents  per  pound  would  have 
formed  a  minimum  price  for  wool  after  that  date,  especially  if  it  were 
limited  in  quantity,  and  this  would  have  been  due  not  to  business  or 
commerce,  but  to  the  arbitrary  act  of  government. 

About  the  time  of  the  great  discoveries  of  gold  in  California  and 
Australia,  the  creditor  and  officeholding  class,  fearing  higher  prices, 
started  an  agitation  in  favor  of  the  demonetization  of  gold :  and  Hol- 
land, as  well  as  some  of  the  smaller  German  States,  actually  demon- 
etized gold  for  a  time.  Soon  after  1850,  when  it  became  evident  that 
the  new  gold  fields  were  not  going  to  deluge  the  world,  the  agitation  in 
favor  of  demonetizing  gold  ceased,  and  then  became  active  in  favor 
of  demonetizing  silver.  International  monetary  conferences  were  held 
at  different  times,  at  which  the  idea  of  establishing  a  single  gold  stan- 
dard was  strongly  pressed,  although  the  folly  and  danger  of  it  were 
pointed  out  by  some  of  the  ablest  statesmen  and  financiers  of  the 
world;  but  the  influence  of  the  office-holding  and  money-lending 
classes  was  sufficiently  potent  to  quietly  carry  it  out,  and  finally  they 
induced  the  American  Congress  to  take  the  initiative. 

RATIO   BETWEEN  GOLD  AND  SILVER. 

As^each  little  country  had  its  own  system  of  finance  the  greatest 
confusion  prevailed  until  about  two  hundred  years  ago,  when  some  of 


35 


546  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  governments  of  Europe  provided  by  law  that  silver  and  gold 
should  be  coined  at  the  ratio  of  1 5^  parts  of  silver  to  i  of  gold  of  equal 
fineness;  in  some  it  was  15  to  i,  while  in  our  country  it  was  15  to  i 
until  1834,  and  then  16  to  i.  This  constituted  the  legal  ratio  or  mint 
price,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  for  two  hundred  years  after  the  estab- 
lishment of  this  legal  ratio  or  mint  price  the  market  ratio  or  price 
remained  substantially  the  same  as  the  legal  ratio,  the  difference  being 
chiefly  the  cost  of  exchange,  and  the  market  ratio  or  price  was  unin- 
fluenced by  the  increase  or  decrease  in  the  production  of  either  metal 
from  time  to  time. 

The  statistical  tables  giving  what  is  called  the  market  price  of  gold 
and  silver  for  two  hundred  years  prior  to  1873  show  that  there  was 
practically  no  variance  of  the  market  ratio  of  15^  to  i  during  all  that 
time.  Sometimes  one  metal  would  be  a  little  more  plentiful  than  the 
other  in  a  particular  country,  but  this  did  not  matter;  the  ratio  or 
price  of  each  remained  the  same,  and  the  sum  of  the  two  metals  taken 
together  and  treated  practically  as  one  constituted  the  measure  of  value 
of  things  throughout  the  world.  During  all  that  time  commerce  never 
lifted  its  finger  in  favor  of  the  demonetization  of  either  metal,  and  the 
contention  that  the  business  of  the  world  discriminated  against  silver  is 
not  true. 

COMMERCE  OBEYS   STATUTORY   LAW. 

The  history  of  these  two  hundred  years  shows  that  instead  of  com- 
merce dictating,  it  always  adapts  itself  to  the  established  laws ;  in  fact, 
the  theory  of  tariffs  and  of  protection  rests  entirely  upon  the  idea  that 
the  business  of  the  world  adjusts  itself  to  positive  statutory  enact- 
ments. At  present  gold  is  protected ;  it  is  given  a  monopoly  through 
the  act  of  government. 

WHAT  AMERICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  STATESMEN  HAVE  SAID  ON 
THE  SUBJECT  OF  A  SINGLE  STANDARD. 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  bolster  this  dishonest  single-standard 
movement  up  with  the  names  of  distinguished  statesmen  and  to  make 
it  appear  that  they  favored  that  which  in  reality  they  denounced.  In 
1792  Alexander  Hamilton  wrote  upon  this  subject: 

Upon  the  whole  it  seems  to  be  most  advisable,  as  has  already  been  ob- 
served, not  to  attach  the  unit  exclusively  to  either  of  the  metals,  because  this 
can  not  be  done  effectually  without  destroying  the  office  and  character  of  one 
of  them  as  money  and  reducing  it  to  the  situation  of  mere  merchandise.  To 
annul  the  use  of  either  of  the  metals  as  money  is  to  abridge  the  quantity  of 
circulating  medium  and  is  liable  to  all  the  objections  which  arise  from  a  com- 
parison of  the  benefits  of  a  full  with  the  evils  of  a  scanty  circulation. 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY  QUESTION.  547 

Jefferson  wrote  to  Mr.  Hamilton  in  February,  1792,  these  words: 
I  concur  with  you  that  the  unit  must  stand  on  both  metals. 

In  1822  William  H.  Crawford,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  reported 
to  Congress  as  follows: 

All  intelligent  writers  on  the  currency  agree  that  when  it  is  decreasing  in 
amount  poverty  and  misery  must  prevail. 

In  1852  Mr.  R.  M.  T.  Hunter,  in  a  report  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  said: 

Of  all  the  great  effects  produced  upon  human  society  by  the  discovery  of 
America  there  were  probably  none  so  marked  as  those  brought  about  by  the 
great  influx  of  the  precious  metals  from  the  New  World  into  the  Old.  Euro- 
pean industry  had  been  declining  upon  the  decreasing  stock  of  the  precious 
metals  and  an  appreciating  standard  of  values.  Human  ingenuity  grew  dull 
under  the  paralyzing  influences  of  declining  profits,  and  capital  absorbed  nearly 
all  that  should  have  been  divided  between  it  and  labor.  *  *  *  The  mischief 
would  be  great  indeed  if  all  the  world  were  to  adopt  but  one  of  the  precious 
metals  as  the  standard  of  value.  To  adopt  gold  would  diminish  the  specie  cur- 
rency more  than  one-half,  and  should  silver  be  taken  as  the  only  standard 
the  reduction  would  be  large  enough  to  prove  highly  disastrous  to  the  human 
race. 

In  February,  1878,  Mr.  James  G.  Elaine  said: 

On  the  much-vexed  and  long-mooted  question  as  to  a  bimetallic  or  mono- 
metallic standard  my  views  are  sufficiently  indicated  in  the  remarks  I  have 
made.  I  believe  the  struggle  now  going  on  in  this  country  and  in  other 
countries  for  a  single  gold  standard  would,  if  successful,  produce  widespread 
disaster  in  and  throughout  the  commercial  world.  The  destruction  of  silver 
and  establishing  gold  as  a  sole  unit  of  value  must  have  a  ruinous  effect  upon 
all  forms  of  property  except  those  improvements  which  yield  a  fixed  return 
in  money.  It  is  impossible  to  strike  silver  out  of  existence  as  money  without 
results  which  will  prove  distressing  to  millions  and  disastrous  to  tens  of 
thousands.  I  believe  gold  and  silver  coin  to  be  the  money  of  the  Constitu- 
tion; indeed,  the  money  of  the  American  people  anterior  to  the  Constitution, 
which  the  great  organic  law  recognized  as  quite  independent  of  its  own  exist- 
ence. No  power  was  conferred  on  Congress  to  declare  either  metal  should  not 
be  money.  Congress  has,  in  my  judgment,  no  power  to  demonetize  silver  any 
more  than  to  demonetize  gold. 

United  States  Senator  Roger  Q.  Mills,  in  discussing  this  ques- 
tion, said: 

But  the  crime  that  is  now  sought  to  be  perpetrated  on  more  than  fifty 
millions  of  people,  comes  neither  from  the  camp  of  the  conqueror,  the  hand 
of  the  foreigner,  nor  the  altar  of  an  idolater.  *  *  *  It  comes  from  the  solid, 
phlegmatic,  marble  heart  of  avarice  that  seeks  to  paralyze  labor,  increase  the 
burden  of  debt,  and  fill  the  land  with  destitution  and  suffering  to  gratify  the 
lust  for  gold.  *  *  *  It  demands  of  Congress  an  act  that  will  paralyze  all 


548  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  forces  of  production,  shut  out  labor  from  all  employment,  increase  the 
burden  of  debts  and  taxation,  and  send  desolation  and  suffering  to  all  the 
homes  of  the  poor. 

In  1878  John  G.  Carlisle,  while  discussing  this  subject  in  the  Amer- 
ican Congress,  said : 

I  know  that  the  world's  stock  of  precious  metals  is  none  too  large  and  I 
see  no  reason  to  apprehend  that  it  will  ever  become  so.  Mankind  will  be 
fortunate  indeed  if  the  annual  production  of  gold  and  silver  coin  shall  keep 
pace  with  the  annual  increase  of  population,  commerce,  and  industry.  Ac- 
cording to  my  view  of  the  subject,  the  conspiracy  which  seems  to  have  been 
formed  here  and  in  Europe  to  destroy  by  legislation  and  otherwise  from  three- 
sevenths  to  one-half  the  metallic  money  of  the  world  is  the  most  gigantic 
crime  of  this  or  any  other  age.  The  consummation  of  such  a  scheme  would 
ultimately  entail  more  misery  upon  the  human  race  than  all  the  wars,  pestilence, 
and  famine  that  ever  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The  absolute  and 
instantaneous  destruction  of  half  the  movable  property  of  the  world,  including 
horses,  ships,  railroads,  and  all  other  appliances  for  carrying  on  commerce, 
while  it  would  be  felt  more  sensibly  at  the  moment,  would  not  produce  any- 
thing like  the  prolonged  distress  and  disorganization  of  society  that  must  in- 
evitably result  from  the  permanent  annihilation  of  one-half  of  the  metallic 
money  of  the  world. 

Contrast  these  words  of  Carlisle  with  the  sophistry  he  is  now 
uttering. 

While  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  John  Sherman  wrote  to  W.  S. 
Groesbeck,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  saying,  among  other  things : 

During  the  monetary  conference  in  Paris  I  was  strongly  in  favor  of  the 
single  standard  of  gold,  and  wrote  a  letter  which  you  will  find  in  the  proceed- 
ings of  that  conference  stating  my  views.  At  that  time  the  wisest  of  us  did 
not  anticipate  the  sudden  fall  of  silver,  or  rather  the  rise  of  gold,  that  has 
occurred.  Other  arguments  showing  the  dangerous  effect  upon  industry  by 
dropping  one  of  the  precious  metals  from  the  standard  of  value  outweigh  in 
my  mind  all  the  theoretical  objections  to  the  bimetallic  system. 

I  have  time  to  notice  only  a  few  of  the  utterances  of  the  great  men 
of  Europe  who  were  familiar  with  this  subject.  I  will  first  notice  the 
results  of  the  researches  and  observations  of  the  historian,  Hume,  ex- 
pressed as  follows : 

It  is  certain  that  since  the  discovery  of  the  mines  in  America  industry  has 
increased  in  all  the  nations  of  Europe.  We  find  that  in  every  kingdom  in 
which  money  begins  to  flow  in  greater  abundance  than  formerly  everything 
takes  a  new  faith.  Labor  and  industry  gain  life,  the  merchant  becomes  more 
enterprising,  the  manufacturer  more  diligent  and  skillful. 

Mr.  Ernest  Seyd,  a  high  European  authority,  wrote  years  ago : 

Upon  this  point  all  authorities  upon  the  subject  are  in  accord,  to  wit: 
That  the  large  increase  in  the  supply  of  gold  has  given  a  universal  impetus 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  549 

to  trade,    commerce,    and    industry,    and   to   general    social   development   and 
progress. 

In  1843  Leon  Fauchet,  in  his  work  entitled  "Researches  upon 
Gold  and  Silver,"  says : 

If  all  the  nations  of  Europe  adopted  the  system  of  Great  Britain,  that  is, 
single  gold  standard,  the  price  of  gold  would  be  raised  beyond  measure,  and 
we  should  see  produced  in  Europe  a  result  lamentable  enough. 

In  1869,  while  the  agitation  in  favor  of  demonetizing  silver  was  in 
progress,  the  French  government  appointed  a  commission  to  inquire 
into  the  subject.  A  number  of  distinguished  financiers  appeared  before 
this  commission  and  gave  their  views.  M.  Wolowski  said: 

The  sum  total  of  the  precious  metals  is  reckoned  at  50  milliards,  one-half 
gold  and  one-half  silver.  If  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen  they  suppress  one  of  these 
metals  in  the  monetary  service,  they  double  the  demand  for  the  other  metal, 
to  the  ruin  of  all  debtors. 

M.  Rouland,  the  Governor  of  the  Bank  of  France,  said : 

We  have  not  to  do  with  idle  theories.  The  two  moneys  have  actually 
coexisted  since  the  origin  of  human  society;  they  coexist  because  the  two  are 
necessary  by  their  quantity  to  meet  the  needs  of  circulation. 

The  American  people  have  heard  much  about  the  Rothschilds.  I 
will  quote  from  one.  Baron  Rothschild,  one  of  the  greatest  financiers 
of  the  age,  said  to  this  commission : 

The  simultaneous  employment  of  the  two  precious  metals  is  satisfactory 
and  gives  rise  to  no  complaint;  whether  gold  or  silver  dominates  for  the  time 
being,  it  is  always  true  that  the  two  metals  concur  together  in  forming  the 
monetary  circulation  of  the  world,  and  it  is  the  general  mass  of  the  two  metals 
combined  which  serves  as  the  measure  of  the  value  of  things.  The  suppres- 
sion of  silver  would  be  a  veritable  destruction  of  values  without  any  compen- 
sation. 

Let  me  state  here  that  in  the  many  books  that  have  been  written  on 
this  subject  I  know  of  no  instance  in  which  the  essence  of  the  whole 
matter  is  given  in  such  few  words  as  is  done  here  by  the  Baron  Roths- 
child : 

(i)  The  use  of  the  two  metals  is  satisfactory  and  gives  rise  to  no 
complaint.  (2)  Whether  one  or  the  other  dominates  for  the  time,  it  is 
always  true  that  the  two  together  concur  in  forming  the  monetary  cir- 
culation of  the  world.  (3)  It  is  the  mass  of  the  two  metals  combined 
which  serves  as  the  measure  of  the  value  of  things.  (4)  The  suppres- 
sion of  silver  would  be  a  veritable  destruction  of  values  without  com- 
pensation. 

Over  a  year  ago  the  Secretary  of  the  United  States  Treasury  went 


550  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

to  New  York,  and  in  an  address  to  the  association  of  bankers  at  a  wine 
dinner,  in  speaking  of  bimetallism  or  a  combined  standard,  said  that 
he  could  not  understand  how  there  could  be  a  combined  or  bimetallic 
standard  of  values  any  more  than  there  could  be  two  standard  yard 
sticks  of  different  lengths.  Whether  Mr.  Rothschild  would  have  seen 
two  yard  sticks  after  a  wine  dinner  I  do  not  know,  but  there  are  men 
who  have  seen  worse  things  than  yard  sticks  under  such  circumstances. 
In  1873  the  great  Professor  Laveleye  appeared  before  the  Belgian 
monetary  commission,  and  among  other  things  said: 

The  debtors,  and  among  them  the  State,  have  the  right  to  pay  in  gold  or 
silver,  and  this  right  can  not  be  taken  away  without  disturbing  the  relation 
of  debtors  and  creditors,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  debtors  to  the  extent  perhaps 
of  one-half,  certainly  of  one-third.  To  increase  all  debts  at  a  blow  is  a  measure 
so  violent,  so  revolutionary,  that  I  can  not  believe  that  the  Government  will 
propose  it  or  the  chambers  will  vote  it. 

In  1876,  when  some  countries  had  already  stricken  down  silver  and 
others  were  urged  to  do  so,  the  Westminster  Review,  a  standard  pub- 
lication, in  an  able  article  on  the  subject,  said : 

One  of  the  things  involved  is  the  probable  appreciation  of  gold.  In  other 
words,  an  increase  in  its  purchasing  power;  that  consequently  *  *  *  prices 
have  seen  their  highest  for  many  a  long  day,  and  that  debts  contracted  in  gold 
will,  by  reason  of  this  movement,  tend  to  press  more  heavily  on  the  borrowers, 
and  that  it  will  be  well  if  this  pressure  does  not  become  so  intolerable  as  to 
suggest  a  way  of  solution  something  like  universal  repudiation. 

In  the  article  on  money  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  written 
prior  to  1883,  by  C.  F.  Bastable,  a  distinguished  English  writer  on 
finance  from  an  English  point  of  view,  the  writer  estimates  that  from 
1849  to  1869  there  was  an  increase  of  20  per  cent  in  the  volume  of 
money  in  the  world,  and  that  this  caused  a  general  increase  of  wages 
and  greatly  improved  the  condition  of  the  classes  living  by  manual 
labor.  On  the  question  of  a  standard  he  says : 

The  immediate  introduction  of  a  universal  gold  currency  is,  by  the  admis- 
sion of  all  parties,  eminently  undesirable,  and  this  is  the  only  settled  point  in 
the  controversy. 

Speaking  of  the  fall  of  silver,  he  insists  that  careful  investigation 
shows  that  any  increase  in  production  had  little  to  do  with  it,  but 
that  "the  great  depreciation  of  silver  resulted  mainly  from  its  having 
ceased  to  be  money  over  a  large  part  of  the  civilized  world,"  and  that 
this  is  due  to  governmental  action.  He  holds  with  Delmar  that  what 
is  called  "the  cost-of-production  theory"  is  not  sound.  But  on  the 
subject  of  restoring  silver  by  international  agreement,  he  claims  that  as 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  551 

England  is  a  creditor  nation  it  will  not  be  to  her  interest  to  give  up  any 
advantage  which  the  debtor  nations  have  given  her  through  their  own 
legislation. 

At  the  international  monetary  conference  held  in  Paris  in  1878,  Mr. 
Goschen,  who  represented  England,  and  who,  by  reason  of  his  experi- 
ence as  a  banker  and  as  cabinet  minister,  may  be  regarded  as  one  of 
the  greatest  financiers  and  statesmen  in  this  line  in  the  world,  in  a 
discussion  of  this  question  said : 

If,  however,  other  States  were  to  carry  on  a  propaganda  in  favor  of  a 
gold  standard  and  the  demonetization  of  silver,  the  scramble  to  get  rid  of 
silver  might  provoke  one  of  the  greatest  crises  ever  undergone  by  commerce. 
There  would  be  a  fear  on  the  one  hand  of  a  depression  of  silver,  and 
on  the  other  of  a  rise  in  the  value  of  gold  and  a  corresponding  fall  in  the 
prices  of  all  commodities.  The  American  proposal  for  a  universal  double 
standard  seemed  impossible  of  realization,  but  the  theory  of  a  universal  gold 
standard  was  Utopian,  and,  indeed,  involved  a  false  Utopia.  It  was  better 
for  the  world  at  large  that  the  two  metals  should  continue  in  circulation  than 
that  one  should  be  universally  substituted  for  the  other. 

In  1883,  when  the  demonetization  of  silver  had  been  practically 
effected  by  most  of  the  European  nations,  Mr.  Goschen  delivered  an 
address  before  the  Institute  of  Bankers  in  London,  having  for  his 
audience  the  most  experienced  and  conservative  financiers  in  the  world 

After  referring  to  the  argument  that  less  money  was  necessary  than 
formerly,  because  of  certain  economies  effected  in  the  way  of  drafts 
checks,  etc.,  he  said : 

I   certainly   do    share  the   opinion   that  the   economies   effected   do   not 

counterbalance  the  strain  put  upon  gold,  either  by  the  increased  demands  of 

the  Population   for  pocket   money   or  for  the  liquidating  of  the  enormously 

ncreased  balance  of  transactions,  both  of  this  country  and  of  others.     Happy 

hen  it  ,s  for  those  who  have  the  sovereigns.     On  the  other  hand,  unhappy  it  is 

for^those  who  have  commodities  left  on  hand  and  produce  which  they  have  not 

It  is  true  [he  says]  that  no  state  action  on  the  part  of  England  can  be 
cited  but  it  would  not  be  true  of  Europe  generally,  because  if  the  fall  of  price! 
has  been  brought  about  by  the  absorption  in  Germany,  Italy,  and  L  tinted 
States  of  nearly  £200,000,000  of  gold  coinage,  it  is  by  the  laws  passed  by  those 
Governments  and  not  by  any  change  in  production  that  the  serious  results 
imhcated  have  been  caused;  therefore  I  wish  to  put  aside  the  doctrine  ha  It 
utterly  out  of  the  quest.on  for  States  to  act.  I  must  reply  that  to  my  mind 
the  connects  between  the  additional  demand  for  gold  and  the  po"  of 
pnces  seems  as  sound  ,„  principle  as  I  believe  it  to  be  sustained  by  facts 

My  fellow-citizens,  you  notice  that  Mr.  Goschen  not  only  holds  that 
governments  can  legislate  in  such  manner  as  to  raise  the  price  of  some 
things  and  depress  the  prices  of  others,  but  he  believes  that  in  this  case 


552  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  rise  in  the  purchasing  power  of  gold  and  the  consequent  fall  of 
prices  was  due  to  governmental  actions. 

In  June,  1885,  Mr.  Robert  Giffen,  the  official  statistician  of  the 
British  Board  of  Trade,  published  a  remarkably  able  article  in  the 
Contemporary  Review  on  the  subject  of  the  fall  in  the  prices  of  com- 
modities throughout  the  world.  He  says : 

We  have  the  facts  as  to  the  extraordinary  demands  for  gold  since  1872. 
In  round  figures  there  have  been  new  demands  for  about  £200,000,000  sterling 
of  gold,  an  amount  very  nearly  equal  to  the  whole  annual  production  of  the 
period,  although  a  larger  amount  than  that  annual  production  had  been  neces- 
sary in  previous  years  to  maintain  the  state  of  prices  which  then  existed. 

He  then  points  out  that  £12,000,000  sterling,  or  $60,000,000,  are 
annually  required  to  replace  the  wear  and  tear  of  coin  and  meet  the  in- 
crease in  the  demand  for  money  caused  by  increase  of  population ;  and 
then  adds : 

*  *  *  Looking  at  all  the  facts,  therefore,  it  appears  impossible  to  avoid 
'  the  conclusion  that  the  recent  course  of  prices  is  the  result  in  part  of  the 
diminished  production  and  the  increased  extraordinary  demands  upon  the 
supply  of  gold.  It  is  suggested,  indeed,  that  the  increase  of  banking  facilities 
and  other  economies  in  the  use  of  gold  may  have  compensated  the  scarcity,  but 
the  answer  clearly  is  that  in  the  period  between  1850  and  1873  the  increase  of 
banking  facilities  and  similar  economies  was  as  great  relatively  to  the  arrange- 
ments existing  just  before  as  anything  that  has  taken  place  since. 

The  same  reply  may  also  be  made  to  the  suggestion  that  the  multiplication 
of  commodities  accounts  for  the  entire  change  that  has  occurred.  There  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  multiplication  of  commodities  has  proceeded  at 
a  greater  rate  since  1873  than  in  the  twenty  years  before  that.  Yet  before  1873 
prices  were  rising,  notwithstanding  the  multiplication  of  commodities,  and 
since  that  date  the  tendency  has  been  to  decline.  The  one  thing  which  has 
changed,  therefore,  appears  to  be  the  supply  of  gold  and  the  demands  upon  it, 
and  to  that  cause  largely  we  must  accordingly  ascribe  the  change  in  the 
course  of  prices  which  has  occurred. 

STRINGENCIES  IN  MONEY  MARKET. 

In  commenting  on  the  extraordinary  demands  upon  gold  Mr.  Giffen 
says: 

Now,  the  course  of  the  market  since  1871  has  been  full  of  stringencies.  In 
almost  every  year  except  1878  and  1880  there  has  been  a  stringency  of  greater 
or  less  severity  directly  ascribable  to  or  aggravated  by  the  extraordinary  de- 
mands for  gold  and  the  difficulty  of  supplying  them. 

There  is  one  more  American  authority  which  I  shall  quote,  and  that 
is  the  Chicago  Tribune.  It  is  perhaps  not  generally  known  that  the 
Chicago  Tribune  gave  to  the  world  some  of  the  ablest  arguments  yet 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  553 

made  in  favor  of  the  remonetization  of  silver  and  against  a  single  gold 
standard. 

For  example,  on  January  14,  1878,  the  Tribune  said: 

Silver  dollars  of  371 1/4  grains,  pure,  were  established  as  the  standard  of 
value  or  unit  of  account  by  the  act  of  April  2,  1792,  and  this  continued  in  full 
force  until  1873-74. 

On  February  23,  1878,  it  said: 

In  1873-74,  as  it  was  two  years  later  discovered,  the  coinage  of  this  silver 
dollar  was  forbidden  and  silver  dollars  were  demonetized  by  law.  This  act  was 
done  secretly  and  stealthily  to  the  profound  ignorance  of  those  who  voted  for 
it  and  of  the  President  who  approved  it.  *  *  *  Under  cover  of  darkness 
it  abolished  the  constitutional  dollar  and  has  arbitrarily,  and  to  the  immense 
injury  of  the  people,  added  heavily  to  every  form  of  indebtedness,  public  and 
private. 

On  January  10,  1878,  the  Tribune  said: 

The  silver  dollar  fills  the  bill  exactly.  So  long  as  it  was  a  legal  tender  it 
was  an  honest  dollar,  worth  one  hundred  cents,  and  had  the  ring  of  the  true 
metal.  Remonetize  it  and  it  will  again  be  what  it  was  for  eighty  years,  worth 
one  hundred  cents. 

And  again : 

The  big  dollar  (that  is  at  a  ratio  of,  say  20  to  l)  is  just  what  the  country 
must  stop  if  it  hopes  to  escape  universal  bankruptcy.  We  want  the  old  his- 
torical dollar  of  37114  grains  pure  silver,  the  equivalent  of  the  old  Spanish 
milled  dollar,  and  nothing  else.  The  present  purchasing  power  of  the  gold 
dollar  has  been  fearfully  enhanced. 

On  January  5,  1878,  it  said: 

The  folly  of  advocating  the  single  gold  standard  of  money  must  be  obvious 
to  everyone  not  blind  as  a  bat  in  the  daylight. 

On  February  6,  1878,  it  said: 

It  is  mere  naked,  unsupported,  irrational,  impudent  assertion  that  re- 
monetization of  silver  will  not  reduce  the  difference  in  value  between  it  and 
gold.  Silver,  even  as  bullion,  has  not  depreciated  since  it  was  demonetized  as 
compared  with  property  or  labor. 

And  on  January  8,  1878,  it  said : 

The  theory  that  a  remonetization  of  the  silver  dollar  demands  that  the 
weight  of  that  dollar  be  increased  to  correspond  to  the  present  London  value 
of  silver  as  measured  by  cornered  gold  is  simply  absurd. 

On  January  5,  1878,  in  answer  to  the  question  as  to  whether  the 
world  could  safely  dispense  with  silver,  it  said : 


554  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

Let  the  falling  prices  and  the  rising  multitudes  of  unemployed  men  answer 
this  question. 

And  on  January  16  it  had  this  editorial : 

To  undertake  to  do  the  business  of  the  world  on  a  single  gold  basis  oi 
measurement  and  equivalents  means  loss,  bankruptcy,  poverty,  suffering,  and 
despair.  Debts  will  grow  larger  and  taxes  become  more  onerous.  The  farmer 
will  receive  small  prices  for  his  crops,  labor  will  be  forced  down,  down,  down, 
and  there  will  be  a  long  series  of  strikes,  lockouts,  and  suspension  of  produc- 
tion. Those  who  own  property  but  owe  for  it  in  part  will  see  their  mortgage 
increasing  in  proportion  as  gold  acquires  new  purchasing  power,  while  the 
property  itself  will  be  shrinking  in  value.  Thsre  will  be  no  relief,  it  must  be 
kept  in  mind,  for  gold  will  be  the  only  recognized  equivalent  of  values,  the 
stock  of  gold  will  be  power  constantly  growing  and  the  circle  of  wealth  will  be 
uniformly  contracting. 

Nothing  more  prophetic  was  ever  written. 

A  volume  could  be  rilled  with  editorials  expressing  similar  senti- 
ments written  by  the  great  editor  of  the  Tribune.  Now,  by  way  of 
contrast,  I  will  give  you  some  of  the  arguments  which  the  Chicago 
Tribune  is  making  at  present  against  the  cause  of  silver  and  the  people 
who  advocate  it:  "Lunacy,"  "Monstrous  absurdity,"  "Dishonesty," 
"Cranky  notion,"  "Silver  craze,"  "Dishonest  dollar,"  "Scoundrelly 
scheme,"  "Liars,"  "Hypocrites,"  etc.  To  use  its  own  language,  the 
Tribune  seems  to  be  "as  blind  as  a  bat  in  daylight." 

IS  LESS  MONEY  NEEDED? 

It  is  claimed  by  single-standard  men  that  but  little  money  is  needed ; 
that  scarcely  3  per  cent  of  the  business  of  the  world  is  done  with  actual 
money ;  that  the  business  affairs  of  the  world,  great  and  little,  are  car- 
ried on  by  means  of  checks,  drafts,  bills  of  exchange,  and  bank  notes. 
And  this  is  unquestionably  true.  But  it  being  admitted  that  some 
money  is  necessary  as  a  base  for  it  all,  the  single-standard  advocates 
make  a  mistake  in  imagining  that  the  world  can  get  along  with  less 
money  than  formerly. 

Immediately  prior  to  1873  the  world  was  as  well  banked  as  it  is  now, 
and  all  the  agencies  and  systems  of  credit  in  the  use  of  bank  notes, 
checks,  etc.,  were  as  fully  developed  then  as  they  are  now,  and  if  it  at 
that  time  required  all  the  silver  and  all  the  gold  that  there  was  in  the 
world  to  form  a  basis  for  the  business  that  was  done,  it  will  require  the 
same  to-day ;  in  fact,  it  will  require  more  money  to-day  than  formerly 
to  restore  the  business  of  the  world  to  what  it  formerly  was,  because 
the  population  has  greatly  increased,  and  the  area  over  which  business 
has  to  be  done  has  greatly  increased.  Business  can  be  carried  on  in  a 
city  with  less  money  than  it  can  in  new  and  extended  countries.  The 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  555 

principal  thing  which  is  overlooked  by  the  single  standard  people  is 
the  fact  that  the  industry,  energy,  and  enterprise  of  the  world  are 
always  carried  to  the  utmost  extent  that  the  total  amount  of  money  in 
the  world  will  admit  of.  Every  dollar  of  money  is  at  once  loaded  with 
as  much  credit  as  it  can  possibly  carry.  I  have  here  a  picture  of  an 
inverted  pyramid,  the  point  turned  down.  This  pyramid  represents 
the  business  of  the  world  as  it  formerly  stood.  At  the  bottom,  marked 
in  black,  is  the  actual  money,  both  gold  and  silver,  which  supported 
this  pyramid.  You  will  see  it  constituted  only  about  3  per  cent  of  the 
whole,  although  the  exact  proportion  is  immaterial  to  illustrate  the 
principle  involved. 

Now,  if  every  dollar  was  already  loaded  to  its  fullest  capacity  to 
carry,  I  ask  you  what  will  happen  if  you  arbitrarily,  by  law,  pull  out 
from  under  this  pyramid  one-half  of  the  money  that  is  supporting  it  ? 
I  imagine  I  hear  some  one  say — it  will  have  to  collapse.  That  is  cor- 
rect, and  that  is  exactly  what  happened  in  this  case ;  the  business  of 
the  world  collapsed. 


EITHER  HALF  PRICE  OR  HALF  AS  MUCH  WORK. 


Ktl 


If_Jhe  world  now  has  only  half  the  money  that  it  formerly  had,  then 
it  must  follow  that  either  the  world's  work  must  be  done  for  half  the 
former  price  or  else  only  half  as  much  work  can  be  done.  In  either 
case  the  men  who  do  the  work  will  be  ruined,  for  in  one  case  they  must 
work  for  half  pay,  and  in  the  other  there  will  be  two  men  for  each  job ; 
and  as  the  debts,  interest,  taxes,  and  other  fixed  charges  have  not  been 
lowered  and  will  absorb  nearly  all  the  earnings,  I  will  ask  is  there  any 
hope  for  our  agricultural  classes,  for  our  manufacturers,  for  our  great 
producing  classes  of  various  kindsF)  Does  not  the  single  standard 
mean  the  impoverishment  of  these  classes  and  a  permanent  lowering  of 
their  status? 

AMOUNT  OF  MONEY  IN  THIS  COUNTRY. 

The  Comptroller  of  the  Currency  at  Washington  has  for  a  number 
of  years  invited  all  the  banks  of  the  United  States,  national,  State,  and 
private,  over  nine  thousand  in  all,  to  report  the  total  amount  of  money 
of  all  kinds  which  they  held  on  a  certain  day.  These  reports  show  that 
we  have  not  in  circulation  in  this  country  the  amount  of  money  that  is 
usually  claimed.  For  example,  the  last  report  given  out  by  the  Comp- 
troller, December  2,  1895,  shows  that  on  July  n,  1895,  all  of  the  banks 
in  the  United  States,  national,  State,  and  private,  held  only  $631,111,- 
290,  while  at  the  same  time  there  was  in  the  Treasury  of  the  United 
States,  as  claimed  by  the  reports,  $429,517,713;  but  of  this  sum  there 


556  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

was  $108,210,555  in  gold,  which  was  held  as  a  reserve  and  was  not 
available  for  circulation.  This  left  the  total  amount  of  money  in  the 
banks  and  in  the  Treasury  at  that  time  $952,418,448.  This  was  all  the 
money  in  sight  at  that  time  available  for  circulation.  Of  the  sum  held 
by  the  banks  $127,621,099  consisted  of  gold,  and  this  was  all  of  the 
available  gold  then  in  the  United  States. 

The  foregoing  sums  comprise  all  the  money  we  then  had  in  this 
country  except  what  there  was  in  the  pockets  of  the  people.  And  in- 
asmuch as  we  have  banks  in  every  village,  and  we  have  had  years  of 
idleness  during  which  little  savings  were  exhausted,  and  inasmuch  as 
building  associations  have  in  late  years  absorbed  nearly  all  the  money 
that  used  to  be  held  by  private  individuals,  it  is  claimed  by  competent 
judges  that  when  you  include  the  colored  people  of  the  South  and  the 
poor  everywhere  that  an  average  of  $5  per  family  would  be  a  high 
average  of  what  there  was  at  that  time  in  the  pockets  of  the  people. 
As  there  were  then  less  than  fourteen  million  families,  that  would  make 
less  than  $70,000,000,  but  if  we  double  this  sum  and  assume  that  there 
was  on  an  average  $10  in  the  hands  of  every  family  in  the  United  States 
at  that  time  it  would  make  less  than  $140,000,000.  Adding  that  to 
what  there  was  then  in  the  banks  and  in  the  Treasury  and  it  gives  us 
the  total  money  in  this  country,  which  is  less  than  $1,100,000,000. 

But  the  Treasury  officials  persist  in  giving  out  figures  published 
by  the  Director  of  the  Mint,  in  which  he  claims  that  there  are  in  this 
country  altogether  $1,651,310,000;  that  we  have  $23.59  Per  capita,  and 
that  there  are  $618,100,000  of  gold  alone  in  this  country.  But  in  his 
report  for  1892  the  Director  explains  that  these  figures  are  in  part 
estimated  and  in  part  based  on  assumption.  In  the  first  place,  he  as- 
sumed that  every  dollar  of  paper  issued  by  the  national  government 
during  the  last  thirty  years  or  more  and  by  the  national  banks  of  this 
country  is  still  in  circulation,  except  where  a  record  has  been  made  of 
its  cancellation  in  Washington,  and  that  none  has  been  lost  or  de- 
stroyed in  all  that  time.  Second,  he  assumes  that  all  of  the  gold  which 
the  records  of  the  custom-houses  and  at  the  mints  show  came  into,  this 
country  is  still  in  circulation,  except  where  there  is  a  record  of  its 
exportation  or  of  its  use  in  the  arts.  In  other  words,  he  makes  no 
allowance  for  what  has  been  lost  and  destroyed  during  a  quarter  of  a 
century ;  he  makes  no  allowance  for  what  was  lost  by  abrasion  during 
that  time,  he  makes  no  allowance  for  what  was  carried  across  our 
southern  boundary  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  unrecorded,  nor  for  what 
was  carried  across  our  northern  boundary  during  that  time,  and  of 
which  no  record  was  made,  nor  for  what  was  carried  to  China  during 
that  time  and  of  which  no  record  was  made. 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  557 

He  makes  no  allowance  for  what  was  used  in  the  arts  and  of  which 
no  report  was  made,  and  he  makes  no  allowance  for  what  was  carried 
to  Europe  in  the  pockets  of  our  people  during  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
In  his  report  for  1891,  the  Director  says  that  the  amount  of  money 
which  the  American  people  spent  in  Europe  during  the  year  of  the 
Paris  Exposition  was  estimated  at  over  $90,000,000.  Of  course,  most 
of  this  was  registered  in  the  form  of  letters  of  credit,  etc.,  but  so  much 
of  it  as  was  carried  in  the  pockets  of  the  people  was  not  registered,  so 
that  the  tables  given  out  by  the  Director  of  the  Mint,  when  carefully 
examined  in  the  light  of  information  which  he  himself  has  given  out  in 
prior  reports,  are  found  to  be  absolutely  worthless. 

The  other  figures  given  by  the  Comptroller  that  I  have  referred  to 
are  accurate.  They  practically  constitute  an  inventory  of  everything 
in  sight,  and  they  show  that  instead  of  having  $23.59  per  capita  in  cir- 
culation in  this  country  we  have  not  got  $15  per  capita  in  circulation, 
while  England  has  $20.78,  France  $35.77,  Germany  $17.59,  Belgium, 
$27.82,  and  the  Netherlands  $24.25.  We  are  drifting  toward  the  basis 
of  the  pauperized  countries  of  Europe.  Italy  has  $10.79  Per  capita 
Austria-Hungary  $10.67,  Russia  $8.46;  even  impoverished  Spain  has' 
$16.55. 

It  is  a  most  remarkable  fact  that  the  position  held  by  a  people  in  the 
scale  of  civilization  seems  always  to  depend  on  the  amount  of  money 
they  have  in  actual  circulation.  According  to  the  tables  issued  by  the 
United  States  Treasurer,  Turkey  has  $4.09  per  capita,  Mexico  $4  95 

rentral  American  States  $3.66,  India  $3.33,  China  $2.08,  and  Servia 
$3-7°- 

Bankers  have  been  heard  to  say  even  during  a  panic  that  there  was 
plenty  of  money.  This  was  done  to  keep  the  public  from  becoming 
alarmed,  for  every  business  man  knows  that  it  is  not  true,  and  the  fact 
that  so  many  banks  pay  high  rates  of  interest  on  deposits  shows  that 
it  is  not  true.  During  the  last  panic  the  New  York  banks  actually  sus- 
pended payments  and  forced  the  public  to  take  clearing-house  certifi- 
cates. It  has,  however,  been  found  that  after  a  panic  produced  by  a 
great  contraction  the  money  that  is  left  flows  toward  the  cities  and  lies 
idle  because  business  conditions  are  not  favorable.  fPhysicians  tell  us 
that  ,f  a  large  part  of  the  blood  is  taken  out  of  theHuman  body  the 
remainder  flows  to  the  heart  and  the  extremities  get  cold ;  and  the  .same 
law  applies  to  money,  which  is  the  blood  of  commerce.  Reduce  its 
quantity  and  the  body  gets  cold,  while  the  heart  may  be  congested"] 
At  present  money  is  in  demand,  not  for  new  business  enterprises  but 
by  debtors  who  are  carrying  a  heavy  load  of  old  debts  and  are  forced 

3  make  new  arrangements.    If  prices  were  again  to  go  up  new  life 


558  LIVS.  QUESTIONS. 

would  come  into  the  business  world,  and  money  would  then  be  in  de- 
mand and  new  enterprises  would  be  begun. 

GOLD  IN  THE  WORLD  INSUFFICIENT. 

In  June,  1892,  Edward  O.  Leech,  Director  of  the  Mint,  published  an 
article  in  the  Forum  on  the  money  question,  in  which,,  among  other 
things,  he  said : 

I  find  that  one  of  the  most  serious  dangers  which  confronts  us  is  the 
insufficiency  of  the  supply  of  gold  as  a  basis  of  the  present  and  prospective 
business  of  the  commercial  world,  and  the  consequent  disturbances  attend- 
ing its  accumulation  and  movement.  *  *  *  It  is  seriously  proposed  to 
throw  the  burdens  of  an  increasing  population  and  business  upon  the  gold 
stock.  The  annual  product  of  gold  of  the  world  is  only  about  $125,000,000, 
of  which  nearly  one-half  is  used  in  the  industrial  arts,  so  that  the  annual 
supply  for  monetary  purposes  is  hardly  in  excess  of  $65,000,000.  If  this  plan 
is  carried  out,  then  the  existing  stock  of  gold  must  for  many  years  form  the. 
basis  of  business  and  credit  and  serve  as  the  medium  of  all  exchanges. 

That  such  a  narrowing  of  the  basis  of  credit  and  trade  is  attended  by  incal- 
culable difficulties  and  hardships  must  be  apparent.  Already  monetary  panics 
have  been  inaugurated.  *  *  *  Europe  has  no  gold  to  spare.  She  has  drawn 
within  the  last  year  large  quantities  of  gold  from  this  country,  at  times  when 
the  rate  of  sterling  exchange  did  not  justify  such  shipments — that  is,  a  premium 
has  been  paid  for  American  gold.  The  struggle  for  the  possession  of  gold, 
with  its  consequent  train  of  financial  disturbances,  is  well  under  way.  *  *  * 
If  gold  is  to  be  the  sole  money  of  the  world,  not  only  will  the  extension  of 
business  and  of  foreign  investments  be  seriously  crippled,  but  the  immense 
fabric  of  credit  is  liable  to  totter.  Where  is  the  gold  to  come  from  when  the 
States  of  Europe  not  having  a  paper  standard  resume  specie  payments?  *  *  * 

The  truth  is,  the  total  supply  of  the  precious  metals  is  not  more  than 
sufficient  to  keep  pace  with  the  rapid  increase  of  foreign  trade.  What  is  to  be 
gained  by  discontinuing  the  use  of  one  of  the  money  metals  and  throwing 
all  the  work  upon  the  other?  Not  stability  of  value,  for,  as  already  shown, 
for  nearly  a  century  when  the  bimetallic  system  existed  in  France  the  relative 
value  of  gold  and  silver  did  not  vary  appreciably.  *  *  *  If  the  experience 
of  the  last  nineteen  years  has  proven  anything,  it  is  that  the  value  of  gold  and 
silver  depends  upon  the  monetary  use  which  is  made  of  them.  The  experience 
of  the  first  seventy  years  of  this  century  has  demonstrated  that  both  metals 
can  be  used  as  money  with  greater  stability  of  values  than  one  alone. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  nearly  all  of  the  great  European  finan- 
ciers, including  those  who  favor  a  single  standard,  declare  that  there 
is  not  enough  gold  in  the  world  to  do  its  business  and  that  it  was  a 
fatal  step  to  take  for  the  nations  to  all  confine  themselves  to  the  use  of 
either  metal.  I  know  we  have  new-born  financiers  in  this  country 
who  argue  that  all  that  is  needed  is  simply  a  standard  of  value,  and  that 
the  quantity  is  immaterial.  Carried  to  its  legitimate  conclusion  their 
argument  would  be  that  if  you  take  a  single  gold  dollar  and  tie  it  to  a 


SPEECH  ON  MONEY  QUESTION.          $59 

string  and  hang  it  up  in  the  Treasury  Department  that  will  constitute 
a  standard  of  value  and  is  all  that  is  needed.  But  the  experience  of  the 
world  is  that  while  a  vast  amount  of  business  can  be  done  by  the  use 
of  what  are  called  credits  there  must  always  be  a  certain  amount  of 
money  at  the  bottom  of  this,  and  there  is  a  limit  to  the  amount  of 
credit  which  a  dollar  can  carry ;  consequently  the  amount  of  money  at 
the  bottom  will  practically  determine  the  amount  of  business  that  can 
be  done  in  the  world. 

The  spectacle  which  we  see  now  is  that  of  the  great  nations  of  the 
earth  running  after  the  little  bit  of  gold  that  there  is  in  the  world  just 
like  boys  run  after  a  football ;  it  is  shifted  hither  to-day,  dragged  yonder 
to-morrow,  and  every  time  it  shifts  there  is  a  disturbance  in  prices, 
even  a  disturbance  in  the  low  prices  which  now  prevail.  The  amount 
of  available  gold  in  sight  in  the  world  is  so  small  that  a  few  large 
financial  houses  can  manipulate  it.  As  the  Chicago  Tribune  says,  they 
can  "corner"  it,  and  in  recent  years  we  have  seen  repeated  instances  of 
their  doing  so.  Certainly  it  seems  like  the  very  height  of  madness  to 
even  suggest  the  idea  of  having  the  great  business  interests  of  this 
country  and  of  the  world  rest  upon  a  standard  and  a  measure  of  values 
which  can  be  manipulated. 

ASSUMED  SUPERIORITY  OF  GOLD. 

An  American  gold  standard  man  recently  declared  that  gold  went 
with  the  higher  civilization  and  that  silver  belonged  to  a  lower  civiliza- 
tion. Let  us  look  at  this  a  moment.  Until  1873  silver  was  the 
money  that  was  chiefly  used  by  nearly  all  of  the  great  nations  of  the 
world.  Germany  was  on  a  silver  basis  up  to  that  time.  The  founda- 
tions of  the  great  German  Empire  were  laid  and  the  entire  fabric  of 
German  civilization  and  German  achievement  and  German  greatness 
was  reared  on  the  basis  of  silver.  Since  she  adopted  a  gold  standard 
she  has  not  advanced.  Her  industries  are  crippled  and  there  is  stag- 
nation and  distress  throughout  her  entire  borders.  France,  generally 
considered  the  most  highly  civilized  country  in  the  world,  was  a  great 
silver-using  country,  and  her  unit  of  value  is  a  silver  coin. 

The  greatness  of  the  United  States  of  America  was  achieved  prior 
to  1873.  Our  institutions  were  reared,  the  rebellion  was  crushed,  the 
slaves  were  liberated,  while  the  unit  of  value  in  our  country  was  a 
silver  dollar,  provided  by  the  act  of  1792.  Look  where  you  will,  you 
find  that  the  progress  of  the  world  was  made  while  silver  was  the 
money  that  was  chiefly  in  use.  And  since  the  nations  of  the  earth  have 
been  trying  to  get  onto  a  gold  basis  there  is  universal  depression  and 


560  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

stagnation.     Instead  of  advancing  civilization,  gold  is  causing  retro- 
gression, because  there  is  not  enough  of  it  to  do  the  world's  work. 

THEORY  OF  OVERPRODUCTION. 

Attempts  have  been  made  in  this  country  to  attribute  the  general 
fall  of  prices  to  cheapness  of  production  and  to  consequent  overpro- 
duction. No  doubt  cheapening  production  tends  to  lower  prices,  but 
increased  production  does  not  necessarily  lower  prices  if  there  is  also 
increased  consumption.  It  is  said  that  three  times  as  much  wheat  is 
now  sent  to  Liverpool  as  formerly,  therefore  wheat  must  fall  in  price. 
I  ask,  What  is  done  with  this  wheat  at  Liverpool?  Is  there  only  as 
much  sold  and  consumed  as  there  formerly  was  and  is  the  rest  poured 
into  the  sea?  Oh,  no ;  it  is  all  sold  and  consumed.  If  that  is  the  case, 
then  consumption  has  increased  as  much  as  production,  and  if  this  is 
so  then  it  does  not  follow  that  there  must  be  a  fall  in  price  simply 
because  there  is  increased  production.  In  fact,  wheat  has  not  fallen 
in  price  much  more  than  the  average  fall  of  all  commodities. 

As  Mr.  Giffen  stated,  from  1850  to  1873  there  was  relatively  as  great 
an  increase  in  production,  taking  it  the  world  over,  as  there  has  been 
since  that  time;  yet  from  1850  to  1873  prices  the  world  over  continued 
to  rise,  while  since  1873  they  have  continuously  fallen.  But  the  argu- 
ment, that  improved  methods  of  production,  and  consequently  the 
cheapening  of  production,  have  been  the  cause  of  lower  prices  as  com- 
pared with  gold,  overreaches  itself,  because  there  have  been  more 
improvements  in  the  methods  of  mining  both  gold  and  silver  than  there 
have  in  almost  any  other  department  of  industry.  Consequently,  if 
improved  methods  and  cheapening  the  cost  of  production  are  to  be  con- 
sidered, gold  should  have  declined  in  purchasing  power  together  with 
other  commodities,  and  certainly  with  silver.  It  is  not  overproduction, 
it  is  underconsumption  that  ails  us. 

Furthermore,  there  has  been  no  overproduction  of  land  ;  on  the  con- 
trary, the  struggle  for  land  and  for  homes  is  more  fierce  than  ever. 
Years  ago  we  had  the  great  West  open  to  settlers,  yet  lands  in  the  Cen- 
tral and  Eastern  States  were  valuable  and  remunerative,  because  farm 
products  brought  a  fair  price.  At  present  there  is  scarcely  any  more 
productive  land  open  to  settlement,  but  lands,  instead  of  going  up, 
have  fallen  in  price  the  same  as  all  other  property  and  commodities,  and 
there  are  thousands  of  farmers  who  have  to  lose  their  farms  because 
they  cannot  get  living  prices  for  what  they  produce. 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  561 

OVERPRODUCTION   OF   SILVER. 

The  claim  made  that  there  is  an  overproduction  of  silver  since  1873 
as  compared  with  gold,  and  that  this  is  the  cause  of  its  fall  in  price,  is 
absolutely  without  foundation.  According  to  the  tables  issued  by  the 
Treasury  Department  August  16,  1893,  showing  the  total  production 
of  gold  and  silver  in  the  world  at  coinage  value,  it  appears  that  from 
the  year  1792,  when  our  monetary  system  was  founded,  to  the  year 
1852,  being  a  period  of  sixty  years,  the  total  production  of  silver  in  the 
world,  rating  it  at  coinage  value,  was  $1,769,197,000,  and  the  total  pro- 
duction of  gold  during  that  time  was  $960,236,000 ;  that  is,  there  was  al- 
most twice  as  much  silver  produced  as  gold.  The  production  of  each 
metal  of  course  varied  greatly  during  the  different  years,  and  yet  the 
market  ratio  between  the  two  metals  remained  practically  the  same 
during  all  that  time.  The  tables  show  that  during  those  sixty  years 
there  was  a  variance  of  only  seven-tenths  of  I  point,  or  just  about  the 
cost  of  exchange. 

The  same  tables  show  that  from  1852  to  1873  the  total  gold  produc- 
tion of  the  world  was  $2,516,575,000,  while  the  total  silver  production 
was  $989,225,000;  that  is,  there  was  two  and  one-half  times  as  much 
gold  produced  as  silver,  yet  the  market  ratio  remained  undisturbed 
during  those  twenty-one  years,  just  as  it  had  during  the  period  of  sixty 
years,  when  there  was  twice  as  much  silver  as  gold. 

Again,  the  same  Treasury  tables  show  that  from  1873  to  1892,  inclu- 
sive, the  total  gold  production  of  the  world  was  $2,176,505,000,  while 
the  total  silver  production  was  $2,347,087,000 ;  that  is,  the  production 
of  gold  was  nearly  equal  to  that  of  silver.  During  the  first  two  periods 
silver  was  a  money  metal ;  during  the  last  period  it  was  not.  The  fact 
that  during  the  first  two  periods,  covering  over  eighty  years,  the  mar- 
ket ratio  remained  the  same,  although  the  production  of  each  metal 
varied  greatly  from  time  to  time,  shows  that  the  market  price  or  ratio 
was  practically  the  same  as  the  legal  ratio  or  mint  price,  so  long  as 
both  metals  were  used  as  money.  Now,  inasmuch  as  silver  did  not  fall 
in  value  as  measured  in  gold  during  sixty  years  in  which  there  was 
twice  as  much  silver  produced  as  gold,  it  is  clear  that  had  silver  not 
been  demonetized  it  would  not  have  fallen  when  the  gold  production 
was  nearly  equal  to  that  of  silver,  as  it  was  after  1873. 

Again,  silver  has  not  fallen  in  comparison  with  other  property.  By 
taking  the  average  price  of  all  commodities  known  to  the  markets  it 
is  found  that  a  pound  of  silver  will  buy  as  great  an  amount  of  com- 
modities, as  great  an  amount  of  property,  as  ever.  It  is  gold  that  has 
gone  up.  The  law,  by  striking  down  the  competition,  has  given  gold  a 
36 


562  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

monopoly.  Practically,  the  gold  dollar  is  a  2OO-cent  dollar.  Nomi- 
nally, it  still  has  only  100  cents  in  it,  but  it  takes  200  cents'  worth  of 
commodities  to  get  one  when  measured  by  bimetallic  prices. 

PRICE   PAID   FIRST  FOR  SPECIE  BASIS  AND  NOW   FOR   GOLD 

STANDARD. 

For  some  years  during  and  after  the  war  we  were  on  a  paper  basis, 
and  for  a  while  a  paper  dollar  was  not  worth  over  40  cents  in  gold,  but 
our  people  prospered  as  they  had  never  prospered  before.  There  were 
no  strikes  and  no  tramps ;  labor  was  employed  and  was  content.  There 
were  enterprise,  thrift,  and  industry  everywhere.  Then  we  contracted 
our  currency,  and  paid  the  awful  price  of  six  years  of  panic,  with  all 
the  misery  and  ruin  which  it  spread  over  the  land,  in  order  to  get  on  a 
coin  or  specie  basis,  as  it  was  then  called. 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  look  at  the  price  our  country  with  the  rest 
of  the  world  is  paying  for  this  gold  standard.  Bankruptcy,  paralysis, 
ruin,  endless  suffering  and  misery  for  all  these  years,  and  we  are  getting 
absolutely  nothing  in  return  for  it.  Debts  have  been  practically 
doubled  by  law ;  that  is  a  condition  that  was  created  by  law  which  so 
affects  prices  that  it  forces  the  debtor  to  sell  twice  as  much  property 
as  was  formerly  needed  to  pay  off  his  debt.  All  the  great  European 
countries  are  even  worse  off  than  we  are.  A  year  ago  Mr.  Depew 
returned  from  a  general  tour  of  Europe,  and  in  an  interview  stated 
that  the  one  thing  which  struck  him  everywhere  was  the  almost  uni- 
versal paralysis  in  the  industries  and  in  trade,  and  the  misery  which 
goes  with  it.  In  making  this  statement  he  simply  verified  what  other 
travelers,  as  well  as  the  European  writers,  have  already  proclaimed 
to  the  world.  No  man  has  pointed  out  or  can  point  out  wherein  the 
people  of  the  world  have  derived  one  dollar's  worth  of  benefit  by  the 
adoption  of  the  single  gold  standard.  This  fearful  payment  of  the 
lifeblood  of  the  nations  of  the  earth  has  gone  practically  for  nothing, 
and  there  is  no  hope  or  prospect  of  restoring  the  prosperity  and  hap- 
piness of  our  people  until  this  great  wrong  is  in  some  manner  righted. 

CONDITIONS    IN    MEXICO. 

We  frequently  hear  men  who  have  more  zeal  than  knowledge  refer 
to  Mexico  as  a  terrible  example  of  a  silver  basis  and  a  5o-cent  dollar. 
These  gentlemen  do  not  seem  to  be  aware  of  the  fact  that  since  the 
demonetization  of  silver  in  other  countries  Mexico  has  been  more  pros- 
perous than  ever  before.  Mexico,  like  some  South  American  countries, 
was  very  far  behind  the  United  States  on  account  of  poor  government, 
oppression,  superstition,  fanaticism,  limited  money,  and  general  dis- 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  563 

order;  but  she  has  made  greater  strides  toward  becoming  a  mighty 
nation  since  1873  than  ever  before. 

In  June,  1895,  the  Mexican  minister  at  Washington,  M.  Romero, 
published  an  article  in  the  North  American  Review  on  the  silver  ques- 
tion so  far  as  it  affected  Mexico,  in  which  he  shows  that  while  the  de- 
monetization of  silver  and  the  consequent  burden  on  gold  had  forced 
the  purchasing  power  of  gold  up  so  that  a  Mexican  silver  dollar  was 
worth  only  50  cents  as  measured  in  gold,  still  the  Mexican  silver  dollar 
bought  as  much  commodity  in  Mexico  as  it  ever  did.  In  other  words, 
there  was  no  decline  in  the  silver  dollar  as  compared  with  the  price  of 
commodities.  That  the  mere  fact  of  the  Mexican  dollar  being  worth 
less  than  a  dollar  in  gold  prevented  it  from  going  out  of  the  country  as 
it  formerly  did,  so  that  finally  money  became  more  plentiful  in  Mexico. 
Further,  that  as  imports  had  to  be  paid  for  in  gold,  which  was  at  a  pre- 
mium, the  amount  of  imports  were  greatly  reduced,  while  the  pur- 
chases in  the  home  market  were  correspondingly  increased,  and  the 
result  was  that  not  only  all  their  factories  were  working  to  their  utmost 
capacity,  but  that  everywhere  new  factories  were  being  started,  and 
their  laborers  were  all  employed  and  wages  greatly  increased  over  what 
they  formerly  were.  He  gave  figures  to  show  that  the  railroads  in 
Mexico,  the  banks,  the  manufacturers,  the  farmers,  the  laborers,  are  all 
prospering,  and  agricultural  products,  instead  of  going  down  as  meas- 
ured by  their  home  dollar,  have  advanced.  And  he  also  says  that  so 
far  as  he  has  been  able  to  observe  similar  conditions  exist  in  other 
silver-using  countries. 

While  railroads  in  the  United  States  are  going  into  the  hands  of 
receivers,  railroads  in  Mexico  are  prospering  and  are  paying  properties. 
It  is  true  the  Mexican  railroads,  like  our  own,  have  to  pay  the  inter- 
est on  their  bonds  in  gold  and  have  to  pay  a  very  high  premium  to  get 
that  gold,  but  after  paying  this  premium  they  still  have  large  profits 
left.  The  owners  of  railroads  in  the  United  States  could  learn  a  lesson 
from  the  Mexicans.  About  a  year  ago  President  Andrews,  of  Brown 
University,  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  gold-using  countries 
could  not  trade  successfully  with  silver-using  countries,  and  were  liable 
to  forever  lose  this  trade  because  the  low  price  of  silver  was  giving 
such  an  impetus  to  manufacturing  and  to  all  kinds  of  trade  in  these 
silver  countries  that  they  would  cease  buying  of  outsiders.  That  con- 
sequently if  we  would  restore  silver  we  could  get  and  could  hold  this 
trade  against  all  Europe. 


564  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

• 

ARE  WE  NOW  PROSPEROUS? 

I  saw  a  statement  in  a  gold-standard  newspaper  recently  to  the 
effect  that  we  are  now  prosperous,  had  about  everything  we  needed,  and 
ought  to  thank  the  Lord  that  we  are  as  well  off  as  we  are.  Now,  I  have 
no  argument  to  make  in  answer  to  such  wild  statements  as  that.  I 
simply  leave  it  for  every  laborer,  for  every  manufacturer,  for  every 
business  man,  yea  for  every  railroad  man  and  every  banker  to  answer. 
We  have  unlimited  resources,  have  the  most  productive  country  in  the 
world,  we  have  every  kind  and  character  of  industry,  and  the  ingenuity, 
enterprise,  push,  and  intelligence  of  our  people  are  unsurpassed  any- 
where ;  therefore  we  should  be  prosperous  and  happy. 

LABOR  NEEDS  A  MARKET. 

The  very  first  thing  and  the  last  thing  that  labor  needs  is  a  market 
for  its  products.  You  may  speculate  to  a  laborer  until  he  is  blind  on 
the  beauties  of  a  dear  dollar  and  it  will  do  him  no  good.  His  wife 
will  be  in  rags  and  his  children  will  starve.  He  must  have  somebody 
to  buy  that  which  he  makes.  If  nobody  comes  to  buy  the  things  which 
he  makes  then  the  factory  in  which  he  works  must  shut  down.  If  it 
shuts  down  he  is  in  distress  and  his  purchasing  power  is  gone.  The 
difficulty  that  has  existed  in  our  country  in  late  years  is  undercon- 
sumption, not  overproduction.  The  people  are  not  in  a  condition  to 
buy  what  they  need,  and  they  will  not  be  until  there  is  a  rise  in  prices. 
When 'this  happens  then  the  whole  debtor  and  producing  classes  will 
again  be  able  to  buy  and  there  will  be  a  restoration  of  our  home 

market. 

JUGGLING  FIGURES  AS  TO  WAGES. 

Attempts  have  lately  been  made  by  men  holding  positions  under  the 
federal  administration  and  by  men  who  have  been  hired  to  work  for 
a  gold  standard  to  show  that  wages  have  not  fallen.  This  is  simply  a 
dishonest  juggling  with  figures.  Every  mechanic  and  laboring  man  in 
the  United  States  knows  that  it  is  not  true,  and  thorough  investigation 
by  Congress  shows  that  just  the  opposite  is  the  case.  In  iSgi  a  com- 
mittee of  the  United  States  Senate  made  a  thorough  investigation  of  the 
entire  subject  of  wages.  John  G.  Carlisle  was  a  member  of  this  com- 
mittee. It  made  an  exhaustive  report,  and  showed  that  from  1840  to 
1873  wages  had  nearly  doubled,  but,  in  the  language  of  the  committee, 
"after  1873  there  was  a  marked  falling  off." 

The  committee  then  shows  that  while  there  was  a  slight  rise  about 
1880  in  wages,  it  never  reached  the  point  occupied  before,  and  that 
afterwards  there  was  a  continuous  decline. 


SPEECH   ON   MONEY   QUESTION.  565 

One  method  of  juggling  with  figures  which  is  sometimes  resorted 
to  is  the  following :  The  salaries  of  higher  officials  of  a  corporation, 
which  as  a  rule  have  not  been  reduced,  are  added  to  the  sum  paid  the 
workmen ;  in  this  way  they  get  a  high  average.  For  example,  take  a 
corporation  which  formerly  employed  100  men  and  gave  each  on 
an  average  $600  a  year,  making  $60,000  for  a  hundred ;  at  the  same 
time  it  paid  one  high  official  $10,000  a  year;  by  adding  this  to  the 
$60,000  would  make  the  pay  roll  $70,000;  then  dividing  this  sum 
by  101,  being  the  number  of  employes,  including  the  high  official, 
it  makes  nearly  $700  as  the  average.  The  same  corporation  may  to- 
day employ  only  50  men  and  give  each  on  an  average  only  $500,  mak- 
ing $25,000;  it  pays  the  present  high  official  $10,000,  which,  added  to 
the  $25,000,  makes  the  present  pay  roll  $35,000;  dividing  that  sum  by 
51  it  makes  nearly  $700  as  the  average,  although  formerly  twice  as 
many  men  were  employed  as  now  and  each  man  got  one-fifth  more 
than  he  gets  now.  This  illustrates  the  adage  that  while  figures  don't 
lie,  liars  can  figure. 

SHALL  WE   CONTINUE  THE   SINGLE   STANDARD   OR   RETURN 
TO    BIMETALLISM? 

This  is  the  only  question  before  us.  For  at  present  there  is  an 
organized  and  desperate  effort  being  made  by  the  Federal  adminis- 
tration and  its  adherents  and  by  those  who  control  great  concentra- 
tions of  capital,  to  perpetuate  the  single  gold  standard  for  the  world, 
while  all  fixed  charges  must  remain  the  same  or  increase.  The  move- 
ment to  force  the  great  nations  of  the  earth  to  a  gold  basis  has  been  a 
campaign  of  organized  corruption.  Every  influence  that  money  could 
in  any  way  control  has  been  brought  to  bear.  Nearly  all  the  great 
newspapers  and  other  agencies  for  molding  public  thought  have  been 
bought  up  or  forced  into  line,  and  that  army  of  men  who  have  been 
called  "handy  hired  men"  is  now  at  work  with  all  manner  of  sophistry 
to  prevent  the  people  from  rising  to  overthrow  this  system.  Catch 
phrases  are  invented,  and  everything  possible  is  resorted  to  to  delude 
the  public.  Much  is  said  about  an  honest  dollar. 

My  fellow  citizens,  the  most  dishonest  dollar  ever  given  to  man,  a 
dollar  that  has  blood  on  it,  is  the  present  gold  dollar,  which  has 
doubled  the  burdens  of  all  debtors  and  destroyed  the  happiness  of  all 
toilers.  It  is  a  2OO-cent  dollar.  This  is  what  the  gold  standard  has 
given  you.  You  have  noticed  that  wherever  the  adherents  of  the 
Federal  administration  are  able  to  control  they  are  adopting  reso- 
lutions in  favor  of  the  single  gold  standard.  Here  in  Chicago  these 
men  have  for  about  a  week  again  talked  bimetallism,  but  to  see  that 


566  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

this  talk  on  their  part  is  insincere  and  is  intended  simply  to  enable 
them  to  get  an  advantage  in  primary  elections  and  conventions,  it  is 
only  necessary  to  glance  at  their  own  utterances  of  a  few  weeks'  earlier 
date.  That  newspaper  which  is  the  especial  organ  of  the  administra- 
tion has  for  months  been  upholding  the  single  gold  standard  and 
ridiculing  and  denouncing  those  who  are  in  favor  of  anything  else. 

And  an  ex-judge  who  is  regarded  as  the  spokesman  of  that  faction 
only  recently  in  an  address  argued  for  the  maintenance  of  the  single 
gold  standard  and  ridiculed  the  people  who  are  demanding  the  restora- 
tion of  the  coinage  of  silver.  The  capitalists  and  the  Federal  admin- 
istration have  forced  the  issue,  and  for  the  time  at  least  the  question 
of  a  proper  ratio  and  of  the  best  method  of  procedure  are  shoved 
into  the  background. 

The  immediate  question  which  confronts  us  is,  are  we  for  or  against 
the  single  gold  standard?  There  is  at  present  absolutely  nothing  to 
divide  those  who  favor  bimetallism  and  demand  the  free  coinage  of 
both  gold  and  silver.  We  must  first  save  the  principle  of  bimetallism, 
for  by  the  use  of  those  peculiar  and  corrupting  influences  which  cap- 
ital always  uses  to  carry  its  ends,  bimetallism  has  not  only  been  over- 
thrown, but  a  desperate  and  determined  effort  is  now  being  made 
to  drive  the  last  nail  into  its  coffin. 

QUESTION  OF  RATIO. 

The  question  of  ratio  is  scarcely  open  for  discussion.  We  must 
first  decide  whether  we  shall  have  gold  monometallism  or  gold  and 
silver  bimetallism.  If  we  are  to  continue  the  single  gold  standard, 
then  there  is  nothing  further  to  discuss.  Every  intelligent  man  can 
see  at  a  glance  that  the  re-establishing  of  the  great  principle  of  bi- 
metallism does  not  depend  on  any  particular  ratio.  No  man  in 
this  country  has  yet  declared  that  we  must  have  any  named  ratio  or 
nothing.  If  we  ever  reach  a  point  where  the  government  has  to 
consider  the  question  of  ratio,  the  battle  for  bimetallism  will  already 
have  been  won.  And  an  intelligent  consideration  of  the  financial 
history  of  the  world  and  of  existing  conditions  will  readily  solve  the 
problem  when  the  time  comes.  I  will  only  say  it  would  be  mani- 
festly wrong  to  adopt  the  present  market  ratio,  which  is  the  result  of 
giving  gold  a  monopoly  of  the  money  function  in  the  world  and  of 
demonetizing  silver  by  law.  To  do  this  would  be  to  permanently 
lower  the  value  of  silver  and  to  reduce  the  volume  of  money  which 
could  be  coined  from  it  in  the  future. 

It  would  be  a  little  like  making  the  present  low  price  of  wheat 
permanent,  and  as  it  is  probable  that  the  whole  production  of  both 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  567 

metals  will  be  insufficient  to  meet  the  increased  demands  of  the  world 
in  the  future,  such  an  unjust  ratio  would  affect  the  prosperity  for  all 
time.  I  believe  that  if  an  international  agreement  is  ever  made  it 
will  be  on  a  basis  of  15^  to  i,  as  that  was  the  ratio  which  formerly 
existed  in  nearly  all  countries  of  the  world,  and  which  worked  so 
satisfactorily  for  two  hundred  years. 

In  our  country  the  ratio  was  16  to  i — that  is,  16  parts  of  silver 
to  i  of  gold  of  equal  fineness.  Many  are  demanding  a  return  to  the  old 
standard,  leaving  the  subject  then  to  be  dealt  with  as  necessity 
may  require.  They  regard  this  as  the  first  step  toward  getting  out 
of  the  woods  and  back  onto  the  great  highway.  They  would  be  sat- 
isfied with  any  other  fair  ratio,  but  nothing  else  is  offered  them. 
For  none  of  the  men  who  criticise  this  restoration  of  the 
old  standard  has  offered  anything.  Not  one  of  them.  If 
any  man  who  is  honestly  for  bimetallism  can  offer  something  better, 
let  him  do  so,  and  it  will  be  considered.  But  the  fact  is  that  these 
critics  are  simply  helping  to  maintain  the  single  standard.  That  is 
the  result  of  their  attitude.  I  favor  the  immediate  restoration  of  the 
free  coinage  of  both  gold  and  silver  according  to  the  old  standard, 
and  I  believe  if  this  is  achieved  the  ratio  question  will  be  solved.  But 
I  say  to  all  men,  let  us  defeat  this  gold  standard  and  make  it  possible 
for  our  country  to  again  prosper,  and  if  you  can  suggest  something 
better  than  the  old  standard,  do  so. 

INTERNATIONAL  AGREEMENT. 

There  are  men  who  want  an  international  agreement,  and  I  am  in 
hearty  accord  with  them  if  we  can  get  it.  But  this  mighty  nation 
cannot  forever  sit  in  the  dumps  and  wait  for  other  nations  which  are 
just  as  badly  off  to  come  and  pull  us  out.  We  must  relieve  our  people, 
whether  the  other  nations  come  or  not.  Inasmuch  as  our  govern- 
ment led  the  way  in  striking  down  silver,  it  should  lead  the  way  in 
restoring  it,  and  it  can  in  the  very  act  of  restoration  make  such  trade 
regulations  as  will  compel  those  nations  which  desire  to  trade  with 
us  to  enter  into  an  agreement  with  us  on  the  money  question.  We 
will  secure  international  agreement  a  great  deal  quicker  by  being 
in  a  position  to  dictate  than  we  will  if  we  remain  in  a  condition  in  which 
we  can  only  implore.  The  present  Federal  administration  has  done 
nothing  to  further  an  international  agreement.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  straining  every  nerve  to  maintain  the  single  standard.  There- 
fore, when  a  man  indorses  the  financial  policy  of  Cleveland  and  yet 
pretends  to  be  a  bimetallist  you  are  warranted  in  questioning  his  sin- 
cerity, 


568  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 


WITHDRAWAL  OF  GOLD. 

A  banker  said  to  me  lately :  Suppose  you  restore  silver,  will  not 
all  the  gold  in  this  country  at  once  leave  and  produce  a  further  con- 
traction before  you  can  coin  much  silver? 

I  answer  no.  The  moment  you  restore  silver  some  of  the  burden 
will  be  taken  off  of  gold,  so  that  there  will  be  less  demand  for  it.  Sec- 
ond, as  already  shown,  there  are  only  $127,000,000  of  gold  in  all  the 
banks  of  the  United  States,  national,  State  and  private.  This  con- 
stitutes all  of  the  available  gold  in  this  country.  Suppose  the  banks 
were  to  let  it  go  and  it  were  all  to  leave  for  awhile,  it  could  not  make 
matters  worse  than  they  are  now.  But  if  silver  were  restored,  there 
would  be  several  dollars  for  every  one  that  left.  The  statement  that 
only  a  limited  amount  could  be  coined  in  a  year  needs  no  notice.  If 
we  had  not  the  machinery  now,  we  could  soon  get  it.  Better  still, 
certificates  should  be  issued,  just  as  there  are  against  gold.  Nobody 
now  carries  much  of  either  silver  or  gold;  everybody  prefers  paper 
certificates. 

EFFECT  ON  LABOR  OF  RESTORING  SILVER. 

Let  us  have  all  the  silver  we  can  possibly  get  converted  into  money. 
It  will  not  lie  idle.  It  will  be  used  to  buy  lands,  buy  labor,  build 
houses,  build  factories,  build  railroads,  and  carry  on  business.  It  will 
be  that  much  new  blood  and  will  give  us  an  activity  and  a  prosperity 
better  than  we  have  yet  seen.  The  laborer  will  be  the  first  to  feel  its 
benefits,  for  there  will  be  an  immediate  demand  for  his  services — not 
only  will  all  be  employed,  but  wages  will  go  up. 

CAN  WE  GO  IT  ALONE? 

If  a  number  of  European  nations  were  to  restore  the  free  coinage 
of  both  gold  and  silver  at  the  former  ratio,  and  again  make  each  a 
legal  tender,  nobody  would  question  that  it  would  be  absolutely  suc- 
cessful. The  two  metals  would  circulate  again  as  formerly,  because 
these  are  the  great  commercial  nations  of  the  world.  Well,  the  United 
States  has  a  population  nearly  equal  to  that  of  France  and  Germany 
put  together,  we  have  more  railroads  than  all  Europe,  and  under  favor- 
able conditions  our  internal  trade  exceeds  that  of  all  Europe,  for  while 
some  European  countries  have  large  populations,  they  have  but  little 
purchasing  power,  and  but  little  internal  business.  If  Europe  could  go 
it  alone  we  could.  The  mere  act  of  remonetizing  silver,  and  thus  re- 
ducing the  importance  of  gold,  would  reduce  the  purchasing  power  of 
gold ;  the  tendency  of  the  two  metals  would  be  to  come  together,  be- 


SPEECH   ON  MONEY   QUESTION.  569 

cause  each  could  be  used  for  the  same  purposes.  When  silver  can  be 
used  in  payment  of  taxes,  payment  of  debts,  used  to  travel  on  the 
railways,  buy  property,  etc.,  the  market  ratio  will  again  be  what  it  was 
before  silver  was  destroyed  as  money.  The  market  ratio  will  be 'the 
mint  ratio. 

But,  says  some  one,  what  about  our  foreign  business?  Well,  it 
amounts  to  less  than  5  per  cent,  of  all  our  business,  and  will  occasion 
no  difficulty— certainly  not  if  both  are  what  we  call  at  par,  and  in- 
asmuch as  the  field  in  which  both  are  to  circulate  on  the  same  basis 
is  so  great,  they  would  circulate  on  a  par  basis.  Again,  some  one 
asks,  How  would  the  government  get  gold  then  ?  .  Why,  it  would  get 
t  in  the  natural  course  of  business,  for  there  would  be  less  demand  for 
it  then  than  there  is  now.  There  would  be  an  end  to  the  bond  selling 
business  in  which  the  government  is  now  engaged. 

BANKS,  RAILROADS,  MANUFACTURES,  ETC. 

If  we  did  not  know  that  the  most  of  the  9,000  banks  of  the  United 
States  are  a  good  deal  like  sheep  and  go  in  flocks,  following  directions 
received  from  a  few  Eastern  bankers,  and  if  we  did  not  know  that 
the  managers  of  large  railroads  have  to  take  their  instructions  from 
the  same  source,  and  if  we  did  not  know  that  the  large  manufacturers 
are  dependent  on  banks  and  are  obliged  to  court  favor,  we  would  be 
utterly  at  a  loss  to  understand  why  so  many  of  the  bankers,  railroad 
managers,  and  some  manufacturers  should  oppose  the  restoration  of 
silver ;  because  the  restoration  of  silver,  by  increasing  the  volume  of 
money,  would  raise  prices ;  a  raise  in  prices  would  again  restore  our 
home  market  and  do  what  it  always  has  done  in  all  countries  and  in 
all  times ;  it  would  give  activity  so  that  our  railroads  would  earn  nearly 
twice  the  money,  our  banks  would  prosper,  and  our  manufacturers 
would  have  all  they  could  do,  while  the  laborer  would  be  employed  and 
his  family  be  comfortable. 

INJUSTICE  TO   CREDITORS. 

But,  says  some  one,  there  are  many  debts  that  were  made  since 
prices  have  gone,  and  if  you  now  increase  the  volume  of  money  and 
raise  prices,  will  you  not  do  these  creditors  an  injustice?  I  answer 
There  is  just  this  difference  between  increasing  the  burden  of 
debts  by  making  money  scarce  and  reducing  the  burden  by  making 
money  cheap  when  money  is  scarce ;  it  first  destroys  the  debtor  but 
it  does  not  stop  there.  It  produces  that  general  stagnation  which  in 
time  reaches  the  creditor  and  injures  him.  For  instance,  every  holder 
of  securities  in  the  United  States  has  found  that  this  universal  depres- 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

sion  has  reduced  the  value  of  some  of  his  securities.  Every  time  that 
a  railroad  was  forced  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver  the  securities  of 
that  road  were  worth  less  in  the  market.  On  the  other  hand,  when 
the  burden  of  his  debt  is  lightened  by  making  money  plentiful,  it  begets 
such  a  general  activity  that  new  enterprises  are  started  and  the  capital- 
ist or  the  creditor  derives  a  benefit  from  the  universal  prosperity. 

Now,  my  fellow  citizens,  this  is  not  merely  a  question  of  the  day. 
It  is  a  question  that  will  affect  the  entire  future  of  our  country ;  that 
will  affect  the  perpetuity  of  republican  institutions  in  our  land.  It 
affects  the  toilers  of  to-day  and  will  affect  the  millions  of  toilers  yet 
unborn.  Upon  its  solution  will  largely  depend  the  question  whether 
we  shall  be  entirely  Europeanized ;  whether  we  shall  have  a  small 
class  excessively  rich  reveling  in  luxury,  while  the  great  masses  are 
groaning  under  constantly  increasing  burdens  and  sinking  in  the 
standard  of  citizenship,  or  whether  our  land  shall  continue  to  be  the 
home  of  intelligent  freemen  and  a  happy  abiding  place  for  all  men 
who  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow. 


INTERVIEW  FOR  NEW  YORK  WORLD,  GIVEN  JUNE  26, 

1896. 

Question.  Do  you  really  wish  to  permanently  alienate  from  the 
Democratic  party  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Connecticut,  Delaware 
and  Maryland? 

Answer.  After  New  Jersey,  Delaware  and  Connecticut  have  been 
practically  abandoned  by  the  Democrats,  and  after  New  York  has 
gone  Republican  by  a  hundred  thousand,  and  even  bourbon  Maryland 
by  upwards  of  thirty  thousand,  there  is  something  sarcastic  in  the 
above  question. 

Q.  What  States  hitherto  not  Democratic  do  you  believe  can  be 
carried  on  the  sixteen  to  one  platform,  to  replace  the  certain  loss  of 
the  sixty-two  electoral  votes  in  the  Eastern  States  mentioned  ? 

A.  First,  there  is  not  a  single  Democratic  electoral  vote  in  sight 
in  the  Eastern  States  on  a  gold  platform.  Second,  on  a  platform  pro- 
viding for  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  both  gold  and  silver  at  the 
old  ratio,  we  will  carry  all  the  States  west  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
we  will  carry  all  of  the  Southern  States — this  alone  would  elect  the 
President,  but  in  addition  we  will  carry  several  of  what  are  called  the 
great  Middle  States,  and  we  will  stand  a  better  show  of  carrying  New 
York  and  the  Eastern  States  than  we  would  on  a  gold  platform,  for  the 
reason  that  we  can  offer  them  something  to  hope  and  something  to 


INTERVIEW  FOR  N.  Y.  WORLD. 

fight  for,  while  under  a  gold  platform  you  can  offer  neither,  for  it  means 
the  ultimate  destruction  of  republican  institutions  in  this  country,  and 
it  means  the  absolute  annihilation  of  the  Democratic  party. 

Q.  Do  you  really  think  the  United  States  able,  if  free  coinage  is 
adopted,  to  maintain  our  currency  at  par  with  gold,  unaided  by  other 
nations  ? 

A.  There  is  no  question  about  it.  The  internal  business  of  the 
United  States  under  normal  conditions  is  greater  than  that  of  all 
Europe,  for  while  some  European  countries  have  large  populations, 
they  are  so  impoverished  that  they  do  but  little  business.  The  State  of 
Illinois  alone  has  almost  as  much  railroad  mileage  and  property  as  all 
Europe  put  together.  Every  one  of  the  great  European  statesmen 
who  has  discussed  this  question  has  admitted  that  if  the  European 
countries  would  stand  together  in  the  use  of  silver,  they  could  very 
easily  go  it  alone.  The  United  States  being,  from  an  internal  business 
standpoint  greater  than  all  Europe,  can  easily  go  it  alone.  But  we  do 
not  have  to  go  it  alone.  France  and  the  Latin  Union  have  not  de- 
monetized silver,  they  only  stopped  coining.  They  are  feeling  the 
destructive  effect  of  the  present  policy  and  would  be  glad  to  join  us 
in  opening  their  mints,  and  there  is  already  a  powerful  movement 
in  Germany  in  favor  of  re-establishing  silver  in  that  country. 

Q.  Would  not  the  adoption  of  free  coinage  make  all  our  silver 
and  paper  money  worth  only  sixty  cents  on  the  dollar  in  gold? 

A.  That  question  is  of  American  parentage.  No  European  writer 
on  finance  ever  asked  such  a  question.  According  to  Mulhall's  statis- 
tics, which  is  the  standard  English  authority,  there  is  less  available 
silver  in  the  world  now  than  there  has  been  for  a  very  long  period. 
At  present  silver  has  to  be  sold  as  bullion,  and  can  be  used  only  in 
the  arts.  Now,  if  it  is  restored  to  its  full  functions  as  a  money  metal 
and  placed  in  the  same  position  that  it  held  before,  then  instead  of 
selling  his  silver  to  be  used  in  the  arts,  the  holder  of  silver  would  take 
it  to  the  mint  and  exchange  it  for  silver  dollars  or  for  silver  certificates. 
With  these  he  could  pay  taxes,  he  could  pay  import  duties,  he  could 
pay  interest  on  debts,  he  could  pay  debts  themselves,  he  could  buy 
property — in  short,  he  could  do  just  the  same  things  with  them  that 
he  could  with  so  many  gold  dollars.  This  being  so,  it  is  apparent  that 
silver  would  again  be  at  par  with  gold,  just  as  it  was  for  the  two  hun- 
dred years  prior  to  1873.  From  1792,  when  the  financial  system  was 
founded  in  this  country,  to  1852,  when  the  great  gold  discoveries  were 
made,  being  a  period  of  sixty  years,  there  was  just  about  on  an  average 
two  dollars'  worth  of  silver  produced  in  the  world  to  one  of  gold,  rat- 
ing both  at  coinage  value.  During  all  that  time,  however,  the  silver 


572  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

dollar  was  at  par  with  gold,  sometimes  on  account  of  cost  of  exchange, 
being  at  a  premium.  From  1852  to  1873  there  was  two  and  a  half 
times  as  much  gold  produced  as  there  was  silver,  rating  them  at  coin- 
age value,  yet  both  metals  circulated  at  par  as  before.  From  1873 
down  to  the  present  time  there  has  been  just  about  as  much  gold  pro- 
duced on  the  average  as  there  has  silver,  but  during  the  former  two 
periods  silver  was  a  part  of  the  redemption  money  of  the  land,  while 
during  the  last  period  it  was  not.  During  the  last  period  it  was  only 
a  commodity,  and  the  moment  it  became  only  a  commod- 
ity, and  the  work  which  formerly  was  done  by  it  had  to  be 
done  by  gold  alone,  and  as  Mr.  Goschen,  the  great  London  banker 
and  financier,  has  on  several  occasions  pointed  out,  when  you  double 
the  work  which  gold  has  to  do  you  double  its  importance,  you  double 
the  demand  for  it,  and  you  double  its  purchasing  power,  so  that  it  will 
buy  twice  as  much  property  on  the  average  as  it  formerly  did.  This 
is  exactly  what  has  happened  throughout  Europe  and  in  this  country. 
Now,  the  restoration  of  silver  will  reduce  the  work  which  gold  now 
has  to  do  by  one-half,  it  will  reduce  its  importance,  and  it  will  reduce 
its  purchasing  power  correspondingly.  Silver  has  not  fallen  in  value 
as  compared  with  commodities  or  property.  A  pound  of  silver  buys 
as  much  property  as  it  ever  did.  It  is  gold  which  has  gone  up.  Just 
take  the  heavy  load  off  of  gold,  put  half  of  the  world's  work  again 
onto  silver,  so  that  each  metal  can  be  used  for  exactly  the  same  pur- 
poses, and  they  will  be  at  par. 

Q.  Would  there  not  be  a  shrinkage  in  the  value  of  the  volume  of 
money  now  in  use,  and  would  not  that  produce  a  panic  ? 

A.  A  moment's  reflection  shows  that  it  will  not.  Instead  of  a 
shrinkage  in  the  value  of  silver,  it  will  increase  in  value,  as  I  have  al- 
ready shown.  The  holders  of  silver  would  not  let  it  lie  idle.  They 
would  first  convert  it  either  into  silver  dollars  or  silver  certificates, 
and  then  they  would  buy  lands,  build  houses,  build  factories,  build 
shops,  build  railroads,  start  business  enterprises  of  all  kinds  and  create 
an  activity  such  as  we  have  not  seen  in  this  country.  Money  then 
would  be  in  demand  for  new  enterprises.  Instead  of  being  used  only  by 
bond  sharks  and  pawnbrokers,  it  would  be  used  by  the  enterprising 
business  men  of  this  country  in  every  line  of  activity,  and  we  would 
immediately  enter  upon  the  greatest  period  of  prosperity  that  our 
people  ever  saw. 

Q.  Do  you  think  the  international  co-operation  for  free  coinage 
is  worth  striving  for? 

A.  Not  as  long  as  the  English  money  lenders  can  keep  us  in  a 
dependent,  subservient  and  tribute  paying  situation  by  the  present 


INTERVIEW  FOR  N.  Y.  WORLD.  573 

system,  nor  can  we  get  it  as  long  as  the  English  government  can 
make  enormous  profits  out  of  the  Indian  coinage  system,  which  it 
derives  by  keeping  silver  in  the  position  of  a  commodity.  The  Eng- 
lish government  has  taken  from  the  Princes  of  India  the  power  to 
coin  money.  Silver  is  used  there  exclusively,  and  the  rupee  which 
has  been  in  use  there  for  a  very  long  period  of  time  is  the  legal  tender 
for  all  debts  and  for  all  purposes.  It  is  a  legal  tender  there  for  nearly 
forty  per  cent,  more  than  it  costs  the  English  government  to  buy  the 
silver  in  the  English  market  as  bullion,  so  that  by  keeping  silver  in  the 
position  of  a  commodity  and  a  position  in  which  she  can  use  the  gold 
of  other  nations  to  buy  silver  cheap  she  can,  by  coining  rupees  and 
using  these  rupees  for  debt  paying  and  other  purposes  in  India,  make 
a  profit  of  about  forty  per  cent,  on  her  outlay.  Of  course,  she  will  not 
give  up  this  advantage,  but  if  we  re-establish  bimetallism  here  and 
silver  is  taken  out  of  the  market  as  bullion  and  is  used  for  debt  paying 
and  other  purposes  in  this  mighty  republic,  then  silver,  as  I  have  al- 
ready stated,  will  go  to  par,  England  would  derive  no  more  profit  by 
buying  silver  as  she  now  does,  nor  would  her  money  lending  classes 
any  longer  have  the  tremendous  advantage  over  our  people  in  this 
country  which  they  now  have.  When  these  conditions  have  been 
brought  about  England  will  be  ready  to  join  a  bimetallic  agreement, 
but  not  until  then.  In  other  words,  bimetallism  must  be  established 
in  spite  of  England,  and  not  by  her  assistance. 

Q.  Do  you  think  if  the  United  States  adopted  the  currency  basis 
of  Mexico  and  China  it  would  make  international  bimetallism  possible 
within  a  generation  to  come? 

A.  That  question  was  framed  by  gold  standard  men  without  hav- 
ing taken  the  pains  to  ascertain  the  conditions  in  the  countries  named. 
For  purposes  of  comparison  you  must  take  those  countries  in  the  con- 
dition in  which  they  were  prior  to  the  time  that  silver  was  demon- 
etized by  our  country  in  1873  and  compare  their  condition  at  that 
time  with  their  condition  as  it  is  to-day.  When  this  is  done  you  will 
find  that  since  1873  those  countries,  and  especially  Mexico,  have  pros- 
pered as  they  never  did  before  in  their  history.  In  August,  1895, 
Senor  Romero,  the  Mexican  minister  at  Washington,  published  an 
article  in  the  "North  American  Review"  upon  the  silver  question 
so  far  as  it  affected  Mexico,  in  which  he  demonstrated  that  that  coun- 
try was  enjoying  a  prosperity  now  such  as  it  never  enjoyed  before, 
was  developing  in  manufacturing  industries,  in  railroads,  in  agricul- 
ture, in  building  of  cities,  as  it  never  had  before,  and  that  this  was 
largely  due  to  the  fact  that  Mexico  had  not  attempted  to  get  onto  a 
single  standard  gold  basis.  Both  Mexico  and  China  compare  very 


574  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

much  more  favorably  with  the  United  States  to-day  than  they  did  prior 
to  1873.  The  nations  of  Europe  and  this  country  have  in  late  years 
been  drifting  toward  the  conditions  that  existed  in  China  and  Mexico, 
that  is,  we  have  been  going  down,  and  the  cause  which  kept  China 
and  Mexico  so  far  in  the  background  was  the  same  cause  which  has 
destroyed  the  prosperity  of  Europe  and  of  this  country.  That  is  a  con- 
stantly increasing  population  with  a  constantly  contracting  and  de- 
creasing circulating  medium.  In  other  words,  an  utterly  inadequate 
volume  of  money  to  permit  of  progress  and  development.  For  ex- 
ample, the  money  in  circulation  in  China  amounts  to  only  $2.08  per 
capita,  and  in  Mexico  it  amounts  to  only  $4.95  per  capita 
of  population,  while  the  money  in  circulation  in  France  amounts 
to  $35.77  per  capita.  The  statistics  show  that  the  amount  of  annual 
production  of  gold  which  can  be  permanently  used  for  money  pur- 
poses is  scarcely  more  than  sufficient  to  replace  that  which  is  lost  by 
abrasion  and  in  other  ways.  The  population  of  the  world  is  constantly 
increasing  at  a  very  rapid  rate.  Unless  there  is  a  yearly  increase  in  the 
volume  of  money  in  the  world  equal  to  the  increase  in  population 
and  to  the  increased  area  over  which  business  must  be  done  in  the 
new  countries,  this  process  of  contraction  must  go  steadily  on,  and 
if  it  is  continued  long  enough  we  will  finally  reach  the  point  that  the 
Chinese  are  at  now,  where  we  will  have  only  two  or  three  dollars  of 
money  in  circulation,  per  capita. 

Q.  If 'the  necessity  for  the  free  coinage  of  silver  is  so  plain  and 
its  benefits  so  certain,  why  is  it  that  a  large  portion  of  the  country, 
particularly  the  East,  is  not  in  favor  of  it  and  its  statesmen  of  all  parties 
are  opposed  to  it? 

A.  By  the  word  statesmen  I  suppose  you  mean  public  men  simply. 
Our  history  shows  that  as  a  rule  they  are  ready  to  lend  their  services 
to  those  interests  which  are  powerful  in  their  States  or  their  communi- 
ties. You  remember  that  Daniel  Webster  was  opposed  to  a  pro- 
tective tariff  because  Massachusetts  was  opposed  to  it.  John  C. 
Calhoun  at  the  same  time  favored  a  protective  tariff  because  some 
powerful  interests  in  South  Carolina  wanted  it.  Some  years  later  the 
manufacturing  interests  of  Massachusetts  demanded  a  protective  tariff 
and  Webster  then  became  the  great  champion  of  a  protective  tariff. 
At  the  same  time  the  more  powerful  interests  in  South  Carolina  de- 
manded free  trade,  and  John  C.  Calhoun  championed  free  trade.  Illus- 
trations of  this  kind  can  be  cited  without  limit. 

Now,  the  most  powerful  influences  in  the  East  are  what  are  called 
the  money  influences,  they  absolutely  dominate  and  control.  They 
own  or  absolutely  direct  all  of  the  great  newspapers,  daily  and  weekly, 


INTERVIEW  FOR  N.  Y.  WORLD.  575 

including  the  pictorial  papers.  They  absolutely  control  every  agency 
for  the  formation  of  public  thought.  They  are  in  position  to  reach 
every  big  merchant,  every  manufacturer,  every  business  man  of  every 
kind  and  character.  They  are  in  a  position  to  control  the  places  of 
trust  and  profit  which  pay  high  salaries  in  railroads,  in  banks,  in  in- 
surance companies.  They  are  in  a  position  to  crush  almost  any  man 
when  they  make  a  determined  effort  to  do  so.  You  will  find  as  you 
trace  this  influence  back  that  it  all  leads  to  a  comparatively  few  men, 
and  these  in  many  cases  are  the  agents  and  representatives  of  the  Eng- 
lish and  European  money  lenders.  The  great  money  lending  classes 
of  Europe  have  always  taken  the  position  that  it  is  to  their  interest 
to  make  money  dear.  England  is  the  great  creditor  nation  of  the 
world ;  we,  for  example,  are  a  great  debtor  nation.  Immediately  after 
the  war  England  got  thousands  of  millions  of  our  bonds,  government 
bonds,  State  bonds,  city  bonds,  railroad  bonds,  bonds  of  every  kind 
and  character.  Most  of  them  brought  five  or  six  per  cent,  interest.  At 
that  time  a  thousand  bushels  of  wheat  or  ten  horses,  for  example, 
would  pay  off  a  thousand  dollar  bond.  One  hundred  bushels  of  wheat 
or  one  horse  would  pay  the  interest  on  a  thousand  dollar  bond.  These 
were  the  conditions  existing  at  that  time.  Then  the  English  bond- 
holders sent  one  Ernest  Seyd  over  here  prior  to  1873,  who  commun- 
icated with  a  number  of  our  so-called  statesmen.  It  is  charged  that 
he  brought  two  and  a  half  million  dollars  with  him,  and  that  he  left 
it  here.  So  thereafter  a  law  was  passed  by  Congress  which  ostensibly 
did  nothing  except  revise  the  law  governing  the  mints.  It  was  a  very 
long  act  and  was  signed  by  President  Grant.  Some  time  after  it  had 
been  signed  it  was  discovered  that  this  law  actually  demonetized  silver 
and  reduced  it  practically  to  a  commodity,  stopped  its  coinage.  Then 
during  the  several  years  which  followed  all  of  the  European  nations 
were  induced  to  take  the  same  step  and  to  by  law  strike  down  silver. 
The  result  was  that  the  amount  of  redemption  money  in  the  world 
was  reduced  by  one-half.  Immediately  thereafter  there  set  in  a  gen- 
eral fall  in  prices,  or  rather  the  purchasing  power  of  gold  went  up 
until  it  bought  twice  as  much  property  of  all  kinds  as  it  for- 
merly did,  and  Mr.  Goschen,  formerly  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  Mr.  Robert  Giffen,  the  statistician  of  the  British  Board  of  Trade, 
both  men  who  favored  a  gold  standard  for  England  because  it  is  a 
creditor  nation,  both  showed  conclusively  that  this  rise  in  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  gold  was  due  to  the  fact  that  silver  had  been  de- 
monetized and  the  work  to  be  done  by  gold  has  been  doubled.  At 
present  it  takes  twice  as  many  horses,  twice  as  many  bushels  of  wheat, 
or  twice  as  much  property  of  any  kind  or  character  as  it  formerly  did 


576  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

to  pay  any  of  the  fixed  charges.  It  takes  twice  as  much  work  to  pay 
the  debts  that  we  then  created,  as  would  have  been  required  at  that 
time  to  pay  them.  The  English  money  lenders,  acting  upon  the  the- 
ory that  to  make  money  dear  and  property  cheap  was  to  their  inter- 
est, have  resorted  to  every  means  on  earth  not  only  to  fasten  this 
policy  upon  us,  but  to  perpetuate  it,  and  English  gold,  when  handled 
by  cunning  and  unscrupulous  American  agents,  has  thus  far  been  in- 
vincible. 

About  a  year  ago  a  small  crowd  of  New  York  speculators  made 
over  $10,000,000  in  a  few  weeks  out  of  the  government  in  a  small  bond 
transaction  carried  out  through  a  secret  contract  with  the  President 
and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  These  men  were  representatives 
to  a  great  extent  of  English  bondholders.  They  do  not  want  any 
change  of  policy  in  this  country  and  are  determined  to  perpetuate  the 
present  system. 

Q.     Will  not  their  influence  be  felt  in  Chicago? 

A.  There  is  no  doubt  about  it.  Their  influence  has  long  been  felt, 
and  is  feared  to-day,  by  the  American  people.  We  have  for  years 
seen  a  slimy  trail  of  corruption  stretch  from  Wall  street  to  Albany,  to 
Washington,  to  the  various  State  capitals  and  city  halls  all  over  this 
country.  We  have  seen  it  buy  legislation  and  dictate  the  appointment 
of  judges.  We  have  seen  it  crush  the  right  and  establish  the  wrong, 
and  always  by  the  same  methods.  I  am  told  that  the  platform  adopted 
at  St.  Louis  was  telegraphed  to  Mr.  Morgan,  the  agent  of  the  Roths- 
childs, in  order  to  obtain  his  approval  of  it.  The  St.  Louis  platform 
was  framed  in  the  interest  of  the  English  money  lenders  and  their 
agents  in  this  country.  Naturally  the  same  men  who  were  instru- 
mental in  securing  that  would  like  to  secure  a  similar  platform  at  Chi- 
cago. They  are  determined  to  prevent  having  this  money  question 
squarely  submitted  to  the  American  people.  They  feel  they  have  the 
advantage  now,  and  they  are  determined  to  keep  it. 

Q.     What  will  be  the  result  at  Chicago? 

A.  The  people  of  this  country  have  become  thoroughly  aroused 
on  this  question.  They  have  noticed  the  peculiar  tactics  that  have 
been  adopted  in  some  States  to  prevent  an  expression  of  sentiment 
upon  this  question.  They  are  determined  to  have  square  dealing  this 
time  and  no  more  efforts  at  hoodwinking  or  side-tracking,  and  at 
present  I  don't  believe  that  there  is  gold  enough  in  all  Wall  street 
to  corrupt  that  convention  which  will  meet  in  Chicago  July  7th. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


PEORIA    DEMOCRATIC    CONVENTION.  577 

PEORIA   DEMOCRATIC  STATE   CONVENTION,  JUNE  23, 

1896. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Convention  : 

Four  years  ago  our  people  met  under  brighter  skies.  The  country 
was  tired  of  that  governmental  policy  which  made  the  few  mighty  and 
the  many  poor.  In  Illinois  the  people  rebelled  at  the  interference  of 
the  State  in  the  personal  affairs  of  the  individual.  We  promised 
Democratic  government  in  national  affairs,  and  a  business  administra- 
tion in  State  affairs.  The  people  took  us  at  our  word  and  they  gave  us 
their  confidence,  and  we  swept  the  country  by  such  a  majority  that 
fidelity  to  Democratic  principles  would  have  insured  supremacy  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century. 

But  before  the  inaugural  festivities  had  ceased  at  Washington  the 
head  of  the  new  administration  sought  strange  gods  and  espoused 
alien  principles.  He  called  into  his  counsel  prophets  who  knew  not 
Democracy  or  the  tenets  of  the  fathers.  Our  people  were  asked  to 
bow  to  altars  which  they  had  been  taught  to  abhor.  The  interests  of 
money  were  placed  above  those  of  humanity.  Organized  greed  was 
fed  with  golden  spoons,  while  the  cry  of  the  husbandman  was  unheeded 
and  the  sweat  of  the  toiler  brought  him  no  bread. 

There  was  disappointment  and  sorrow  among  our  people,  but  they 
hoped  and  waited.  They  wanted  to  stand  by  an  administration  which 
they  had  helped  to  create.  Soon  it  became  apparent  that  the  new 
administration  was  trying  to  rob  the  Republicans  of  their  birthright 
and  to  move  along  lines  the  country  had  condemned.  The  Repub- 
licans had  inherited  the  principles  of  Hamilton,  according  to  which  the 
government  should  be  a  convenience  for  the  rich.  Our  President  tried 
to  crowd  them  out  and  to  place  his  own  feet  on  this  ground.  As  the 
months  rolled  by  every  principal  that  is  vital  to  republican  institutions 
was  violated  and  every  precept  of  Jefferson,  every  doctrine  funda- 
mental to  Democracy  was  trampled  into  the  earth.'  Those  men  who 
voted  with  us  because  they  wanted  government  by  and  for  the  people 
left  us,  while  the  true  Democrats  suppressed  their  bitterness  of  soul 
when  it  became  apparent  that  they  had  been  betrayed  and  that  all 
was  lost.  Since  then  defeat  has  followed  dishonor  until  we  have  lost 
even  what  we  formerly  had.  Some  reaction  was  to  be  expected  after 
1892  because  of  the  necessary  disappointments  in  office  seeking  and 
because  of  the  hard  times.  But  this  reaction  would  have  been  short 
m  duration  if  any  sympathy  had  been  shown  for  the  suffering  masses 
All  m.ght  have  been  well  if  the  administration  had  respected  repub- 


37 


578  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

lican  institutions  and  not  used  its  great  powers  to  increase  the  bur- 
dens of  our  people  for  the  benefit  of  foreign  and  Eastern  shylocks. 

|[ut  the  spirit  of  Democracy  is  immortal.  No  matter  how  often 
betrayed,  it  rises  with  the  buoyancy  of  youth.  When  the  first  shock 
of  disappointment  and  humiliation  was  over  our  people  began  to  lift 
up  their  heads  and  to  kindle  anew  the  fires  on  the  altars  of  popular 
government.  First  one  and  then  another  repudiated  the  golden  calf 
which  the  sons  of  mammon  had  set  up  in  the  East  and  which  all  men 
had  been  ordered  to  bow  to  on  penalty  of  social  and  political  death. 

To-day  the  Democratic  hosts  are  again  mustering  on  the  plain. 
They  are  again  entering  the  struggle  against  plutocratic  government. 
If  all  the  men  who  think  alike  on  the  great  questions  of  the  day  should 
stand  together,  every  unscrupulous  hireling  of  plutocracy  would  flee 
to  the  mountains.  Unfortunately  we  have  pursued  a  course  which 
has  led  men  to  question  our  Democracy  and  to  doubt  our  professions. 
We  have  allowed  ourselves  to  be  influenced  by  men  who  have  not  a 
drop  of  Democratic  blood  in  their  veins.  Some  of  them  were  men 
who  look  upon  government  as  a  great  skimmer,  by  means  of  which 
the  few  who  toil  not  can  get  the  cream  off  of  everything  which  genius 
and  industry  can  produce,  while  some  of  them  were  the  hired  men 
and  humble  suppliants  at  the  feet  of  power  and  fashion.  These  men 
brought  us  no  strength,  they  brought  only  insatiable  appetites  and 
unsatisfied  ambition.  Listening  to  their  counsels  made  the  party 
neutral  on  almost  every  subject,  every  great  issue  had  to  be  straddled 
for  fear  of  losing  votes.  A  neutral  army  never  yet  won  glory.  In  the 
days  of  Jefferson  and  Jackson  our  party  stood  for  definite  ideas.  It 
was  the  aggressive  party  of  the  age  and  it  ruled  the  land  during  the 
most  important  epoch  of  our  history.  It  then  was  the  hope  of  the 
millions  who  toil,  of  those  men  who  constitute  the  bulwark  of  society, 
and  if  it  is  to  perform  its  mission  it  must  again  assume  the  aggressive, 
it  must  fight  for  principle  and  not  merely  to  get  office. 

My  fellow  citizens,  that  political  party  and  that  man  that  has  no 
higher  ambition  than  to  merely  get  high  office  is  an  abomination  in  the 
sight  of  heaven.  Neither  republican  institutions  nor  the  best  interests 
of  the  world  are  safe  in  such  hands. 

A  party  in  the  minority  may  serve  its  country  by  holding  in  check 
a  corrupt  majority.  But  a  party  that  stands  only  for  individual  and 
collective  greed  can  only  be  feared  when  in  power  and  despised  when 
out  of  power. 

The  first  thing  necessary  for  us  to  do  is  to  stand  for  something 
definite,  stand  for  those  principles  upon  which  the  hope  of  humanity 
depends.  If  we  do  this  and  once  show  the  people  that  we  are  in 


PEORIA    DEMOCRATIC   CONVENTION.  579 

earnest,  no  power  in  this  land  can  prevent  our  shaping  the  policy  and 
guiding  the  destinies  of  the  republic ;  for  there  are  more  men  who  be- 
lieve in  Democratic  doctrines  to-day  than  ever  before  in  the  history  of 
this  country.  The  harvest  is  ours  if  we  will  only  show  that  we  are 
honest  husbandmen. 

TARIFF. 

The  question  of  a  protective  tariff  has  long  been  an  issue  in  this 
country.  For  the  first  time  we  took  an  unequivocal  position  on  it 
four  years  ago  and  we  won.  The  tariff  has  been  revised  and  the 
probabilities  are  that  neither  political  party  will  make  any  radical 
changes  in  it.  True,  the  followers  of  Hamilton  who  assembled  at 
St.  Louis  last  week  tried  to  again  drag  it  from  its  resting  place  and  to 
give  it  a  little  artificial  life,  but  the  effort  will  fail,  it  will  deceive  no- 
body. The  time  has  gone  by  when  the  American  people  can  be  de- 
luded by  it.  It  is  no  longer  worth  while  to  discuss  the  theories  of  a 
tariff.  The  question  is  now  historic.  It  has  been  tried  and  we  know 
exactly  what  it  will  do.  It  has  produced  exactly  the  same  results  in 
all  countries  and  in  all  times.  It  always  and  in  all  countries  builds 
up  a  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many.  It  protects  the  proprietor,  but 
not  the  laborer,  for  while  it  checks  the  importation  of  goods  it  cannot 
prevent  the  importation  of  cheap  labor  from  all  over  the  earth. 

In  Europe  the  degradation  and  poverty  of  the  laborer  is  in  exact 
proportion  to  the  height  of  the  tariff  or  import  duties.  In  our  country 
we  had  exceedingly  high  import  duties  during  the  war ;  and  after  the 
war,  instead  of  being  reduced,  they  were  periodically  raised.  As  it 
became  apparent  that  some  deep  seated  cause  was  at  work  steadily 
paralyzing  enterprise  in  this  country,  the  only  remedy  which  the  Re- 
publican party  could  think  of  was  an  increase  of  the  tariff.  yThe 
patient  kept  growing  weaker  and  weaker,  and  the  only  remedy  which 
the  old  fashioned  doctors  knew  of  was  to  keep  on  bleeding  him  until 
finally  the  climax  was  reached  in  the  passage  of  that  legislative  mon- 
strosity known  as  the  "McKinley  Law."  This  law  was  based  on  the 
theory  that  if  taking  blood  out  of  the  patient  was  beneficial,  then  the 
right  thing  to  do  is  to  draw  it  all  out  at  once  and  be  done.  This  law 
was  in  force  nearly  four  years,  and  as  the  duties  fixed  by  it  were  so 
high  as  to  almost  stop  importation,  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June 
30,  1894,  it  produced  a  deficit  in  the  United  States  treasury  of 
about  $70,000,000,  while  wages  were  gradually  reduced  and  conditions 
throughout  the  country  continued  to  go  from  bad  to  worse,  until  the 
final  crash  came  in  1893.'  Our  experience  under  the  McKinley  law 
is  a  complete  illustration  of  the  supreme  folly  of  an  exceedingly  high 


580  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

tariff.  We  must  maintain  a  reasonable  tariff  which  will  not  be  so 
high  as  to  stop  all  importation  and  will  therefore  supply  the  treasury 
with  revenue.  But  we  must  look  elsewhere  for  the  cause  of  that  par- 
alysis which  is  destroying  our  country. 

The  prostration  of  industry  and  trade  is  even  greater  in  all  the 
nations  of  Europe  than  in  this  country,  therefore  it  is  not  due  to  any 
cause  that  is  local  to  our  country  alone,  and  it  is  not  due  to  tariff  legis- 
lation by  us,  for  this  could  not  prostrate  Europe  and  America  at  the 
same  time.  If  it  injured  one  it  should  help  the  other,  and  it  could  not 
be  due  to  tariff  changes  in  Europe,  for  there  have  been  none  of  im- 
portance for  many  years. 

MONEY   QUESTION. 

Between  1873  and  1880  this  country  and  all  of  the  nations  of  Europe 
by  law  destroyed  one-half  of  the  redemption  money  of  the  world  and 
reduced  by  fully  one-half  the  annual  addition  to  the  stock  of  money 
of  the  world.  Silver,  when  used  at  a.11,  was  put  on  the  basis  of  paper 
money.  The  effect  of  this  was  to  double  the  work  which  gold  had  to 
do,  and  by  doubling  its  importance  its  purchasing  power  was  doubled, 
it  made  two  hundred  cent  dollars ;  so  that  on  the  average  it  took  twice 
as  much  of  commodities  and  of  property  to  get  one  hundred  dollars  as 
it  formerly  did.  As  the  debts,  interest,  taxes  and  other  fixed  charges 
were  not  reduced,  it  took  nearly  everything  which  the  farmer  and  the 
producing  classes  generally  could  scrape  together  to  meet  the  fixed 
charges.  They  had  no  money  left  to  purchase  the  comforts  of  life. 
Their  purchasing  power  was  gone.  This  destroyed  the  trade  of  the 
merchants  and  soon  forced  the  factories  to  shut  down ;  there  being  no 
market  for  what  the  laborer  made  he  had  to  go  idle,  so  that  the  pro- 
ducer, the  merchant  and  the  laborer  were  all  in  distress. 

In  the  European  countries  prostration  of  industry  and  trade  fol- 
lowed immediately  the  general  demonetization  of  silver,  and  there  has 
been  a  universal  paralysis  there  ever  since.  In  our  country  there  were 
some  local  causes  which  held  us  up  for  a  few  years.  For  instance,  the 
balance  of  trade  was  very  greatly  in  our  favor  for  several  years,  which 
largely  increased  our  volume  of  money;  and  then  our  mines  yielded 
abnormally,  which  also  helped  to  increase  the  volume  of  money ;  but 
these  local  causes  lasted  only  a  few  years,  and  then  the  paralysis  re- 
sulting from  the  striking  down  of  silver  slowly  crept  over  our  country 
and  prostrated  our  people,  and  there  has  been  no  revival  since,  either 
here  or  in  Europe.  Nature  has  yielded  her  harvests  with  greater 
abundance  than  ever,  but  all  in  vain.  The  conditions  are  getting 
worse  day  by  day,  and  there  can  be  no  great  prosperity  in  Europe  and 


PEORIA    DEMOCRATIC    CONVENTION.  581 

in  this  country  until  the  wrong  that  produced  this  distress  has  been 
righted.  As  it  was  done  by  the  arbitrary  act  of  government,  so  it 
must  be  undone  by  the  act  of  government. 

As  the  Democratic  party  represents  the  great  toiling  and  producing 
masses,  it  must  take  the  lead  in  undoing  this  wrong.  It  will  be  a  fierce 
struggle,  for  those  unscrupulous  men  who  by  corruption  and  trickery 
fastened  this  system  on  the  world  will  resort,  nay  are  already  resort- 
ing, to  the  most  desperate  means  to  hold  their  advantage.  The  Dem- 
ocratic party  must  speak  with  no  uncertain  sound  on  this  question. 
Hedging  renders  a  party  impotent,  reduces  it  to  a  mere  office  getting 
machine  and  makes  it  contemptible. 

Our  country  has  gone  through  a  period  of  political  straddling  on 
all  questions.  He  was  considered  the  best  politician  who  could  fool 
the  most  people ;  but  all  things  come  to  an  end,  and  this  practice  has 
reached  its  limits.  The  people  are  in  earnest  and  demand  plain  talk. 
We  must  state  our  position  clearly  and  live  up  to  it. 

RATIO. 

We  are  at  once  confronted  with  the  question  of  ratio.     Theoretic- 
ally the  bimetallic  system  does  not  depend  on  any  particular  ratio, 
and  if  this  question  could  be  considered  by  Congress  on  its  merits ' 
alone  and  free  from  outside  pressure,  it  is  probable  the  subject  of  a 
ratio  would  not  be  discussed  at  all  by  the  public. 

But  the  bimetallic  system  was  destroyed  by  corrupt  outside  in- 
fluence and  Wall  street  has  repeatedly  shown  its  ability  to  shape  legis- 
lation at  Washington.  The  men  who  make  vast  fortunes  out  of  ex- 
isting conditions  will  do  all  they  can  to  prevent  a  change.  The  men 
who  a  year  ago  made  about  ten  millions  of  dollars  out  of  the  govern- 
ment in  a  small  bond  transaction  carried  out  through  a  secret  con- 
tract with  the  President  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  will  do 
all  in  their  power  to  prevent  a  change  of  policy.  These  men  seek  to 
control  both  political  parties.  Either  party  is  satisfactory  if  they  can 
make  money  out  of  the  government.  A  week  ago  they  captured  the 
Republican  convention.  Like  Caesar,  they  came,  they  saw,  they  con- 
quered. They  owned  the  horse,  the  coach  and  the  driver.  They  will 
try  to  capture  the  Chicago  convention,  and  failing  in  that  will  move 
heaven  and  earth  to  control  the  new  administration  in  case  we  succeed. 
Bitter  experience  has  taught  our  people  that  their  interests  are  always 
in  danger  at  Washington  and  that  if  we  succeed  in  this  campaign  the 
victory  may  be  thrown  away  there,  consequently  it  is  felt  to  be  neces- 
sary to  leave  no  room  for  quibbling. 

In  Europe  the  ratio  was  15$  parts  of  silver  to  i  of  gold  of  equal 


582  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

fineness,  and  nearly  all  their  monetary  systems  were  in  harmony  with 
this  standard.  In  our  country  it  was  16  to  I,  and  our  whole  system 
is  in  harmony  with  that  ratio.  A  declaration  in  favor  of  1 6  to  i 
means  nothing  new,  not  an  experiment,  but  a  return  to  what  we  had. 
It  being  necessary  to  make  a  specific  declaration  in  order  that  we 
may  not  lose  the  fruits  of  victory  in  case  we  win,  and  no  man  having 
suggested  anything  better,  the  only  thing  for  us  to  do  is  to  declare 
for  that  historic  ratio  under  which  we  prospered  and  which  is  in  har- 
mony with  our  whole  financial  system. 

REPUBLICAN    CONVENTION. 

Last  week  there  was  held  in  St.  Louis  a  convention  which  will  be 
known  in  history  as  "Mark  Hanna's  Trust."  Railroad  attorneys, 
corporation  agents,  lobbyists  and  those  men  who  have  made  millions 
out  of  the  government  and  are  looking  for  another  harvest  by  gov- 
ernmental aid,  were  not  only  in  control  but  filled  every  place,  from 
chairman  to  page.  I  am  informed  the  railroad  people  estimate  that 
over  three  thousand  men  came  to  this  convention  in  private  Pullman 
cars.  It  was  the  most  brazen  effort  on  the  part  of  organized  greed 
that  was  ever  witnessed  in  this  country.  The  people  of  this  country 
had  neither  hand  nor  heart  in  it.  It  adopted  a  platform  in  the  interest 
of  England,  a  great  creditor  nation,  and  against  the  interests  of  Amer- 
ica, which  is  a  great  debtor  nation.  Its  principles  stand  for  paralysis, 
poverty  and  distress,  and  it  put  into  the  field  a  candidate  whose  ante- 
cedents, taken  in  connection  with  the  methods  of  his  nomination 
and  influences  that  secured  it,  give  assurance  that  he  is  expected  to  be 
only  a  servant  who  will  carry  out  policies  dictated  to  him  by  others. 

My  fellow  citizens,  if  the  Democratic  party  will  be  true  to  its  mis- 
sion, if  it  will  not  weaken  itself  with  compromises,  or  destroy  its 
strength  by  adopting  a  neutral  course,  then  that  ticket  placed  in  nom- 
ination at  St.  Louis  will  be  dead  long  before  the  frosts  of  November 
come.  If  the  Democratic  party  will  declare  for  an  American  policy, 
if  it  will  boldly  declare  that  we  must  be  true  to  ourselves  and  look 
after  American  interests  first,  we  will  sweep  this  country.  It  has  been 
a  long  time  since  so  great  an  occasion  presented  itself  to  our  party, 
and  the  only  way  to  meet  it  is  by  adopting  the  course  that  was  followed 
in  the  days  of  Jefferson  and  in  the  days  of  Jackson — to  spurn  compro- 
mise and  all  weakening  dalliance, .to  declare  fearlessly  for  that  which 
is  eternally  right,  and  to  carry  it  out  to  the  letter. 


PEORIA    DEMOCRATIC   CONVENTION.  583 

STATE  POLICY. 

My  fellow  citizens,  four  years  ago  the  Democracy  made  the  people 
of  this  State  certain  pledges.  The  people  accepted  them  and  entrusted 
us  with  the  government,  and  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say  to  you  that  so 
far  as  regards  this  State  those  pledges  have  been  faithfully  carried  out. 
The  able  men  and  women  connected  with  the  various  departments 
of  the  State  government  have  striven  to  meet  the  highest  expectations. 
All  of  the  departments  at  the  capital  are  in  an  admirable  condition, 
I  have  not  the  time  to  particularize,  but  the  institutions  of  the  State, 
taken  together  and  considered  from  a  scientific,  a  business,  a  pro- 
gressive and  a  humane  standpoint  are  unsurpassed  on  this  earth. 
Every  citizen  of  this  great  State,  no  matter  what  his  politics  are,  may 
feel  proud  of  them. 

LEGISLATURE    AND    REVENUE   SYSTEM. 

Gentlemen,  we  have  in  this  State  a  revenue  system  that  has  for 
many  years  been  regarded  as  a  monster  of  injustice  under  which  the 
very  wealthy  escape  taxation  and  the  farmers  and  people  of  moderate 
means  have  their  burdens  doubled.  Two  years  ago  the  Republican 
party  elected  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the  legislature  of  this  State, 
but  that  legislature,  instead  of  carrying  out  the  will  of  the  people,  em- 
barked upon  a  career  of  corruption  such  as  had  never  been  seen  be- 
fore. Corporations  doing  a  legitimate  business  were  threatened  with 
adverse  legislation  and  were  blackmailed  with  organized  ferocity,  while 
the  rights  of  the  people  were  attempted  to  be  bartered  away  in  the 
most  shameless  and  open  manner,  for  boodle.  So  ferocious  did  it  be- 
come in  the  pursuit  of  ill  gotten  gains  that  it  seemed  to  be  almost  in- 
competent to  attend  to  the  legitimate  business  of  the  State.  It  was 
urged  at  the  general  session  and  then  again  at  the  special  session  to 
relieve  our  people  of  this  unjust  system  of  taxation  by  passing  a  just 
revenue  law,  but  acting  under  the  influence  of  men  who  grow  rich 
by  tax  dodging,  it  not  only  refused  to  do  anything,  but  finally,  in  the 
most  supine  manner,  adjourned  and  hurried  away  at  the  dictation  of 
the  political  boss  who  was  then  chairman  of  the  Republican  machine 
and  is  now  its  candidate  for  governor.  A  brief  glance  at  the  history 
made  then  will  show  the  people  of  our  State  whether  they  have  any- 
thing to  gain  or  to  hope  by  electing  another  Republican  legislature 
and  by  elevating  the  Republican  machine  to  power. 

In  order  to  show  that  the  experience  in  our  State  was  not  ex- 
ceptional and  that  the  course  pursued  by  the  legislature  here  is  in 
harmony  with  what  may  be  expected  everywhere,  I  call  your  atten- 


584  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

tion  to  the  fact  that  two  years  ago  Republican  legislatures  were  elected 
by  large  majorities  in  a  number  of  States,  and  in  all  of  them  there 
was  at  once  inaugurated  such  a  reign  of  corruption  as  had  never 
been  witnessed  in  those  States.  In  all  of  them  the  rights  and  interests 
of  the  people,  instead  of  being  served  and  protected,  w.ere  in  constant 
jeopardy  and  in  many  cases  suffered  irretrievably  through  the  acts  of 
the  legislature.  The  history  of  the  different  Republican  legislatures 
of  the  last  two  years  shows  conclusively  that  wherever  that  party  is 
put  in  power  it  is  dominated  by  the  trusts  and  by  corrupt  influences, 
and  that  the  country  has  nothing  to  hope  from  that  source. 

PENITENTIARIES. 

Notwithstanding  the  severe  depression  in  the  times  the  law  has 
been  carried  out  and  the  contract  system  has  been  abolished  and  the 
State  account  system  has  been  successfully  established  in  our  peni- 
tentiaries and  our  great  prison  at  Joliet  is  self-sustaining.  It  was 
mainly  through  the  efforts  of  the  Democratic  party  in  this  country  that 
the  barbarous  leasing  system  and  then  the  corrupt  and  degrading  con- 
tract system  have  been  abolished,  and  we  must  take  one  more  step 
forward.  There  is  something  higher  in  the  world  than  money,  and  a 
prison  must  have  a  higher  end  in  view  than  merely  to  be  self-sustain- 
ing. In  my  judgment  the  State  should  not  be  engaged  in  the  manu- 
facturing business  to  the  extent  that  we  must  be  under  the  existing 
law,  nor  should  it  permit  its  prisons  to  be  used  directly  or  indirectly 
to  compete  with  outside  free  labor.  Our  law  should  be  farther 
amended  so  as  to  practically  take  the  prisons  out  of  competition. 

RENOMINATION. 

Now,  my  fellow  citizens,  some  of  my  friends  have  been  kind  enough 
to  urge  my  renomination.  Naturally  it  is  a  comfort  to  have  the  ap- 
proval and  the  confidence  of  patriotic  and  intelligent  men,  and  I 
appreciate  these  expressions  of  esteem,  but  I  am  not  in  a  condition  to 
stand  for  re-election.  My  health  has  been  so  badly  broken  that  it  is 
necessary  for  me  to  get  out  of  the  intense  strain  that  I  have  been  under 
for  several  years.  Again,  at  the  time  of  my  election  I  had  large  prop- 
erty interests,  but  was  greatly  in  debt.  Since  then  property  has  been 
constantly  shrinking  in  value  and  becomes  less  and  less  productive. 
This,  added  to  the  fact  that  I  have  had  to  neglect  my  affairs  to  some 
extent,  has  reduced  me  to  a  situation  where  I  am  not  financially  able 
to  make  a  campaign  and  where  justice  to  my  creditors  requires  that  I 
should  give  my  time  to  my  own  affairs  rather  than  to  the  public.  I 
have  no  desire  to  be  rich,  but  I  must  try  to  give  every  man  his  due. 


NATIONAL  DEMOCRATIC   CONVENTION.        585 

I  have  given  the  public  four  of  the  best  years  of  my  life  and  have 
done  the  best  I  could. 

I  do  not  desire  to  longer  hold  office.  I  believe  in  the  potency  of 
the  succesful  private  individual,  and  if  I  could  have  my  choice  should 
choose  that  path.  I  have  no  ambition  to  be  a  party  leader  or  to  be 
prominent  in  politics.  I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  honor  the  Demo- 
cratic party  has  conferred  on  me,  and  I  am  ready  to  do  what  I  can 
to  serve  my  country,  but  I  must  ask  that  some  one  of  the  many  able 
and  patriqtic  men  in  the  party  be  placed  at  the  head  and  that  I  be  per- 
mitted to  retire. 

In  conclusion  let  me  say  that  some  ten  months  ago  universal  gloom 
enveloped  our  party,  there  was  not  a  rift  in  the  clouds.  Everywhere 
defeat  stared  us  in  the  face,  but  of  late  the  sun  is  beginning  to  shine 
again.  A  great  issue  has  arisen,  and  the  Democratic  party  is  again 
called  on  to  fight  the  battle  for  humanity.  Everywhere  the  hosts  are 
mustering,  a  new  day  is  breaking  upon  us  and  the  early  rays  of  the 
most  glorious  victory  ever  achieved  on  this  continent  are  lighting  the 
sky. 

Let  us  appeal  to  the  intelligence  and  patriotism  of  the  American 
people.  Let  us  stand  for  principle  and  be  true  to  convictions.  Let  it 
be  known  that  the  great  Democratic  party  does  not  beg  for  any  man's 
vote.  That  it  is  not  a  mere  office-seeking  machine.  Let  the  world 
know  that  we  regard  our  party  platform  sacred  as  holy  writ  and  that 
any  pledge  made  to  the  people  will  be  carried  out,  and  long  before 
the  ides  of  November  the  cohorts  of  plutocracy  and  corruption  and 
all  their  hirelings  and  hangers-on  will  be  driven  from  the  great  tem- 
ple of  the  people. 


SPEECH  IN  THE  NATIONAL  DEMOCRATIC  CONVENTION 
AT  CHICAGO,  JULY  8TH,  1896. 

(While  the  convention  was  waiting  for  the  report  of  the  committees,  there 
were  calls  for  Governor  Altgeld.  but  the  Governor  refused  to  speak,  and  asked 
that  the  convention  hear  the  Hon.  David  B.  Hill,  of  New  York.  When  it 
was  discovered  that  Mr.  Hill  was  not  present,  speeches  were  made  by  several 
other  gentlemen.  Then  a  motion  was  made,  and  carried,  that  Governor  Alt- 
geld  be  formally  invited  to  address  the  convention,  and  on  the  invitation  of  the 
chairman,  the  Governor  ascended  the  platform  and  spoke  as  follows:) 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  this  Convention:  I  did  not  come 
here  to  make  speeches.  I  came  here  to  assist  in  nominating  the  next 
President  of  these  United  States.  I  came  here  to  assist  in  formulating 
a  declaration  of  principles  that  shall  again  offer  hope  to  our  people. 


5§6  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Rarely  in  the  history  of  government  has  an  assembly  of  free  men 
been  confronted  with  such  far-reaching  questions — with  questions 
that  are  fraught  with  so  much  of  weal  or  woe  to  human  kind — as  those 
with  which  this  convention  must  deal.  For  a  number  of  years  there 
has  existed  in  Europe  and  in  our  country  stagnation  in  trade,  par- 
alysis of  industry  and  a  suspension  of  enterprise.  We  have  seen  the 
streets  of  our  cities  filled  with  idle  men,  with  hungry  women  and  with 
ragged  children.  The  country  to-day  looks  to  the  deliberations  of  this 
convention  for  promise  of  relief. 

In  order  to  deal  intelligently  with  these  unhappy  conditions,  it 
is  necessary  to  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  cause  which  produced 
them.  During  the  decade  which  followed  the  civil  war  we  became 
the  great  debtor  people  of  the  earth.  Everything  from  the  gov- 
ernment down  to  the  sewing  machine  of  the  seamstress  was  mort- 
gaged. There  were  the  great  national,  State,  city,  county  and  other 
municipal  debts.  There  were  the  great  railroad  and  other  corporation 
debts.  There  were  the  farm  and  city  mortgages,  the  great  private 
indebtedness,  all  amounting  to  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars  and 
nearly  all  held  by  English  money  lenders. 

The  interest  on  this  great  indebtedness  had  to  be  paid  every  year 
out  of  the  toil  of  our  people,  but  under  the  conditions  as  they  then 
existed,  we  met  those  payments  and  our  people  had  a  surplus.  They 
were  able,  in  addition,  to  supply  themselves  with  the  necessities  and 
comforts  and  even  the  luxuries  of  life.  As  a  consequence  the  farmer 
prospered,  the  manufacturer  prospered  and  labor  was  employed.  But, 
unhappily  for  the  world,  the  large  security-holding  classes  conceived 
the  idea  that  it  would  be  to  their  interest  to  make  money  dear  and 
property  and  labor  cheap. 

(tt~being  an  immutable  law  of  finance  that  when  you  increase  the 
volume  of  money  in  the  world  you  increase  the  selling  price  of  prop- 
erty and  things,  so,  on  the  other  hand,  when  you  reduce  the  volume 
of  money  in  the  world  you  reduce  the  selling  price  of  property  and 
labor. 

These  gentlemen  determined  to  destroy  one-half  of  the  money 
of  the  world,  and  between  1873  and  1880  they  got  our  government 
and  the  governments  of  Europe  to  arbitrarily,  by  law,  strike  down 
silver.  They  demonetized  it;  they  stopped  its  coinage;  they  took  away 
its  legal  tender  functions;  they  reduced  it  to  the  position  of  token 
money,  where  it  was  used  at  all.  The  effect  of  this  was  to  double  the 
burden  that  was  put  upon  gold.  Formerly  the  two  metals  together 
did  the  work  of  the  business  world.  After  that  time  the  one  metal 
alone  had  to  do  all  the  business  of  the  world.  Consequently  the  num- 


NATIONAL   DEMOCRATIC   CONVENTION.       587 

her  of  people  who  had  to  have  it  were  doubled.  It  was  doubled  in 
importance  and  its  purchasing  power  was  doubled  so  that  thereafter 
the  gold  dollar  bought  twice  as  much  labor,  twice  as  much  property, 
twice  as  much  of  the  bread  and  sweat  of  mankind  as  it  did  before. 

Not  only  this,  but  they  reduced  by  one-half  the  annual  addition 
to  the  stock  of  money  of  the  world.  Formerly  there  was  added  every 
year  all  of  the  silver  and  all  of  the  gold  produced  to  the  world's  stock 
of  primary  or  redemption  money.  Since  that  time  there  is  added 
every  year  only  the  gold  produced,  so  that  we  have  a  constantly  shrink- 
ing standard  of  value  with  a  constantly  increasing  population,  which 
means  a  constantly  decreasing  scale  of  prices. 

When  these  great  debts  were  created,  the  world's  standard  and 
the  world's  measure  df  values  consisted  of  the  sum  total  of  the  two 
metals  considered  practically  as  one.  They  formed  the  standard  of 
prices.  To-day  the  standard  of  prices  consists  of  only  one  metal,  and 
it  is  only  half  as  high  as  it  was  when  it  consisted  of  the  two,  and,  as 
a  consequence  prices  to-day  are  only  half  as  high  as  they  were 
when  we  had  the  two  metals. 

(What  has  been  the  result?  Why,  to-day  it  takes  all  that  the  farmer, 
all  that  the  producer  can  scrape  together  to  pay  these  fixed  charges; 
all  that  he  can  get  to  pay  interest,  taxes  and  other  fixed  charges;  for, 
mind  you,  this  great  debt  was  not  reduced,  interest  was  not  reduced, 
taxes  were  not  reduced.  On  the  contrary,  they  were  higher  than  they 
were,  and  as  a  result  our  American  market  has  been  destroyed.  The 
farmer  now  can  not  buy  as  much  at  the  store  as  he  formerly  could. 
The  farmer  is  prostrated,  the  merchant  does  less  business,  the  railroads 
do  less  business,  the  manufacturer  can  not  sell  his  product  and  the  la- 
borer finds  that  there  is  nobody  to  buy  the  things  that  he  makes, 
therefore  he  is  out  of  employment.  Physicians  tell  us  that  if  you  take 
half  of  the  blood  out  of  the  human  body  the  remainder  congests  at 
the  heart  and  the  extremities  grow  cold  and  lifeless.  That  is  what 
happened  in  this  case.  With  abundant  harvests  the  world  is  in  dis- 
tress. Now,  the  question  is,_shall  we  continue  this  system  or  shall  we 
restore  the  former  standard? 

Gentlemen,  we  are  offering  nothing  new.  We  are  suggesting  no 
experiments.  We  are  simply  declaring  that  when  you  pay  a  cred- 
itor in  the  same  kind  of  money  which  he  gave  you,  you  are  doing 
everything  that  God  or  man  can  ask  at  your  hand.  Those  foreign 
people,  those  English  money-lenders,  gave  us  gold  and  silver,  and 
we  propose  to  pay  them  back  in  the  same  money  they  gave  us. 

Let  me  say  to  you  that  the  statement  that  silver  has  fallen  is  not 
sustained  by  the  facts.  A  pound  of  silver  to-day  buys  as  much  wheat, 


588  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

buys  as  much  cotton,  buys  as  much  property  and  buys  as  much  labor 
as  it  ever  did,  and  buys  as  much  as  it  did  when  we  got  that  money. 
It  is  gold,  the  gold  dollar,  that  has  gone  up  to  where  it  buys  twice 
as  much  as  it  formerly  did. 

These  debts  my  fellow  citizens,  cannot  be  paid  for  centuries,  and 
shall  we  now  declare  that  our  people  must  go  on  paying  interest, 
paying  principal,  with  2oo-cent  dollars,  or  shall  we  go  back  and  say 
we  will  pay  in  loo-cent  dollars?  Shall  we  pay  in  the  same  kind  of 
money  they  gave  us?  But  these  English  money-lenders  and  their 
American  agents  and  representatives  do  not  intend  to  give  up  the 
advantage  they  have  gained.  The  bond  holders  are  now  making 
fortunes  and  won't  let  go.  They  are  making  a  determined  fight  to 
perpetuate  low  prices.  Two  weeks  ago  they  \vent  to  St.  Louis  and 
took  charge  of  the  Republican  convention,  an  assembly  that  will  go 
into  history  as  "Mark  Hanna's  Trust."  At  that  convention  Mr.  Hanna 
nominated  a  candidate  for  President;  a  candidate  with  one  idea,  and 
that  idea  wrong.  That  convention  declared  in  favor  of  the  present 
English  single  gold  standard.  The  London  newspapers  have  compli- 
mented that  convention  and  that  platform.  They  are  delighted  with 
it.  An  Englishman  always  feels  good  when  he  sees  a  prospect  of 
getting  more  sweat  and  more  blood  out  of  the  American  people.  To 
be  sure,  they  said  nothing  about  a  tariff  in  that  platform,  but  the 
moneyed  people  cared  nothing  about  that;  they  knew  that  was  sim- 
ply a  little  dough  intended  to  hide  the  hook. 

Now,  after  they  have  harnessed  the  Republican  party  to  the  Eng- 
lish cart,  the  other  members  of  the  firm  are  here  trying  to  put  the  same 
English  halter  upon  this  convention.  Are  you  going  to  allow  them 
to  do  it?  What  are  the  arguments  that  you  hear  around  the  hotels 
and  at  your  headquarters?  You  noticed  some  weeks  ago  these  Eastern 
people  declared  that  they  would  have  nothing  but  a  single  gold  stand- 
ard, but  when  they  found  that  the  people  were  against  them — when 
they  found  that  the  Democracy  of  the  country  would  not  tolerate  it, 
then  they  were  willing  to  modify  their  demands.  They  have  come  on 
here  and  are  talking  compromise.  "Get  together  and  agree  upon 
something  that  we  can  all  accede  to  and  endorse,"  is  what  they  now 

say. 

^We  are  asked  to  do  as  we  have  done  in  the  past.  We  are  asked 
to  adopt  a  declaration  of  principles  which  will  mean  one  thing  to  one 
man  and  another  to  another  man ;  which  will  mean  one  thing  in  one 
section  of  the  country  and  another  thing  in  another  section,  and  which 
will  enable  these  people  to  maintain  a  single  gold  standard  in  the  end. 

These  forces  are  powerful.    They  represent  the  bankers  of  London 


NATIONAL  DEMOCRATIC  CONVENTION.       589 

and  control  nearly  all  of  the  banks  throughout  the  country.  A  few 
banks  in  London  and  New  York  to-day  control  the  whole  banking 
system  of  this  country.  They  control  all  of  the  newspapers,  all  of  the 
agents  that  formulate  thought;  they  control  the  corporations— the 
manufacturer  and  the  merchant,  and  we  have  recently  had  something 
like  a  monetary  terrorism.  Anyone  who  did  not  subscribe  to  their 
wishes  was  threatened  with  social,  financial  and  political  death.  Catch 
phrases  are  invented.  There  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  world 
when  men  and  women  were  slaughtered  in  the  name  of  liberty.  We 
have  seen  a  time  when  a  great  nation  can  be  robbed  in  the  name  of 
an  honest  dollar.  There  are  men  who  otherwise  are  intelligent  and 
seem  patriotic,  who  claim  that  they  love  their  country,  who  yet  are 
doing  all  they  can  to  fasten  this  English  yoke  upon  our  people] 

The  question  now  is  shall  the  Democratic  party  stand  squarely 
for  liberty,  or  shall  we  straddle,  shall  we  dodge?  Shall  we  put  our- 
selves in  the  position  of  the  steer  which  jumped  part  way  over  the 
fence  and  could  neither  hook  before  nor  kick  behind? 

Gentlemen,  there  is  a  principle  involved  here  which  rises  above 
vote  getting,  which  rises  above  office  getting— a  principle  which 
affects  the  welfare  of  a  great  nation.  In  1776  the  question  was,  Shall 
republican  institutions  be  established  in  America?  (in  1896  the  ques- 
tion is,  Shall  republican  institutions  be  perpetuated  in  America?  Or 
shall  we  make  the  mass  of  the  toilers  and  producers  of  this  country 
mere  vassals,  mere  tribute-paying  serfs  to  English  capitalists?  Shall 
we  install  the  typical  Johnny  Bull,  with  whip  in  hand,  as  a  task- 
master over  all  the  generations  of  Americans  yet  to  come?  That  is 
the  question.  England  devours  the  substance  of  Ireland;  she  gathers 
the  harvest  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile;  she  has  carried  away  the  riches 
of  India;  she  has  ravished  the  islands  of  the  sea;  she  has  drawn  the 
life  blood  out  of  every  people  that  has  ever  come  under  her  domina- 
tion. Shall  this  mighty  nation,  after  we  have  triumphed  over  Eng- 
lish armies  upon  land,  after  we  have  destroyed  English  fleets  upon  the 
waters,  after  we  have  triumphed  upon  every  field  of  honor  and  field 
of  glory— shall  we  now  supinely  surrender  to  English  greed,  English 
cunning,  and  English  corruption?) 

We  must  make  no  mistakes.  Our  people  are  in  earnest.  They 
will  have  neither  straddling  on  platform  or  straddling  on  candidate, 
and  those  prudent,  cautious,  wise  gentlemen,  who  have  to  consult 
the  tin  roosters  every  morning  to  see  what  their  convictions  should 
be  during  the  day  can  have  no  show  in  this  convention. 

We  must  have  a  declaration  of  principles  that  will  admit  of  no 
quibble.  We  must  have  a  declaration  of  principles  that  will  mean 


590  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  same  thing  on  the  mountain,  in  the  valley,  and  at  the  seashore. 
We  must  have  a  declaration  of  principles  that  we  can  hold  up  before 
all  Israel  and  the  sun. 

It  is  not  the  time  for  compromise.  It  is  a  time  to  be  serious,  be- 
cause the  question  is  serious.  It  involves  the  future  of  our  country. 
If  the  present  standard  of  value,  the  present  standard  of  prices,  is  to  be 
maintained,  then  the  great  producing  classes  of  this  country  will  be 
devoured  by  the  fixed  charges.  They  will  have  no  money  to  buy  the 
comforts  of  life.  They  will  have  no  money  to  educate  their  families. 
It  is  not  a  question  that  can  be  compromised.  Compromise  is  proper 
when  it  involves  only  personal  interest,  but  not  when  the  interests  of 
a  great  nation  are  at  stake. 

Just  see  how  history  repeats  itself.  In  1776  the  money  classes 
in  our  country  were  opposed  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  They 
represented  foreign  interest,  and  they  talked  compromise.  In  1861 
the  money  classes  of  the  East  were  opposed  to  making  great  sacrifices 
to  maintain  the  Union.  They  talked  compromise.  In  1896  the  same 
interests  are  again  represented,  and  they  talk  compromise. 

My  fellow-citizens,  the  hand  of  compromise  never  yet  ran  up  the 
flag  of  freedom.  The  spirit  of  compromise  never  yet  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  republican  institutions.  No  compromise  army  ever  fought 
the  battles  of  liberty.  Go  search  the  hundred  thousand  graves  found 
on  hilltop,  found  in  forests  and  in  fields,  where  sleep  the  men  who 
died  to  uphold  this  flag,  and  you  will  not  find  the  bones  of  a  single  man 
that  talked  compromise.  They  stood  erect  and  said  to  the  Almighty, 
"Here  are  our  lives." 

Gentlemen,  the  time  has  come  when  the  Democratic  party  must 
announce  to  the  world  that  we  stand  for  great  principles,  that  we 
stand  for  those  principles  that  offer  hope  to  humanity,  and  that  we 
offer  our  lives  to  defend  them.  To  simply  say  that  we  are  Democrats 
may  sound  laconic,  but  unless  we  stand  for  something  definite  that 
earnest  men  and  earnest  women  can  lay  hold  on  in  life,  unless  we 
stand  for  something  that  will  lift  up  humanity,  we  will  be  despised  by 
mankind.  And  if  this  convention  will  rise  to  the  occasion,  as  I  be- 
lieve it  will,  if  this  convention  will  rise  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  great 
people,  then  our  morning  will  be  wrapped  in  splendor.  If  we  do  that, 
then  the  ides  of  November  will  usher  in  a  new  century  of  prosperity, 
of  industry,  of  enterprise,  and  of  happiness.  It  will  usher  in  a  century 
which  in  grandeur  and  in  glory  will  surpass  all  that  have  gone  be- 
fore. 


SPEECH  AT  GIRARD.  591 

SPEECH  AT  GIRARD  AUGUST  29TH,  1896,  OPENING  THE 

CAMPAIGN. 

My  Fellow  Citizens:  There  are  in  this  audience  many  young 
men  who  have  reached  a  point  where  they  must  decide  what  they  will 
follow  in  life.  There  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  our  country  when  a 
healthy  body,  a  healthy  brain,  an  honest  heart  and  two  willing  hands 
were  all  the  capital  that  a  young  man  needed  to  start  on  a  successful 
career.  He  had  his  choice  of  employment.  There  was  activity  on 
every  hand  and  he  could  enter  a  field  that  suited  his  taste.  To-day  there 
is  no  field  that  invites  him,  and  the  tracks  of  the  wandering  tramp  tell 
him  of  the  difficulty  of  finding  employment.  There  are  thousands  of 
parents  who  themselves  started  in  life  poor  and  have  run  successful 
careers  who  are  now  anxious  to  see  their  children  settled  in  life,  but 
who  sit  down  with  sad  hearts  because  the  outlook  is  cheerless.  There 
are  millions  of  farmers  who  once  were  prosperous  and  could  sell  the 
products  of  their  farms  for  such  prices  as  enabled  them  not  only  to  pay 
their  taxes,  pay  their  debts,  but  to  supply  their  families  with  the  com- 
forts and  even  the  luxuries  of  life.  They  had  money  to  spend  at  the 
store,  at  the  shop  and  at  the  college.  To-day  these  men  find  that 
it  takes  nearly  all  they  can  produce  to  pay  their  taxes,  pay  the  in- 
terest on  their  debt  and  pay  what  are  called  fixed  charges.  They  are 
no  longer  able  to  buy  even  the  comforts,  let  alone  the  luxuries,  of  life. 
Their  purchasing  power  is  gone. 

There  are  in  this  community  mine  operators  who  once  found  a 
broad  market  in  which  to  sell  their  coal  and  could  realize  prices  which 
enabled  them  to  pay  living  wages  to  their  men.  To-day  they  find  that 
many  of  the  factories  are  not  running,  the  market  is  limited  and  after 
shipping  their  coal  they  are  obliged  to  accept  prices  which  mean  star- 
vation. 

There  are  in  this  State  thousands  of  miners  who  make  their  living 
by  the  hardest  work  known  to  man,  digging  in  the  bowels  of  the 
earth.  Once  there  was  a  demand  for  their  labor.  Instead  of  having  to 
tramp  over  the  country  and  seek  jobs  they  were  sought  for  at  their 
homes.  They  were  able  to  earn  enough  money  to  not  only  support 
their  families,  but  to  educate  their  children.  To-day  many  of  these 
men  are  entirely  out  of  employment,  others  are  working  at  half  time 
and  those  who  are  employed  have  to  work  for  wages  which  mean  in 
the  end  degradation  for  themselves  and  their  families. 

There  are  all  over  this  country  merchants  who  once  were  prosper- 
ous and  active,  their  business  was  large,  the  farmers  and  laborers 
came  to  their  stores  and  purchased  freely.  Now  every  day  brings  a 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

record  of  new  failures  and  new  assignments.  Farmers  and  laborers 
are  no  longer  buying  as  they  did.  Business  has  fallen  off,  collections 
are  hard  and  bankruptcy  is  constantly  hammering  at  the  door. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  manufacturers  were  all  busy  making 
the  various  things  that  were  used  by  a  prosperous  and  progressive 
people.  There  was  a  buyer  for  everything  they  could  make.  Their 
shops  were  filled  with  laborers  receiving  living  wages.  Now  that  mar- 
ket has  been  to  a  great  extent  destroyed,  and  there  being  no  longer 
purchasers  the  manufacturer  is  obliged  to  in  part  or  in  whole  shut 
down,  and  when  he  does  so  his  workmen  are  turned  on  the  street  and 
their  purchasing  power  is  in  turn  destroyed. 

There  was  a  time  when  our  railroads  were  all  busy.  There  was 
a  time  when  there  was  activity  everywhere  in  the  land.  There  was  a 
demand  for  brains  and  a  demand  for  muscle.  Every  man  willing  to 
work  had  his  choice  of  labor.  The  great  common  toiling  masses  of 
our  country  were  contented,  were  educating  their  children,  were  good 
citizens  and  were  happy.  All  this  is  changed  and  there  is  paralysis, 
stagnation,  want,  suffering  and  discontent  all  over  this,  the  richest 
land  under  the  sun. 

This  change  has  not  come  suddenly.  It  has  been  creeping  over 
us  for  a  great  many  years.  During  this  time  we  have  had  sunshine 
and  rain  as  before  and  nature  has  yielded  her  harvests  as  bountifully 
bs  ever  before.  The  earth  and  the  elements  have  done  all  in  their 
power  to  make  man  rich  and  prosperous.  It  is  not  nature  but  man 
that  is  responsible  for  the  change.  The  causes  of  our  distress  are  not 
natural  but  are  artificial.  It  is  governmental  policy  that  is  the  mother 
of  our  sorrow. 

During  all  of  the  time  that  this  depression  has  been  coming  upon 
us  we  have  had  a  high  protective  tariff.  We  have  to-day  a  tariff  that  is 
higher  in  most  respects  than  it  was  in  war  times,  and  up  to  a  year  and 
a  half  ago  we  had  a  tariff  that  was  almost  prohibitory,  yet  the  dis- 
tress of  the  country  became  more  and  more  intense.  Nearly  every 
year  for  fifteen  years  we  have  had  in  New  York  and  the  money  centers 
of  this  country  what  was  called  a  "money  flurry."  That  is,  a  small 
panic,  the  result  of  which  each  time  was  a  slight  lowering  of  prices  and 
a  slight  lowering  of  wages. 

During  this  time  the  leaders  of  one  of  the  great  political  parties  of 
the  country  kept  advocating  an  increase  of  the  tariff  as  a  remedy  for 
the  rapidly  increasing  ills  of  the  land.  Although  the  tariff  we  had 
was  almost  the  highest  in  the  world,  and  although  the  war  had  been 
over  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  the  only  remedy  that  was  suggested 
was  to  raise  the  tariff  taxes,  During  the  Presidential  campaign  of 


SPEECH  'AT  GIRARD.  593 

1888,  recognizing  the  fact  that  the  conditions  in  the  land  were  rapidly 
becoming  worse,  the  leaders  of  this  party,  in  their  platform,  advo- 
cated an  increase  in  the  tariff.  The  country  accepted  their  theory  and 
Mr.  Harrison  was  elected  President,  and  when  Congress  assembled  a 
tariff  act  was  passed,  known  as  the  "McKinley  law,"  which  almost 
doubled  the  already  high  duties.  While  this  law  was  being  framed 
the  leading  manufacturers  of  the  country  went  to  Washington  to 
lobby,  and  it  is  now  a  matter  of  history  that  they  got  a  bill  framed 
just  as  they  wanted  it.  Major  McKinley,  who  had  the  bill  in  charge, 
practically  allowed  the  manufacturers  to  write  it  themselves.  The 
argument  used  was  the  protection  of  the  American  laborer.  On  this 
theory  the  duties  were  made  so  high  as  to  almost  stop  importation 
in  many  lines,  and  yet  the  ink  of  the  President's  signature  to  this  bill 
had  scarcely  become  dry  when  over  three  hundred  of  those  large  man- 
ufacturers went  home  and  reduced  the  wages  of  their  operatives.  This 
was  in  1890.  The  country  is  familiar  with  the  reduction  of  wages 
which  then  took  place  and  with  some  of  the  labor  disturbances  that 
followed,  so  that  the  first  effect  of  the  McKinley  act  was  in  many  cases 
to  lower  instead  of  raise  the  wages  of  the  men,  and  when  the  work- 
men protested  or  went  out  on  a  strike  their  places  were  filled  with 
men  brought  over  from  the  pauper  districts  of  Europe,  under  con- 
tract, men  who  worked  for  wages  on  which  the  American  laborer  could 
not  support  his  family.  This  importation  of  foreign  as  a  substitute 
for  the  American  laborers  was  carried  to  such  an  extent  that  Mr.  Pow- 
derly,  himself  a  Pennsylvanian  and  well  posted  in  that  regard,  declared 
that  almost  every  native-born  and  every  naturalized  American  had 
been  driven  out  of  the  shops  and  mines  of  Pennsylvania  and  his  place 
filled  by  pauper  labor  brought  over  from  Europe. 

It  was  while  this  law  was  in  force,  during  the  spring  of  1892,  while 
Mr.  Harrison  was  President,  that  the  great  Homestead  labor  riots 
in  Pennsylvania  occurred.  This  law  was  in  force  until  near  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  1895  and  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  3Oth, 
1894,  it  produced  a  deficit  in  the  United  States  treasury  of  $70,000,- 
ooo.  This  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  tariff  in  many  cases  was  so 
high  as  to  check  all  importation.  So  that  while  the  McKinley  law 
brought  the  laborer  no  comfort  and  no  bread  it  impoverished  the 
United  States  treasury. 

During  all  of  the  time  that  it  was  in  force  prices  kept  falling,  labor 
disturbances  increased,  business  kept  shrinking,  stagnation  spread 
and  the  distress  of  the  country  kept  increasing.  It  was  apparent  all 
the  time  that  the  trouble  of  the  country  was  due  to  some  other  cause 
and  that  that  cause  was  steadily  at  work  day  and  night  during  the; 


594  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

whole  of  the  time.  Although  the  McKinley  law  was  enacted  to  arrest 
the  downward  tendency  of  the  times,  it  was  found  impotent  for  this 
purpose  and  it  was  in  the  spring  of  1893,  while  the  McKinley  law 
was  in  force,  that  the  final  crash  came.  The  strain  had  begun  more 
than  ten  years  before  and  had  steadily  increased  until  finally  it  became 
so  great  that  the  collapse  came. 

After  the  McKinley  tariff  had  proven  a  failure  in  this  country  men 
looked  more  carefully  into  the  effect  of  tariffs  in  other  countries  and 
they  found  that  they  had  produced  the  same  results  everywhere  as 
here.  They  in  some  cases  enriched  the  manufacturer,  but  nowhere 
helped  the  laborer  because  there  was  no  tariff  on  labor.  The  em- 
ployer could  bring  cheap  labor  from  any  part  of  the  earth  at  any 
time.  It  was  found  that  those  countries  in  Europe  which  had  the 
highest  tariffs  were  the  very  countries  in  which  were  found  most  of 
the  pauper  labor  and  it  was  also  found  that  while  wages  in  free  trade 
England  were  low,  they  had  more  than  doubled  since  the  time  that 
England  abolished  her  tariffs,  and  further  that  they  were  now  higher 
than  in  any  of  the  protective  countries  of  Europe.  On  further  study- 
ing the  situation  it  was  found  that  the  distress  which  was  spreading 
over  our  country  was  not  local  to  America,  but  that  it  was  at  the  same 
time  spreading  over  Europe — spreading  over  countries  where  they  had 
high  protective  tariffs  and  over  countries  where  they  had 
low  tariffs  and  over  countries  where  they  had  no  tariffs.  It  became 
apparent  that  this  paralysis  in  the  activity,  enterprise  and  industry  of 
the  world  had  no  connection  with  tariffs,  but  was  due  to  an  entire- 
ly different  cause,  operating  throughout  the  civilized  world,  and  that 
cause  was  the  reduction  in  the  standard  and  measure  of  values  of  the 
world.  In  other  words  the  falling  prices  were  caused  by  the  arbitrary 
wiping  out  by  law  of  one-half  of  the  primary  or  redemption  money 
of  the  world.  This  was  done  not  only  by  the  government  of  the 
United  States  but  by  the  governments  of  Europe  and  produced  the 
same  results  there  that  it  did  here,  that  is  it  produced  a  rise  in  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  gold,  so  that  it  took  more  property,  more  products 
and  more  labor  thereafter  to  get  a  dollar  than  it  did  before.  Wages 
and  the  selling  price  of  property  go  together.  Labor  produces  prop- 
erty. When  property  sells  at  a  high  price  then  it  is  possible  to  pay 
high  wages,  when  it  sells  at  a  low  price  wages  must  be  low,  when  it 
cannot  be  sold  at  all  then  there  is  no  work. 

Let  us  consider  the  money  question  in  its  relation  to  the  hard  times. 
There  are  fundamental  and  immutable  laws  of  finance  just  as  there 
are  laws  of  physics,  and  they  are  not  difficult  to  understand.  Many 
of  you  have  never  studied  what  are  called  the  sciences.  You  have 


SPEECH   AT  GIRARD.  595 

never  talked  learnedly  about  the  laws  of  nature,  but  you  know 
enough  about  them  to  answer  all  practical  requirements.  You  know 
that  water  will  run  down  hill,  you  know  that  an  apple  falling  from  a 
tree  will  go  to  the  ground,  you  know  that  sparks  fly  upward  and  that 
fire  will  burn.  Just  so  with  the  financial  question.  You  know  that 
a  scarcity  of  money  means  low  prices  and  that  low  prices  mean  hard 
times.  You  know  that  when  there  is  plenty  of  money  in  the  country, 
when  farmers  are  in  a  condition  to  buy  freely,  that  then  there  is  ac- 
tivity, then  there  is  prosperity.  You  know  that  it  takes  more  money 
to  do  the  business  of  two  men  than  it  does  to  do  the  business  of  one 
man.  You  know  that  if  the  amount  of  money  that  there  is  in  the 
world  were  doubled  that  the  holders  of  this  money  would  not  let  it 
lie  idle  but  they  would  buy  property,  build  houses,  build  factories  and 
otherwise  invest  it  and  that  the  result  would  be  activity,  and  with 
this  would  come  a  demand  for  labor  and  a  demand  for  the  products 
of  the  farmer  and  a  consequent  increase  in  wages  and  an  increase 
in  the  price  of  commodities.  This  would  restore  the  purchasing  pow- 
er of  the  farmer  and  the  laborer,  it  would  restore  the  wonderful  home 
market  we  used  to  hear  about  and  would  again  give  us  prosperity. 

Applying  this  rule,  that  when  money  is  scarce  times  are  hard  and 
when  money  is  plenty  times  are  good,  to  the  affairs  of  the  world  it 
amounts  to  this,  that  when  you  increase  the  volume  of  money  in  the 
world  you  increase  the  selling  price  of  property  and  of  products  and 
make  the  producing  classes  prosperous,  and  this  means  the  prosperity 
of  the  people.  While  if  you  reduce  the  volume  of  money  in  the  world 
you  correspondingly  reduce  the  selling  price  of  property  and  of  pro- 
ducts and  destroy  the  prosperity  of  the  producing  classes.  This  rule 
is  recognized  by  all  great  financiers  of  the  world  as  an  immutable  and 
fundamental  law  of  finance  and  it  has  been  verified  by  the  financial 
history  of  our  country. 

From  1862  to  1866  we  had  neither  gold  nor  silver  in  circulation 
in  this  country.  Our  money  consisted  of  treasury  notes  issued  by  the 
government  and  of  national  bank  notes,  and  according  to  the  treas- 
ury tables  we  had  during  that  time  altogether  fifteen  hundred  and 
forty-two  millions  of  paper  money  in  circulation.  It  is  true  gold  was 
at  a  premium.  Sometimes  it  took  two  and  a  half  dollars  of  paper  to 
get  one  of  gold,  but  the  people  did  not  need  gold  and  the  most  pros- 
perous years  that  this  republic  has  ever  seen  were  those  years.  Many 
of  you  recall  them  distinctly.  Farmers  prospered  as  they  never  had 
before.  The  merchants  and  the  bankers  prospered  and  the  manu- 
factories were  running  to  their  fullest  capacity. 

But  the  government  decided  to  return  to  specie  payments  and  for 


596  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

that  purpose  began  to  call  in  and  cancel  the  greenbacks  and  issue 
bonds  in  their  stead  which  did  not  circulate  as  money,  and  between 
1866  and  1870  the  paper  money  in  the  country  was  reduced  by  more 
than  one  half  and  there  followed  a  corresponding  fall  in  prices.  This 
produced  the  panic  of  1873,  during  which  time  prices  fell  from  the 
paper  money  basis  down  to  what  was  then  called  the  specie  basis. 
This  was  local  to  this  country  and  did  not  affect  Europe.  The  years 
of  ruin  and  disaster  following  the  panic  of  '73  were  the  result  of  the 
contraction  of  the  currency  by  the  government 

This  resumption  of  specie  payments  by  the  government  was  on 
the  basis  of  gold  and  silver.  These  two  materials  had  done  the  busi- 
ness of  the  world  since  the  dawn  of  civilization.  For  two  hundred 
years  their  relation  to  each  other  was  established  and  was  practically 
uniform  throughout  the  world.  Unfortunately  for  mankind  the 
monied  classes  of  Europe  conceived  the  idea  that  it  would  be  to  their 
interest  to  make  money  dear  and  property  and  labor  cheap.  During 
the  decade  following  the  war  our  people  had  become  the  great  debtor 
people  of  the  earth.  Not  only  had  the  government,  the  States,  the 
counties  and  the  cities  issued  bonds,  but  the  railroads  and  all  other 
great  properties  and  great  interests  had  issued  bonds,  even  most  of  the 
farm  and  city  property  had  been  mortgaged.  The  great  bulk  of  all 
this  indebtedness  was  held  by  the  English  money-lenders.  The  inter- 
est on  this  vast  debt  had  to  be  paid  by  the  American  people  in  one 
form  or  in  another.  Either  in  the  form  of  taxes  or  increased  charges 
on  the  railroads  or  increased  prices  of  articles  purchased,  but  under 
the  prices  which  then  existed  for  farm  products  and  for  labor  our 
people  were  able  to  pay  this  vast  interest  and  yet  have  a  surplus  left 
which  enabled  them  to  supply  themselves  with  the  comforts  and  even 
luxuries  of  life,  and  we  had  what  was  then  known  as  the  great  Ameri- 
can market.  Our  farmers  were  prosperous  and  all  other  classes  were 
prosperous.  This  was  when  we  had  silver  and  gold.  At  that  time  the 
London  bond-holders  had  to  take  the  interest  on  two  one  thousand 
dollar  bonds  to  buy  a  horse  or  to  buy  a  hundred  bushels  of  wheat 
and  they  concluded  that  if  they  could  wipe  out  half  of  the  money  in 
the  world  that  then  the  interest  on  a  one  thousand  dollar  bond  would 
buy  a  horse  or  would  buy  a  hundred  bushels  of  wheat  and  buy  a  corre- 
spondingly increased  amount  of  labor  or  any  other  kind  of  property, 
and  this  is  what  they  accomplished.  In  1873  they  got  our  govern- 
ment to  by  law  demonetize  silver,  stop  its  coinage,  deprive  it  of  its 
legal  tender  functions  and  reduce  it  practically  to  the  basis  of  token 
money,  and  between  that  year  and  1880  they  got  nearly  all  of  the 
governments  to  take  similar  steps,  so  that  silver  was  no  longer  a  pri- 


SPEECH   AT   GIRARD.  597 

mary  or  redemption  money,  but  occupied  the  place  practically  of  token 
money,  and  as  the  amount  of  silver  dollars  in  the  world  was  just  about 
equal  to  the  amount  of  gold  dollars  in  the  world,  it  followed  that 
when  silver  was  demonetized  and  its  coinage  was  stopped,  that  there- 
after the  work  which  was  formerly  done  by  gold  and  silver  together 
had  to  be  done  by  gold  alone.  The  number  of  people  who  had  to  have 
gold  was  doubled,  its  importance  was  doubled  and  it  necessarily  fol- 
lowed that  its  purchasing  power  was  doubled,  so  that  thereafter  a  gold 
dollar  would  buy  just  twice  the  amount  of  products,  twice  the  amount 
of  property,  twice  the  amount  of  labor  that  it  formerly  did,  on  the 
average.  According  to  the  great  law  of  finance  which  I  have  just 
named  this  is  what  had  to  follow  and  you  know  from  bitter  experience 
that  this  is  just  what  did  follow.  The  selling  price  of  all  property 
when  taken  on  the  average,  the  selling  price  of  all  products  when 
taken  on  the  average  was  reduced  by  just  one-half.  So  that  wheat  went 
from  a  dollar  to  fifty  cents  and  all  other  farm  products  were  sold  in  pro- 
portion. The  selling  price  of  everything  which  labor  produces  was 
lowered,  but  nothing  that  the  bondholder  held  was  lowered.  The 
debts  all  remained  the  same.  The  vast  sums  of  interest  to  be  paid 
every  year  remained  the  same.  The  taxes  if  anything  were  higher. 
All  of  the  fixed  charges  calling  for  cash  payment  remained  the  same. 
Thereafter  it  took  everything  that  the  farmer  could  scrape  together 
to  pay  the  fixed  charges  and  in  many  cases  he  could  not  do  it.  His 
purchasing  power  was  destroyed  and  that  universal  paralysis  which  I 
have  already  described  ensued.  Formerly  there  was  added  every  year 
to  the  volume  of  money  that  existed  in  the  world  not  only  the  amount 
of  gold  that  was  mined,  but  also  the  amount  of  silver  that  was  mined, 
less  what  was  used  in  the  arts,  and  as  the  population  kept  increasing 
constantly  and  as  it  was  necessary  that  the  volume  of  money  should 
be  enlarged  every  year  to  keep  pace  with  the  increase  of  population  in 
order  that  prices  might  not  fall,  the  world  depended  upon  the  increase 
to  be  derived  from  both  metals  being  about  equal  in  amount.  But 
since  the  demonetization  of  silver  there  is  added  each  year  only  the 
gold  that  is  produced,  less  what  is  used  in  the  arts.  In  other  words 
the  annual  addition  now  to  the  stock  of  money  is  only  half  what  it 
used  to  be,  while  the  annual  increase  in  population  is  much  greater 
than  it  used  to  be.  Consequently  prices  must  go  on  steadily  falling 
a  little  year  by  year.  That  is  what  has  happened  during  the  last  few 
years  and  is  what  is  going  on  now,  and  it  is  a  well  known  fact  that  there 
can  be  no  prosperity  in  a  country  on  falling  prices.  Money  constitutes 
the  blood  of  the  commercial  world  and  when  half  of  it  was  wiped  out 
by  arbitrary  acts  of  government  the  remainder  manifested  a  tendency 


598  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

to  concentrate  at  London  and  other  European  money  centers,  while 
all  that  part  of  the  world  which  depended  upon  industry  and  enterprise 
became  cold  and  lifeless. 

Now,  my  fellow  citizens,  these  debts  remain.  These  fixed  charges 
can  not  be  reduced  and  unless  the  standard  of  prices  can  again  be 
raised  so  that  our  farmers  and  producers  can  earn  some  money  over 
and  above  these  fixed  charges  no  general  prosperity  will  be  possible  in 
this  country.  In  the  tariff  discussion  of  years  ago  it  was  debated  as  to 
whether  the  importer  or  the  home  manufacturer  should  supply  the 
great  home  market.  To-day  we  find  that  that  market  has  been  de- 
stroyed and  the  question  is  how  can  we  revive  it.  That  home  market 
died  under  the  McKinley  law,  it  died  under  high  protection. 

Who  are  the  men  who  profit  by  the  existing  order  of  things?  Only 
the  New  York  and  European  speculators  and  the  Englishmen 
who  hold  American  securities.  The  great  bond-holding  classes  of 
Europe  now  find  that  one  half  of  the  interest  on  their  bonds  will  buy 
as  much  labor  and  will  buy  as  much  property  as  all  of  it  used  to  buy. 
Naturally  they  want  to  continue  that  condition  of  affairs.  The  at- 
tempt to  maintain  this  gold  standard  has  involved  the  American  gov- 
ernment in  such  difficulties  that  during  the  last  three  years  $260,000,- 
ooo  of  bonds  have  been  issued,  making  that  much  more  of  a  bond  for 
the  American  people  to  pay  interest  on  and  ultimately  to  pay  off. 
A  year  and  a  half  ago  a  small  crowd  of  New  York  speculators  with 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan  at  their  head  made  upwards  of  ten  millions  of 
dollars  in  a  couple  of  weeks  out  of  the  government  in  a  small  bond 
transaction.  Do  you  blame  Morgan  and  his  associates  for  wanting 
to  continue  that  condition  of  affairs?  I  do  not.  But  I  do  blame  the 
representatives  and  so-called  leaders  of  the  American  people  who 
under  one  pretext  or  under  another  pretext  are  helping  to  perpetuate 
a  policy  which  shall  furnish  a  perpetual  harvest  to  bond  sharks. 

You  ask  how  is  it  that  the  bankers  are  on  the  side  of  this  gold 
standard?  It  is  simple  enough  for  the  Eastern  bankers  to  be  there, 
and  the  fact  that  the  Western  bankers  are  on  that  side  simply  shows 
the  power  of  money.  It  shows  that  the  Western  bankers  are  in  the 
clutches  and  subject  to  the  dictation  of  Eastern  and  foreign  capital. 
The  great  money  center  of  the  world  now  is  London.  The  large  finan- 
ciers of  New  York  under  our  existing  system  are  in  the  habit  of  look- 
ing to  London  bankers.  Having  made  themselves  dependent  on  them 
or  deriving  a  profit  from  serving  them  these  New  York  bankers  not 
only  act  on  the  suggestions  but  follow  the  dictation  of  the  London 
bankers.  The  few  bankers  in  New  York  again  have  their  correspond- 
ents in  the  other  cities  of  the  country  and  these  correspondents  in  many 


SPEECH  AT  GIRARD.  599 

cases  are  either  dependent  on  or  else  find  it  profitable  to  serve  the  New 
Yorker.    Consequently  they  not  only  act  on  the  suggestions  but  fol- 
low the  dictating  of  a  few  New  York  bankers.    There  are  in  this  coun- 
try altogether  upwards  of  nine  thousand  banks,  and  under  the  existing 
system  they  are  made  to  act  almost  as  one  man.    Bankers  ordinarily 
make  money  when  the  country  is  prosperous  and  the  bankers  in  all 
producing  and  industrial  sections  of  the  country  would  be  immeasur- 
ably benefited  by  a  restoration  of  silver- and  prosperity,  and  when  they 
take  a  position  which  is  against  the  interests  of  the  community  in 
which  they  live  and  do  business  it  shows  that  they  are  ready  to  either 
blindly  follow  the  cruel  dictates  of  the  gold  men  or  are  hopelessly  in 
the  clutches  of  what  is  called  the  "Eastern  money  power."     These 
English  and  New  York  bankers  are  able  to  dictate  to  every  railroad, 
every  manufacturer  and  every  business  man  in  this  country  and  they 
have  now  for' several  months  been  exercising  a  money  terrorism  over 
the  people  of  this  country.    Every  man  that  works  for  wages  for  any 
great  concern  has  a  moral  threat  of  dismissal   hanging  over  him 
unless  he  will  vote  at  the  dictation  of  his  employer.    Bankers  are  re- 
fusing credit  to  business  men  who  will  not  surrender  their  manhood 
or  their  rights  of  citizenship.     Even  railroad  operatives  are  threatened 
with  dismissal  if  they  insist  upon  being  independent.     The  English 
money  power  is  conducting  a  campaign  in  this  country  and  while  there 
are  some  honest  and  some  good  men  arrayed  on  that  side,  it  is  a  re- 
markable fact  that  all  of  those  influences  that  undermine  and  destroy 
republican  institutions,  all  of  the  corruptionists  are  arranging  them- 
selves on  the  side  of  the  English  money  lenders.     General  Jackson 
fought  a  monied  power  that  was  American  in   its   character,  that 
sought  to  fasten  on  the  people  of  the  republic  an  American  yoke.    We 
are  confronted  by  a  money  power  that  is  seeking  to  fasten  upon  the 
people  of  this  country  an  English  yoke.     We  are  now  in  the  midst  of 
the  gravest  crisis  that  ever  confronted  this  republic.     In   1861   the 
Union    was    confronted    with    dissolution,    which  meant  anarchy  in 
respect  to  government  and  a  perpetuation  of  the  African  slavery.    In 
1896  we  are  confronted  with  the  question  of  perpetually  enslaving  the 
white  race.     We  are  confronted  with  the  question  whether  we  shall 
install  English  shylocks  as  task-masters  over  all  the  generations  of 
Americans  that  are  yet  to  come.    We  are  not  proposing  to  wrong  any- 
body.   We  are  proposing  to  give  every  man  his  due.    We  are  not  sug- 
gesting experiments,  we  are  demanding  a  return  to  the  experience 
of  the  world  for  thousands  of  years  and  we  say  that  this  experiment 
of  trying  to  force  the  nations  of  the  earth  onto  a  gold  basis  for  the 
benefit  of  European  creditors  is  ruining  the  American  people. 


6oo  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

We  propose  to  pay  back  the  English  creditors  in  the  same  money 
they  gave  us,  gold  and  silver.  We  propose  to  give  them  dollars  that 
shall  have  the  same  purchasing  power,  that  will  buy  as  much  property 
and  as  much  labor  of  every  kind  as  the  dollars  which  they  gave  us. 
Money  having  exactly  the  same  purchasing  power.  We  propose  to 
pay  them  principal  and  interest  in  the  same  money  exactly  which  they 
gave  us  and  we  say  that  their  acts  in  getting  silver  demonetized  and 
gold  made  dear,  after  they  had  succeeded  in  getting  our  bonds  and 
our  notes,  so  as  to  compel  us  to  pay  in  a  different  kind  of  money 
from  what  they  gave  us,  to  pay  in  dollars  which  cost  twice  as  much 
sweat,  twice  as  much  blood  as  did  the  dollars  which  they  gave  us,  we 
say  that  that  act  was  a  fraud  and  was  a  crime  against  civilization. 

This  is  not  a  partisan  question.  It  is  not  a  question  of  Republican- 
ism or  of  Democracy.  John  Sherman  and  Grover  Cleveland  are 
sleeping  together.  It  is  a  question  of  patriotism.  It  is  a  question  of 
maintaining  the  institutions  of  the  fathers,  for  if  the  present  standard 
is  to  be  maintained,  if  our  people  must  go  on  paying  interest  and 
principal  in  dollars  that  require  twice  as  much  labor,  twice  as  much 
sweat,  twice  as  much  blood  to  obtain  as  did  the  dollars  that  were  in 
circulation  when  the  debts  were  created,  then  the  doom  of  American 
producers  is  sealed.  Low  prices  will  be  made  perpetual  and  there  will 
be  no  hope  for  the  American  farmer,  the  American  mechanic  or  the 
American  laborer. 

You  have  heard  glib  talk  about  fifty  cent  dollars.  Gentlemen, 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  fifty  cent  dollar.  The  silver  dollars  which 
they  speak  of  as  fifty  cent  dollars  buy  as  much  property  on  the  aver- 
age of  every  kind,  buy  as  much  of  the  products  of  the  earth  on  the 
average  of  every  kind,  buy  as  much  labor  on  the  average  of  every  kind, 
as  they  did  before  silver  was  demonetized.  Silver  has  not  fallen.  It 
occupies  the  same  relation  to  property,  to  the  products  of  the  earth  and 
to  labor  that  it  formerly  did,  it  is  gold  that  has  gone  up.  The  pur- 
chasing power  of  gold  has  doubled  and  our  people  are  obliged  to  pay 
their  debts,  principal  and  interest,  in  dollars  which  as  a  matter  of  fact 
are  two  hundred  cent  dollars. 

Who  gets  the  benefit  of  this?  The  English  money  lenders.  It  is 
said,  Why,  we  have  local  money  lenders.  Some  of  our  farmers  have 
money  loaned  out.  Don't  they  get  the  benefit  of  it?  I  say  no.  No 
farmer,  no  resident  of  this  State  can  derive  a  benefit  from  a  condition 
of  affairs  that  bankrupts  his  neighbor,  that  produces  paralysis  in  the 
country  surrounding  him,  for  universal  bankruptcy  must  in  the  end 
pull  down  and  destroy  the  local  creditor.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose 


SPEECH  AT  GIRARD.  601 

that  a  local  money  lender  derives  a  benefit  from  the  conditions  which 
now  exist. 

We  say  restore  silver  to  where  it  was.    Coin  it  free  as  you  do  gold 
Restore  to  it  its  legal  tender  qualities  and  just  as  soon  as  this  is  done 
t  as  soon  as  silver  can  be  used  at  the  custom-house,  can  be  used  to 
pay  taxes  and  to  pay  notes  at  the  bank,  just  as  soon  as  it  can  be  used 
to  do  the  same  work  that  gold  does,  just  that  soon  the  importance  of 
gold  will  be  lowered,  its  purchasing  power  will  be  lowered,  the  import- 
ance of  silver  will  be  raised,  its  purchasing  power  will  be  raised,  until 
two  metals  again  circulate  at  par  just  as  they  did  for  two  hundred 
years  before  silver  was  demonetized. 

But,  says  some  one,  The  idea  of  bimetallism  is  all  right  but  we  can 
not  go  ,t  alone.    We  must  have  Europe  to  help  us,  otherwise  gold  will 
go  to  a  premium.    Examine  this  a  moment.    Everybody  admits  that 
if  all  the  European  States  would  act  together  they  could  go  it  alone 
-hey  could  absorb  the  silver  that  is  annually  produced  and  in  fact  a 
great  deal  more  without  having  gold  go  to  a  premium.     Now   gen- 
tlemen, the  internal  trade  of  the  United  States,  under  normal  condi- 
tions, ,s  greater  than  that  of  all  Europe  put  together,  for  while  some 
the  European  countries  have  large  populations,  they  are  so  ex- 
tremely poor  that  they  possess  very  little  purchasing  power   conse- 
quently  if  Europe  could  go  it  alone  the  United  States  could  still 
more  easily  do  so.    We  could  absorb  more  than  double  the  amount  of 
all  the  silver  that  would  be  brought  to  our  country  and  it  would  be  like 
putting  new  blood  into  the  body.    The  patient  is  now  too  weak  to 
travel      We  say  restore  his  blood  to  its  normal  condition  and  then 
he  will  again  be  active. 

It  is  said  that  a  Mexican  dollar  which  is  as  heavy  as  ours  is 
worth  only  fifty  cents  in  gold,  and  we  are  asked  if  this  is  so  how  will 
we  make  our  silver  dollars  circulate  side  by  side  with  gold      I  say 
we  will  do  it  by  giving  our  silver  dollars  a  field  sufficiently  large  to 
absorb  all  and  in  which  they  can  do  the  same  work  that  gold  does 
The  business  of  Mexico  is  so  small  that  it  does  not  furnish  a  suf- 
ficiently large  field  to  absorb  all  of  the  silver  dollars.    The  business 
Mexico  is  less  than  that  of  some  of  our  States 
Multiply  the  trade  of  Mexico  by  forty  and  it  would  absorb  twice 
the  amount  of  silver  that  could  be  furnished  any  one  year     When  the 
large  import  duties  paid  at  our  custom  houses  and  the  limitless  sums 
of  taxes  paid  in  our  country  are  considered  it  becomes  at  once  ap- 
parent that  this  country  could  absorb  two  hundred  times  as  much 
silver  money  as  Mexico  could,  independently  of  all  the  other  nations 
of  the  earth.    Mexico  is  on  a  silver  basis,  and  M.  Romero  the  Mexi- 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

can  minister  at  Washington,  a  year  ago  published  an  article  in  the 
North  American  Review  describing  the  conditions  of  his  country,  and 
he  showed  that  Mexico  is  more  prosperous  now  than  it  ever  was 
before  in  its  history.  Her  farmers  are  prospering,  her  business  men  are 
prospering,  her  manufactories  are  all  busy  and  new  ones  are  being 
erected  and  there  is  scarcely  an  idle  laborer  in  Mexico.  But  if  all  of 
the  talk  about  gold  going  to  a  premium  were  true,  it  would  not  meet 
the  question.  The  question  is,  shall  republican  institutions  be  main- 
tained in  this  country?  If  our  farmers,  our  mechanics  and  our  labor- 
ers are  reduced  to  the  condition  of  mere  tribute  paying  serfs  then  the 
doom  of  this  republic  is  sealed.  If  they  are  to  be  reduced  to  the 
impoverished  condition  of  the  toilers  of  Europe  then  a  high  and  in- 
telligent order  of  citizenship  in  this  country  is  impossible.  Men  who 
have  nothing  to  eat  and  little  to  wear  cannot  educate  their  families; 
men  who  have  to  give  up  all  of  their  strength  and  all  their  thoughts 
to  what  is  practically  unrequited  toil  are  not  calculated  to  act  the  role 
of  independent  freemen,  fin"  1776  England  sought  to  dominate  us 
politically;  the  financial  anamdustrial  policies  of  the  world  were  not 
so  prominent  then.  At  that  time  all  of  the  bankers  and  most  of  the 
very  rich  and  influential  people  of  this  country  were  Tories.  They 
sided  with  England  but  the  great  common  people  of  the  colonies 
demanded  independence.  There  were  less  than  3,000,000  of  them. 
The  influential  class  were  all  against  them.  The  fashionable  people 
of  the  colonies  and  of  Europe  jeered  them.  The  aristocrats  of  Europe 
sneered  at  their  pretensions.  Suppose  that  under  those  conditions 
the  colonies  had  said  "Liberty  is  a  good  thing  but  we  must  wait  until 
Europe  consents  for  us  to  have  it."  Would  this  republic  ever  have 
been  founded?  Instead  of  that,  they  announced  to  the  world  their 
independence  and  their  readiness  to  die  to  maintain  it.  j  In  1812 
England  sought  to  dominate  us  upon  the  seas  and  again  the  bankers 
and  monied  classes  of  our  country  sympathized  with  England.  Sup- 
pose the  weak  and  struggling  republic  had  then  said  "Freedom  from 
search  upon  the  seas  is  an  excellent  thing  but  we  must  wait  until  Eu- 
rope helps  us  to  get  it."  Would  our  history  have  been  the  same?  Al- 
though England  was  then  almost  mistress  of  the  world  the  young  and 
struggling  republic  defied  and  defeated  her.  Since  then  conditions 
have  changed;  policies  have  changed.  England  does  not  care  to 
dominate  us  politically  further  than  to  shape  our  financial  policy. 
She  does  not  care  to  search  our  ships  upon  the  seas,  for  under  the 
peculiar  policy  which  has  been  pursued  by  our  government  for  the 
last  twenty-five  years,  we  have  scarcely  any.  She  does  not  care  to 
send  her  own  tax  collectors  over  here  to  dominate  over  us;  she  has 


SPEECH  AT  ClRARD.  603 

found  a  method  of  subjugation  that  suits  her  better.  If  she  can  but 
keep  our  country  in  the  condition  in  which  she  has  us  now,  where  all 
the  sweat,  all  the  toil  and  all  the  blood  of  our  people  is  drawn  to" 
her  coffers  to  be  coined  into  English  sovereigns,  she  is  content. 
Three  millions  of  people  established  republican  institutions  in  this 
country  in  the  face  of  a  jeering  and  a  sneering  world.  The  question 
now  is,  shall  seventy  millions  of  people  surrender  these  institutions 
or  announce  to  the  world  that  they  are  incapable  of  maintaining  them. 
Three  millions  of  people  a  century  ago  announced  to  the  world  that 
they  could  get  along  without  Europe.  Shall  seventy  millions  of  people 
now  proclaim  that  we  are  dependent  upon  the  monarchy  ridden  and 
corruption  eaten  European  States? 

My  friends,  it  is  not  a  question  of  office  getting.  There  are  things 
in  the  world  that  arise  above  office  and  arise  above  empty  honors. 
I  ask  you  to  support  Bryan  and  humanity  against  McKinley  and 
plutocracy.  I  ask  you  to  support  the  institutions  of  the  fathers  against 
the  dictation  of  foreign  shylocks.  I  ask  you  to  sustain  a  policy  which 
gives  every  man  his  due  on  the  one  hand  and  will  make  it  possible 
for  every  industrious  and  intelligent  man  to  make  a  living  on  the 
other  hand. 

In  our  State  the  most  important  question  to  be  met  is  that  of 
equalizing  the  burdens  of  taxation.  The  present  system  is  a  colossal 
iniquity,  which  shifts  the  burdens  from  the  very  rich  onto  the  people 
of  moderate  means.  There  are  in  Chicago  many  men  who  possess 
vast  fortunes  and  pay  no  taxes.  Strangely  enough  they  are  the  men 
who  have  much  to  say  about  patriotism.  There  are  in  our  State 
hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  that  contribute  nothing  to  the  support 
of  the  government.  An  effort  was  made  at  the  regular  session  of 
the  Legislature  and  again  at  the  special  session  of  the  Legislature 
to  have  this  great  wrong  righted,  but  the  interests  which  profit 
by  this  iniquity  were  able  to  defeat  action.  The  arguments  they  used 
for  this  purpose  were  said  to  be  of  a  kind  that  pass  from  hand  to 
hand  rather  than  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  I  ask  you,  my  fellow 
citizens,  to  consider  the  conduct  and  the  character  of  the  last  Legis- 
lature and  its  political  complexion,  and  then,  ask  yourselves  the  ques- 
tion whether  if  the  same  political  influences  control  the  next  Legisla- 
ture you  can  reasonably  expect  any  relief  from  it.  During  the  special 
session  a  strong  pressure  for  revenue  reform  was  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  Legislature  by  patriotic  citizens,  and  it  looked  once  as  though 
something  might  be  done,  but  at  this  juncture  there  appeared  upon 
the  scene  the  chairman  of  the  Republican  State  Committee,  who  is 
now  a  candidate  for  Governor,  and  he  succeeded  in  forcing  the  Legis- 


604  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

lature  to  adjourn  without  taking  any  action.  I  leave  you  to  judge 
in  whose  interests  he  did  this.  Whether  in  your  interests  or  in  the 
interests  of  the  men  who  annually  defraud  the  State  out  of  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars  of  taxes,  and  I  further  ask  you  the  question, 
what  reason  have  you  to  expect  or  even  hope  for  any  relief  or  any 
reform  if  this  ex-chairman  of  the  Republican  State  Committee,  who 
forced  the  Legislature  to  adjourn  without  action,  is  elected  Governor? 
(Speaking  of  my  own  candidacy  I  have  only  to  say  that  I  have 
served  you  nearly  four  years.  I  have  never  worked  harder  in  my 
life.  I  have  striven  to  do  my  duty.  Unquestionably  I  have  made 
mistakes,  but  I  have  aimed  to  follow  the  dictates  of  justice  and  right. 
I  have  aimed  to  know  neither  rich  nor  poor,  neither  friend  nor  foe 
in  the  discharge  of  my  duties.  I  have  aimed  to  raise  the  banner  of 
this  mighty  State  to  the  highest  pinnacle.  I  have  acted  upon  the 
principle  that  every  man  is  equal  before  the  law  and  all  are  entitled 
to  equal  protection.  If  you  are  satisfied  with  my  stewardship,  natu- 
rally it  would  gratify  me  to  have  you  say  so,  but,  my  fellow  citizens, 
all  questions  of  office  sink  into  insignificance  when  compared  with 
the  great  issue  that  is  before  our  people.  Office  holders  come  and  go 
and  as  a  rule  the  world  is  little  the  wiser  or  little  the  better.  But 
policies  shape  the  destinies  of  nations  and  determine  the  happiness 
or  the  misery  of  unborn  generations,  and  if  there  are  Republicans 
here  who  feel  that  they  must  in  part  support  their  ticket,  then  I  say 
to  you  with  all  the  earnestness  of  my  soul,  go  into  the  booth,  vote  for 
Mr.  Tanner  for  Governor,  and  then  think  of  your  families;  think  of 
the  future  of  your  children,  think  of  the  future  of  our  great  country 
and  cast  a  vote  for  Bryan  and  for  humanity. 


LETTER    TO    WILLIAM    S.    FORMAN. 

Springfield,  111.,  Aug.  27,   1896. 
William  S.  Forman,  East  St.  Louis,  111.: 

Sir:  My  attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  while  I  was 
away  from  home  you  emerged  from  the  brush  and  made  some  insinu- 
ations against  me,  and  also  made  an  attack  upon  two  dead  men. 

I  have  made  it  a  rule  not  to  notice  attacks  upon  myself  coming 
from  personal  and  political  animosity  and  have  found  that  in  time 
the  calumniators  are  buried  in  their  own  slime. 

While  your  entire  article  is  made  up  of  malicious,  false  and  slander- 
ous trash  that  has  been  repeatedly  published  in  partisan  newspapers, 
and  while  all  of  it  that  any  living  man  knows  anything  about  has  by 


LETTER  TO  WILLIAM  S.  FORMAN.  605 

them  been  branded  as  false  and  malisious  and  does  not  call  for  any 
-ther  notice,  it  is  urged  by  prominent  Democrats  that  as  you  are 
trying  to  pose  before  the  people  of  this  State  you  should  be  asked  to 
step  out  of  the  shadow  into  the  sunlight  and  experience  a  new  sensa- 
tion. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  this  campaign  promises  to  be  bitter  and 

•f  personal  vituperation,  and  it  is  still  more  to  be  regretted  that 

rst  gun,  loaded  with  personal  calumny,  should  have-  been  fired 

by  the  Republicans  but  by  a  man  and  a  set  of  men  whom  I  had 

personally  helped  and  to  whom  the  Democratic  party  had  given  bread 

0  eat  and  who,  because  they  can  not  now  control  that  party,  are  trying 

estroy  ,t,  not  by  a  manly  fight  in  front  but  by  a  skulking  fusillade 
m  he  rear  You  cried  to  me  for  money  during  your  last  campaign 
and  I  furnished  you  the  means  to  return  to  Congress  and  asked  noth- 
ing  in  return. 

Why  did  you  write  that  letter  at  this  time?  Everything  in  it  was 
old  and  you  simply  rehashed  a  slander.  Every  insinuation  you  make 

false  and  ,f  you  knew  anything  about  the  facts  then  you  knew  that 
i  were  making  false  insinuations.  If  you  knew  nothing  about  the 

:ts  and  simply  allowed  your  political  disappointment  to  lead  you 
into  this  step  then  you  did  a  thing  that  was  cowardly.  You  drag  in  the 
name  of  John  W.  Lanehart,  who  died  in  Chicago'a  few  weeks  ago 

e  was  known  to  the  people  of  that  city  as  one  of  the  most  able  hon- 
orable straight-forward  and  substantial  young  men  of  the  State  A 
man  who  was  the  soul  of  honor,  a  man  who  was  extensively  engaged 

1  affairs  carrying  on  large  real  estate  operations  and  being  interested 
in  other  business  enterprises.    While  he  was  alive  you  slipped  in  and 

ChiCa°  ^  man  and     °"  ««ered  IT" 


an     h      ,  v  y°U  C°me  forward 

grave-  The  western  settiers 


hadoncpf     H  u°f  thC  Democratic  State  Committee  and 

had  once  fondly  miagmed  that  you  controlled  the  party      You  ha, 

wMeTn'th          greSS  ^  ^^  Party'    Y°Ur  —  a"d  /o-  me  hod 
while  on  the  committee  were  well  known;   your  career  in  Congress 

was  well  known;   your  votes  in  Congress,  which  were  nearly  always 

the   obbtt      t  wT  y'  ^  We"  kn°Wn;   y°Ur  Cation  among 
bbj,  sts  a    Washington  was  well  known;  the  fact  that  your  con- 
st, uents_  had  determined  to  bury  you  and  that  you  retired  in  order 
not  to  give  them  a  chance  to  express  their  opinion  of  vou  was  wel 
known.     In  view  of  these  facts  it  was  a  little  remarkable  that  vo 


606  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

should  write  that  letter  at  this  time  and  it  really  looks  as  though  you 
were  trying  to  pose  and  get  blood  money  from  the  Republicans. 

Now  let  us  clear  the  atmosphere  a  little  and  let  a  little  daylight 
in  on  the  worm  that  is  eating  your  soul.  About  eighteen  months 
ago  you  came  to  Springfield  and  came  over  to  the  capitol  to  have 
a  private  talk  with  me.  You  complained  that  I  had  formed  a  wrong 
impression  of  you.  You  stated  that  you  had  not  been  on  friendly 
terms  with  Rufus  Ramsey,  the  late  State  treasurer,  and  that  you 
feared  he  and  some  others,  whom  you  named,  had  prejudiced  my 
mind  against  you.  I  got  up  and  closed  the  door  of  the  private  office 
in  which  we  were  sitting  and  then  said  to  you  that  you  were  mis- 
taken; that  neither  Mr.  Ramsey  nor  any  other  person  had  influenced 
me  against  you,  but  that  I  had  myself  watched  your  career  and  that 
politically  I  had  absolutely  no  confidence  in  you;  that  you  seemed 
to  me  to  be  entirely  too  sly  and  foxy  and  too  cunning  to  be  trusted 
and  that  even  your  close  friends  called  you  "Foxy  Bill."  Do  you 
recall  this  conversation?  I  made  a  special  effort  to  be  candid  with 
you  for  I  did  not  want  you  to  blame  anybody  else  on  account  of  my 
opinions. 

You  protested  that  I  was  mistaken  and  was  doing  you  an  in- 
justice, etc.,  etc.  The  conversation  lasted  nearly  an  hour  and  when 
you  took  leave  you  said  that  if  I  would  just  trust  you  once  I  would 
change  my  opinion  of  you.  At  that  time  I  did  not  grasp  the  full 
meaning  of  your  last  words,  but  soon  thereafter  Mr.  Browning,  a 
prominent  Democrat  of  Du  Quoin,  in  southern  Illinois,  came  to 
Springfield  and  urged  me  to  appoint  you  to  some  prominent  State 
office,  mentioning  a  railroad  and  warehouse  commissionership,  and 
if  that  was  not  practicable  then  a  membership  of  the  Southern  Illinois 
Penitentiary  Board.  He  did  not  say  that  you  had  sent  him,  but  he 
urged  me  strongly  to  appoint  you,  showing  that  he  at  least  knew  that 
you  would  •  accept  if  you  were  appointed.  He  urged  among  other 
things  that  your  brothers  were  prominent  and  influential  men  whose 
good  will  toward  the  State  administration  would  be  of  value.  I  did 
not  tell  him  all  that  I  had  told  you,  but  I  did  say  to  him  that  I  could 
not  make  the  appointment. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  notice  all  of  your  exploits  after  that,  for  your 
tracks  were  seen  all  over  the  State.  You  were  still  a  member  of  the 
Democratic  State  Committee  and  undertook  to  shape  the  policy  of 
the  party.  Last  spring  your  friends  came  to  me  a  number  of  times 
and  wanted  to  arrange  an  interview  with  you  in  regard  to  State 
politics.  Knowing  your  course,  knowing  the  low  political  standards 


LETTER  TO  WILLIAM  $.  FORMAN.  607 

you  have,  I  did  not  care  to  see  you  and  I  put  them  off,  so  that  no 
interview  took  place  and  I  do  not  blame  you  for  feeling  mad. 

Next  you  figured  in  a  characteristic  role.  You  had  just  moved 
into  East  St.  Louis,  in  St.  Clair  County,  and  had  barely  finished 
tacking  down  your  carpets  when  you  undertook  to  run  the  politics 
of  the  city,  and  when  the  old  citizens  of  the  county  refused  to  acknowl- 
edge your  leadership  you  organized  a  bolt  in  the  town  convention. 
Reflect  on  this  a  moment.  Here  was  a  man  who  had  been  a  member 
of  Congress  and  had  once  imagined  that  he  controlled  the  Demo- 
cratic party  of  the  State,  organizing  a  bolt,  not  in  a  national  con- 
vention, nor  in  a  State  convention,  nor  even  in  a  county  convention, 
but  in  a  little  convention  of  the  town  in  which  he  had  just  moved 
his  furniture.  The  result  was  you  were  not  permitted  to  sit  in  any 
convention  held  by  your  party. 

You  claim  that  the  friends  of  the  State  administration  helped  to 
bring  about  your  discomfiture.  Whether  they  did  or  not  is  imma- 
terial. It  is  evident  you  are  not  happy.  When  the  world  finds  a 
man  with  a  bandage  on  his  conscience  and  his  head  in  a  sling  it  does 
not  expect  him  to  be  in  a  good  humor.  But  you  greatly  mistake  the 
intelligence  of  the  American  people  if  you  imagine  that  after  play- 
ing the  part  you  have  you  can  now  deceive  anybody  by  attempting  to 
pose  as  a  lover  of  your  country. 

I  am  told  that  you  have  taken  the  contract  to  elect  Mr.  Tanner 
Governor.  This  is  the  privilege  of  every  citizen  of  Illinois  and  I 
certainly  will  not  begrudge  you  the  right  to  exercise  it,  but  if  you 
wanted  to  destroy  the  party  which  once  honored  you  would  it  not 
be  more  manly  to  get  out  in  front  and  join  the  Republicans  rather 
than  to  stab  it  while  professing  to  still  love  it? 

Mankind  learned  long  ago  that  there  is  no  man  so  bitter  and  no 
man  who  will  stoop  so  low  as  the  renegade.  While  I  may  regret 
very  much  to  see  a  man  of  your  ability  act  this  role,  yet  it  is  not  in 
my  power  to  prevent  it,  and  if  you  are  determined  to  move  along  that 
line  I  assure  you  you  shall  have  an  open  field.  You  are  at  liberty  to 
say  and  do  what  you  like  unmolested  by  me. 

It  is  noticeable  in  this  campaign  that  the  monopolists,  the  men 
who  devour  the  substance  of  others,  the  men  who  fatten  off  the  toil 
of  others,  are  all  arraigning  themselves  on  the  side  of  the  British 
gold  standard.  The  men  who  corrupt  legislation  at  Washington 
and  at  the  various  State  capitals,  the  men  who  corrupt  assessors  and 
escape  taxation,  as  well  as  all  their  handy  hired  men,  are  arrayed 
against  the  people.  While  on  the  other  side  are  the  great  masses 
of  toiling  and  patriotic  Americans  who  support  our  institutions  and 


608  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

make  our  civilization  possible.  By  the  law  of  natural  selection  you 
have  drifted  to  where  you  belong  and  if  you  do  not  get  British  gold 
for  your  work  I  suppose  it  will  not  be  your  fault.  By  the  way,  Judas 
threw  away  the  reward  of  his  treachery  and  hanged  himself — will  you 
follow  his  example? 

You  say  at  the  beginning  of  your  letter  that  you  suppose  it 
makes  no  difference  what  you  do  in  the  coming  election  in  relation 
to  my  candidacy.  Here  you  are  mistaken.  If  I  can  not  respect  the 
commission  by  virtue  of  which  I  exercise  the  functions  of  office  then 
I  do  not  want  to  hold  it,  and  if  I  can  not  look  honest  men  in  the  face 
then  I  do  not  want  to  be  Governor  of  Illinois,  and  I  therefore  repeat 
what  I  have  said  on  a  number  of  previous  occasions  that  if  my  elec- 
tion depends  upon  your  vote,  then  I  do  not  want  it. 

JOHN    P.    ALTGELD. 


LAYING  OF  THE  CORNER-STONE  OF  THE  NEW  HOSPI- 
TAL FOR  INSANE  AT  ROCK  ISLAND,  SEP- 
TEMBER, 1896. 

We  are  here  on  a  grand  mission,  on  a  mission  that  rises  above 
politics,  partisanship  and  self  seeking.  We  have  come  to  lay  the 
corner-stone  of  a  great  public  charity.  A  charity  which  we  hope 
will  be  a  blessing  to  the  world  for  all  the  centuries  to  come.  In  these 
days  of  excitement  and  heated  discussion,  when  the  passions  of  men 
are  much  inflamed,  it  is  inspiring  to  see  men  of  all  political  convic- 
tions meet  together  to  perform  a  ceremony  that  appeals  to  the  nobler 
and  loftier  sentiments  of  man.  The  progress  of  the  world  is  recorded, 
not  by  the  development  of  phenomenal  physical  strength,  but  by  its 
intellectual,  its  moral  and  its  charitable  development. 

Through  long  ages  those  who  were  unfortunate  enough  to  be 
deprived  of  the  use  of  some  of  their  faculties  and  who  were  there- 
fore unable  to  care  for  themselves  and  became  a  burden  upon  others 
were  deliberately  destroyed  by  their  more  fortunate  brethren.  Then 
came  many  long,  hard  centuries  in  which  those  who  were  bereft  of 
reason  were  thought  to  be  possessed  of  a  devil,  and  were  regarded 
with  horror.  They  were  chained  to  trees,  they  were  locked  in  filthy 
and  dark  dungeons  and  permitted  to  rot  in  loathsomeness  and  misery. 
Toward  the  beginning  of  this  century  science  asserted  that  insanity 
was  simply  a  disease  of  the  brain;  that  the  brain,  like  all  other  organs 
of  the  body,  was  physical  in  its  character  and  subject  to  a  great  va- 
riety of  diseases  and  that  certain  forms  of  disease  destroyed  the 


HOSPITAL  FOR  INSANE,  ROCK  ISLAND.        609 

functions  of  the  brain,  and  with  them  the  reasoning  powers  of  the 
patient.    It  was  also  asserted  that  diseases  of  the  brain,  like  diseases 
affecting  other  portions  of  the  body,  could  be  treated,  and  in  some 
cases  successfully.    As  a  necessary  consequence  of  these  new  Las 
followed  that  the  insane,  instead  of  being  locked  in  filthy  d"  ngeon 
or  tied  to  trees  should  be  treated  as  nearly  as  possible  as  "were  people 
ated  with  other  diseases.    But  experience  soon  showed  that  ft  was 


ated    aht  « 

thcted,  and  that  there  were  times  when  an  insane  patient  actually 

needed  restraint,  and  that  consequently  it  was  difficult  to  prope   y  ca  e 
for  them  in  private  famd.es,  especially  in  cases  where  the  families  were 
poor.    Then  the  more  enlightened  governments  took  upon  themseTv  s 
the  care  of  the  insane,  and  began  to  erect  asylums  for  them     As 
readily  be  supposed  the  first  efforts  in  this  direction  were  very  crude 

su  rd  « 

:r  -       - 


came  more  improved  ways  of  dealing  with  these 


some  physical  ail,  ca  care 


inspired 


to  provide  for  her  m,or,,,na,e  chi.dren. 


and  sai.ors  a,  Qui 


6io  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

minded  at  Lincoln,  a  charitable  eye  and  ear  infirmary  at  Chicago, 
giving  free  treatment  to  thousands  and  thousands  of  poor,  and  we 
have  already  four  large  insane  asylums,  one  at  Elgin  with  about  twelve 
hundred  patients,  another  at  Jacksonville  with  about  twelve  hundred 
patients,  one  at  Anna  with  about  a  thousand  patients,  and  one  at 
Kankakee  with  twenty-two  hundred  patients.  This  year  the  State 
is  founding  two  more  asylums  for  the  care  of  the  insane,  one  of  which 
is  located  at  Peoria,  and  we  here  lay  the  corner-stone  for  the  other 
to-day. 

It  is  a  matter  of  congratulation  for  every  citizen  of  Illinois  that 
in  efficiency  and  usefulness  the  charitable  institutions  of  this  State 
are  unsurpassed  upon  the  globe.  There  are  a  few  institutions  in  the 
East  and  in  Europe  which  make  more  display,  which  maintain  a  great 
deal  more  pomp  in  administration;  that  is,  the  officers  have  more 
elegant  quarters  and  live  in  grander  style,  but  nowhere  is  the  care 
and  the  comfort  of  patients  more  earnestly  looked  after  than  in  our 
State. 

These  institutions  are  not  partisan.  They  are  maintained  by  all 
of  our  people  and  they  should  be  the  pride  of  all  of  our  people.  Every 
citizen  of  the  State  has  a  right  to  know  how  they  are  administered 
and  I  will  say  that  we  are  making  every  effort  to  run  the  administrative 
departments  of  these  institutions  upon  purely  business  principles  and 
at  the  same  time  to  bring  the  institutions  up  to  the  highest  possible 
scientific  standard.  The  aim  is  to  buy  all  supplies  of  the  lowest  bidder, 
to  have  nobody  on  the  pay-roll  who  is  not  absolutely  needed  and  to 
keep  no  man  on  the  pay-roll  for  an  hour  after  it  is  discovered  that  he 
is  incompetent.  And  the  inflexible  rule  is  to  promptly  discharge  any 
employe  who  is  careless  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  or  is  rough  or 
brutal  in  dealing  with  patients. 

Three  years  ago  I  instructed  the  superintendent  of  each  charitable 
institution  in  the  State  to  investigate  the  best  institutions  similar  in 
character  to  his,  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  and  also  the  results 
of  the  latest  scientific  researches  as  to  methods  of  treatment,  etc.,  and 
to  compare  methods  of  treatment  there  with  those  in  his  institution 
and  to  report  the  result  of  such  investigation  together  with  his  con- 
clusions. Also  that  if  anything  was  found  anywhere  which  was  thought 
to  be  an  improvement  upon  what  was  already  had,  to  promptly  adopt 
it.  As  a  result  many  of  the  superintendents  made  most  thorough  re- 
ports of  their  investigations  and  I  feel  warranted  in  saying  to  you  that 
no  country  on  the  earth  to-day  has  charitable  institutions  that  surpass 
those  of  our  own  great  State. 

My  fellow  citizens  of  northwestern  Illinois,  you  have  waited  long 


HOSPITAL  FOR  INSANE,  ROCK  ISLAND.       6n 

for  your  day.  While  this  State  was  developing  and  founding  institu- 
tions in  all  other  sections  of  it  you  helped  bear  the  burden  without  a 
murmur.  No  section  of  the  State  contributes  more  freely  of  its  re- 
sources to  the  support  of  our  institutions  than  does  this  section. 
Nowhere  are  there  to  be  found  a  people  more  intelligent  and  patriotic 
than  are  the  people  of  this  section,  and  no  section  in  the  Union  sur- 
passed northwestern  Illinois  in  furnishing  brave  men  to  support  the 
integrity  of  the  flag.-  You  have  long  felt  that  you  were  entitled  to 
recognition.  That  your  location  and  importance  entitled  you  to  a 
State  institution.  Your  representatives  in  the  Legislature  have  worked 
hard  for  this  end  and  your  day  has  come,  and  as  the  Executive  of  this 
State  it  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  assist  in  the  ceremonies  of  laying 
this  corner-stone.  I  feel  that  I  am  most  fortunate  in  having  been  of- 
ficially connected  with  the  State  at  a  time  when  she  is  founding  a  num- 
ber of  new  institutions;  for  we  are  founding  two  new  insane  asylums, 
two  new  normal  universities,  besides  erecting  a  number  of  other  most 
important  public  buildings  in  different  sections  of  the  State.  What 
was  known  as  the  Augustine  age  in  Rome  was  made  lustrous,  not  by 
Augustus,  who  was  not  a  great  man,  but  by  the  genius  and  the  works 
of  the  great  men  of  that  age.  I  feel  that  I  am  fortunate  in  being 
officially  connected  with  this  State  at  this  time  when  her  great  people 
are  planting  the  landmarks  of  her  civilization  by  the  erection  of  new 
institutions. 

I  commit  this  institution  to  your  watchful  care,  to  your  patriotism 
and  to  your  high  sense  of  public  duty.  No  matter  who  the  trustees 
may  be  from  time  to  time,  they  will  be  influenced  by  your  judgment 
and  I  ask  you  to  see  to  it  that  this  institution  is  made  to  serve  the 
high  purpose  for  which  it  was  founded.  I  ask  you  to  see  to  it  for  all 
the  years  to  come  that  it  be  not  used  as  a  convenience  by  political 
manipulators  and  that  its  pay-roll  be  not  made  to  furnish  support  for 
the  dependent  relatives  of  prominent  citizens.  I  ask  you  to  see  to  it  that 
character,  merit  and  superior  qualifications  alone  shall  rule  this  insti- 
tution. 

You  have  observed  that  the  style  of  architecture  adopted  is  what 
has  been  called  Tudor-Gothic  and  has  something  in  common  with 
some  of  the  famous  castles  found  in  Europe.  I  am  told  that  as  a 
traveler  ascends  the  Rhine  and  views  some  noted  castle  situated 
on  a  hill-top  he  is  regaled  with  an  account  of  the  marauding  baron 
who  lived  there  centuries  ago  and  with  a  small  band  of  retainers 
emerged  from  time  to  time  to  rob  and  plunder  his  weaker  neighbors. 
In  the  centuries  which  are  to  come,  as  the  intelligent  traveler  shall 
ascend  the  great  Father  of  Waters  and  see  this  magnificent  structure 


612  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

commanding  a  view  of  the  surrounding  country,  he  will  exclaim: 
"There  stands  a  monument  to  the  intelligence,  the  civilization  and 
the  humanity  of  the  people  of  northwestern  Illinois." 


ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN. 
(Delivered  at  Central  Music  Hall,  Chicago,  September  19,  1896.) 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  printed  copy  of  the  speech  of  Mr.  Carl  Schurz, 
delivered  in  this  city  two  weeks  ago,  and  a  like  copy  of  the  speech 
of  Mr.  Cochran,  delivered  one  week  ago.  The  first  fills  twelve  col- 
umns of  closely  printed  matter  in  a  newspaper,  and  both  have  been 
advertised  as  the  ablest  arguments  in  favor  of  the  gold  standard  that 
have  yet  been  made.  The  gold  standard  advocates  speak  of  them  as 
containing  Moses  and  the  prophets,  the  law  and  the  gospel  of  the 
money  question.  From  the  manner  in  which  these  people  speak  of 
them  we  are  warranted  in  concluding  that  every  argument  and  every 
fact  that  can  be  marshaled  upon  that  side  of  the  question  is  contained 
in  these  speeches.  This  being  the  case  we  naturally  examine  them 
with  the  deepest  interest,  for  if  the  gold  standard  is  to  be  maintained 
we  want  to  know  what  we  may  reasonably  hope  from  it. 

NO   HOPE   IN   EITHER. 

It  would  have  given  great  relief  to  the  minds  of  thousands  of 
patriotic  men  to  have  had  presented  some  balm  for  the  ills  of  our  land, 
and  as  I  love  my  country  more  than  party  or  honors,  I  am  sorry  to 
have  to  say  to  you  that  in  these  long  speeches,  containing  as  we  are 
told  the  law  and  the  gospel  of  the  gold  standard,  there  is  not  a  line, 
not  a  sentence,  not  a  syllable  that  offers  any  hope  to  the  American 
people.  That  we  are  in  distress  is  not  denied  in  either  speech,  but 
there  is  no  suggestion  of  a  remedy.  The  substance  of  the  whole  argu- 
ment is,  that  we  will  be  better  off  and  suffer  less  if  we  keep  quiet, 
and  that  the  remedy  proposed  by  the  Chicago  platform  would  only 
make  matters  worse  instead  of  better,  or,  as  Mr.  Schurz  puts  it,  the 
application  of  this  remedy  would  be  jumping  out  of  the  frying  pan 
into  the  fire,  and  if  he  is  correct  in  this  then  the  only  question  which  is 
left  for  the  consideration  of  those  of  our  people  who  are  dying  in  the 
frying  pan  is  whether  they  would  be  any  worse  off  in  the  fire. 

M'KINLEY  PANACEA. 

The  straight-out  adherents  of  McKinley  have  a  panacea.  They 
realize  the  unsatisfactory  conditions  in  our  land  and  propose  to  remedy 


ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  613 

them  by  an  increase  of  the  tariff.  They  feel  that  some  hope  must  be 
offered  to  the  American  people  and  having  nothing  else  to  present  they 
ask  us  to  again  try  the  idea  of  increasing  the  tariff  tax. 

THEY  ASK  PEOPLE  TO  SHUT  THEIR  EYES. 

They  ask  the  people  to  shut  their  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  distress 
from  which  we  suffer  exists  all  over  Europe  as  well  as  this  country; 
that  it  exists  in  the  countries  having  a  high  tariff  and  in  countries 
having  a  moderate  tariff  and  countries  having  no  tariff  at  all,  and  is 
clearly  due  to  some  cause  that  has  no  connection  with  the  tariff. 
They  ask  us  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  we  have  already  a  very 
high  tariff  and  that  the  decline  in  prices  began  many  years  ago  under  a 
still  higher  tariff  and  that  it  went  right  on  under  the  highest  tariff 
ever  known  in  this  country,  called  the  McKinley  tariff.    They  ask  us 
to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  in  1888  the  conditions  in  our  country 
were  unsatisfactory  and  that  the  remedy  that  was  then  proposed  as 
a  cure  was  an  increase  of  the  tariff  and  that  this  immediately  followed 
the  election  of  Mr.  Harrison  when  the  famous  McKinley  bill  was 
enacted.    They  ask  us  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  under  that  law 
wages  were  not  raised,  prices  kept  steadily  falling  and  that  immediately 
after  its  enactment  in  1890  there  was  a  marked  reduction  in  wages  in 
several  hundred  of  the  largest  manufacturing  establishments  of  this 
country.    They  ask  us  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  while  the  tariff 
shielded  the  manufacturer  in  some  cases  against  competition  it  per- 
mitted him  to  fill  his  factories  with  the  cheapest  kind  of  pauper  labor 
brought  from  the  fields  of  Europe  and  thus  instead  of  raising  the 
wages  of  the  American  workman  not  only  reduced  their  wages  but 
drove  them  out  of  employment.    They  ask  us  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the 
fact  that  it  was  in  the  spring  of  1892  while  the  McKinley  law  was  in 
force  and  while  Mr.  Harrison  was  President  that  the  famous  Home- 
stead labor  riots  occurred,  being  among  the  most  bloody  that  ever 
took  place  in  this  country;  that  at  that  time  the  conditions  of  the  la- 
borer were  rapidly  getting  worse  and  the  prices  of  American  products 
were  steadily  falling.    They  ask  us  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
the  McKinley  law  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1894,  produced 
a  deficit  to  the  United  States  treasury  of  $70,000,000.     They  ask  us 
to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  neither  the  laboring  man  of  this  coun- 
try nor  of  Europe  has  derived  any  substantial  benefit  from  the  tariff 
because  the  employer  is  always  permitted  to  fill  his  shop  with  cheap 
labor.    They  ask  us  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  tariff  is  no 
longer  a  matter  of  theory  but  a  matter  of  history.    It  has  been  tried 
and  it  has  been  found  wanting.    Consequently  with  the  adherents  of 


614  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

McKinley  it  is  a  question  in  this  campaign  of  seeing  how  often  they 
can  fool  the  people.  Both  Mr.  Schurz  and  Mr.  Cochran  have  been 
avowed  enemies  of  this  tariff.  They  cannot  and  they  do  not  offer 
it  as  a  remedy  for  any  of  the  ills  of  the  land,  and  having  no  other 
remedy  to  offer  and  seeing  no  prospect  of  a  change  for  the  better 
under  existing  policies  they  simply  tell  the  patient  that  if  he  will  only 
lie  still  he  will  suffer  less  than  if  he  attempts  to  bestir  himself.  They 
have  no  remedy  to  suggest  but  they  strenuously  object  to  permitting 
the  people  to  do  anything  towards  helping  themselves. 

That  bishop  who  told  an  anxious  negro  that  there  were  only  two 
ways  open  for  him  and  that  one  led  directly  down  to  hell  while  the 
other  led  away  off  to  eternal  damnation  was  evidently  the  man  who 
furnished  the  text  for  both  of  these  speeches.  The  negro  scratched  his 
head  and  replied:  "If  dat's  so,  massa,  den  dis  chile  takes  to  de  woods." 
And  if  Messrs.  Schurz  and  Cockran  are  correct  then  the  American 
people  will  have  to  take  to  the  woods. 

NOT  A  LOCAL  QUESTION. 

In  considering  the  question  as  to  whether  the  demonetization  of 
silver  in  the  world  reduced  prices  they  shrewdly  leave  Europe  out  of 
consideration,  shut  their  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  effects  produced 
there  are  the  same  as  those  produced  here,  treat  the  whole  question  as 
though  it  were  local  to  our  country,  and  then  argue  that  inasmuch  as 
there  had  not  been  many  silver  dollars  coined  in  our  country  and  those 
that  were  coined  went  abroad,  because  of  the  fact  that  they  com- 
manded a  premium  of  two  per  cent.,  that,  therefore,  the  demonetiza- 
tion of  silver  in  the  United  States  could  not  have  affected  prices  be- 
cause there  was  scarcely  any  silver  here  to  drive  out  of  circulation. 

SILVER  IN  EUROPE  HELPED  TO  FIX  PRICES. 

Let  us  first  look  at  this  theory.  The  greatest  markets  for  most  of 
American  products  were  in  Europe;  whatever  affected  prices  of  com- 
modities which  were  shipped  there  in  the  end  affected  the  prices  of 
commodities  at  home.  Let  us  suppose  that  there  was  no  silver  in 
circulation  in  the  United  States,  that  as  Mr.  Schurz  intimates  it  was 
all  in  circulation  in  Europe,  then  it  was  doing  the  work  of  money 
in  Europe,  it  was  doing  a  work  there  which  would  otherwise  have 
had  to  be  done  by  gold ;  it  practically  displaced  that  much  gold  over 
there  and  permitted  the  gold  to  flow  elsewhere.  It  increased  the  vol- 
ume of  money  in  the  world,  and  in  that  way  affected  prices  for  the 
world,  not  simply  in  any  one  country,  but  for  the  world.  Under  those 
conditions,  so  far  as  prices  were  concerned,  it  made  little  difference 


'ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  615 

whether  the  owners  of  silver  bullion  brought  it  to  our  mints  to  be 
coined  or  took  it  to  European  mints  to  be  coined.  In  either  case 
t  helped  to  swell  the  volume  of  money  in  the  world,  it  helped  to  do 
the  business  of  the  world,  and  helped  to  fix  the  standard  of  prices  of 
property.  Mr.  Schurz  knew  this  fact,  and  I,  therefore,  submit  that 
when  he,  at  the  outset,  tried  to  treat  the  question  as  a  local  one  and  to 
conceal  from  view  the  fact  that  if  silver  was  circulating  in  Europe  it 
was  just  as  good  as  if  it  were  circulating  here,  so  far  as  prices  were 
concerned,  he  was  not  making  a  fair  presentation  of  the  question 
I  do  not  care  to  use  severer  language,  although  I  am  aware  that  if  a 
man  speaking  for  the  silver  side  was  to  pursue  such  a  course  he  would 
be  vehemently  denounced  as  a  pettifogger. 

COINAGE  IN  THIS  COUNTRY. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  facts  in  regard  to  the  coinage  of  silver  in  this 
country.    It  is  true  that  Jefferson  for  a  time  suspended  the  coinage  of 
silver  dollars.    The  reason  was  that  half  dollars  were  a  full  legal  tender 
for  any  amount,  just  as  much  as  dollars  were,  and  inasmuch  as  the 
country  was  new  and  poor  it  was  thought  that  half  dollars  would  be 
more  convenient  in  circulation  than  dollars,  and  inasmuch  as  they 
could  be  used  in  payment  of  debts  the  same  as  dollars  it  made  no  dif- 
ference, but  the  coinage  was  on  the  same  basis  as  that  of  gold  and  any 
man  having  silver  bullion  could  convert  it  into  money  just  the  same 
-as  though  it  were  gold,  and  the  treasury  tables  given  out  at  Washing- 
ton show  that  from  1806  down  to  1873  there  were  $154,318,071  of  sil- 
ver coined  in  this  country.    In  1871  there  were  1,117,127  of 'silver  dol- 
lars coined— not  subsidiary  coins,  but  dollars— and  in  1872  there  were 
1,118,600  silver  dollars  coined,  being  nearly  twice  the  number  ever 
before  coined  in  one  year.     Bear  this  in  mind,  the  two  years  before 
silver  was  striken  down  there  were  nearly  twice  as  many  silver  dollars 
coined  as  m  any  previous  year.     Mr.  Schurz  knew  these  facts,  and  yet 
he  presents  his  figures  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the  impression  that 
no  silver  had  been  coined  in  this  country,  and  therefore  we  demone- 
tized nothing. 

AMOUNT  OF  MONEY  IN  THIS  COUNTRY. 
His  next  claim  is  that  we  had  more  money  per  capita  in  circulation 
m  1895  than  we  had  prior  to  the  demonetization,  and  that,  therefore, 
there  was  no  reduction  in  the  volume  of  money,  and  that  consequently 
demonetization  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  fall  of  prices.  He  says 
that  in  1895  we  had  a  total  of  $2,217,000,000  in  circulation,  making 
$22.96  per  capita,  while  in  1873  we  had  only  $18.04  per  capita  in 
circulation. 


6i6  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

TABLES   WRONG. 

Now,  this  is  based  on  the  tables  given  out  by  one  branch  of  the 
Treasury  Department;  that  is,  the  director  of  the  mint,  and  sometimes 
copied  in  the  reports  of  other  branches  of  the  treasury,  but  they  ema- 
nate originally  from  the  office  of  the  director  of  the  mint,  and  they 
are  not  only  wrong,  but  are  well  known  to  be  wrong.  In  his  report 
for  the  year  1892  the  director  of  the  mint  explains  the  origin  of  these 
tables.  They  ascertained  what  specie  there  was  in  the  country  at  the 
time  of  resumption,  and  they  have  added  to  it  year  by  year  the  coinage 
and  what  the  custom-house  records  show  to  have  been  imported,  and 
they  have  deducted  only  what  the  records  show  to  have  been  used  in 
the  arts  and  what  the  records  show  to  have  been  exported,  and  they 
assume  that  all  the  balance  is  still  in  circulation.  They  make  no  al- 
lowance for  what  was  carried  over  our  Southern  boundary  in  a  quarter 
of  a  century  unrecorded,  nor  for  what  was  carried  over  our  northern 
boundary  during  that  time  unrecorded,  nor  for  what  was  carried  to 
China  during  that  time  unrecorded,  nor  for  what  was  lost  during  that 
time,  nor  for  what  was  used  in  the  arts  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  with- 
out a  record  having  been  made  of  it,  and  they  make  no  allowance 
for  what  was  carried  to  Europe  in  the  pockets  of  American  citizens 
traveling  abroad,  and  of  which  no  record  is  made;  yet  in  one  of  his 
reports  the  director  of  the  mint  says  that  it  was  estimated  that  the 
American  travelers  in  Europe  during  the  year  of  the  Paris  exposition 
spent  $90,000,000.  Of  course  the  most  of  that  we  may  presume  was 
in  the  shape  of  letters  of  credit  and  therefore  a  record  was  made  of 
it,  but  no  record  was  made  of  what  they  carried  in  their  pockets.  Thus 
you  see  that  the  tables  become  utterly  worthless.  Again,  in  regard  to 
paper  money,  they  assume  that  every  dollar  that  was  ever  issued  by  the 
government  and  is  not  shown  by  the  records  at  Washington  to  have 
been  canceled  is  still  in  circulation,  a  proposition  too  absurd  to  be 

discussed. 

REPORTS  OF  BANKS. 

But  the  Treasury  Department  gives  out  another  report  that  is 
accurate  and  it  tells  an  entirely  different  story  in  regard  to  the  amount 
of  money  we  have  in  our  country.  This  report  is  given  out  by  the 
comptroller  of  the  currency  who  has  supervision  of  the  national  banks. 
For  several  years  past  the  comptroller  has  been  sending  a  request 
to  every  bank  in  the  United  States,  national,  State  and  private,  to 
report  the  amount  of  money  they  had  on  hand  at  the  close  of  business 
on  a  particular  day  and  to  state  what  it  consisted  of.  There  are  in  the 
United  States  a  little  less  than  four  thousand  national  banks  and  about 


'ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  617 

five  thousand  State  and  private  banks.  Substantially  all  of  these 
banks  responded  to  the  inquiry  and  I  have  here  the  comptroller's  re- 
port for  the  year  1895  and  on  page  15  he  gives  a  summary  of  these 
reports. 

REPORT  OF   COMPTROLLER. 

I  will  give  you  this  in  the  language  of  the  comptroller-     "The 
cash  held  by  national  banks  on  July  nth,  and  by  other  banks  at  about 
that  date,  amounts  to  $631,1 1 1,290,  classified  as  follows :    Gold  $127  - 
621,099;  silver,  $15,594,037;  specie  not  classified,  $19,298  ?6r  paper 
currency,  $342,739,129;  fractional  currency,  $1,023,442,  and  cash  not 
classified,  $124,835,220."     The  reports  for  several  prior  years  were 
practically  the  same.     At  about  that  time  there  were  in  the  United 
States  Treasury  all  told,  $329,517,713  available  for  circulation     Add- 
ing this  sum  to  what  there  was  then  in  all  the  banks  of  the  United 
states  it  makes  $950,629,000.     This  constituted  all  of  the  money  in 
.  m  this  country  except  what  there  was  then  in  the  pockets  of  the 
There  is  no  way  of  ascertaining  definitely  just  what  this  would 
amount  to,  but  considering  the  fact  that  we  had  had  several  years  of 
panic  and  .dleness  and  distress,  during  which  time  most  of  the  little 
ngs  had  been  used  up,  and  considering  the  further  facts  that  in 
recent  years  building  associations  have  been  formed  in  every  viila-e  in 
>.  land,  and  the  money  that  used  to  be  saved  or  hoarded  in  a  small 
way  was  drawn  out  and  absorbed  by  these  building  associations;  and 
that  we  have  banks  m  almost  every  village  in  the  land,  and  that  all 
business  men  deposit  every  day  so  as  not  to  run  the  risk  of  leavino- 
money  m  their  stores  over  night,  it  is  apparent  that  the  amount 
of  money  then  m  the  pockets  of  the  people  was  not  large.     Good 
judges  have  asserted  that  when  you  take  into  consideration  all  of  the 
poor  laboring  classes  of  this  country  and  of  the  colored  people  of  the 
South   and  the  fact  that  farmers  had  very  little  money,  that  an  aver- 
age of  five  dollars  per  household  would  be  a  full  average,  and  as  there 
were  then  about    fourteen  million  families,  that  would  make  seventy 
millions  of  dollars.     But  in  order  to  cover  every  contingency  let  us 
nearly  double  this,  let  us  add  another  fifty  million.    This  would  make 
one  hundred  and  twenty  million  dollars,  being  at  that  time,  as  we  say 
n  the  Pockets  of  the  people.     Adding  this  sum  to  what  there  wa 
ien  m  the  banks  and  ,n  the  Treasury  it  makes  $1,070,629,000  as  the 
total  money  ,n  the  United  States  available  for  circulation    less  than 
half  of  the  sum  named  by  Mr.  Schurz. 


618  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

AMOUNT  PER  CAPITA. 

Now  bear  in  mind  that  this  is  the  result  of  an  actual  inventory 
made  by  all  the  monied  institutions  in  this  country  and  therefore  is 
the  most  reliable  information  which  the  Treasury  Department  has 
yet  furnished  us  upon  this  question.  If  you  say  we  have  underesti- 
mated the  amount  in  the  pockets  of  the  people  then  add  another  five 
dollars  for  each  household  and  it  will  make  only  $70,000,000  more 
and  still  be  only  half  the  sum  named  by  Mr.  Schurz. 

If  Mr.  Schurz  knew  these  facts  and  withheld  them  from  his  audi- 
ence and  his  readers  and  used  figures  that  were  incorrect  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  a  wrong  impression,  then  you  will  admit  that  he  is 
not  a  safe  guide.  If  he  did  not  know  these  facts  then  it  will  be  ad- 
mitted he  is  not  a  safe  counsel.  But  in  either  case  it  is  apparent 
that  so  much  of  his  argument  as  was  based  upon  the  alleged  amount  of 
money  we  have  in  this  country  must  fall  to  the  ground. 

MONEY   SCARCE. 

The  fact  is  there  is  not  enough  money  in  this  country  at  present  to 
do  its  business.  In  all  of  the  agricultural  States  of  the  South,  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  and  the  West,  there  is  the  greatest  scarcity  of  money. 
The  banks  are  unable  to  furnish  what  is  needed,  and  even  in  the  money 
centers  a  very  little  disturbance  renders  the  banks  helpless.  Recently, 
we  had  what  is  known  as  the  "Diamond  Match  Stock  Speculation," 
and  a  collapse  followed,  and  so  seriously  did  this  single  speculation 
strain  the  money  market  of  this  great  city,  with  all  of  its  large  banks, 
that  many  of  the  banks  had  to  refuse  credits  to  their  customers  in 
legitimate  business,  and  the  banks,  acting  together,  forced  the  stock 
exchange  to  close,  so  thai  there  should  be  no  market  quotations  on 
Diamond  Match  stock,  for  fear  that  otherwise  a  number  of  banks 
would  be  unable  to  meet  their  obligations  and  be  ruined.  A  few 
years  ago  the  banks  of  New  York  that  are  perniciously  active  in  this 
money  agitation  actually  refused  to  pay  their  obligations  because 
they  had  not  the  money  with  which  to  do  it,  and  forced  the  public 
to  take  clearing-house  certificates.  Mr.  Schurz  says  there  are  oceans 
of  money  lying  idle,  and  then  in  another  sentence  he  says  that  gold 
is  now  leaving  our  country  and  going  to  Europ :  because  it  finds  prof- 
itable employment  there.  Naturally  you  ask  if  there  are  oceans  of 
money  lying  idle  in  those  money  centers,  then  how  can  money  going 
there  from  here  find  profitable  employment  there.  He  is  no  doubt 
correct  in  this,  that  there  is  congestion  in  money  centers,  but  it  is  be- 
cause of  the  constant  downward  tendency  in  prices  which  prevent 


ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  619 

prudent  men  from  embarking  in  enterprises  and  using  money  for 
legitimate  purposes.  The  heart  is  congested  and  the  extremities  are 
cold,  a  condition  which  always  follows  when  a  large  portion  of  the 
blood  is  taken  from  a  patient. 

SMALL  AMOUNT  OF  GOLD  HERE. 

In  passing,  I  call  your  attention  again  to  the  fact  that    on  the 
i  ith  day  of  July,  1895,  all  of  the  banks  in  the  United  States  of  America 
together  held  only  $127,629,099  of  gold,  and  that  sum,  added  to  the 
hundred  millions  of  gold  that  are  supposed  to  be  constantly  in  the 
treasury,  constituted  all  the  gold  there  was  in  sight  in  the  United 
Mates      No  sensible  man  now  claims  the  poor  people  are  hoarding 
gold;  the  fact  is  that  even  rich  people  rarely  get  to  see  it.    In  depict- 
ing the  horrors  which  will  come  upon  our  country  in  the  event  of  the 
election  of  Mr.  Bryan,  Mr.  Schurz  points  out  in  a  thrilling  manner 
how  six  hundred  million  dollars  of  gold  would  instantly  take  wings 
and  vanish.     Other  gold  standard  orators  have  dwelt  loud  and  lone 
upon  the  vanishing  of  six  hundred  million  dollars  of  gold     It  is  one 
of  the  stock  arguments  met  everywhere,  and  it  is  iterated  and  reiterat- 
by  the  bankers  themselves.     Now,  in  view  of  the  facts  published 
by  the  Treasury  Department  itself,  and  which  will  not  be  challenged  by 
I  standard  people,  I  am  warranted  in  asserting  that  these  bankers 
know  that  there  are  scarcely  two  hundred  million  dollars  of  gold  in 
the  entire  country,  including  what  there  is  in  the  United  States  Treas 

that  "  CVery  d°llar  °f 


athe  -  e  -rwn     om 

all  the  banks  m  this  country,  ,t  would  make  only  a  little  over  $127  ooo 
ooo.  When  they  therefore  try  to  make  the  impression  that  the  ew^'d 
be  a  contraction  of  $600,000,000,  their  conduct  is  in  keeping  with  he 
whole  history  of  this  gold  standard  movement;  that  is  it  is  one  o 

men    o    gold  from  the  banks  of  this  country;  but  if  it  were  al°  I 
and  ,    that  which  is  in  the  United  States  Treasury  were  a  so    o  °oi't 
wou,d  ,          t  t    onl      b        $3^  ^  Qf         -  £    °  ^; 

of  the  awful  catastrophe  that  is  to  befall  this  land  by  the  removal  o 
six  hundred  million  dollars  of  gold,  in  the  event  of  the  elect  on  of  Mr 
Bryan,  w,ll  not  come  to  pass.  It  is  one  of  those  predicted  storms 
that  it  is  not  necessary  to  insure  against. 


620  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

NO  OVERPRODUCTION. 

But  the  main  fabric  of  the  whole  speech  of  Mr.  Schurz  is  based 
upon  the  theory  of  overproduction.  He  insists  that  there  is  a  fall  in  the 
price  of  silver  and  that  this  is  due  to  overproduction.  That  there  was 
so  much  more  silver  produced  than  formerly  that  it  had  to  fall  in  price. 
You  will  readily  see  that  if  there  was  the  same  increase  in  the  produc- 
tion of  both  metals,  then  there  was  no  reason  why  the  relations  which 
they  bore  to  each  other,  or  the  market  ratio  which  they  bore  to  each 
other,  should  change.  Mr.  Schurz  knew  this.  Why  didn't  he  state  it 
that  way?  Because  he  knew  the  facts  were  against  him.  He  wanted 
to  make  an  impression  which  he  could  not  make  without  a  suppression 
of  part  of  the  case.  Fortunately  this  is  not  a  matter  that  we  need  to 
speculate  about.  We  have  history,  experience  and  accurate  data  upon 
this  subject.  According  to  the  tables  issued  by  the  Treasury  De- 
partment August  16,  1893,  showing  the  total  production  of  gold  and 
silver  in  the  world  at  coinage  value,  it  appears  that  from  the  year  1792, 
when  our  monetary  system  was  founded,  to  the  year  1852,  the  time  of 
the  great  gold  discoveries,  being  a  period  of  sixty  years,  the  total  pro- 
duction of  silver  in  the  world,  rating  it  at  coinage  value,  was  $1,769,- 
197,000  and  the  total  production  of  gold  in  the  world  during  that  time 
was  $960,236,000;  that  is,  on  the  average  there  was  just  about  twice 
as  much  silver  produced  as  gold,  during  that  time.  The  production 
of  each  metal  varied  of  course  during  the  different  years,  and  yet  the 
market  ratio  between  the  two  metals  remained  practically  the  same 
during  all  that  time.  The  tables  giving  the  market  prices  show  that 
during  those  sixty  years  there  was  a  variance  of  only  seven-tenths  of 
one  point,  or  just  about  the  cost  of  exchange.  The  same  tables  show 
that  from  1852  to  1873  the  total  gold  production  of  the  world  was 
$2,516,575,000  while  the  total  silver  production  was  only  $989,225,000, 
that  is,  there  was  two  and  a  half  times  as  much  gold  produced  as  sil- 
ver, yet  the  market  ratio  remained  unchanged  during  these  twenty- 
one  years  just  as  it  had  during  the  period  of  sixty  years  when  there 
was  twice  as  much  silver  as  gold  produced.  Again,  the  same  tables 
show  that  from  1873  to  1892,  inclusive,  the  total  gold  production  of  the 
world  was  $2,176,505,000,  while  the  total  silver  production  was  $2,- 
347,087,000,  that  is,  the  production  of  gold  was  nearly  equal  to  that  of 
silver.  During  the  first  two  periods  silver  was  a  money  metal.  Dur- 
ing the  last  period  it  was  not.  Inasmuch  as  silver  did  not  fall  in  value, 
as  measured  in  gold,  during  the  sixty  years  in  which  there  was  twice 
as  much  silver  produced  as  there  was  gold,  it  is  clear  that  had  silver 


ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  '62 1 

not  been  demonetized  it  would  not  have  fallen  when  the  sold  oro 
duction  was  nearly  equal  to  that  of  silver  after  1873. 

SILVER  HAS  NOT  FALLEN. 

Again,  silver  has  not  fallen  in  comparison  with  other  property 
By  taking  the  average  price  of  all  commodities  known  to  the  market 

.s  found  that  a  pound  of  silver  will  buy  as  great  an  amount  of  com- 
modities as  ever.     Silver  occupies  the  same  relation  to  the  products 
of  the  earth  and  to  labor  to-day  that  it  did  before.    It  is  gold  that  h 
gone  up.    The  law  by  striking  down  the  competition  haf  given  gdd 

monopoly.     It  protects  gold  against  competition.     Practicallv  the 
gold  dollar  is  a  2OO-cent  dollar.    Nominally  it  still  has  only    oo  cent 
m  it,  but  it  takes  200  cents'  worth  of  commodities  to  get  on^ 
measured  by  bimetallic  prices.     Consequently,  we  find,  frst  that 
has  been  nn  mrro^co  ;„  <-u~      ._j__,- 


.  ,     e    n,     r  tat      e 

as  been  no  increase  in  the  production  of  silver  when  compared  wth 

r°dU 


has  nofaenlh     Pr°UCt°,n  °f  f  M'  ^  SeC°nd^  We  **          &« 
not  fallen  when  compared  with  property  and  the  products  of  labor 

therefore  the  entire  fabric  of  Mr.  SchurJargumen?  musf  LS  to  th" 


FALL  OF  WAGES, 
next 
were 


a  fair  way  of  representing  that  question.     All  the  world  knows    ha' 
wages  have  nearly  doubled  since  1860.     The  ques  ™     ,    ho     , 


This  subject  of  wages  was  carefully  inquired  into  i 
by  a  committee  appointed  by  the  United  ^  State    Senate 
rn.ttee  made  a  thorough  investigation.    John  G   Ca 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  was  a'member  of  fc 
a  long  and  full  report,  and  it  showed  that  betwee 


^ 


,  an, 


622  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Mr.  Schurz  was  once  a  member  of  the  United  States  Senate,  and  the 
investigation  by  this  committee  on  the  subject  of  wages  must  have 
attracted  his  attention.  If  he  was  thorough  in  his  investigation  he 
must  have  seen  this  report.  Had  he  been  thoroughly  candid  he  would 
not  have  tried  to  make  the  impression  that  because  wages  had  risen 
between  1860  and  1873  that  therefore  they  were  still  as  high  as  they 
ever  were.  The  fact  is  that  there  was  a  great  fall  in  wages  between 
1873  and  1880,  there  was  a  slight  rally  in  '80  due  to  causes  which  I 
will  explain  presently.  This  lasted  for  a  comparatively  short  time,  and 
since  that  time  there  has  been  a  steady  decline  in  wages.  Wages  and 
prices  must  on  the  average  go  hand  in  hand.  Labor  creates  proper- 
ty; if  property  must  be  sold  for  low  prices  then  labor  can  not  be  paid 
high  wages  for  creating  it.  This  is  axiomatic. 

PRICES  WOULD   NOT  FALL  AT   ONCE. 

Mr.  Schurz  tells  us  that  if  the  demonetization  of  silver  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  fall  in  prices,  then  the  fall  should  have  come  in- 
stantly. I  ask  you  to  consider  that  statement  a  moment  and  then 
tell  me  whether  it  is  not  contrary  to  the  universal  experience  of  man- 
kind. Owners  of  property  do  not  accept  lower  prices  until  they  are 
obliged  to.  No  matter  what  cause  may  be  operating  to  reduce  prices, 
owners  of  property  hold  it  up  as  long  as  they  can,  they  hold  it  up 
until  the  debts  press  too  hard  and  the  strain  gets  too  severe,  when 
they  are  obliged  to  let  it  go.  So  that  the  decline  is  never  instant,  and  in 
the  very  nature  of  things  comes  gradually,  the  weaker  holders  giving 
way  first  and  the  stronger  holding  out  till  the  last.  Further,  silver 
was  not  demonetized  by  all  of  the  countries  at  once.  Germany  set 
her  face  toward  demonetization  in  1871,  but  did  not  enact  her  law 
until  1873;  our  government  acted  in  1873,  the  other  nations  followed 
later;  Holland  acted  in  1875,  Russia  in  1876,  and  Austria  did  not  adopt 
a  gold  standard  until  1879.  It  is  true  that  owing  to  the  fact  that  Ger- 
many, Italy  and  some  other  countries  drew  heavily  upon  the  principal 
gold  market  of  the  world,  which  is  London,  there  were  serious  mone- 
tary disturbances  in  London  and  some  portions  of  Europe  almost 
every  year  after  1873,  and  prices  and  consequently  business  were 
seriously  affected  in  Europe  during  this  year.  All  of  the  leading  finan- 
cial writers  of  England  refer  to  this  fact,  and  although  they  insist  on 
maintaining  the  gold  standard  for  England,  because  she  is  a  creditor 
nation,  they  attribute  this  fall  in  prices,  this  disturbance  in  business 
to  the  acts  of  the  governments  of  Europe  in  striking  down  silver  by 
law,  and  establishing  a  gold  standard,  because  these  acts  of  govern- 
ment affect  the  supply  and  demand. 


'ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  623 

SUPPLY  AND   DEMAND. 

By  destroying  silver  they  reduced  the  supply  of  money  in  the 
world.  By  adopting  a  gold  standard  they  increased  the  demand  for 
gold.  In  our  country  there  were  a  number  of  reasons  why  the  de- 
monetization of  silver  was  not  immediately  felt.  First,  the  -overn- 
ment  had  between  l866  and  ,869  reduced  the  volume  of  paper'money 
we  had  m  tins  country,  which  was  all  the  money  we  had,  from  one 
thousand  six  hundred  and  forty  odd  millions  down  to  less  than  eio-ht 
hundred  millions  and  had  issued  bonds  instead.  This  reduction  in  the 
volume  of  money  then  in  circulation  in  our  country  was  followed  by 
a  corresponding  fall  in  prices  which  had  been  based  on  the  former 
volume  of  paper  money. 

PANIC  OF  1873. 


h'  Were  Unable  to  meet  the  debts 

which  had  been  contracted  on  the  basis  of  prices  formerly  prevailing 
and  the  panic  of  1873  followed  as  a  necessary  result  of  that.  By  issuing 
more  bonds  the  government  got  coin  and  we  resumed  what  were 
called  specie  payments. 

BALANCE  OF  TRADE  AND  INCREASE  OF  MONEY. 


rally.fr°m  the  Panic  of  '73  Europe  was  feeling 
effect  of  the  demonetization  of  silver,  but  in  our  country  we  found 
he  balance  of  trade  between  us  and  Europe  toward   1880  was 
greatly  m  our  favor  so  that  according  to  the  treasury  tables  there  were 
!?  th.?..V         f  °f  money  in  our  country  from  that  source  several 
ai"S 


hat  tm  ve    u"n 

time  and  there  was  a  large  addition  to  our  circulating  medium 

from  that  source.    Then  the  Bland-Allison  act  which  partially  restored 
silver  was  enacted  in  t878  and  required  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
com  not  less  than  two  nor  more  than  four  millions  of  dollars  per 
month.    The  effect  of  this  was  to  add  anywhere  from  twenty-five  to 
ortv-e,ght  millions  of  dollars  per  year  to  our  currency  and  thus  helped 
to  keep  up  pnces.    The  increase  in  the  volume  of  money  in  our  coun- 
try, according  to  treasury  tables,  during  these  years  was  so  great  that 
and  wages  rose  correspondingly  from  what  thev  had  been  after 
the  panic  of  1873.    But  these  causes  were  local  and  did  not  last  and 
the  course  of  a  few  years  the  general  depression  which  had  already 
spread  over  Europe,  following  the  demonetization  of  silver   be-an  to 
spread  over  our  country  and  from  that  time  on  has  become  more  and 


624  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

EFFECT  OF   FALLING   PRICES. 

Both  Mr.  Schurz  and  Mr.  Cochran  treat  the  whole  subject  of  fall- 
ing prices  as  if  it  were  simply  a  scramble  between  different  citizens — 
between  seller  and  buyer.  If  this  were  all,  then  the  matter  would  not  be 
of  such  transcendent  and  far-reaching  importance,  and  would  not  so 
directly  affect  the  welfare  of  the  whole  people.  Neither  grasps  the 
great  principle  that  falling  prices  first  disturb  business  in  its  entire  cir- 
cle, and  affect  the  property  of  both  rich  and  poor,  and  that  when  prices 
go  very  low  they  destroy  the  purchasing  power  of  the  great  producing 
and  farming  classes,  and  that  this  destroys  what  we  call  the  home  mar- 
ket and  forces  manufacturing  establishments  to  shut  down,  because 
there  are  not  sufficient  buyers  to  take  what  they  make,  and  thus  forces 
labor  into  idleness  and  destroys  the  purchasing  power  of  labor  and 
produces  a  general  paralysis  in  the  land.  No  matter  what  may  be  the 
cause  of  falling  prices,  their  effect  upon  the  community  is  more  than 
a  mere  scramble  between  buyer  and  seller,  and  here  is  where  all  advo- 
cates of  the  gold  standard  fail  to  rise  to  the  occasion,  fail  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  the  case;  their  treatment  of  this  question  is  almost 
flippant. 

PRODUCTION  AND  PRICE   OF  WHEAT. 

In  attempting  to  account  for  the  fall  in  price  of  prop- 
erty, Mr.  Schurz  selects  wheat  as  an  illustration,  and  he 
attempts  to  show  that  there  has  been  a  great  increase  in 
the  annual  production  of  wheat;  that  we  have  not  only 
open  the  whole  Northwest,  which  is  producing  wheat,  but 
that  our  farmers  have  to  compete  with  the  wheat  of  India,  Argentine 
Republic  and  of  Russia,  and  he  assumes  that  therefore  the  price  of 
wheat  had  to  fall.  There  are  three  things  to  be  said  in  answer  to  this. 
First,  increase  in  production  does  not  produce  a  fall  in  price,  provided 
there  is  an  equal  increase  in  consumption.  This  is  self-evident,  and 
Mr.  Giffen,  the  statistician  of  the  British  Board  of  Trade,  has,  on  dif- 
ferent occasions,  pointed  out  that  for  more  than  fifteen  years  prior  to 
1873  the  increase  in  the  production  of  nearly  all  commodities  in  the 
world  had  been  greater  on  the  average,  year  by  year,  than  the  increase 
has  been  in  any  year  since  1873,  and  yet,  as  he  says,  during  all  of  those 
years  prior  to  1873  prices  kept  constantly  rising,  notwithstanding  the 
enormously  increased  production,  while  since  1873  prices  have  been 
steadily  falling,  notwithstanding  that  the  increase  was  not  as  great 
as  it  formerly  was. 

The  second  observation  is  that  wheat  has  not  fallen  in  price  any 


"ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  625 

more  than  all  other  commodities.  It  has  fallen  no  more  than  all  prop- 
erty has  fallen;  has  fallen  no  more  than  wages.  It  is  not  contended 
that  Russia,  India  and  the  Argentine  Republic  have  entered  into  com- 
petition in  the  production  of  all  other  products  which  our  people  put 
upon  the  market. 

These  two  points  show  that  Mr.  Schurz  is  entirely  wrong  in  his 
theories.  The  third  observation  is  that  he  is  entirely  wrong  in  his 
facts. 

The  truth  is  that  there  has  been  scarcely  any  improvement  in  ma- 
chinery for  raising  and  harvesting  wheat  in  the  last  twenty  years,  and 
the  statistics  show  that  there  has  been  very  little  increase  in  the  pro- 
duction of  wheat  in  the  United  States  in  that  time.     More  is  raised  in 
the  Northwest  it  is  true,  but  very  much  less  is  raised  in  the  central 
and  eastern  States.     I  have  endeavored  to  get  the  most  reliable  data 
on  this  question  from  the  reports  of  the  various  Boards  of  Trade  and 
the  government  reports,  which  are  recognized  as  the  highest  author- 
y  obtainable  on  this  subject.     The  government  reports  show  that  the 
wheat  crop  for  1878  was  more  than  420,000,000  bushels,  and  that  for 
the  year  1896  the  crop  does  not  exceed  400,000,000  bushels.    In  fact, 
if  the  increase  in  population  is  considered,  the  wheat  crop  has  constant- 
ly grown  less  in  proportion  to  the  consuming  population  ever  since 
The  wheat  crop  of  this  year  is  about  56,000,000  bushels  short 
)f  what  the  average  has  been  since  1878,  and  is  20,000,000  bushels  less 
than  it  was  that  year.    So  that  in  spite  of  the  opening  of  the  new  fields 
m  the  Northwest  there  has  been  no  greatly  increased  production  of 
wheat  m  this  country,  and  when  compared  with  the  consuming  popula- 
tion there  has  been  an  actual  falling  off,  yet  twenty  years  ago  the  price 
of  wheat  was  more  than  twice  what  it  is  now. 

Again,  in  referring  to  the  foreign  wheat  he  endeavors  to  make  the 
impression  that  there  has  been  a  great  increase  in  production  and 
artfully  selects  a  recent  year  of  the  highest  production  and  compares 
that  with  an  earlier  year  having  the  lowest  production.  The  fact  is 
that  the  world's  wheat  crop  has  remained  substantially  the  same  for 
sixteen  years.  In  1880  the  world's  production  of  wheat  was  2,280  ooo  - 
ooo  bushels.  In  1885  it  was  2,108,000,000  bushels,  and  that  was  the 
lowest  crop  of  a  number  of  years.  In  1895  the  crop  was  very  large 
and  amounted  to  2,553,000,000  bushels.  This  year  the  world's  produc- 
tion is  120,000,000  less  than  last  year,  and  the  total  production  of  the 
world  is  smaller  than  it  has  been  for  six  years,  yet  wheat  is  lower  than 
ever  before.  In  addition  to  this,  the  crop  of  rye  which,  together  with 
wheat,  furnishes  the  bread  of  the  world,  is  170,000,000  short,  yet  in 
spite  of  that  fact  the  price  of  rye  has  fallen  steadily  with  that  of  wheat, 
4° 


626  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

It  may  also  be  remarked  that  we  have  the  smallest  oat  crop  that  we 
have  had  for  a  great  many  years,  and  yet  oats  is  worth  less  than  one- 
half  what  it  was  several  years  ago.  Now  why  is  it  that  with  the  wheat 
crop  of  the  world  120,000,000  bushels  short  and  the  population  in- 
creasing enormously,  the  rye  crop  170,000,000  short  the  price  has 
reached  the  lowest  point  that  it  has  ever  reached  in  the  history  of  the 

country? 

PURCHASING    POWER   OF    MONEY. 

In  order  to  get  a  more  comprehensive  view  of  the  whole  subject 
let  us  see  what  are  the  fundamental  laws  governing  finance. 

There  are  two  theories  at  present  advanced  in  regard  to  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  money;  one  is  what  is  called  the  cost  of  production 
theory  under  which  supply  and  demand  have  but  little  influence,  and 
the  other  may  be  called  the  quantitative  or  volume  of  money  theory. 
This  theory  is  based  upon  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 

COST  OF  PRODUCTION  THEORY. 

The  cost  of  production  theory  has  been  seized  upon  by  the  gold 
standard  advocates  of  this  country  and  is  used  as  the  basis  of  their  ar- 
guments. It  simply  means  that  it  takes  on  the  average  a  definite 
amount  of  labor  to  produce  a  gold  dollar  and  it  is  the 
cost  of  this  labor,  the  average  cost  of  producing  the  gold 
dollar,  that  fixes  its  purchasing  power,  and  after  the  dollar  is 
once  in  existence  then  its  purchasing  power  undergoes  comparatively 
little  change.  It  will  always  buy  an  amount  of  property  that  is  equal  in 
value  to  the  cost  of  producing  the  gold  dollar  and  the  question  of  sup- 
ply and  demand  has  but  little  influence  thereafter  upon  this  dollar. 
It  is  practically  unchangeable  and  always  the  same,  so  say  the  advo- 
cates of  the  gold  standard.  Under  this  theory  it  does  not  matter 
whether  money  is  plentiful  in  the  land  or  exceedingly  scarce.  The 
purchasing  power  of  the  dollar  will  always  be  about  the  same.  It 
does  not  matter  whether  there  are  a  thousand  men  scrambling  to  get 
the  dollar  because  they  must  have  it  or  whether  there  are  only  ten 
men  scrambling  to  get  it,  the  dollar  will  remain  practically  the  same. 
It  will  buy  no  more  property  when  a  thousand  men  are  struggling  to 
get  it  than  it  will  when  only  ten  men  are  struggling  to  get  it,  and  of 
course  if  this  theory  is  correct  then  the  demonetization  of  silver  had 
no  effect  upon  the  world's  prices  of  products  and  property.  If  it  is 
correct  you  can  wipe  out  one-half  of  the  money  that  now  exists  in  the 
world  and  it  will  not  affect  prices.  The  purchasing  power  of  the  dollar 
being  determined  by  the  cost  of  production  it  continues  to  be  the  same. 
I  imagine  I  hear  some  man  say:  "Why,  that  theory  is  contrary  to  the 


ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  627 

experience  of  the  whole  commercial  world."  Well,  my  friend,  that 
makes  no  difference;  gold  standard  advocates  don't  care  about  the 
experience  of  the  commercial  world.  It  is  true  that  under  this  theory 
the  gold  dollar  should  have  become  very  cheap  in  recent  years  be- 
cause there  is  scarcely  an  industry,  scarcely  a  field  of  production  in 
which  such  tremendous  improvements  have  been  made  as  in  that  of 
gold  mining.  The  labor  saving  machinery  introduced  in  the  last  quar- 
ter of  a  century  in  this  industry  is  equal  to  if  not  greater  than  that 
applied  to  farming.  It  is  exactly  the  same  as  that  applied  to  the  min- 
ing of  silver.  It  costs  less  on  the  average  to  mine  a  gold  dollar  now 
than  it  ever  did  before,  and  yet  a  gold  dollar  will  buy  twice  the  prod- 
uct and  twice  the  property  that  it  did  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  Let 
me  say  in  regard  to  this  theory  that  the  great  statesmen  and  great 
financiers  of  Europe  never  entertained  it  for  a  moment;  they  brush  it 
aside  with  the  wave  of  their  hand  and  look  upon  it  as  being  ridiculous. 

VOLUME  OF  MONEY  THEORY. 

The  other  theory  rests  chiefly  on  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 
Under  it  the  total  amount  of  money  in  the  world  forms  the  standard 
and  measure  of  prices.  When  there  is  a  large  amount  of  money  in 
circulation  among  the  people  prices  are  high ;  when  money  is  exceed- 
ingly scarce  among  the  people  then  prices  are  low.  Under  this  doc- 
trine if  you  wipe  out  one-half  of  the  world's  money  prices  fall  corre- 
spondingly on  the  average.  If  you  double  the  volume  of  the  world's 
money  prices  will  on  the  average  double;  that  is,  the  general  tendency 
will  be  that  way.  The  price  of  any  particular  article  or  piece  of  prop- 
erty will  again  be  affected  by  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  as  relates 
to  it.  The  volume  of  money  forms  what  may  be  called  the  line  for 
prices.  It  is  horizontal  if  money  is  steady;  it  inclines  upward  if  money 
is  increasing  in  volume;  it  inclines  downward  if  money  is  shrinking 
in  volume  and  the  general  tendency  of  prices  will  be  to  move  along 
this  line,  but  the  supply  and  demand  in  case  of  different  articles  will 
cause  the  price  of  those  articles  to  from  time  to  time  either  come 
slightly  above  or  drop  slightly  below  this  line.  This  theory  or  law,  like 
the  law  of  gravitation  in  the  physical  world,  is  in  harmony  with  and 
explains  nearly  all  financial  phenomena.  When  carefully  studied  it 
will  be  found  running  through  all  the  centuries  and  producing  the 
same  results  everywhere.  Under  this  law  the  demonetization  of  silver 
had  to  affect  general  prices  throughout  the  world.  That  is,  it  had 
to  lower  the  general  level  of  prices  and  this  was  the  view  which  nearly 
all  of  the  great  statesmen  and  financiers  of  Europe  took  of  the  matter 


628  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

at  the  time.    But  that  is  not  all.    Under  this  law  two  men  require  more 
money  than  one,  a  thousand  require  more  than  fifty  do. 

INCREASE  OF  POPULATION. 

In  other  words,  as  population  increases  there  must  be  a  corre- 
sponding increase  in  the  volume  of  money  or  there  will  follow  a  prac- 
tical shrinkage,  that  is,  there  will  be  less  money  per  capita.  Formerly 
there  was  added  every  year  to  the  world's  stock  of  money,  not  only  all 
of  the  gold  but  all  of  the  silver,  except  what  was  used  in  the  arts,  the 
silver  being  about  equal  to  the  gold.  This  in  a  measure  kept  pace  with 
the  increase  in  population  so  that  the  increase  in  population  would 
not  necessarily  affect  prices,  but  now  there  is  added  annually  only  the 
gold  that  is  produced,  less  what  is  used  in  the  arts.  In  other  words 
there  is  added  only  one-half  as  much  as  there  used  to  be,  while  the  • 
population  is  increasing  at  a  more  rapid  rate  than  ever.  The  necessary 
consequence  of  this  is  and  will  be  that  if  this  gold  standard  is  main- 
tained prices  must  go  on  slowly  and  steadily  falling  throughout  all 
the  years  to  come.  So  that  the  demonetization  of  silver  tended  not  only 
to  reduce  prices  and  thus  paralyze  the  enterprises  and  the  industries 
of  the  world,  but  it  also  creates  a  condition  which  must  give  us  a  slow- 
ly, but  steadily  increasing  paralysis. 

CHECKS,   DRAFTS,   ETC. 

It  is  true  that  about  95  or  96  per  cent,  of  all  our  business  is  done 
by  means  of  checks,  drafts,  bank  notes  and  other  substitutes  for  money, 
and  that  only  about  4  or  5  per  cent,  of  our  business  is  done  in  actual 
cash,  and  this  fact  has  misled  many  men  and  we  hear  men  argue  that 
there  is  but  little  money  needed;  that  other  things  have  taken  the  place 
of  money  and  therefore  it  does  not  matter  whether  there  is  much 
money  or  little  money.  But  these  people  lose  sight  of  two  things. 
First,  that  after  all  these  checks,  drafts,  bank  notes  and  other  substi- 
tutes for  money  rest  on  money.  Everyone  admits  that  you  must  have 
some  money,  even  though  it  be  a  little,  to  base  these  things  on.  No 
man  has  yet  claimed  that  you  can  do  away  entirely  with  money  and 
use  these  substitutes  and  get  along.  This  being  so,  it  necessarily  fol- 
lows that  there  is  a  limit  to  the  amount  of  credit  which  a  dollar  can 
carry.  That  is,  there  is  a  limit  to  the  amount  of  the  drafts,  checks 
and  bank  notes  that  can  be  based  upon  a  dollar.  If  this  were  not  so, 
then  if  there  were  only  one  single  dollar  in  the  world  all  the  business 
in  the  world  could  be  done  on  credits  based  on  that  one  dollar.  But 
there  is  a  limit  to  it. 


ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  629 

CREDIT    RESTS    ON   MONEY. 

The  second  thing  that  is  lost  sight  of  by  those  people  is  that  the 
enterprise,  industry  and  business  of  the  world  is  always  so  great  that 
it  exceeds  the  credit  which  a  dollar  can  carry.     In  other  words,  the 
enterprise,  the  business  and  commerce  of  the  earth  are  always 'ear- 
ned to  the  uttermost  point  possible.    They  load  every  dollar  up  with 
all  that  it  can  carry  and  therefore  when  you  strike  out  any  dollar  from 
under  this  load  a  certain  part  of  the  load  must  come  down.     When  the 
amount  of  checks  or  drafts  is  increased  it  does  not  release  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  money  and  cause  it  to  lie  idle ;  the  enterprise  of  men  will 
immediately  reload  all  the  money  that  is  so  released  with  every  bit 
of  credit  it  can  carry.    That  is  always  the  condition  of  the  commercial 
and  manufacturing  world  in  prosperous  times.     It  therefore  follows 
that  when  you  reduce  the  amount  of  money  in  the  world  under  these 
conditions  it  is  a  much  more  serious  matter  than  it  would  be  if  there 
were  not  these  checks,  drafts  and  other  evidences  of  credit,  because 
destroy  not  only  the  given  amount  of  money  but  you  pull  down 
so  much  of  the  whole  fabric  of  credit  or  business,  if  you  please  which 
has  rested  on  that  money.    So  when  you  increase  the  volume  of  money 
you  not  only  make  it  possible  to  increase  the  amount  of  business  in 
roportion,  but  you  make  it  possible  to  increase  the  business  twenty 
times  as  much  as  the  actual  increase  in  money,  because  every  dollar 
of  money  will  again  be  instantly  loaded  with  credits. 

OPENING  THE  MINTS  WILL  INCREASE  CREDITS. 
Therefore  we  say  that  opening  the  mints  to  silver  will  add  to  the 
:  of  primary  or  legal  tender  money,  and  this  will  again  be  loaded 
with  credits  which  will  make  possible  an  increase  of  business  twenty 
.mes  as  great  as  the  increase  in  money.    We  sometimes  hear  it  asked 
How  will  you  get  that  money  into  circulation?  or  what  good  will 
this  increase  m  money  do  you  if  you  have  not  anything  to  get  it  with 
if  you  have  no  property  or  any  collateral?"   That  question  is  purely 
American  and  shows  that  in  some  things  at  least  we  are  yet  new 

HOW   MONEY  WILL   GET   IN   CIRCULATION. 

It  needs  but  a  moment's  reflection  to  see  that  the  additional  money 

Will  get  into  circulation  just  as  the  money  that  is  in  circulation  got 

there  and  that  when  men  again  coin  silver  bullion  into  dollars  or  get 

certificates   for  it,  which   are    legal    tender,    which  can   be   used   in 

paying  taxes,  which  can  be  used  in  paying  duties  at  the  custom  house, 

Inch  can  be  used  in  paying  debts,  they  are  not  going  to  let  that  money 


630  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

lie  idle  because  it  will  not  make  it  profitable  any  longer  to  have  it  so. 
Money  will  cease  appreciating  in  value  then  and  they  will  go  to  build- 
ing houses,  building  shops,  building  railroads,  manufacturing  and  do- 
ing business;  they  will  start  activity  in  a  thousand  channels  and  a 
thousand  fields.  That  will  be  the  result.  There  will  be  an  imme- 
diate demand  for  brains  and  muscle.  There  will  be  an  immediate  de- 
mand for  engineers,  for  skilled  men,  for  clerks,  for  mechanics  and  for 
day  laborers,  and  instead  of  laborers  being  obliged  to  tramp  around 
over  the  country  in  search  of  work  which  they  cannot  find,  they  will 
be  sought  for  at  their  homes  and  requested  to  come  over  and  go  to 
work.  The  man  who  has  nothing  to  sell  except  his  muscle  will  find  a 
market  for  that  muscle.  The  man  who  has  nothing  to  sell  except  skill 
will  find  a  market  for  that  knowledge  and  very  soon  the  whole  com- 
munity will  feel  the  vivifying  and  the  electrifying  effect  of  an  increase 
of  blood  and  vitality  in  its  veins. 

M'KINLEY  ON  DEAR  MONEY. 

Let  me  read  to  you  what  Major  McKinley  said  on  this  subject  in 
1892  during  the  Presidential  campaign  when  he  was  speaking  of  Gro- 
ver  Cleveland: 

"During  all  his  years  at  the  head  of  the  government  he  was  dis- 
honoring one  of  our  precious  metals,  one  of  our  great  products;  dis- 
crediting silver  and  enhancing  the  price  of  gold.  He  endeavored,  even 
before  his  inauguration  to  office,  to  stop  the  coinage  of  silver 
dollars,  and  afterward,  and  to  the  end  of  his  administration, 
persistently  used  his  power  to  that  end.  He  was  determined  to  con- 
tract the  circulating  medium,  demonetize  one  of  the  coins  of  com- 
merce, and  limit  the  volume  of  money  among  the  people,  make  money 
scarce  and  therefore  dear.  He  would  have  increased  the  value  of 
money  and  diminished  the  value  of  everything  else ;  money  the  master 
and  everything  else  its  servant.  He  was  not  thinking  of  the  poor 
then,  he  had  left  their  side,  he  was  not  standing  forth  in  their  defense. 
Cheap  coats,  cheap  labor  and  dear  money!  The  sponsor  and  pro- 
moter of  these  professing  to  stand  guard  over  the  poor  and  lowly! 
Was  there  ever  more  glaring  inconsistency  or  reckless  assumption? 
He  believes  that  poverty  is  a  blessing  to  be  promoted  and  encour- 
aged, and  that  a  shrinkage  in  everything  but  money  is  a  national  ben- 
ediction." 

This  is  what  Mr.  McKinley,  speaking  tc  the  Ohio  Republican 
League,  said  about  our  President,  Grover  Cleveland.  Mr.  McKinley 
was  right  then,  but  wrong  now — and  the  other  gentleman  has  been 
wrong  all  the  time. 


ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  631 

You  notice  that  the  Major  distinctly  recognizes  the  principles  that 
demonetizing  silver  tended  to  make  money  scarce  and  dear  and  that 
dear  money  meant  low  prices  and  low  wages.  That  dear  money 
means  hard  times  and  poverty. 

OTHER  STATESMEN. 

I  would  like  to  read  to  you  the  language  of  Mr.  Goschen,  a  great 
banker  of  London  and  late  chancellor  of  the  British  Exchequer   one 
the  great  statesmen  and  financiers  of  the  world  to-day.  I  should  like 
|°.  reRad  *  }™  ^language  of  Mr.  Giffen,  the  statistician  of  the  Brit- 
«h  Board  of  Trade.     I  should  like  to  read  to  you  the  report  of  the 
Royal  Commission  on  Gold  and  Silver  made  to  Parliament  in  l888 
t  should  like  to  read  to  you  the  language  of  a  number  of  other  great 
economy  and  financiers,  men  who  for  years  have  been  assisting 
the  management  of  the  world's  affairs,  who  for  years  have  had  their 
finger  upon  the  pulse  of  the  commerce  and  the  business  of  the  earth 
who  have  watched  the  circulation  of  its  blood  and  have  felt  its  he  n 
beats;  men  who  are  not  theorists,  but  who  are  first  students  and  then 

a^ainn  T'  7"  ^J^  *  ast°nishcd  tO  ^  how  *«*  views 

Lfv  TJH        T2      1S  gfeat  qUeSti0n'    The^  hold  that  *e  law  of 

supply  and  demand  does  apply  to  money.     They  hold  that  when  the 

governments  by  law  demonetize  silver  or  wipe  out  any  othlr  actual 
money  the  governments  thus  by  law  reduce"  the  worfd's  supply  of 

INCREASING   DEMAND    FOR   GOLD. 


od  as  thereafter  to  ^ 

gold,  and  the  necessary  consequence  of  this  is  to  increase 
the  importance  of  gold,  to  double  the  number  of  people  who  have  to 
have  it,  and  m  the  end  double  the  purchasing  power  of  the  gold  do  lar 
*ow,  we  ,n,lst  that  in  harmony  with  the  world's  basic  law  of  finance 
m  harmony  with  the  entire  experience  of  mankind;   in  harmony  w  th 
the  expressed  v.ews  of  the  greatest  statesmen,  living  or  dead   that  the 
demonet.zat.on  of  silver  doubled  the  purchasing  power  of  gold  so  tha 
.t  took  tw.ce  as  much  of  the  products  of  the  earth  to  get  a  gold  doHa 
and  paya  debt  or  pay  taxes  th£reafter;  tw.ce  ^        J         .0        oH 


632  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

DESTRUCTION   OF  HOME   MARKET. 

The  consequence  was  not  only  to  do  an  injustice  to  the  whole 
debtor  world,  but  inasmuch  as  taxes,  interest,  debts  and  fixed  charges 
remained  the  same,  it  destroyed  the  purchasing  power  of  the  whole 
producing  classes,  because  it  took  all  they  could  scrape  together  to 
meet  the  fixed  charges.  This  first  destroyed  business  and  necessarily 
forced  the  manufacturers  to  shut  down,  because  there  were  no  longer 
purchasers  for  what  they  made,  so  that  in  turn  labor  stood  idle,  and  it 
was  no  comfort  to  tell  the  laborer  that  if  he  had  a  gold  dollar  it  would 
buy  twice  as  much  as  it  used  to.  For,  if  there  was  no  purchaser  for 
what  he  made,  there  was  no  way  to  get  any  kind  of  a  dollar.  Thus 
there  followed  naturally  universal  paralysis  and  distress. 

RESTORE  PURCHASING  POWER. 

We  insist  that  according  to  this  same  law  the  restoration  of  silver 
will  tend  to  again  raise  prices  and  again  restore  the  purchasing  power 
of  the  farming  and  producing  classes,  and  with  the  restoration  of  that 
purchasing  power,  when  the  farmer  can  again  spend  money  at  the 
store,  can  again  spend  money  at  the  shop,  spend  money  at  the  col- 
lege, spend  money  in  travel  there  will  come  universal  activity.  The 
manufacturer  will  again  find  a  market  for  what  he  makes,  and  labor 
will  be  employed  and  the  tendency  will  be  to  revive  universal  activity 
and  prosperity. 

MINE  OWNER  AND  FARMER. 

Like  the  common  run  of  gold  standard  orators,  Mr.  Schurz  ap- 
pealed to  the  prejudice  of  his  audience  by  bringing  in  the  mythical 
rich  mine  owner.  Now  there  are  two  things  to  be  said  in  regard  to 
the  mine  owners.  First,  a  rich  mine  owner  is  largely  a  myth.  They 
are  all  in  distress.  Second,  the  prices  of  the  mine  owner's  products 
have  not  fallen  any  more  than  have  the  prices  of  farm  products.  They 
stand  exactly  on  the  same  level.  As  measured  by  gold,  silver  sells 
for  just  one-half  what  it  did,  and  that  is  true  on  an  average  of  all  farm 
products.  The  mine  owner  has  an  enormous  advantage  over  the 
farmer  in  breasting  the  hard  times  in  this,  that  when  he  finds  that  it 
does  not  pay  to  operate  his  mine  he  simply  shuts  it  up,  and  the  people 
who  suffer  directly  are  the  laborers  who  are  thrown  out  of  employ- 
ment, but  the  farmer  cannot  stop  farming.  No  matter  how  low  pro- 
ducts go  in  price  the  farm  has  to  go  on  as  before.  He  must  support 
his  family  there;  he  must  make  his  taxes;  he  is  obliged  to  go  on 
cultivating  his  farm  and  raise  more  products  whether  they  bring  him 


'ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  633 

big  prices  or  a  little  price.     So  that  the  mine  owner  in  the  first  in- 
stance does  not  suffer  as  much  as  the  farmer,  and  can  protect  himself 
n  a  manner  that  the  farmer  cannot.    Therefore  in  the  future  I  would 
suggest  to  the  gold  standard  orators  that  they  drag  in  the  rich  farmer 
cl  use  him  as  a  bugaboo,  as  the  man  who  is  going  to  profit  by  the 
restoration  of  silver.     But  to  show  the  utter  want  of  consistency    if 
not  of  good  faith    I  ^^ii  ^,-in*.  «**„.- A: ^     ,*      ^ 


, 

IT     ,5    'e  uCaH  y°Ur  attenti°n  t0  the  fact  that  throughout 
the  whole  of  Mr.  Schurz's  speech  he  speaks  of  a  5o-cent  dollar     He 

describes  the  conditions  that  are  going  to  exist  after  Mr.  Bryan  is 
elected  and  after  the  new  regime  has  been  introduced,  and  he  tells 
you  how  silver  dollars  will  be  worth  only  50  cents  under  the  new 
order  of  thmgs  and  the  great  injustice  that  will  be  done  to  creditors 
by  giving  them  dollars  that  are  worth  in  the  market  only  50  cents 
He  dwells  on  this  in  a  manner  that  is  pathetic,  and  strange  to  say' 
he  does  this  after  having  told  his  hearers  that  the  mine  owner  was 

SveTy;  °,Wr  t0-bC  made  enormouslv  rich  by  the  restoration  of 
saver.  Now  if  the  mme  owner  is  to  be  made  rich,  it  will  have  to  be 
by  raismg  the  price  of  silver  in  the  market,  and  if  by  reason  of  the 
increased  demand  for  silver  and  its  use  again  as  money  the  price  of 
silver  rises  m  the  market,  then  there  will  be  no  5o-cent  dollar  If  all 
of  he  new  silver  dollars  can  be  used  to  do  exactly  the  same  work 
that  a  gold  dollar  would  do,  then  it  is  self-evident  that  the  gold  dollar 

J£S£S^  from  its  high  perch  and  be  worth  n°  more 

SAVINGS   BANKS. 

During  the  last  few  years  we  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  the 
deposits  ln  savmgs  b     ks  ;          sing     Th.s  al]egat. 

neb  mine  owner  and  the  fifty-cent  dollar,  is  constantly  harnessed  un 
and  made  to  do  duty  by  the  gold  standard  people  and'one  wotud  gt 
the  impression  that  mstead  of  stagnation  in  industrv  and  in  businfs 

"  *«      ****  **  a11  °f  °-  P  °P 


wee 
were 


°P 
and  that  everybody  was  happy.     But  the  fact  is    that 

inasmuch  as  the  savings  banks  pay  a  high  rate  of  interest,  higher  than 
the  ordmary  commercial  banks  do  upon   deposits,  people  o    1    g 
means  in  many  cases  deposit  their  money  in  the  savings  banks  ra'hfr 
than  m  the  commercial  banks.     They  do  this  because  money  canno 
be  used  profitably  m  business,  and  as  they  do  not  desire  to  loan  ? 
permanently  they  put  it  into  the  savings  bank,  where  it  can  b    vv  th 
Irawn  on  short  notice  and  where  in  the  meantime  they  get  L  hiJhls 
rate  of  interest,  so  that  instead  of  the  large  deposits  m  sav  nT    ink 
at  present  bemg  an  indication  that  we  are  prosperous  o    Sat  "u 


634  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

laborers  are  employed  they  show  in  themselves  that  capital  cannot 
be  profitably  or  safely  used  in  business  or  in  manufacturing  or  any  of 
the  great  industries  of  this  country. 

PANIC  OF  1893- 

Mr.  Schurz  attributes  the  panic  of  1893  to  tne  fact  tnat-  as  he  says: 
"The  grave  doubt  arising  in  the  public  mind  whether  the  government 
would  be  able  to  maintain  the  gold  standard.  We  were  then  within  a 
hair's  breadth  of  a  very  widespread  bankruptcy  of  the  banks  and  only 
the  wisest  management  and  the  utmost  efforts  of  the  clearing  houses 
prevented  it."  Now,  Mr.  Schurz  is  entitled  to  credit  for  being  the  only 
man  in  the  world  who  made  the  discovery  that  the  panic  of  1893  was 
brought  about  by  the  cause  he  named  and  he  is  entitled  to  the  greatest 
credit  because  of  the  fact  that  he  never  ran  a  bank  or  a  business  or  a 
manufacturing  establishment  or  a  railroad  and  was  never  engaged,  so 
far  as  we  know,  in  any  commercial  business.  He  had  an  established 
reputation  as  a  rhetorician  and  as  a  man  who  could  make  an  equally 
good  speech  on  any  side  of  any  question.  If  the  panic  of  1893  was 
due  to  the  cause  to  which  he  ascribes  it  then  we  are  liable  to  have 
panics  of  that  character  every  year,  so  long  as  the  existing  conditions 
continue,  but,  my  fellow  citizens,  that  panic  was  not  local  to  the 
United  States  and  the  depression  that  followed  from  it  is  not  local 
but  exists  all  over  Europe  and  in  fact  nearly  all  over  the  world  and 
is  most  severe  in  the  gold  using  countries.  There  was  no  doubt 
in  the  minds  of  the  public  at  that  time  about  England's  maintaining 
the  gold  standard,  nor  about  Germany  maintaining  the  gold  standard, 
nor  about  the  other  countries  that  had  recently  adopted  a  gold  stand- 
ard maintaining  it,  and  yet  in  all  of  those  countries  the  distress  and 
paralysis  is  even  more  severe  than  it  is  in  our  own.  Mr.  Schurz  may 
be  able  to  patent  his  idea  in  this  country,  but  his  letters  patent  will 
be  worth  nothing  in  Europe. 

BOND   SALES. 

But  perhaps  the  strangest  part  of  the  speech  is  that  which  em- 
phatically endorses  and  commends  the  bond  issuing  policy  of  the 
present  administration.  I  ask  you  to  consider  this  a  moment.  During 
times  of  profound  peace  in  less  than  four  years  the  national  debt  of 
this  country  has  been  increased  $260,000,000;  not  to  support  the 
government,  for  President  Cleveland  declared  expressly  that  this  was 
not  needed  to  support  the  government  as  they  had  money  in  the 
treasury  to  meet  the  current  expenses.  It  was  done  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  maintaining  the  gold  standard  by  the  government  and  of 


'ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  635 

paying  gold  on  obligations  which  on  their  face  were  payable  not  in 
gold  but  in  coin  which  meant  that  they  could  be  paid  in  other  metal 
which  the  debtor,  that  is,  the  government,  might  select.    This  has  been 
the  law  and  the  practice  for  centuries  and  the  governments  of  Europe 
always  act  upon  it.    Mr.  Schurz  suggests  no  change  of  policy  and  he 
fers  no  remedy;  therefore  the  existing  conditions  are  to  be  continued 
if  it  was  necessary  to  issue  $260,000,000  of  bonds  in  the  last  three 
years  we  are  warranted  in  assuming  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  issue 
a  similar  amount  in  the  next  three  years,  and  that  this  will  continue 
o  go  on.    Do  you  think  that  this  is  the  right  policy  for  our  govern- 
ment to  pursue?    Every  time  a  bond  is  issued  the  oppression  of  the 
men  who  toil  is  increased.    The  interest  on  these  bonds  is  not  pro- 
duced in  the  banks  or  in  the  offices  of  the  cities.    It  has  to  come  out 
of  the  industry  of  the  country.    It  has  to  come  from  the  products  c 
a  country  and  the  products  of  a  country  are  created  by  the  men  who 
;     he  men  who  make  and  cultivate  farms,  who  build  and  oper- 
ate railroads;  the  men  who  build  cities,  the  men  who  do  the  work  of 
:  land,  the  men  who  make  our  civilization  possible.     For  I  sav  to 
that  swallow-tail  coats  and  big  shirt  fronts  never  yet  laid  the 
foundation  of  empire     purple  and  fine  linen  never  yet  built  a  mighty 
State.    Perfumed  handkerchiefs  and  bright  neckties  are  not  the  forces 
that  sustain  the  flag  of  our  country  in  time  of  peril.    The  people  wh" 
have  to  pay  the  interest  on  these  bonds  and  ultimately  have  to  pay  the 
principal,  whose  sweat  and  whose  toil  has  to  product  the  product  to 
do  it  derive  not  one  farthing's  benefit  from  these  bonds     The  m 
who  get  the  benefit  of  these  bond  issues  are  the  clas« 
rnanage  by  the  aid  of  government  to  lick  theteam'a      Sur^ 
fruit  of  other  men's  mdustry.     Let  the  American  people  follow 
suggestions  of  Mr.  Schurz  and  our  country  will  become  a  bonY 
suing  country  m  perpetuity,  and  the  further  down  the  vis?a  of  time" 
hat  the  American  patriot  glances  the  darker  will  be  the  cloud 
the  heavier  will  be  the  burden  which  his  children  must  face 

NATIONAL  HONOR, 
whaf  th  SCIT  *nd  Mr"  C°chran  wri"S  their  hands  in  horror  over 


636  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

takes  to  enable  a  rhetorician  to  fill  the  air  with  ghosts.  When  was 
our  great  debt  created?  Long  before  1890.  And  what  kind  of  money 
did  we  get  for  the  bonds  we  sold?  We  got  paper  for  some  and  gold 
and  silver  for  the  remainder.  Neither  Mr.  Schurz  nor  any  other 
mortal  has  been  able  to  point  out  wherein  you  wrong  a  creditor  when 
you  pay  him  in  exactly  the  same  money  that  he  gave  you.  Neither 
he  nor  any  other  mortal  has  been  able  to  point  wherein  you  do  an 
injustice  to  any  man  when  you  pay  a  creditor  in  money  that  has 
exactly  the  same  purchasing  power,  that  will  buy  as  much  property 
of  any  and  every  kind,  and  as  much  labor  as  did  the  money  he  gave 
you.  I  will  agree  with  Mr.  Schurz  that  a  creditor  should  not  be  paid 
in  money  the  purchasing  power  of  which  is  much  less  than  was  that 
of  the  money  that  he  gave  to  the  debtor,  but  if  it  is  dishonest  to  pay  a 
creditor  in  money  that  is  cheaper  than  the  money  that  he  gave  the 
debtor,  I  ask  you  and  ask  the  American  people  whether  it  is  not  dis- 
honest to  compel  a  debtor  to  pay  a  creditor  in  money  that  has  twice 
the  purchasing  power  as  had  the  money  which  he  got  from  the 
creditor?  If  paying  the  creditor  in  cheaper  money  than  he  gave  the 
debtor  is  repudiation  I  ask  whether  compelling  a  debtor  to  pay  his 
debt  in  money  that  is  twice  as  dear  as  the  money  he  got  is  not 
robbery? 

BONDS  PAYABLE  IN  COIN. 

What  are  the  facts?  For  both  Mr.  Schurz  and  Mr.  Cochran  care- 
fully avoid  referring  to  them.  Substantially  all  of  the  bonds  and 
interest-bearing  securities  of  the  United  States  now  in  the  hands  of  our 
creditors  at  home  and  abroad  provide  on  their  face  that  they  are 
payable,  not  in  gold  but  in  coin.  No  man  could  possibly  be  de- 
ceived in  buying  one  of  those  bonds,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the 
bonds  issued  during  this  administration,  they  were  not  paid  for  in 
gold,  but  were  paid  for  in  coin,  which  meant  gold  and  silver.  What 
is  true  of  the  principal  of  these  bonds  applies  equally  to  the  annual 
interest.  Every  individual  in  the  United  States  or  in  Europe  that 
holds  one  of  these  bonds  knew  at  the  time  he  got  it  that  the  principal 
and  interest  were  payable  in  gold  or  silver  at  the  option  of  the  gov- 
ernment. You  remember  that  a  little  over  a  year  ago  the  President 
was  so  bent  on  fastening  the  gold  standard  upon  our  country  that  he 
asked  Congress  to  authorize  the  issue  of  gold  bonds,  which  he  said 
could  be  floated  on  a  lower  rate  of  interest,  but  Congress  refused  to 
do  it.  Thereupon  the  government  issued  bonds  of  the  same  character 
that  it  had  formerly  issued;  that  is,  coin  bonds,  and,  according  to  the 
President,  they  brought  less  money  in  the  market,  because  of  the  fact 


ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  637 

that  they  were  not  payable  in  gold.    The  bankers  got  them  cheaper 
than  they  could  otherwise  have  gotten  them,  by  reason  of  the  fact 
that  they  were  payable  in  coin  and  not  in  gold.    And  yet,  in  the  face 
of  these   well-known  facts,   Messrs.   Schurz   and   Cochran  have  the 
assurance  to  tell  us  that  we  will  be  guilty  of  repudiation,  and  of  sully- 
ing the  national  honor,  if  we  do  not  pay  those  bonds  in  gold.     Sup- 
pose a  man  advocating  the  coinage  of  silver  were  to  stand  before 
an  intelligent  audience  and  make  such  an  argument  as  that    what 
would  they  call  him?     As  I  remember  it,  one  batch  of  bonds  was 
sold  m  the  market  for  about  seventeen  millions  of  dollars  less  than  the 
President  assured  us  they  would  have  brought  had  they  been  payable 
m  gold;  yet  these  bonds  are  like  all  other  outstanding  bonds  that  were 
sold  cheaper  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  they  were  payable  in  gold  or 
silver;    and  instead  of  the  national  honor  requiring  us  to  pay  those 
bonds  in  gold,  national  honor,  common  sense  and  eternal  justice  alike 
forbid  our  paying  those  bonds  in  gold  if  to  pay  them  in  gold  will  cost 
the  American  people  one  dollar  more  than  it  would  to  pay  them  in 
silver.    If  it  is  wrong  to  unjustly  withhold  anything  from  the  creditor 
that  is  due  him  under  the  contract,  then  it  is  a  crime  to  compel  a 
debtor  to  pay  something  that  he  does  not  owe. 

GREENBACKS,  ETC. 

But  the  bonds  issued  by  the  present  administration  were  issued  for 
the  purpose  of  redeeming  greenbacks  and  treasury  notes  in  gold   and 
we  are  told  that  to  pursue  any  other  policy  will  be  repudiation  '  Let 
us  see.    These  greenbacks  and  treasury  notes  have  been  outstanding 
almost  ever  since  the  war,  and  not  one  of  the  several  hundred  millions 
that  are  outstanding  is  payable  in  gold.     But  this  is  not  all-     The 
government  has  taken  pains  all  along  to  tell  the  world  exactly  what 
these  bills  would  be  paid  in.    On  March  i8th,  1869,  Congress  passed 
what  was  called  the  "Credit  Strengthening  Act,"  reading  as  follows- 
That  the  faith  of  the  United  States  is  solemnly  pledged  to  the  pay- 
ment in  com  or  its  equivalent  of  all  of  the  obligations  of  the  United 
States  not  bearing  interest  known  as  United  States  notes  and  all  the 
interest  bearing  obligations   of  the   United   States,  except  in  cases 
where  the  law  provides  they  may  be  paid  in  a  currency  other  than 
gold  or  silver.       Notice  here  the  specific  declaration  made  in  1869 
that  both  the  non-interest  bearing  obligations  and  the  interest  bear- 
ing obligations  of  the  United  States  were  payable  in  coin,  gold  and 
Then  on  January  I4th,  1875,  six  years  later,  the  specie  resump- 
n  act  was  passed,  to  take  effect  January  ist,  1879.    It  did  not  pro- 


638  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

vide  for  resuming  in  gold,  but  for  resuming  in  specie,  which  meant 

gold  and  silver. 

MATTHEWS  RESOLUTION. 

Three  years  later,  on  the  25th  day  of  January,  1878,  the  Senate 
passed  a  resolution  which  has  become  known  as  the  "Matthews  reso- 
lution," because  it  was  introduced  by  Senator  Matthews,  a  Republican 
from  Ohio,  and  the  House  passed  the  same  resolution  on  January 
28th.  This  resolution  reads  as  follows: 

"That  all  the  bonds  of  the  United  States  issued  or  authorized  to 
be  issued  under  the  acts  of  Congress  hereinbefore  recited  are  payable, 
principal  and  interest,  at  the  option  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  in  silver  dollars  of  the  coinage  of  the  United  States,  containing 
412^  grains  each  of  standard  silver  and  that  to  restore  to  its  coinage 
such  silver  coins  as  a  legal  tender  in  payment  of  said  bonds,  principal 
and  interest,  is  not  in  violation  of  the  public  faith  nor  in  derogation 
of  the  rights  of  the  public  creditor." 

Consider  this  resolution  a  minute.-  It  was  introduced  by  a  Repub- 
lican and  passed  by  both  houses  of  Congress,  and  it  expressly  declares 
that  all  of  the  bonds  already  issued  and  all  that  may  thereafter  be  is- 
sued under  the  acts  of  Congress  were  payable,  principal  and  interest, 
in  silver  dollars.  This  resolution  did  not  change  the  character  of  the 
bonds,  nor  of  the  obligation.  It  could  not.  It  simply  declared  what 
was  the  law  at  that  time,  that  is,  that  the  government  being  the  debtor 
had  the  option  of  paying  in  any  kind  of  money  named  in  the  bond, 
and  inasmuch  as  the  bonds  were  payable  in  coin  and  coin  meant  gold 
and  silver,  the  government  had  the  right  that  every  debtor  has  of  de- 
claring which  money  it  would  pay  in.  If  there  had  been  a  misunder- 
standing about  the  question  before  that,  there  was  a  notice  to  all  the 
world,  and,  mark  you,  no  fault  was  found  with  this,  no  bondholders 
complained  at  that  time,  neither  the  Eastern  nor  the  European  bond- 
holders sent  their  bonds  over  and  claimed  that  there  was  a  misunder- 
standing, they  were  not  thrown  on  the  market.  There  was  no  talk 
of  repudiation,  and  if  they  were  payable  in  silver  then,  when  was  the 
contract  changed  so  as  to  compel  us  to  pay  gold  now?  A  contract 
has  two  sides  to  it  and  every  increased  obligation  is  supposed  to 
carry  with  it  an  increased  consideration,  and  even  if  it  were  true  that 
Congress  had  thereafter  by  mere  resolution  declared  that  all  obliga- 
tions should  thereafter  be  paid  in  gold  it  would  not  make  them  so 
payable.  Congress,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  never  made  such  a  declaration, 
but  if  it  had  it  would  be  void  if  it  increased  the  burdens  of  the 
debtor.  Suppose  Congress  had  by  resolution  declared  that  the  hold- 
ers of  those  bonds  should  give  to  the  United  States  an  additional 


ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHR-AN.        639 

sum  of  money  to  what   they  originally  paid  for  them.     Would  the 
holders  be  obliged  to  pay?    Nay,  would  not  you  have  heard  an  outcrv 
about  robbery?    If  Congress  could  not  change  the  contract  with  ref- 
erence to  the  creditor  it  could  not  legally  change  it  with  reference  to 
debtor.    So  you  see  that  under  the  contracts  with  the  creditors  and 
ier  the  declarations  of  the  government  made  to  the  world  from 
time  to  time,  the  bonds  and  the  interest  thereon,  as  well  as  the  green- 
backs and  treasury  notes,  are  payable  in  silver,  at  the  option  of  the 
government,  and  the  Eastern  bankers  so  understood  this  all  along 
and  made  no  complaint,  and  it  was  not  until  Mr.  Harrison  was  Presi- 
dent and  Mr.  Foster  was  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  that  they  broached 
the  subject  of  having  these  treasury  notes  redeemed  in  gold      This 
was  in  1891. 

PAYING  GREENBACKS  IN  GOLD. 

From  January    i,    1879,   to   January    i,    1891,   only   a   little   over 
?34,ooo,ooo  of  greenbacks  were  presented  for  redemption  or  an  aver- 
age of  a  little  over  two  and  a  half  millions  per  year.     You  see  there 
was  no  run  on  the  treasury  then  because  the  policy  pursued  by  the 
treasury  up  to  that  time  did  not  offer  a  special  inducement  to  make 
a  run  on  it;   but  at  that  time  Mr.  Foster  and  the  Harrison  adminis- 
tration yielded  to  the  influence  of  the  Eastern  bankers  and  ordered 
treasury  notes  to  be  redeemed  in  gold  alone,  and  the  Cleveland  ad- 
ministration did  the  same.    This  was  in  the  fall  of  1891  and  see  what 
has  happened  since  then:     During  the  four  years  following  that  date 
$35i,ooo,ooo  of   greenbacks  and   treasury   notes   were   presented   for 
redemption  and  redeemed,  and  to  carry  out  this  policy  of  redeeming 
these  notes  in  gold,  President  Cleveland  issued  the  $260,000,000  of 
bonds.     Think  of  this  amount.     The  burdens  of  the  American  people 
increased  $260,000,000  in  four  years  without  benefiting  the  debtor  a 
Had  the  same  policy  been  pursued  which  we  pursued  be- 
fore, of  redeeming  these  notes  in  gold  or  silver  at  the  option  of  the 
government  very  few  of  them  would  have  been  presented;  there  would 
have  been  no  disturbance  in  the  money  market  and  no  necessity  of 
issuing  bonds. 

CRIMINAL  POLICY. 

This  policy  was  a  criminal  policy  and  it  is  a  child  of  and  in  keeping 
with  this  entire  movement  to  fasten  a  gold  standard  upon  the  world 
it  is  dishonest,  it  loads  the  people  of  this  country  with  burdens  for 
wh.ch  ,t  g,ves  them  nothing  in  return;  it  is  a  policy  from  which  the 
masses  of  mankind  all  over  the  world  derive  no  benefit;  a  policv 
which  benefits  only  a  few  men  who  call  themselves  financiers  but 


640  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

whose  mission  in  life  seems  to  be  to  get  something  for  nothing  when- 
ever they  can  get  the  government  to  assist  them  in  doing  so. 

AMOUNT  OF  PRODUCTS  TO   PAY  NATIONAL  DEBT. 

Let  us  see  how  the  policy  of  the  American  government  has  af- 
fected the  American  people  and  who  has  derived  the  benefit  of  that 
policy.  After  we  had  resumed  specie  payments  we  were  on  the  same 
basis  with  the  other  nations  of  the  earth  and  our  national  debt 
amounted  to  about  $2,000,000,000.  At  that  time  wheat  was  worth 
upwards  of  $i  per  bushel  and  the  price  of  all  other  American  pro- 
ducts ranged  in  proportion.  At  that  time  it  would  have  taken  about 
1,800,000,000  bushels  of  wheat  or  a  proportional  amount  of  other 
American  products  to  pay  the  whole  national  debt.  Since  that  time 
we  have  been  paying  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  and  at  present 
the  debt  is  a  little  less  than  $1,800,000,000;  wheat  is  selling  at  less 
than  fifty  cents  a  bushel  and  the  prices  of  all  other  American  products 
on  the  average  are  in  the  same  proportion,  and  to-day  it  will  take 
3,600,000,000  bushels  of  wheat  or  a  proportional  amount  of  other 
American  products  to  pay  the  remainder  of  the  national  debt,  that  is, 
after  we  have  paid  for  twenty  years,  after  a  generation  has  labored 
to  reduce  this  debt  it  now  will  take  twice  the  amount  of  American 
products  to  pay  the  remainder  of  the  debt  that  would  have  been 
necessary  to  pay  the  whole  of  the  debt  at  the  time  we  resumed  specie 

payments. 

WHO  PROFITS  NOW? 

We  are  a  producing  nation  and  the  policy  of  our  government  has 
tended  to  reduce  the  prices  of  our  products.  Twenty  years  ago  when 
a  foreign  bond-holder  took  one  of  our  thousand  dollar  bonds  and 
clipped  off  the  interest  coupons  for  a  year  amounting,  say,  to  $50,  he 
could  buy  with  them  only  from  40  to  50  bushels  of  wheat  or  a  pro- 
portional amount  of  other  American  products.  To-day  when  that 
bond-holder  clips  off  the  coupons  for  a  year's  interest  that  same  $50 
will -buy  him  100  bushels  of  wheat  or  a  proportional  amount  of  other 
American  products.  I  ask  you,  my  fellow  citizens,  in  whose  interest 
has  the  American  government  been  run  during  this  time?  And  if 
this  policy  is  to  be  continued,  if  this  gold  standard  is  to  be  main- 
tained, if  we  are  to  go  on  with  a  constantly  increasing  population 
and  a  non-increasing  volume  of  money,  then  there  must  be  a  further 
and  a  continuous  decline  in  prices  over  the  world,  and  when  another 
generation  has  spent  its  life  paying  at  this  national  debt  it  will  then 
take  nearly  twice  as  much  of  American  products  to  pay  the  remainder 
of  the  debt  then  existing  as  it  will  take  to-day  to  pay  it.  Is  it  any 


AXStYER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  641 

wonder  that  the  gold  standard  people  do  not  want  this  subject  dis- 
cussed?    Is  it  any  wonder  that  they  charge  that  we  are  trying  to 
arraign  class  against  class  when  we  call  attention  to  what  are  simply 
the  hard  facts  ?    The  American  people  are  the  sufferers,  and  the  only 
people  who  profit  by  this  policy  are  the  foreign  and  the  Eastern  bond- 
holders and  their  American  agents.    In  one  of  the  bond  transactions 
under  the  present  administration  a  New  York  banker  and  his  asso- 
ciates, who  represent  English  capital,'  made  upwards  of  ten  millions 
if  dollars  out  of  the  government  in  a  few  weeks.     Is  it  any  wonder 
that  those  men  want  to  continue  this  policy?    Do  you  really  think 
my  fellow  citizens,  that  a  policy  which  lowers  the  price  of  all  American 
products  while  it  increases  the  American  debt  can  be  said  to  be  a  wise 
American  policy? 

INDEBTEDNESS  OF  THIS  COUNTRY. 

The  indebtedness  of  our  country,  when  you  consider  the  vast  cor- 
poration, municipal  and  other  debts,  almost  baffles  computation      It 
is  nearly  all  held  abroad.    The  interest  has  to  be  raised  by  the  toil 
and  the  labor  of  American  people.     It  has  to  be  paid  by  American 
products.     Shall  we  pursue  a  policy  which  will  keep  the  price  of 
American  products  down  so  low  that  it  takes  practically  everything 
that  the  American  nation  can  earn  to  annually  pay  the  interest  on 
that  indebtedness,  and  thus  destroy  their  ability  to  buy,  which  means 
a  destruction  of  the  American  market?     Can  we  reasonably  hope  for 
any  prosperity  in  the  future?    Talk  about  maintaining  this  gold  stand- 
ard and  paying  these  vast  sums  in  gold,  why  there  is  not  gold  enough 
i  all  the  world  to  pay  a  fractional  part  of  the  interest  on  our  debt 
m  gold,  and  in  recent  years  we  have  repeatedly  seen  gold  manipu- 
lated in  such  a  manner  that  a  few  great  institutions  control  it      In  " 
other  words,  they  were  able  to  corner  the  available  gold      I  have 
already  shown  you  that  in  the  entire  United  States  there  are  only 
$127,000,000  of  available  gold;   that  includes  all  the  banks  have  and 
the  amount  of  gold  in  sight  in  the  world  which  is  available  at  any  time 
is  very  small,  and  we,  therefore,  must  expect  if  wc  stay  on  this  basis 
that  gold  will  be  cornered  repeatedly  from  time  to  time.    The  specu- 
lators will  profit  and  the  producers  will  suffer. 

TWO   YARD-STICKS. 

The  talk  about  two  yard-sticks  of  different  lengths  is  unworthy  of 
ither  of  these  gentlemen.    Everybody  who  has  examined  the  subject 
knows  that  under  bimetallism  there  are  no  two  standards-  that  under 
Jimetalhsm  the  sum  total  of  the  two  metals  taken  together  and  con 


642  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

sidered  practically  as  one  constitutes  the  standard  and  the  measure  of 
prices.  When  you  take  the  sum  total  of  the  two  metals  it  makes 
one  standard  the  same  as  if  melted  into  one.  The  fact  that  they  are 
coined  separately  makes  no  difference  so  long  as  each  performs  the 
same  functions.  If  the  sum  total  of  the  two  metals  forming  the 
standard  and  used  as  money  is  twice  as  great  as  the  amount  of  either 
metal  would  be  alone  then  under  bimetallism  prices  would  range  twice 
as  high  as  they  were  under  the  single  standard. 

STEADINESS  OF  STANDARD. 

Mr.  Schurz  claims  that  the  gold  standard  is  a  steady  standard  and 
therefore  desirable  for  the  commercial  transactions  of  the  world.  Other 
gold  standard  advocates  have  made  the  same  declaration.  It  is  im- 
possible to  understand  why  they  have  done  so,  for  all  the  world's 
experience  is  to  the  contrary.  England  is  a  gold  standard  country. 
The  Bank  of  England  rests  on  a  gold  standard.  France  is  a  bimetallic 
country.  While  it  has  coined  no  silver  since  1873,  the  Bank  of  France 
rests  on  the  bimetallic  basis.  During  the  ten  years  from  1875  to  1884 
inclusive  the  Bank  of  England  was  obliged  to  change  the  rate  of  dis- 
count sixty-six  times;  the  Bank  of  France  only  thirteen  times;  in 
other  words,  during  those  ten  years  the  bimetallic  standard  was  five 
times  as  steady  as  the  gold  standard.  And  during  the  seven  years 
from  1885  to  1891  inclusive  the  Bank  of  England  was  forced  to  change 
the  rate  of  discount  fifty-nine  times,  the  Bank  of  France  only  six 
times.  When  one  metal  alone  is  the  standard  it  is  affected  not  only 
by  the  change  in  production  but  by  reason  of  its  limited  quantity  is 
subject  to  manipulation,  whereas  when  the  standard  is  supplied  from 
two  sources  there  is  greater  steadiness  in  the  supply  and  the  volume 
being  so  much  greater  it  is  more  difficult  to  manipulate. 

PRICES  AND  LEGISLATION. 

Mr.  Cochran  argues  that  you  cannot  change  values  and  then  he 
uses  this  language:  "A  man  may  change  prices  by  legislation."  That 
sentence  admits  the  charge  made  by  the  bimetallists  and  is  in  harmony 
with  the  views  of  the  greatest  European  statesmen,  who  claim  with  the 
bimetallists  that  when  the  governments  of  the  world  demonetize  silver 
they  by  legislation  reduce  the  supply  of  money  in  the  world  and  when 
they  adopt  a  single  gold  standard  they  by  legislation  increase  the  de- 
mand for  gold,  so  that  by  legislation  the  law  of  supply  and  demand 
was  in  such  a  manner  interfered  with  as  to  force  up  the  purchasing 
power  of  gold  to  twice  what  it  formerly  was.  If  our  committee  were 


ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.          643 

not  so  poor  I  should  recommend  that  they  give  Mr.  Cochran  a  check 
for  traveling  a  thousand  miles  to  make  that  admission. 

COCHRAN   ON   WAGES. 

Mr.  Cochran  further  gave  us  the  benefit  of  his  views'on  political 
economy  in  this  language :  "Wages  depend  on  production,  and  noth- 
ing else."  Again  he  says:  "Wages  depend  absolutely  on  production." 
If  this  is  correct,  and  nothing  further  is  needed  than  to  produce,  then 
all  that  is  necessary  is  for  the  mills  to  start  up  and  go  to  producing, 
and  the  more  they  produce  the  higher  the  wages  they  can  pay,  and 
everybody  will  be  happy.  If  there  are  any  manufacturers  in  the  house, 
I  ask  you  how  this  would  strike  you?  Has  Mr.  Cochran  covered  the 
case?  Is  there  not  something  wanting?  Has  he  not  left  out  the  most 
essential  element,  and  that  is  the  market?  No  manufacturer  can  run 
his  mills  unless  he  has  a  market  for  the  things  which  his  employes 
make,  and  it  is  strange  that  all  of  the  gold-standard  orators  of  the 
country  persistently  shut  their  eyes  to  the  fact  that  until  we  restore  the 
market  there  is  no  use  of  opening  the  mills.  Wages  depend  on  the 
prices  paid  for  the  things  that  are  manufactured.  The  manufacturer 
cannot  run  his  mills  and  pay  high  wages  and  accept  low  prices  for  his 
products.  Labor  creates  property,  and  the  price  of  that  property 
must  necessarily  fix  the  scale  of  wages. 

OPENING  MILLS. 

Major  McKinley  recently  told  some  gentlemen  that  he  thought  it 
was  more  important  to  this  country  that  we  should  open  the  mills  to 
the  laborer  than  to  open  the  mints  to  the  mine  owners.  This  is  an 
artful  statement,  calculated  to  deceive.  Suppose  he  is  taken  at  his 
word,  and  every  mill  owner  in  America  opens  up  his  mills,  how  long 
will  they  run;  and  if  they  are  obliged  to  shut  down,  why  will  they  be? 
Because  there  is  no  market  for  the  things  they  make,  and  I  say  to 
Major  McKinley  that  the  only  key  that  will  open  the  mills  and  keep 
them  open  is  an  increase  in  the  volume  of  money  in  this  country. 
Let  prices  gradually  come  up  to  bimetallic  standard  and  you  will 
restore  the  purchasing  power  to  the  country.  The  farmer  will  again 
be  able  to  buy,  the  railroad  will  be  busy,  and  every  business  will 
increase  with  the  general  prosperity.  The  manufacturer  will  be  busy, 
and  the  bankers  and  merchants  will  again  be  doing  business.  That  is 
the  only  way  in  which  the  mills  can  again  be  permanently  opened. 

LABOR   PAID   IN   GOLD. 

I  recently  heard  a  gold  standard  man  make  this  argument  to  la- 
borers;   "Why,  you  earn  your  bread  by  the  sweat  of  your  brow;  you 


644  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

begin  toiling  early  in  the  morning  and  you  work  until  night  and 
when  night  comes  you  want  to  be  paid  in  gold.  You  want  a  dear 
dollar.  You  want  a  dollar  of  the  greatest  purchasing  power  to  buy 
you  as  mucfy  of  the  comforts  of  life  as  is  possible."  A  very  seductive 
argument.  It  looks  plausible  on  its  face  but  like  all  the  arguments 
offered  on  this  gold  subject  it  is  fallacious,  calculated  to  deceive,  and 
utterly  ignores  the  fact  that  the  laborer  needs  a  market  for  what  he 
produces.  It  is  an  insult  to  the  intelligence  of  the  laborer  to  tell  him 
that  the  gold  dollar  buys  more  than  any  other  dollar,  if  you  do  not  at 
the  same  time  tell  him  how  he  can  make  that  gold  dollar.  If  this 
subject  of  prices  were  the  mere  scramble  between  buyer  and  seller  then 
the  idea  that  the  dear  dollars  were  in  the  interest  of  laborers  might 
be  correct,  but  the  trouble  Is  that  a  dear  dollar  not  only  in  this  coun- 
try but  in  all  countries  lowers  prices  and  therefore  means  not  only 
lower  wages  but  by  lowering  prices  and  leaving  the  fixed  charges  the 
same  it  destroys  the  market.  It  has  disabled  those  people  from  buy- 
ing who  formerly  bought.  To  the  laborer  it  presents  itself  this  way. 
A  dear  dollar  and  no  market  for  the  things  he  makes;  the  mill 
closed,  himself  out  of  employment  and  his  family  out  of  bread. 

CHINA   AND    INDIA. 

China  and  India  have  lately  been  held  up  to  us  as  horrible  ex- 
amples of  the  condition  that  we  will  reach  if  we  coin  both  gold  and 
silver.  I  have  pointed  out  to  you  the  effects  that  a  reduced  volume 
of  money  has  upon  the  prosperity  of  a  country,  that,  as  the  volume 
grows  smaller  and  smaller  the  people  sink  lower  and  lower.  In  China 
the  amount  of  money  in  circulation  is  only  about  $2.50  per  capita,  in 
India  about  $3  per  capita  and  while  many  things  in  both  countries  and 
in  other  countries  that  have  but  little  money  in  circulation  have  contri- 
buted to  the  present  unhappy  condition  of  the  people  the  most  po- 
tent of  all  causes  has  been  the  inadequate  circulation  of  money,  and 
if  this  gold  standard  is  to  be  maintained  for  the  world,  if,  as  I  have 
said,  our  population  is  to  go  on  increasing  at  enormous  rates  all  over 
the  world  and  the  volume  of  money  does  not  increase,  the  tendency 
of  our  country  will  be  directly  toward  the  same  conditions  that  exist 
m  China  and  India. 

LOCAL    CREDITOR. 

But,  says  someone,  if  you  add  silver  to  the  volume  of  money  will 
you  not  be  injuring  our  own  local  creditors  who  have  money  loaned 
out?  I  say  no,  emphatically  no.  No  creditor,  be  he  banker  or  private 
individual,  can  possibly  benefit  or  profit  by  having  universal  bank- 
ruptcy all  around  him.  Every  creditor,  be  he  banker  or  merchant 


ANSWER  TO  SCHURZ  AND  COCHRAN.  645 

or  private  individual,  does  profit  by  having  genera!  activity  around    It 
opens  new  channels  for  his  capital,  it  creates  a  demand  for  his  money 
1  he  profits  by  general  prosperity.    There  is  just  that  difference  be- 
tween falling  and  rising  prices.     Falling  prices  not  only  injure  the 
btor  but  if  long  continued  they  in  the  end  destroy  the  creditor  while 
ismg  prices  help  the  debtor  and  by  producing  general  prosperity  in- 
crease the  prosperity  of  the  creditor. 

MASSES  AGAINST  CLASSES. 

In  all  ages  and  in  all  countries  the  men  who  were  in  the  wrong 
Jeprecated  discussion.  In  no  country  have  dishonest  policies  sought 
the  sun  and  no  organization  of  highwaymen  has  as  yet  petitioned  for 
electric  light.  The  man  who  has  no  argument  seizes  the  nearest 

dS  ?  M    ,      ,     ,*•    ThCSe  °bservations  «  singularly  applicable  to 
this  gold  standard  movement.     It  is  the  hyena  that  has  sucked  the 
;lood  of  commerce  and  left  the  prostrate  form  of  labor  by  the  road- 
It  has  rendered  this  nation  helpless,  and  when  the  people  try  to 
earn  the  cause  of  their  distress,  when  an  effort  is  made  to  diagnose 
he  patjent   then  there  ,3  a  fierce  howl.    It  came  into  the  world  with 
tealthy  tread,  and  is  seeking  to  maintain  itself  by  still  more  stealthy 
md  dark  deeds.    Every  man  who  does  not  at  once  concede  to  it  the 
ole  right  of  traveling  upon  the  highway  is  assailed  with  a  fierceness 
that  is  calculated  to  frighten  the  timid  and  all  others  who  are  in  anv 
way  dependent.    .The  gold  standard  people  find  that  the  facts  are 
against  them.    They  are  obliged  to  resort  to  deception  and  sophistry 
o  prevent  the  people  from  putting  an  end  to  this  policy;   therefore 
they  deprecate  d.scussion.    Unwilling  to  confess  the  truth    they  talk 
about  rousing  the  masses,  etc.    The  fight  is  as  old  as  human  greed - 
as  old  as  human  selfishness.     For  twenty  years  prior  to   1861   the 
slave  power  deprecated  discussion,  even  in  the  North  where  there 
were  no  slaves,  and  they  put  their  objection  on  the  ground  that  it 
prejudiced. the  masses  against  the  classes.     There  never  yet  wa< 
great  wrong  or  a  great  abuse  but  what  objected  to  investigation  and 
discussion.    Prior  to  1861  the  slave  holders  were  assisted  by  the  hane 
mg-on  class,  that  aggregation  of  human  beings  who  are  born  to  be 
obsequious,  and  to-day  the  gold  standard  people  are  again  supported 
by  the  hanging-on  class. 

AMERICAN  DEGENERATION. 

It  is  a  sad  sight  to  see  this  grand  century  draw  to  a  close  and  c,jve 
such  unmistakable  evidence  of  degeneration  of  American  manhood  as 
we  have  recently  seen.  In  1776  less  than  three  million  men  who 


646  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

were  poor  and  even  despised  by  the  world  declared  that  they  were  not 
only  free  but  that  they  were  independent  of  every  other  nation  on  the 
globe.  In  1896,  when  we  have  seventy  millions  of  people  and  are  ad- 
mittedly the  richest  and  most  powerful  nation  on  the  globe,  when 
we  are  admittedly  the  most  enterprising  people  on  the  globe,  one  of 
the  greatest  political  parties  of  the  nation  in  its  convention  at  St.  Louis 
declared  to  the  world  in  substance  that  while  we  might  be  free  we  were 
dependent,  that  while  a  particular  financial  policy  would  be  .beneficial 
to  this  nation  we  could  not  have  it  until  Europe  consented  to  give  it  to 
us.  That  convention  was  run  from  beginning  to  end  by  the  men  who 
control  trusts,  syndicates  and  corporations.  Had  those  men  been  in 
the  convention  in  1776,  which  was  held  at  Philadelphia,  the  Declara- 
tion that  would  have  been  made  by  that  convention  on  that  famous 
morning  of  July  4th,  would  have  read  this  way:  "Liberty  and  Inde- 
pendence are  desirable,  but  we  must  wait  until  Europe  gives  them  to 
us."  Our  fathers  petitioned  England  long  and  earnestly  and  when 
they  found  that  it  did  them  no  good  they  declared  their  independence 
and  were  happy,  and  so  long  as  there  is  a  language  spoken  upon  earth 
will  men  sing  their  praises.  To-day  the  descendants  of  these  men 
urge  that  we  shall  again  go  into  the  business  of  petitioning  England. 
What  a  fall  is  this  in  patriotism  and  American  manhood.  Mark  Hanna 
is  raising  millions  of  dollars  with  which  to  debauch  and  degrade  the 
American  voter — with  which  to  debauch  and  degrade  the  American 
citizen,  in  order  that  he  shall  approve  of  this  degenerate  policy.  If 
this  movement  shall  succeed  then  our  glorious  republic  has  crossed 
the  brow  of  the  hill  and  we  will  slide  down  into  the  wastes  and  marshes 

beyond. 

SAVING  REPUBLICAN  INSTITUTIONS. 

If  the  gold  standard  is  to  be  maintained,  if  prices  are  not  only  to 
remain  low,  but  to  go  on  falling  while  the  interest  on  our  enormous 
debts  has  to  be  met,  then  the  producing  power  of  this  nation  will  in 
time  be  exhausted  in  the  mere  effort  to  meet  the  fixed  charges.  Our 
farmers,  our  mechanics,  and  our  laboring  men  will  cease  to  be  high 
spirited,  free  men  who  are  proud  of  their  citizenship  and  they  will  sink 
to  a  lower  status.  They  will  sink  to  the  status  of  the  men  who  till  the 
fields  of  Europe  or  the  Valley  of  the  Nile;  they  will  not  be  able  to 
educate  their  families ;  we  will  no  longer  have  that  patriotic  yeomanry 
which  has  been  the  support  of  this  nation  in  every  crisis:  We  will 
have  only  extremely  rich  people  on  the  one  hand  and  an  ignorant  and 
helpless  people  on  the  other,  a  people  whose  minds  are  untrained  and 
whose  spirits  are  cowed;  who  neither  understand  nor  appreciate  free 
institutions.  If  this  gold  standard  is  to  be  maintained,  then  these 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  647 

b^:  "an<1'  a"d  "hen  "le'  C0™e'  the°  the  "^  -  the 

NOT  A  PARTISAN  QUESTION. 

In  1861    when  the  drum  beats  called  you  to  arms,  you  were  not 
asked  whether  you  were  a  Republican  or  a  Democrat   you  we  e  I 
asked  whether  you  were  a  Whig  or  an  Independent;  you  wire  only 
asked  whether  you  loved  the  flag  and  were  ready  to  fight  for  Tt      In 
1896  the  quest,on  .,  not  whether  you  are  a  Republican  or  a  Demo 
oat,  whether  you  are  a  Populist  or  a  Prohibitionist;   the  questio 


uh 
' 


SPEECH    AT    COOPER    UNION,    NEW    YORK 


TERFERENCE. 
Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen- 


? 

«  a  convenience  ,„  mate  ,orl/nK  :  whf  „«  'o,r    °  ™™"1' 

lora^ng   gron,1(i   to  amass 


648  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

tocracy  and  who  wave  the  American  flag  with  one  hand  while  rob- 
bing the  public  with  the  other,  represent  the  sentiment  of  that  sec- 
tion of  the  country  that  was  the  cradle  of  American  liberty.  We  do 
not  believe  that  because  you  have  in  your  midst  men  who  value  the 
privilege  of  taking  breakfast  with  the  Prince  of  Wales  more  than  they 
do  the  blessings  of  free  government;  that  because  you  have  in  your 
midst  men  who  are  ready  to  undermine  and  to  overthrow  republican 
institutions  in  our  land  in  order  to  gain  a  temporary  personal  ad- 
vantage for  themselves,  that  therefore  the  fires  of  liberty  which  for 
more  than  a  century  burned  upon  your  hilltops  and  illumined  the 
world  are  extinct.  We  believe  that  the  hearts  of  a  majority  of  your 
people  are  loyal  to  the  institutions  of  the  fathers,  and  that  they  beat 
in  unison  with  the  hearts  of  the  great  people  of  the  South  and  West 
who  believe  that  the  time  has  not  come  for  converting  this  republic 
into  an  oligarchy. 

THE  MODERN  EUMENIDES. 

At  present  there  is  in  addition  to  the  gold  standard  a  quartette 
of  blighting  sisters  in  our  land,  respectively  called: 

"Federal  interference  in  local  affairs." 

"Government  by  injunction." 

"Usurpation  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,"  and  fourth, 
"Corruption." 

All  four  are  clothed  in  phariseeism  and  pretense,  and  all  recog- 
nize the  gold  standard  as  their  natural  or  foster  mother.  We  believe 
that  these  blighting  sisters  whose  smile  means  paralysis  and  whose 
embrace  means  death  have  no  more  admirers  among  your  people 
than  they  have  among  ours. 

This  campaign  is  to  decide,  not  only  whether  we  shall  perpetuate 
the  experiments  of  this  English  financial  system,  which  is  prostrating 
our  nation,  but  also  whether  we  shall  permanently  adopt  these  four 
sisters  into  our  household  and  make  them  the  ruling  members  of  the 

family. 

THE  GOLD   STANDARD   DISASTROUS. 

The  mask  has  been  torn  from  the  gold  standard.  Our  people  are 
beginning  to  understand  the  attempt  to  introduce  it  throughout  the 
commercial  world  is  a  disastrous  experiment;  that  down  to  1873  tne 
world  used  not  only  all  the  gold  and  all  the  silver  as  money,  but  so 
great  was  -the  world's  business  that  every  dollar  was  loaded  with 
twenty  times  as  much  credit;  that  all  the  great  achievements  of 
mankind  were  accomplished  under  the  bimetallic  system;  that  under 
this  system  everything  that  makes  the  civilization  of  this  century  was 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  649 

done   and  that  since  the  introduction  of  the  universal  gold  standard 
the  wheels  of  progress  have  stood  still.    Our  people  are  beginning  to 
understand  that  formerly  there  was  added  every  year  to  the  world's 
>ck  of  money,  nearly  all  of  the  gold  and  silver  that  was  mined 
ch  m  a  measure  kept  pace  with  the  increase  of  population,  but 
that  since  1873  only  the  gold  has  been  added,  that  is,  only  one-half  as 
much  has  been  added  each  year  as  there  formerly  was,  while  the 
population  has  increased  more  rapidly  than  ever,  and  that  this  fact 
lone  must  produce  a  continuous  fall  in  prices.     Our  people  are  be- 
gmnmg  to  understand  that  making  money  scarce  makes  money  dear 
dear  money  means  low  prices  for  property,  for  the  products  of 
he  earth  and  for  the  products  of  labor.     They  further  understand 
t  as  taxes  and  debts  were  not  reduced  low  prices  have  destroyed 
e  purchasing  power  of  the  farming  and  producing  classes,  so  that 
iey  can  no  longer  buy  the  products  of  the  factory  and  the  mill  as 
they  formerly  did,  in  consequence  of  which  the  factory  and  the  mill 
had  to  partially  or  wholly  shut  down,  thus  in  turn  destroying  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  laborer,  and  that  in  this  manner  the  gold 
standard  has  spread  paralysis  not  only  over  America  but  over  Eu- 
rope and   the  civilized   world.     Our   people  understand   that  when 
the  governments  of  the  earth  forced  the  world  off  of  the  bimetallic 
standard  of  prices   down  onto  the  low  gold   standard   prices    they 
practically  doubled  the  burden  of  all  debtors,  and  that  strange  as  it 
may  seem  none  of  the  pharisees  who  now  cry  aloud  against  makin- 
money  cheap  and  injuring  the  creditor  ever  uttered  a  word  of  svnT 
pathy  for  the  poor  debtor.     They  understand  that  the  bullion  in  one 
of    the    so-called    "fifty-cent    dollars"-treated    as   bullion    with     the 
stamp  of  the  government  erased— has   substantially  the  same  pur- 
chasing  power   and   will    buy   as   much    property,  as   much   of  the 
products  of  the  earth  and  of  labor,  as  had  or  did  any  of  the  dollars 
winch   the  Englishmen  gave  us   for  our  bonds.     They  understand 
that  the  gold  dollar  has  been  forced  up  to  where  it  will" buy  twice  as 
much  property  and  products  as  it  formerly   did;  that  the  govern- 
ments by  destroying  silver  reduced  the  world's  supply  of  money  and 
by  making  gold  alone  do  the  world's  work  they  increased  the  de- 
mand for  it,  thus  interfering  with  the  law  of  supply  and  demand   and 
that  as  soon  as  this  legislation  is  wiped  out  gold  will  of  necessity 
come  down  to   its  former  position.     Our  people  understand  that  it 
be  impossible  to  open  the  mills  and  restore  prosperity  to  the 
world  until  the  purchasing  power  of  the  farming  and  the  great  pro- 
ducing classes  of  the  earth  is  restored  and  that  this  can  only  be  done 


656  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

by  putting  an  end  to  this  gold  standard  experiment  and  restoring  bi- 
metallism. 

REPUBLICAN  ABUSE  AND   VILIFICATION. 

Finding  that  the  facts  and  the  arguments  were  against  them  the 
gold  standard  people  are  resorting  to  vilification  and  abuse,  a  specimen 
of  which  has  lately  been  furnished  the  people  of  the  West  by  a  triplet 
of  retired  generals  drawing  high  salaries,  who  have  been  giving  ex- 
hibitions under  the  management,  and,  as  I  am  informed,  under  the 
care  of  Mr.  Hanna,  and  who  showed  in  their  first  efforts  that  they 
did  not  know  the  one-hundredth  part  as  much  about  the  money 
question  as  did  the  poor  privates  whom  they  were  seeking  to  con- 
vert. But  what  they  lacked  in  knowledge  on  the  money  question 
they  made  up  in  abuse.  They  carried  with  them  a  flat  car  built  by 
Mr.  Pullman  for  this  purpose,  having  on  it  a  cannon  and  other  mili- 
tary equipments,  to  show  the  laboring  men  of  this  country  what  policy 
they  may  reasonably  expect  to  be  carried  out  in  case  Mr.  Hanna 
succeeds  in  carrying  this  election. 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  let  me  direct  your  attention  to  that  part 
of  the  Chicago  platform  which  denounces  what  I  have  called  "The 
Blighting  Sisters."  Calamities  rarely  come  singly.  Whenever  the 
foundation  is  undermined  a  horde  of  evils  follow  and  there  has  come 
upon  us  a  group  of  evils,  each  one  of  which  is  destructive  of  repub- 
lican institutions.  If  they  were  not  born  of,  they  at  least  came  hand 
in  hand  with  this  English  system  of  low  prices  and  great  debts. 
Poverty  and  loss  of  liberty  go  together.  The  forces  which  produce 
the  one  generally  build  the  machinery  that  destroys  the  other. 

FEDERAL  INTERFERENCE. 

Let  us  look  at  "Federal  Interference  and  Government  by  In- 
junction," and  to  illustrate  how  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  can  be 
trampled  upon  and  every  principle  of  free  government  brushed  away 
with  a  mere  wave  of  the  hand,  I  will  cite  the  action  of  the  federal 
government  and  the  federal  courts  during  the  railroad  strike  in  1894. 
I  am  aware  that  by  persistent  vilification  and  deliberate  misrepre- 
sentation the  partisan  press  has  made  the  impression  upon  the  minds 
of  many  good  citizens  that  I,  as  Governor  of  Illinois,  during  the  rail- 
road disturbances  of  two  years  ago,  did  not  do  my  duty  and  did  not 
make  the  proper  effort  to  protect  life  and  property  in  Chicago,  but 
sympathized  with  lawlessness  and  disorder;  that  federal  interference 
was  necessary  to  save  the  city.  If  there  were  even  a  semblance  of 
truth  in  this,  then  no  condemnation  could  be  too  severe,  for  a  gov- 


SPEECH  AT  CO  OPER  UNION.  65  1 

eminent  that  will  not  promptly  and  thoroughly  protect  life  and  prop- 
rty  and  preserve  law  and  order  is  an  abomination  and  should  be 
wiped  off  of  the  earth.   But,  let  us  see  what  the  indisputable  facts  are 
as  shown  by  the  records,  and  then  you  can  judge  for  yourselves 

A  narration  of  the  incidents  in  that  strike  at  Chicago  may  be  a 
little  tedious  but  as  it  bears  on  one  of  the  great  issues  of  this  cam- 
paign and  shows  what  the  laboring  classes  of  this  country  may  ex- 
pect for  themselves  and  their  children  if  the  present  tendency  is  not 
arrested,  it  is  important. 

THE    COAL   STRIKE. 

In  order  to  give  you  a  more  comprehensive  view  of  the  situation 
I  remind  you  that  during  the  several  months  immediately  prior  to 
the  beginning  of  the  railroad  strike  there  prevailed  in  all  of  the  coal 
mining  States  a  great  coal  miners'  strike,  which  was  so  serious  that 
it  stopped  production  and  in  some  localities  caused  a  coal  famine 
e  policy  of  the  miners  was  to  abstain  from  work  until  a  standard  of 
wages  could  be  fixed.    Their  families  were  in  great  distress  and  neve 
i  men  behave  better  or  show  themselves  to  be  better  law-abiding 
c,t,zens  than  did  nearly  all  of  the  miners  during  that  time.     Illinoi? 
has  one  of  the  largest  coal  fields  in  the  world-a  coal  field  250  mile 
long  and  over  100  miles  wide,  and  there  are  coal  mines  all  over  ft 
:  suspension  of  mining  extended  nearly  all  over  the  State     As  "a 
the  miners  themselves  were  well   behaved,  but  disorderly  ele- 
ents  ,n  some  cases  taking  advantage  of  the  situation  attempted  to 
interfere  with   the  moving  of    trains,  and    in  several    instances    by 
stea  thy  acts^  and  without  the  knowledge  or  even  the  suspicion  of  the 
local  civil  officers,  succeeded  in  committing  depredations.    During  th 

eS  '  dCmand  f  the 


SUte    a  Ht  r°m  Va°US  secti°-  o    the 

State    and   they  were   not  only   furnished  promptly,   but   they  were 
moved  with  a  celerity  never  exceeded  by  the  reeular  arm       n 
nois   National  Guard  consists  of  about^.oLTen        7in  poL     "f 
trainin       rss  for  duty,   soldierly  bearing  and   general 


mg  men  that  ,„  instances  of  this  character,  vvhefe  they  did  not 


652  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

place  of  trouble.  In  several  instances  an  entire  regiment  reported 
for  duty  at  a  point  240  miles  from  its  headquarters  within  14  hours 
after  it  was  ordered  out.  During  that  long  strike  order  was  main- 
tained everywhere,  railroad  trains  were  moved,  and  in  those  in- 
stances where  depredations  had  been  committed  stealthily  the  of- 
fenders were  all  arrested  and  immediately  lodged  in  jail  and  were 
punished. 

An  examination  of  the  records  will  show  that  while  during  the 
coal  strikes  some  of  the  railroads  in  Ohio,  where  Major  McKinley 
was  Governor,  were  almost  paralyzed  and  were  at  the  mercy  of  the 
mobs  in  some  cases  for  nearly  a  week  at  a  time,  in  Illinois  they  got 

instant  relief. 

THE  RAILROAD  STRIKE. 

No  sooner  was  this  coal  strike  over  than  the  great  railroad  strike 
began,  and  the  operatives  or  trainmen  of  nearly  all  the  great  rail- 
roads of  the  country  stopped  work.  This  left  the  railroads  helpless. 
Illinois  is  the  greatest  railroad  State  in  the  Union  and  Chicago  the 
greatest  railroad  center  in  the  world.  The  operating  and  switching 
yards  of  that  city  were  mostly  out  on  the  prairie  adjoining  the  city 
and  were  so  extensive  as  to  almost  surround  it.  In  addition  to  Chi- 
cago there  are  more  than  a  dozen  railroad  centers  scattered  over  the 
State.  The  railroad  operatives,  partly  put  of  respect  for  the  law 
and  partly  because  they  felt  that  violence  would  injure  their  cause, 
were  orderly,  but  in  centers  of  population,  where  there  were  great 
numbers  of  idle  men  drawn  together  by  the  excitement,  a  vicious 
element  sometimes  became  demonstrative,  and  after  the  roads  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  new  men  to  man  some  of  their  trains  there  were 
efforts  made  by  the  mob  to  prevent  the  moving  of  Pullman  cars,  and 
this  in  some  cases  precipitated  trouble.  Under  the  laws  of  Illinois, 
whenever  the  civil  authorities  are  not  able  to  maintain  order  or  en- 
force the  law,  the  Governor  can  order  out  troops  for  their  assistance 
on  the  application  of  either  the  sheriff  of  the  county,  the  mayor  of 
a  city  or  village,  the  county  judge  or  th'e  coroner.  The  constitution 
and  laws  of  that  State,  in  harmony  with  the  Constitution  and  laws  of 
the  federal  government,  are  based  upon  the  principle  that  in  a  re- 
public in  time  of  peace  the  military  should  be  subject  to  the  civil  of- 
ficers and  that  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order  should  in  the  first 
instance  devolve  upon  the  local  officers  in  each  community. 

Early  in  this  railroad  strike  and  before  there  had  been  any  serious 
disturbances  in  Chicago,  applications  for  assistance  were  made  by  the 
local  civil  officers  of  five  or  six  different  railroad  centers  throughout 
the  State  and  troops  were  promptly  sent  to  their  assistance,  always  ar- 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  653 

riving  on  the  ground  within  a  few  hours  after  they  had  been  applied 
for. 

STATE  TROOPS  PROMPTLY  FURNISHED. 

To  show  the  attitude  of  the  State  administration  during  this  time, 
I  quote  a  few  dispatches  received  and  sent,  which  are  fair  specimens 
On  July  i,  I  received  a  dispatch  from  Decatur,  111.,  signed  by 
a  number  of  passengers  on  a  railroad  train  stating  that  no  effort  was 
being  made  by  the  railroad  company  to  move  their  train  and  they 
demanded  assistance.  This  was  the  first  intimation  that  I  had  that 
there  was  any  trouble  in  that  locality,  and  I  immediately  sent  this 
telegram  to  the  sheriff  of  that  county: 


To  the  Sheriff  of  Macon  County,  Decatur,  111.  :        Springfield'  I"1?  '•  l894- 

have  a  dispatch  purporting  to  come  from  passengers  now  detained  at 
Decatur  because  trains  are  obstructed  and  they  ask  for  assistance.  Wire  me 
the  =  situation  fully.  Are  railroad  officials  making  proper  efforts  to  move  trains 

"          ey0Ua0  **  ""^'  UbHC  pr°tection  and 


(Signed)  J.  p.  ALTGELD,  Governor. 

To  this  the  sheriff  replied  that  he  had  been  able  to  preserve  or- 
der so  far,  but  could  do  so  no  longer,  and  asked  for  troops  and  the 
following  reply  was  sent: 

To  the  Sheriff  of  Macon  County,  Decatur,  111.:     Springfield-  ^  '.  1894. 

Have  ordered  troops  to  your  assistance.  They  should  reach  you  before 
sunnse.  See  that  all  trains  unlawfully  held  are  released  at  once. 

J.  P.  ALTGELD,  Governor. 

On  the  same  day  the  Chicago  &  Eastern  Illinois  Railroad  Com- 
pany telegraphed  from  Danville  that  their  trains  were  tied  up  at  that 
point  and  that  the  sheriff  would  do  nothing,  although  he  had  been 
repeatedly  called  on,  and  they  asked  for  assistance.  To  this  the  fol- 
lowing reply  was  sent: 


W.  H.  Lyford,  Genera,  Counsel,  C.  &  E.  I.  R.  I'c^'  ***  ''  l**' 
We  can  furnish  assistance  promptly  if  the  civil  authorities  show  that  they 

need  it.     Thus  far  there  has  been  no  application  for  assistance  from  any  of 
officials  of  Vermilion  county,  either  sheriff,  coroner,  mayor  of  town  or  the 

C0"nty  ]udge'  J.  P.  ALTGELD,  Governor 

At  the  same  time  the  following  dispatch  was  sent  to  the  sheriff 
of  Vermilion  county: 

T,     ..     c,  Springfield,  July  i,  1894. 

lo  the  Sheriff  of  Vermilion  County,  Danville,  111.: 

Officials  of  the  Eastern  Illinois  Railroad  complain  that  their  trains  have 
been   tied   up  and  that  they   cannot  get   sufficient  protection  to   move  them. 


654  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Please  wire  me  the  situation  fully.     Can  you  enforce  the  law  and  protect  the 
traveling  public  with  such  force  as  you  can  command? 

J.  P.  ALTGELD,  Governor. 

A  similar  telegram  was  at  the  same  time  sent  to  the  county  judge 
and  other  local  officers.  The  following  reply  was  received  from  the 

sheriff: 

Danville,  111.,  July  I,  1894. 
Governor  J.  P.  Altgeld: 

Your  message  received.  Send  me  one  hundred  rifles  and  ammunition  and 
I  will  try  to  protect  the  railroad's  men  and  property.  As  to  the  situation,  there 
are  from  300  to  700  men  on  the  ground  and  oppose  the  movement  of  any  and 
all  trains  or  cars  except  mail  cars.  They  are  usually  quiet  and  duly  sober,  but 
are  very  determined.  I  will  advise  if  I  am  not  able  to  afford  protection. 

J.  W.  NEWTON,  Sheriff. 

To  this  the  following  telegram  was  sent: 

Springfield,  July  I,  1894. 
To  J.  A.  Newton,  Sheriff,  Danville,  111.: 

We  have  not  got  100  stand  of  arms  left  here,  but  from  information  we 
get  we  consider  situation  serious  at  Danville,  and  therefore  have  sent  you 
troops.  They  will  be  there  early  in  the  morning.  All  those  trains  unlawfully 
held  should  be  moved  before  noon.  J.  P.  ALTGELD,  Governor. 

OLNEY   STATES  THE   CORRECT   DOCTRINE. 

In  several  instances  troops  had  been  asked  for  to  protect  railroad 
property  and  were  promptly  furnished,  and  it  was  then  found  that 
the  railroad  companies  had  no  men  who  were  willing  to  work,  and 
we  had  to  find  soldiers  who  had  to  act  as  brakemen  and  engineers  in 
order  to  transport  the  troops.  Several  weeks  prior  to  these  dates, 
while  the  coal  strike  was  pending,  the  Hon.  William  J.  Allen,  United 
States  District  Judge  at  Springfield,  111.,  finding  that  the  marshal  was 
having  trouble  to  carry  out  some  of  the  orders  of  his  court,  wrote 
.to  the  Attorney  General  at  Washington  upon  the  subject  of  receiving 
assistance  from  federal  troops  to  enforce  the  orders  of  the  United 
States  court,  and  the  Attorney  General  sent  the  following  dispatch : 

Washington,  D.  C.,  June  16,  1894. 
Allen,  United  States  Judge,  Springfield,  Illinois: 

I  understand  the  State  of  Illinois  is  willing  to  protect  property  against  law- 
less violence  with  military  force  if  necessary.  Please  advise  receivers  to  take 
proper  steps  to  procure  protection  by  civil  authorities  of  the  State.  If  such 
protection  proves  inadequate,  the  government  should  be  applied  to  for  military 
assistance. 

OLNEY,  Attorney  General. 

This  laid  down  the  correct  doctrine,  that  is,  that  the  local  authori- 
ties should  be  applied  to  first,  and  in  case  of  their  failure,  then  the 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  655 

Governor  of  the  State  should  be  applied  to  for  assistance.     Immedi- 
ately after  the  date  of  this  telegram,  and  on  several  occasions  there- 
after during  the  coal  strike,  as  well  as  on  several  occasions  during  the 
subsequent  railroad  strike,  prior  to  the  serious  disturbances  in  Chi- 
cago, the  United  States  Marshal  for  the  Southern  District  of  Illinois 
applied  to  the  Governor  for  military  aid  to  enable  him  and  his  deputies 
to  execute  the  processes  of  the  United  States  court,  and  in  each  in- 
stance troops  were  promptly  sent  to  his  assistance.     This,  in  brief, 
shows  the  attitude  of  the  State  administration  toward  that  part  of  the 
State  lying  outside  of  Chicago,  and  as  troops  were  always  promptly 
furnished  where  needed,  and  in  every  instance  were  promptly  fur- 
nished to  the  United  States  Marshal  when  asked  for  to  assist  him  in 
enforcing  the  orders  of  the  United  States  court  for  Southern  Illinois 
and  as  the  State  administration  stood  equally  ready  to  furnish  any 
assistance  which  the  United  States   Marshal  at   Chicago  might  re- 
quire to  carry  out  the  orders  of  the  United  States  court  there   and 
inasmuch  as  Attorney  General  Olney  had  only  a  few  weeks  before 
telegraphed  that  the  Governor  should  be  applied  to  for  troops  to  assist 
in  carrying  out  the  orders  of  the  United  States  court,  it  would  natur- 
ally be  expected  that  if  the  United  States  Marshal  at  Chicago  should 
need  assistance  that  he  would  apply  for  such  assistance  to  the  Gov- 
ernor of  the  State.    But  instead  of  pursuing  this  course,  just  the  op- 
posite course  was  pursued.    No  application  of  any  sort  for  troops  was 
made  to  the  Governor  by  the  United  States  Marshal  or  any  of  the 
Lnitec 1  States  authorities  at  Chicago,  nor  was  any  such  application 
made  by  any  of  the  local  city  or  county  officers  of  Chicago  until  the 
6th  of  July,  and  then  such  application  was  made  on  my  suggestion 

You  may  ask  why  the  federal  administration  at  Washington  did 
not  d,rect  the  United  States  Marshal  at  Chicago  to  apply  to  the  State 
for  troops  m  order  to  enforce  the  orders  of  the  United  States  courts 
there  just  as  the  United  States  Marshal  for  Southern  Illinois  had  ap- 
plied to  the  State  for  troops  to  enforce  the  orders  of  the  United 
States  courts  at  that  place?  I  will  tell  you.  It  subsequently  developed 
that  more  than  ten  days  before  there  was  any  trouble  the  corporations 
of  Chicago  apphed  to  the  federal  government  for  troops  so  that  a 
precedent  might  be  set  under  wh.ch  they  could  in  the  future  appeal 
directly  m  all  cases  to  the  federal  government  and  become  inde- 
pendent of  local  governments. 

OLNEY  REVERSES  HIMSELF. 

Thereupon,  more  than  five  days  in  advance  of  any  trouble  in  Chi 
cago,  Mr.  Olney  and  Mr.  Cleveland  decided  to  reverse  the  policy  and 


'656  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

practice  of  the  government  and  take  an  entire  new  departure  by  set- 
ting a  precedent  of  having  the  President  to  interfere  at  pleasure  and 
having  the  United  States  courts  and  the  United  States  government 
take  the  corporations  directly  under  their  wings  in  the  first  instance 
in  all  cases,  and  in  order  to  have  the  American  people  submit  to  the 
violation  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  land  as  well  as  of  every 
principle  of  self-government,  the  trouble  at  Chicago  was,  by  syste- 
matic effort  and  deliberate  misrepresentation,  so  magnified  as  to 
make  it  seem  that  we  were  bordering  on  anarchy,  and  that  conse- 
quently federal  interference  was  necessary.  The  impression  was 
sought  to  be  made  upon  the  country  that  we  were  bordering  on  civil 
war  and  the  destruction  of  society  and  that  neither  the  local  authori- 
ties nor  the  State  authorities  were  willing  to  maintain  law  and  order, 
while  the  real  fact  was  that  the  federal  government  took  steps  to  in- 
terfere in  Chicago  before  there  was  any  rioting  or  any  serious  trouble 
of  any  kind,  and  that  the  State  authorities,  who  stood  ready  to  act 
promptly,  were  intentionally  ignored. 

THE  DESTRUCTION  NOT  GREAT. 

The  disturbance  at  its  worst  did  not  equal  in  point  of  destructive- 
ness  the  disturbances  that  occurred  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  the  year  previ- 
ous; was  not  near  so  bloody  or  destructive  as  a  number  of  disturbances 
that  have  occurred  in  Pennsylvania,  and  was  not  as  bloody  or  de- 
structive as  had  occurred  in  Ohio  while  Mr.  McKinley  was  Governor. 

The  federal  commission  appointed  by  President  Cleveland  after- 
wards to  investigate  this  strike  made  a  thorough  examination  of  the 
subject  and  in  its  report  used  this  language: 

"According  to  the  testimony  the  railroads  lost  in  property  de- 
stroyed and  in  the  hire  of  United  States  deputy  marshals  and  other 
incidental  expenses  at  least  $685,783.00." 

Bear  in  mind  that  this  includes  the  expense  of  a  large  number 
of  deputy  marshals  and  of  loss  sustained,  as  the  commission  says,  in 
other  incidental  expenses.  Deducting  this  incidental  expense  and 
the  part  that  was  paid  deputy  marshals  and  it  reduces  the  amount  of 
property  actually  destroyed  to  a  sum  which  is  lower  than  the  amount 
that  was  destroyed  in  the  disturbances  in  the  other  States  that  I 
have  mentioned,  and  when  it  is  remembered  that  property  destroyed 
consisted  chiefly  of  freight  cars  found  in  railroad  yards  that  extended 
over  miles  of  territory  and  that  it  was  easy  for  lawless  men  to 
stealthily  set  cars  on  fire  under  this  situation,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
property  destroyed  by  actual  rioting  or  by  a  large  mob  was  very  small. 
The  Chicago  Fire  Department,  which  officially  investigated  every 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  657 

case  where  there  was  a  car  or  any  other  property  destroyed,  reports 
as  follows:  "During  the  first  three  days  of  the  month  of  July  no 
efforts  were  made  to  damage  the  property  of  corporations.  After  that 
the  destruction  of  property  was  as  follows: 


July  4th . 
July  5th. 
July  6th. 
July  7th . 
July  8th. 
July  gth. 
July  loth. 
July  nth. 
July  12th. 
July  I3th. 
July  I4th. 


Total    ...........................................  $355,612 

Subsequent  examinations  have  shown  that  even  this  sum  was  ex- 
aggerated. It  will  be  seen  by  the  table  that  nearly  all  of  this  oc- 
curred on  the  6th  of  July  and  was  due  to  the  fact  that  a  fire  had 

oken  out  in  a  very  large  railroad  yard  south  of  the  city  where 
there  was  no  water  and  where  the  fire  department  was  consequently 
powerless.  It  seems  that  most  of  the  burning  occurred  in  the  even- 
ing after  the  rioting  of  that  day  in  that  locality  had  been  suppressed 
and  after  both  the  police  and  the  State  troops  had  arrived  on 
the  ground,  but  owing  to  the  absence  of  water  but  little 
could  be  done  to  arrest  the  flames.  One  fire  engine  put  out 
over  a  half  a  mile  of  hose,  but  was  unable  then  to  reach  the  cars  A 
mere  glance  at  the  facts  shows  that  the  reports  that  were  sent  out  as 

the  actual  condition  in  Chicago  during  the  strike  were  malicious 
libels  upon  the  city. 

It  will  be  noticed,  according  to  the  reports  of  the  fire  department, 
that  it  was  not  until  the  4th  of  July  that  the  rioting  began,  and  it  was 

4th  and  5tH  °f  JUl>'  and  dld  n0t  beC°me  Serious 


was 

untl  Ae  6A  4th  and  5tH  °f  JUl>'  and  dld  n0t  beC°me  Se 

So  much  for  the  extent  of  the  riot. 

EFFECT  OF  STRIKE  ON  MAIL  SERVICE. 

Now  let  us  see  how  it  affected  the  mail  service.  Several  months 
after  the  riot  the  superintendent  of  the  railway  mail  service  at  Chi- 
cago, upon  whom  the  duty  of  getting  the  mails  in  and  out  of  Chi- 

,t  of  't'ife 
43 


658  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

With  the  exception  of  some  trains  that  were  held  at  Hammond,  Ind., 
Washington  Heights,  Danville  and  Cairo,  111.,  the  greatest  delay  to  any  of  the 
outgoing  and  incoming  mails  probably  did  not  exceed  from  eight  to  nine  hours 
at  any  time.  (Signed)-  LOUIS  L.  TROY,  Superintendent. 

This  shows  that  whatever  the  difficulties  may  have  been  at  other 
points  there  were  no  great  delays  at  Chicago,  and  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  the  railroads  for  a  time  were  helpless  because  they  could 
not  get  men  to  man  their  trains,  it  is  apparent  that  the  delays  there 
were  very  insignificant,  and  that  in  so  far  as  the  mails  are  concerned 
nothing  had  happened  to  call  for  federal  interference.  The  truth  is 
that  there  had  been  strikes  in  Chicago  that  looked  more  formidable 
than  this  one  and  yet  the  mayor  and  local  authorities  had  found  them- 
selves amply  able  to  preserve  order  and  enforce  the  law.  In  the  pres- 
ent case  the  mayor  had  sworn  in  a  large  number  of  extra  policemen, 
and  the  sheriff  of  the  county  had  sworn  in  a  large  number  of  deputy 
sheriffs,  and  they  believed  themselves  to  be  able  to  easily  control  the 
situation.  Early  in  the  trouble  Sheriff  Gilbert,  who  was  a  Repub- 
lican, telegraphed  for  arms  with  which  to  equip  his  deputies,  and  these 
arms  were  at  once  sent  him.  This  was  the  last  request  he  ever  made 
for  assistance. 

Remember,  now,  that  the  report  of  the  fire  department  shows  that 
on  the  ist,  2d  and  3d  of  July  there  was  no  property  destroyed;  that 
on  the  4th  and  on  the  5th  of  July  there  was  a  little  destruction  of 
property,  and  it  was  not  until  the  6th  of  July  that  the  rioting  became 
serious.  I  call  your  attention  to  the  following: 

"On  the  afternoon  of  June  30  the  superintendent  of  the  railway 
mail  service  at  Chicago  sent  the  following  dispatch  to  the  authorities 
at  Washington:  'No  mails  have  accumulated  at  Chicago  so  far.  All 
regular  trains  are  moving  nearly  on  time  with  a  few  slight  exceptions. 

LEWIS  L.  TROY,  Superintendent.'  " 

Yet  notwithstanding  this  dispatch,  on  the  next  morning,  before 
anything  more  had  happened,  the  authorities  at  Washington  decided 
to  appoint  a  special  attorney  at  Chicago  to  represent  the  United 
States  in  the  strike.  Thus  far  it  will  be  noticed  that  the  government 
was  in  no  way  involved.  It  had  just  been  advised  there  was  no  serious 
delay  in  the  mails  and  there  was  nothing  in  the  situation  that  in  any 
way  affected  the  federal  government. 

INTERESTED  ATTORNEY  APPOINTED  SPECIAL  COUNSEL. 

The  government  already  had  a  United  States  District  Attorney 
with  a  largo  number  of  assistants  in  that  city  who  were  amply  able  to 
attend  to  all  of  the  government  business  there,  but  instead  of  simply 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  659 

increasing    their    number,    Attorney    General   Olney   and    President 
Cleveland  decided  to  appoint  a  special  counsel  who  should  still  more 
directly  represent  the  government  during  this  strike.     The  adminis- 
tration claimed  to  be  Democratic.    There  were  hundreds  of  able  and 
distinguished   Democratic    lawyers  in   Chicago  whose    appointment 
would  have  carried  confidence,  but  the  administration  would  not  have 
any  of  these.    The  Attorney  General  and  the  President  evidently  felt 
that  when  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  were  to  be  trampled  on, 
when  the  precedents  and  traditions  of  the  government  were  to  be  dis- 
regarded and  a  new  and  a  revolutionary  policy  was  to  be  inaugurated, 
that  they  needed  a  Republican  for  that  purpose.     Here  again  there 
were  hundreds  of  able  and  distinguished  Republican  lawyers  in  Chi- 
cago who  were  not  connected  with  corporations,  who  were  in  no  way 
involved  in  the  strike  on  either  side  and  whose  appointment  would  at 
least  have  aroused  no  suspicion;   but  the  Attorney  General  and  the 
President  evidently  felt  that  they  would  not  do;  that  for  the  particu- 
lar work  which  they  wanted  done  they  needed  a  corporation  lawyer, 
and  here  again  there  were  a  large  number  of  able  and  distinguished 
corporation  lawyers  in  Chicago  who  were  Republicans  and  who  were 
in  no  way  involved  in  the  strike  on  either  side;    but  the  Attorney 
General  and  the  President  evidently  felt  that  for  the  peculiar  and  revo- 
lutionary work  they  wanted  done  these  men  might  not  be  reliable. 
So  they  rejected  these  and  appointed  Mr.  Walker,  who  was  not  only  a 
Republican  and  a  corporation  lawyer,  but  who  was  at  that  time  the 
attorney  for  a  great  railroad  that  was  directly  involved  in  the  strike, 
so  that  he  himself  was  already  involved  in  the  controversy,  he  on 
one  side  and  the  railroad  employes  on  the  other.    In  other  words  the 
Attorney  General  and  the  President  took  one  of  the  parties  to  the 
controversy  and  placed  at  his  disposal  United  States  Marshals,  United 
States  courts  and  the  United  States  army.    Never  before  in  the  history 
of  our  country  were  the  courts,  the  grand  juries,  the  United  States 
Marshals  and  the  United  States  army  stripped  of  all  semblance  of 
impartiality  and  given  as  a  convenience  to  one  of  the  parties. 

This,  bear  in  mind,  was  on  the  first  day  of  July,  three  days  ahead 
of  any  rioting  and  five  days  in  advance  of  any  serious  rioting,  and  on 
the  same  day  the  United  States  troops  at  Fort  Sheridan,  within  an 
hour's  run  of  Chicago,  were  ordered  to  be  in  readiness  to  go  to  that 
:ity  on  a  moment's  notice.  The  plan  determined  upon  was  to  have 
:he  United  States  courts  issue  blanket  injunctions,  hereafter  ex- 
plained, against  the  strikers  and  all  other  people,  forbidding  every- 
ihing  imaginable,  and  then  use  the  marshals  for  the  purpose  of  carry- 
ing out  these  injunctions  and  use  the  federal  troops  for  this  and  other 


66o  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

purposes.  Up  to  this  time  neither  the  Republican  sheriff  of  the  county 
nor  Mr.  Hopkins,  the  Democratic  mayor  of  the  city,  nor  any  other 
local  State  official,  nor  any  federal  official  at  Chicago  or  elsewhere  had 
applied  to  the  Governor  for  troops. 

PERVERSION   OF   INTER-STATE   COMMERCE   LAW. 

Some  of  the  judges  who  issued  these  injunctions  claimed  to  base 
them  upon  what  was  called  the  Interstate  Commerce  Law,  an  act  of 
Congress  passed  some  years  ago  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the 
shippers  of  this  country,  and  especially  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
unjust  discrimination  by  the  railroads  between  shippers.  This  act 
had  become  almost  inoperative  so  far  as  the  purpose  of  its  enact- 
ment was  concerned,  because  some  of  these  same  judges  had  first  held 
one  clause  and  then  another  clause  to  be  unconstitutional,  so  that  it 
was  practically  destroyed  as  a  measure  that  should  prevent  discrim- 
ination by  the  railroads.  But  after  having  rendered  it  harmless  so 
far  as  the  railroads  were  concerned  at  that  time  (the  Supreme  Court 
has  since  reversed  some  of  their  decisions)  they,  to  the  amazement 
of  the  American  people,  made  of  this  law  a  club  with  which  to  pound 
the  backs  of  the  laboring  men.  I  repeat  that  some  of  the  judges  based 
their  injunctions  on  the  ground  of  protecting  interstate  commerce, 
and  they  held  that  if  a  car  was  loaded  with  goods  at  any  point  and 
was  intended  to  be  shipped  to  some  point  out  of  the  State,  that  then 
it  was  interstate  commerce  and  the  President  and  the  federal  author- 
ities could  take  complete  control  of  the  situation  and  could  ignore 
State  and  local  authorities  entirely.  Some  of  these  injunctions  were 
sued  out  by  the  Attorney  General  in  the  name  of  the  United  States, 
and  were  claimed  to  be  partly  based  on  the  anti-trust  law,  an  act  of 
Congress  intended  to  prevent  the  formation  of  trusts  by  large  cor- 
porations in  restraint  of  trade.  The  Attorney  General  had  refused 
to  enforce  this  law.  He  did  not  try  to  break  up  a  single  trust  under 
it,  but  after  having  refused  to  enforce  it  against  the  corporations  and 
for  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  passed,  he  made  it  a  whip  with  which 
to  scourge  labor. 

CALL  FOR  FEDERAL  TROOPS  UNWARRANTED. 

Immediately  after  the  beginning  of  the  strike  in  which  the  railway 
operatives  refused  to  work,  the  managers  of  the  railway  lines  entering 
Chicago  formed  an  organization  to  fight  the  strike,  and  they  met  to- 
wards the  close  of  each  day  to  report  upon  the  situation,  and  at  6 
o'clock  p.  m.  of  July  2,  the  day  after  the  special  counsel  had  been 
appointed  by  the  government,  and  the  day  after  the  troops  at  Fort 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  66 1 

Sheridan  had  been  ordered  to  be  in  readiness  at  Chicago,  they  met 
and  reported  as  to  the  condition  of  their  roads  and  the  following 
copies  of  reports  made  by  themselves,  which  are  samples  of  all  the 
reports,  show  the  situation  at  that  time: 

Wisconsin  Central:  "All  passenger  and  freight  trains  moving 
and  business  resumed  its  normal  condition." 

Chicago  &  Northern  Pacific:  "Suburban  trains  all  running  about 
on  time.  Freight  moving  without  interruption.  Night  suburban 
trains  discontinued  for  fear  of  being  stoned  by  loafers." 

Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy:  "Thirty-seven  car  loads  of 
dressed  beef  loaded  in  Kansas  City  yesterday  morning  have  passed 
over  this  road  safely  and  delivered  to  Eastern  lines  this  afternoon  and 
are  now  moving  all  right." 

Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul:  "All  passenger  trains  have  ar- 
rived and  departed  on  time.  No  freight  moving  here,  but  is  moving 
on  other  parts  of  the  line." 

Chicago  &  Northwestern:  "All  through  passenger  traffic  has  been 
continued  without  interruption.  Not  trying  to  handle  freight." 

Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern:  "No  interruption  to  business. 
Both  passenger  and  freight  trains  have  come  and  departed  as  usual." 

Baltimore  &  Ohio:  "All  passenger  trains  with  full  equipment 
met  with  no  delay  and  all  very  nearly  on  time." 

Chicago  and  Great  Western:  "Passenger  trains  moving  as  usual 
with  the  regular  Pullman  equipment.  Freight  service  partially  re- 
sumed on  the  Chicago  Division." 

Chicago  &  Erie:  "All  passenger  trains  are  running  out  on  time. 
Not  attempting  to  do  freight  business.  Have  trouble  at  Marion,  O." 

This  was  on  the  evening  of  July  2d,  and  corroborates  the  statement 
made  by  the  fire  department  that  for  the  first  three  days  in  July  no 
attempt  was  made  to  destroy  railroad  property.  In  those  cases  where 
a  road  was  not  attempting  to  move  freight  it  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
their  old  hands  had  quit  work  and  they  had  not  yet  been  able  to  get 
new  ones. 

On  the  morning  of  July  3d,  being  the  morning  after  the  railroad 
managers  had  reported  the  conditions  of  their  roads,  as  already  shown, 
and  before  anything  further  had  developed,  Mr.  Walker,  the  special 
counsel,  dictated  a  dispatch  which  was  sent  to  Washington,  asking 
that  federal  troops  be  sent  inte  the  city,  and  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
3d,  the  federal  troops  appeared  in  Chicago  and  camped  on  the  Lake 
Front  and  ostensibly  went  on  duty.  Let  me  repeat  here  that  up  to 
this  time  there  had  been  no  serious  disturbance  of  mails,  no  de- 
struction of  property  and  according  to  the  reports  of  the  railroad 


662  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

managers  themselves  no  serious  interference  with  the  operation  of  the 
railroads  or  with  interstate  commerce. 

STATE  AUTHORITIES  IGNORED. 

And  let  me  also  repeat  that  up  to  this  time  the  State  and  local 
authorities  had  been  completely  ignored,  the  State  was  not  asked  to 
do  anything  or  to  assist  in  any  manner,  although  it  was  not  only  able 
to  entirely  control  the  situation,  but  stood  ready  to  do  it.  The  special 
counsel  for  the  government  was  also  the  representative  of  the  rail- 
roads, and  assistance  from  the  State  was  not  wanted,  but  every  step 
was  taken  to  establish  a  new  precedent  that  might  be  used  in  the 
future;  that  is,  to  apply  only  to  the  federal  government  so  that  the 
corporations  might  at  any  time  in  the  future  be  able  to  get  federal 
troops  at  pleasure  and  also  that  the  precedent  might  be  established 
of  authorizing  the  President  to  interfere  at  pleasure  in  any  com- 
munity, because  if  interstate  commerce  is  to  embrace  any  car  or  any 
article  of  merchandise  intended  to  be  shipped  out  of  the  State,  then 
there  is  scarcely  a  neighborhood  in  America  but  what  some  pretext 
could  be  found  for  sending  federal  troops  into  it. 

At  about  6  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  July  3d,  about  the  time  the 
United  States  troops  were  entering  Chicago,  the  managers  of  the 
different  railroads  again  met  and  reported  in  substance  as  follows: 

Santa  Fe:  "Six  regular  passenger  trains  on  time;  moving 
freight." 

Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul:  "All  passengers  on  time  and 
without  interference;  moving  freight." 

Chicago  &  Alton:     "Trains  stop  for  want  of  firemen." 

Baltimore  &  Ohio:  "Trains  moving;  one  engine  detached  by 
withdrawal  of  coupling  pin;  police  detailed  and  protected  train  at 
once." 

Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy:  "Passenger  trains  running  as 
usual;  no  freight  handled  because  firemen  and  engineers  refused  to 
work  with  new  men." 

Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern:  "Trains  moving  as  usual; 
freight  trains  delayed  at  Englewood,  but  prompt  action  by  the  police 
department  raised  the  blockade." 

Chicago  &  Eastern  Illinois:     "Situation  better  than  yesterday." 

Illinois  Central:  "Ties  found  on  track  nearing  crossing,  but  did 
not  delay  trains;  matters  getting  along  as  nicely  as  could  be  expected 
under  the  circumstances." 

Chicago  &  Great  Western:  "Passenger  trains  all  moving;  freight 
trains  started;  went  through  without  trouble." 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  663 

Chicago  &  Grand  Trunk:  "Completely  blockaded  at  Battle  Creek, 
Michigan;  will  send  out  no  trains  from  Chicago  until  that  is  raised." 

Monon  Route :    "Men  cannot  be  had  to  take  strikers'  places." 

Chicago  &  Erie:    "Passenger  trains  moving  all  right  on  time." 

Wabash:  "Account  of  trouble  at  other  places,  but  none  at  Chi- 
cago." 

Panhandle:  "Trains  moving  all  right,  none  more  than  twenty 
minutes  late." 

Chicago  &  Northern  Pacific:  "All  day  suburban  trains  on  time; 
business  being  handled  without  interruption." 

Rock  Island:  "Trouble  at  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  at  Blue  Island  and 
at  other  places,  but  none  at  Chicago." 

On  the  4th  of  July  there  was  some  disturbance,  although  the  fed- 
eral troops  were  on  the  ground,  but  instead  of  overawing  the  mob 
they  seemed  to  act  only  as  an  irritant  to  intensify  the  situation,  and  on 
the  evening  of  the  4th  of  July  the  managers  again  met  and  reported  in 
substance  as  follows: 

Chicago  &  Alton:  "Local  trains  between  Chicago,  Joliet  and 
Dwight  are  running;  through  trains  are  held  at  Bloomington  by 
strikers." 

Santa  Fe:  "Everything  in  pretty  good  shape;  passenger  trains  on 
time;  ran  five  freight  trains  in  Missouri  and  eleven  in  Illinois  in  past 
twenty-four  hours  and  have  resumed  local  freight  service  between  Chi- 
cago and  Streator." 

Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul:  "Trouble  with  firemen  running 
on  Council  Bluffs  line;  with  the  exception  of  a  local  train  all  passenger 
trains  departed  and  arrived  on  time;  no  trouble  on  the  line  between 
Chicago  and  St.  Paul." 

Baltimore  &  Ohio:  "Passenger  trains  on  fairly  good  time;  no  de- 
lays due  to  strikers." 

Nickel  Plate:  "Regular  passenger  trains  left  and  arrived  on  time; 
freight  switching  business  is  at  a  standstill." 

Chicago  &  Northwestern:  "All  through  trains  on  Galena  division 
gotten  out  last  night,  but  suburban  traffic  on  that  division  was  ham- 
pered by  inability  to  find  engineers;  are  operating  all  passengers  in 
and  out  of  Chicago  on  Wisconsin  division  and  are  rapidly  getting 
suburban  traffic  on  Galena  division  running;  handled  no  freight  yes- 
terday, but  resumed  to-day;  brought  in  a  train  of  fruit  from  the  West 
and  have  several  trains  of  beer  coming  in  from  Milwaukee;  no  acts 
of  violence  on  our  lines  in  city." 

Wisconsin  Central  Lines:  "Passenger  and  freight  trains  moving 
and  about  on  time." 


664  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Chicago  &  Northern  Pacific:  "All  suburban  trains  running  regu- 
lar except  night  trains;  freight  business  is  being  handled  promptly." 

Michigan  Central:  "Handled  all  freight  that  is  tendered;  moving 
all  trains  and  doing  regular  work;  a  train  of  beef  consisting  of  forty 
cars  which  was  held  at  Halsted  street  has  been  pulled  through  the 
jam  and  is  moving  eastward." 

Illinois  Central:  "The  conditions  on  this  line  are  more  favorable 
than  since  the  beginning  of  the  strike;  there  is  no  suburban  service  to- 
day, but  this  service  will  be  resumed  to-morrow  morning;  handled  109 
cars  of  merchandise  and  coal  yesterday  placed  on  tracks  for  un- 
loading." 

Chicago  &  Eastern  Illinois:  "Moving  some  passenger  trains  and 
resuming  business  gradually." 

Chicago  &  Grand  Trunk:  "Started  out  mail  train  for  the  East 
this  morning;  have  no  equipment  at  Chicago  with  which  to  make  up 
through  trains,  as  this  is  tied  up  by  strikers  at  Battle  Creek,  Mich." 

Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy:  "Had  trouble  in  attempting  to 
move  a  freight  train;  last  night  Pullman  cars  were  cut  from  passenger 
train,  but  with  assistance  of  police  were  promptly  recoupled  and  train 
moved  forward;  all  other  trains  of  last  night  and  to-day  are  running 
without  interference  of  any  kind.  The  entire  force  of  switchmen  in 
St.  Louis  left  the  service  of  the  road  yesterday  evening.  We  are  n.ot 
trying  to  handle  freight  to-day;  everything  is  quiet." 

PROMPT  RESPONSE  TO  CALL  FOR  STATE  TROOPS. 

On  the  5th  of  July  the  conditions  were  about  the  same  as  on  the 
4th,  but  there  were  rumors  of  an  extension  of  the  strike,  and  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  federal  troops  were  doing  no  good  there.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  6th  of  July  the  President  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
telegraphed  me  that  the  property  of  his  road  was  being  destroyed  by 
a  mob  and  that  he  could  not  get  protection.  I  wired  him  at  once  to 
get  some  one  of  the  local  authorities  who  are  authorized  to  ask  for 
troops  to  do  so,  and  that  if  all  should  refuse,  to  wire  me  that  fact,  and 
that  we  would  furnish  protection  promptly.  I  took  the  position  as  a 
matter  of  law  that  if  the  local  authorities  failed  to  protect  property 
and  enforce  the  law  and  refused  to  apply  for  State  aid  while  property 
is  actually  being  destroyed  and  the  peace  is  being  disturbed,  that  then 
the  Governor  of  the  State  not  only  has  the  right,  but  it  is  his  duty  to 
see  that  order  is  restored  and  the  law  enforced,  and  therefore  I  sent 
that  telegram.  At  the  same  time  I  sent  a  telegram  to  a  friend  in  Chi- 
cago requesting  him  to  at  once  see  Mayor  Hopkins  and  tell  him  that 
it  seemed  to  me  the  situation  was  serious  and  that  he  had  better  apply 


SPEECH  AT  CO OPER  UNION.  66$ 

to  the  State  for  aid.  This  message  was  at  once  communicated  to 
Mayor  Hopkins,  and  about  noon  on  that  day,  being  the  6th  of  July, 
the  day  on  which  the  property  was  destroyed,  the  mayor  telegraphed 
for  troops  and  by  sundown  on  that  day  we  had  put  over  5,000  State 
troops  on  duty  in  Chicago,  although  some  of  them  had  to  be  trans- 
ported 150  miles  to  reach  the  city.  Never  were  troops  moved  with 
greater  celerity.  They  at  once  got  the  situation  under  control  and 
stopped  the  rioting,  but  they  found  that  one  of  the  railroad  yards  in 
which  a  fire  had  broken  out  was  far  out  on  the  prairie  and  had  an  in- 
sufficient supply  of  water;  that  the  fire  department  was  unable  to  put 
out  the  fire  and  thus  prevent  the  destruction  of  some  cars  that  took 
fire  from  others  that  were  burning.  Within  twenty-four  hours  after 
the  State  troops  arrived  on  the  ground  the  rioting  was  suppressed. 
There  were  still  a  few  cases,  during  the  following  days,  of  stealthy 
incendiarism,  but  no  more  forcible  resistance.  On  the  morning  of  the 
?th  of  July  one  of  the  companies  of  State  troops  was  attacked  by  a 
large  mob  and  opened  fire  on  it  and  several  men  were  killed. 

Up  to  this  time  the  United  States  Marshal  at  Chicago,  instead  of 
calling  on  the  State  for  assistance,  as  the  marshal  for  Southern  Illi- 
nois had  done,  had  sworn  in  an  army  of  over  4,000  deputy  marshals 
to  assist  him  in  carrying  out  the  injunctions  which  had  been  issued  by 
the  courts.  There  was  no  trouble  about  enforcing  the  usual  and  reg- 
ular processes  of  the  United  States  court.  The  administration  of  jus- 
tice was  in  no  way  interfered  with,  but  this  army  of  deputies  was 
sworn  in  to  carry  out  this  new  system  of  government  known  as  gov- 
ernment by  injunction;  but  notwithstanding  their  number  they  did  not 
seem  able  to  accomplish  anything.  The  disturbances  kept  "growing 
and  spreading.  They  were  sent  along  lines  of  railroad  which  the 
federal  courts  had  taken  under  their  wing,  but  as  already  shown  it 
devolved  in  the  end  upon  the  police  and  State  troops,  the  properly 
and  regularly  constituted  authorities,  to  restore  order. 

FEDERAL  TROOPS  USELESS. 

Speaking  of  the  work  of  the  Federal  troops  in  Chicago,  it  will  be 
seen  by  the  record  that  they  did  no  good.    They  were  ordered  to  be 
m  readiness  five  days  in  advance  of  any  trouble,  and  were  actually  on 
the  ground  on  the  3d  day  of  July,  before  there  had  been  any  serious 
.sturbance  of  any  kind,  and  they  remained  on  the  ground  for  weeks 
thereafter.     Yet  instead  of  overawing  the  mob  or  exerting  an  in- 
fluence for  good,  their  presence  added  to  the  excitement  and  served 
as  an  uritant,  and  instead  of  suppressing  rioting  it  will  be  noticed 
t  did  not  begin  until  after  their  arrival  and  then  grew  steadily 


666  LIVE 

and  on  the  6th,  the  worst  day,  instead  of  suppressing  they  accom- 
plished nothing.  The  federal  soldiers  and  their  officers  were  no  doubt 
brave  men  and  good  soldiers,  but  they,  like  the  deputy  marshals,  were 
occupying  an  anomalous  position,  and  were  therefore  under  a  disad- 
vantage. I  am  informed  that  on  one  day  they  tried  to  move  a  freight 
train  at  the  stock  yards,  but  finally  abandoned  the  attempt.  So  far  as 
can  be  learned,  their  presence  did  not  prevent  the  burning  of  a  single 
freight  car  in  Chicago,  they  accomplished  nothing,  yet  during  all  this 
time  the  impression  was  made  on  the  country  that  President  Cleve- 
land and  the  federal  troops  were  saving  Chicago.  General  Miles  was  in 
command,  and  his  headquarters  seemed  to  be,  for  a  number  of  days, 
a  regular  newspaper  bureau,  and  there  was  an  apparent  effort  on  the 
part  of  some  people  to  make  an  impression  throughout  the  East  that 
civil  war  was  raging  in  Chicago,  and  the  General  and  President  Cleve- 
land vied  with  each  other  in  claiming  the  credit  of  suppressing  that 
war.  Cleveland,  whose  star  had  been  rapidly  sinking,  hoped  to  win 
glory  enough  to  insure  his  re-election,  and  it  is  reported  that  a  cold- 
ness has  grown  up  between  these  gentlemen  because  they  could  not 
agree  upon  a  division  of  the  honors.  The  fact  is  that  up  to  the  time 
the  State  troops  appeared  upon  the  scene  the  police  force  of  Chicago 
alone  did  all  of  any  value  that  was  done  to  maintain  law  and  order. 

The  only  officer  who  attempted  to  make  any  report  of  the  things 
actually  done  by  the  federal  troops  in  Chicago  was  Captain  J.  M.  Lee, 
assistant  to  Inspector  General  (Exhibit  C  to  report  of  Major  General 
Nelson  A.  Miles  to  the  Adjutant  General  United  States  Army,  Sept. 
4th,  1894).  Captain  Lee  says  that  from  July  4th  to  2Oth  he  was  con- 
stantly with  the  troops  in  Chicago.  That  duties  consisted  in  communi- 
cating verbal  orders  and  instructions  of  the  commanding  general  to 
officers  in  command ;  also  in  accompanying  troops  to  the  riotous  dis- 
tricts, selecting  camps  and  stations  and  "in  investigating  and  report- 
ing upon  the  grave  situations  from  day  to  day."  It  is  clear  that  he 
would  know  of  all  that  the  troops  did  do.  And  as  the  whole  report 
shows  an  effort  to  magnify  every  incident  and  make  the  most  pos- 
sible out  of  the  occasion,  we  may  feel  certain  that  he  told  all  he 
knew. 

He  tells  of  moving  troops,  etc.,  and  that  on  the  5th  of  July  at  the 
stock  yards  "troops  guarded  a  train,  while  loading  with  cattle,  witli 
loaded  guns  and  fixed  bayonets,  one  company  on  each  side."  That 
troops  drove  mob  from  in  front  of  the  engine  and  the  train  moved 
at  noon.  Track  was  obstructed  by  broken  switch,  which  was  re- 
paired by  railroad  man,  who  was  struck  by  a  stone  while  doing  this. 
That  cars  were  overturned  on  track  in  advance  of  troops;  that  he  ac- 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  VN10N.  667 

companied  railroad  official  to  telegraph  office  to  procure  wrecking 
train,  and  then  went  east,  where  cars  had  been  overturned  on  track, 
stopping  trains;  that  by  protection  of  two  companies  wreckage  was 
removed  and  trains  released.  He  does  not  say  moved,  simply  re- 
leased, and  then  he  says:  "Returned  to  where  I  had  left  cattle  train, 
but  obstructions  had  caused  train  to  put  back  into  the  stock  yards, 
and  as  a  result  of  day's  work  here  the  strikers  and  mob  were  jubi- 
lant over  their  success."  Judging  from  his  statement  the  entire  job 
was  abandoned  and  no  further  efforts  were  made.  Certainly  the 
federal  troops  did  not  put  down  the  riot  that  day. 

Then,  in  his  record  for  July  6th,  he  says  that  he  received  report 
that  passenger  train  was  held  on  Grand  Trunk  Road  at  Forty-sev- 
enth street.  Found  trouble  in  getting  any  one  to  guide  troops  to  the 
point,  but  finally  got  a  guide  and  went  ahead,  and  found  that  trouble 
had  occurred  at  Fifty-first  street;  mob  had  been  driven  off  and  train 
released  by  Captain  Conrad.  Then  he  says:  "At  night  observed 
fire  of  the  burning  of  hundreds  of  freight  cars  about  four  miles  south- 
west of  stock  yards."  But  he  does  not  claim  that  the  federal  troops 
lifted  a  finger  to  prevent  or  to  put  out  this  fire.  I  have  now  given 
every  specific  thing  named  in  his  report  that  the  federal  troops  actually 
did  in  Chicago.  On  the  5th  their  action,  according  to  his  report,  en- 
couraged the  mob,  and  all  that  he  claims  for  the  6th  of  July  is  that 
Captain  Conrad  had  released  a  passenger  train.  This  was  the  day 
on  which  so  many  freight  cars  burned.  Yet,  so  far  as  appears  from 
his  report,  the  federal  troops  did  not  prevent  the  burning  of  one  car 
or  the  ditching  of  a  single  engine.  If  they  were  there  to  protect 
property  or  commerce  why  did  they  not  at  least  make  an  effort  on 
that  day? 

Captain  Lee  next  tells  in  his  report  of  a  trip  to  the  town  of  Ham- 
mond, in  the  State  of  Indiana,  where  he  says  they  arrived  just  in  the 
nick  of  time  to  prevent  rioting.  How  he  knows  this  he  does  not  say. 

General  Miles,  in  the  report  already  referred  to,  does  not  men- 
tion anything  in  particular  that  the  federal  troops  did.  But  after 
speaking  of  their  discipline  says:  "And  their  actions  have  very  greatly 
contributed  to  the  maintenance  of  civil  law  and  in  my  opinion  saved 
this  country  from  a  serious  rebellion  when  one  had  been  publicly 
declared  to  exist  by  one  most  responsible  for  its  existence."  This  is 
extraordinary  language  and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  there  was  no 
disturbance  whatever  of  any  kind  in  the  city  proper,  that  the  rioting 
was  at  the  stock  yards  and  in  the  railroad  yards  on  the  prairies  on  the 
outskirts  of  the  city;  in  view  of  the  comparatively  small  damage  done 
as  found  by  the  federal  commission  appointed  by  President  Cleveland 


'668  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

to  investigate  the  whole  matter,  and  as  also  found  by  the  Chicago 
fire  department,  and  in  view  of  the  written  statements  of  Louis  L. 
Troy,  the  superintendent  of  mails,  that  there  had  at  no  time  been  any 
considerable  delay  in  moving  the  mails;  and  in  view  of  the  written 
reports  of  the  railroad  managers  themselves  that  there  was  compara- 
tively little  interruption  of  their  business,  and  finally,  in  view  of  the 
report  made  by  Captain  Lee  at  the  time  this  language  of  General 
Miles  seems  absurd  and  must  tend  to  destroy  confidence  in  his  judg- 
ment or  else  create  the  conviction  that  he  was  trying  to  make  a 
false  impression  for  the  sake  of  getting  a  little  glory  thereby. 

It  is  a  matter  of  gratification  to  every  patriotic  citizen  of  Illinois 
that  it  was  the  State  troops  and  the  local  civil  authorities  that  re- 
stored law  and  order  in  that  city.  While  they  were  not  petted  by 
fashionable  society  and  were  given  very  stinted  praise  by  the  news- 
papers, they  did  deal  directly  with  the  mob  and  restored  order.  Dur- 
ing the  trouble  thousands  of  men  all  over  the  State  tendered  their 
services  to  the  Governor,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  an  army  of  two 
hundred  thousand  men  could  have  been  mustered  in  a  few  days  if  they 
had  been  called  for.  This  spirit  of  patriotism  was  especially  mani- 
fested by  the  old  soldiers  of  the  State. 

FORMAL    PROTEST. 

On  the  5th  day  of  July,  1894,  after  the  federal  troops  had  gone  on 
duty  in  Chicago,  I  sent  the  following  protest  to  the  President  and 
asked  him  to  remove  the  troops: 

Executive  Office,  State  of  Illinois,  July  5,  1804. 
Hon.   Grover  Cleveland,  President  of  the  United  States,  Washington,   D.  C. 

Sir: — I  am  advised  that  you  have  ordered  Federal  troops  to  go  into  service 
in  the  State  of  Illinois.  Surely  the  facts  have  not  been  correctly  presented  to 
you  in  this  case,  or  you  would  not  have  taken  this  step,  for  it  is  entirely 
unnecessary,  and.  as  it  seems  to  me,  unjustifiable.  Waiving  all  questions  of 
courtesy,  I  will  say  that  the  State  of  Illinois  is  not  only  able  to  take  care  of 
itself,  but  it  stands  ready  to  furnish  the  Federal  government  any  assistance  it 
may  need  elsewhere.  Our  military  force  is  ample,  and  consists  of  as  good 
soldiers  as  can  be  found  in  the  country.  They  have  been  ordered  promptly 
whenever  and  wherever  they  were  needed.  We  have  stationed  in  Chicago 
alone  three  Regiments  of  Infantry,  one  Battery  and  one  troop  of  Cavalry,  and 
no  better  soldiers  can  be  found.  They  have  been  ready  every  moment  to  go 
on  duty,  and  have  been  and  are  now  eager  to  go  into  service,  but  they  have 
not  been  ordered  out  because  nobody  in  Cook  county,  whether  official  or 
private  citizen,  asked  to  have  their  assistance,  or  even  intimated  in  any  way 
that  their  assistance  was  desired  or  necessary. 

So  far  as  I  have  been  advised,  the  local  officials  have  been  able  to  handle 
the  situation.  But  if  any  assistance  were  needed,  the  State  stood  ready  to 
furnish  100  men  for  every  one  man  required,  and  stood  ready  to  do  so  at  a 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  669 

moment's  notice.  Notwithstanding  these  facts  the  Federal  Government  has 
been  applied  to  by  men  who  had  political  and  selfish  motives  for  wanting  to 
ignore  the  State  government.  We  have  just  gone  through  a  long  coal  strike, 
more  extensive  here  than  in  any  other  State,  because  our  soft-coal  field  is 
larger  than  that  of  any  other  State.  We  have  now  had  ten  days  of  the  rail- 
road strike,  and  we  have  promptly  furnished  military  aid  wherever  the  local 
officials  needed  it. 

In  two  instances  the  United  States  marshal  for  the  Southern  District  of  Illi- 
nois applied  for  assistance  to  enable  him  to  enforce  the  processes  of  the  United 
States  court,  and  troops  were  promptly  furnished  him,  and  he  was  assisted  in 
every  way  he  desired.  The  law  has  been  thoroughly  executed,  and  every  man 
guilty  of  violating  it  during  the  strike  has  been  brought  to  justice.  If  the 
marshal  of  the  Northern  District  of  Illinois  or  the  authorities  of  Cook  county 
needed  military  assistance  they  had  but  to  ask  for  it  in  order  to  get  it  from  the 
State. 

At  present  some  of  our  railroads  are  paralyzed,  not  by  reason  of  obstruc- 
tion, but  because  they  cannot  get  men  to  operate  their  trains.  For  some  rea- 
son they  are  anxious  to  keep  this  fact  from  the  public,  and  for  this  purpose 
they  are  making  an  outcry  about  obstructions  in  order  to  divert  attention. 
Now,  I  will  cite  to  you  two  examples  which  illustrate  the  situation: 

Some  days  ago  I  was  advised  that  the  business  of  one  of  our  railroads 
was  obstructed  at  two  railroad  centers,  and  that  there  was  a  condition  border- 
ing on  anarchy  there,  and  I  was  asked  to  furnish  protection  so  as  to  enable 
the  employes  of  the  road  to  operate  the  trains.  Troops  were  promptly  ordered 
to  both  points.  Then  it  transpired  that  the  company  had  not  sufficient  men 
on  its  line  to  operate  one  train.  All  the  old  hands  were  orderly,  but  refused 
to  go  to  work.  The  company  had  large  shops  which  worked  a  number  of 
men  who  did  not  belong  to  the  Railway  Union  and  who  could  run  an  engine. 
They  were  'appealed  to  to  run  the  train  but  flatly  refused.  We  were  obliged 
to  hunt  up  soldiers  who  could  run  an  engine  and  operate  a  train.  Again,  two 
days  ago,  appeals  which  were  almost  frantic  came  from  the  officials  of  another 
road  stating  that  at  an  important  point  on  their  line  trains  were  forcibly  ob- 
structed, and  that  there  was  a  reign  of  anarchy  at  that  place,  and  they  asked 
for  protection  so  that  they  could  move  their  trains.  Troops  were  put  on  the 
ground  in  a  few  hours'  time,  when  the  officer  in  command  telegraphed  me  that 
there  was  no  trouble,  and  had  been  none  at  that  point,  but  that  the  road  seemed 
to  have  no  men  to  run  trains,  and  the  sheriff  telegraphed  that  he  did  not  need 
troops,  but  would  himself  move  every  train  if  the  company  would  only  furnish 
an  engineer.  The  result  was  that  the  troop's  were  there  twelve  hours  before  a 
single  train  was  moved,  although  there  was  no  attempt  at  interference  by  any- 
body. 

It  is  true  that  in  several  instances  a  road  made  efforts  to  work  a  few 
green  men  and  a  crowd  standing  around  insulted  them  and  tried  to  drive  them 
away,  and  in  a  few  other  cases  they  cut  off  Pullman  sleepers  from  trains.  But 
all  these  troubles  were  local  in  character  and  could  easily  be  handled  by  the 
State  authorities.  Illinois  has  more  railroad  men  than  any  other  State  in  the 
Union,  but  as  a  rule  they  are  orderly  and  well-behaved.  This  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  so  very  little  actual  violence  has  been  committed.  Only  a  very  small 
percentage  of  these  men  have  been  guilty  of  infractions  of  the  law.  The  news- 
paper accounts  have  in  many  cases  been  pure  fabrications,  and  in  others  wild 
exaggerations. 


670  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

I  have  gone  thus  into  details  to  show  that  it  is  not  soldiers  that  the  rail- 
roads need  so  much  as  it  is  men  to  operate  trains,  and  that  the  conditions  do 
not  exist  here  which  bring  the  cause  within  the  Federal  statutes,  a  statute  that 
was  passed  in  1881  and  was  in  reality  a  war  measure.  The  statute  authorized 
the  use  of  Federal  troops  in  a  State  whenever  it  shall  be  impracticable  to  en- 
force the  laws  of  the  United  States  within  such  States  by  the  ordinary  judicial 
proceedings.  Such  a  condition  does  not  exist  in  Illinois.  There  have  been  a 
few  local  disturbances,  but  nothing  that  seriously  interfered  with  the  admin- 
istration of  justice,  or  that  could  not  be  easily  controlled  by  the  local  or  State 
authorities,  for  the-  Federal  troops  can  do  nothing  that  the  State  troops  can- 
not do. 

I  repeat  that  you  have  been  imposed  upon  in  this  matter,  but  even  if  by  a 
forced  construction  it  were  held  that  the  conditions  here  came  within  the  letter 
of  the  statute,  then  I  submit  that  local  self-government  is  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  our  Constitution.  Each  community  shall  govern  itself  so  long  as  it 
can  and  is  ready  and  able  to  enforce  the  law,  and  it  is  in  harmony  with  this 
fundamental  principle  that  the  statute  authorizing  the  President  to  send  troops 
into  States  must  be  construed;  especially  is  this  so  in  matters  relating  to  the 
exercise  of  the  police  power  and  the  preservation  of  law  and  order. 

To  absolutely  ignore  a  local  government  in  matters  of  this  kind,  when 
the  local  government  is  ready  to  furnish  assistance  needed,  and  is  amply  able 
to  enforce  the  law,  not  only  insults  the  people  of  this  State  by  imputing  to 
them  an  inability  to  govern  themselves,  or  an  unwillingness  to  enforce  the  law, 
but  is  in  violation  of  a  basic  principle  of  our  institutions.  The  question  of 
Federal  supremacy  is  in  no  way  involved.  No  one  disputes  it  for  a  moment, 
but,  under  our  Constitution,  Federal  supremacy  and  local  self-government  must 
go  hand  in  hand,  and  to  ignore  the  latter  is  to  do  violence  to  the  Constitution. 

As  Governor  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  I  protest  against  this,  and  ask  the 
immediate  withdrawal  of  the  Federal  troops  from  active  duty  in. this  State. 
Should  the  situation  at  any  time  get  so  serious  that  we  cannot  control  it  with 
the  State  forces,  we  will  promptly  ask  for  Federal  assistance,  but  until  such 
time,  I  protest,  with  all  due  deference,  against  this  uncalled  for  reflection  upon 
our  people,  and  again  ask  the  immediate  withdrawal  of  these  troops.  I  have 
the  honor  to  be,  yours  respectfully, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD,  Governor  of  Illinois. 

PRESIDENT'S  REPLY. 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  July  5,  1894. 
Hon.  John  P.  Altgeld,  Governor  of  Illinois,  Springfield,  111.: 

Sir: — Federal  troops  were  sent  to  Chicago  in  strict  accordance  with  the 
Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States,  upon  the  demand  of  the  postoffice 
department  that  obstruction  of  the  mails  should  be  removed,  and  upon  the 
representations  of  the  judicial  officers  of  the  United  States  that  the  process  of 
the  Federal  courts  could  not  be  executed  through  the  ordinary  means,  and 
upon  competent  proof  that  conspiracies  existed  against  commerce  between  the 
States.  To  meet  these  conditions,  which  are  clearly  within  the  province  of 
Federal  authority,  the  presence  of  Federal  troops  in  the  city  of  Chicago  was 
deemed  not  only  proper,  but  necessary,  and  there  has  been  no  intention  of 
thereby  interfering  with  the  plain  duty  of  the  local  authorities  to  preserve  the 

peace  of  the  city. 

GROVER  CLEVELAND. 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  671 


GOVERNOR  ALTGELD'S  SECOND  TELEGRAM. 

To  the  Hon.  Grover  Cleveland,   President  of  the  United  States,  Washington, 

D.   C: 

Sir: — Your  answer  to  my  protest  involves  some  startling  conclusions  and 
ignores  and  evades  the  question  at  issue — that  is  that  the  principle  of  local  self- 
government  is  just  as  fundamental  in  our  institutions  as  is  that  of  Federal 
supremacy. 

First— You  calmly  assume  that  the  executive  has  the  legal  right  to  order 
Federal  troops  into  any  community  of  the  United  States,  in  the  first  instance, 
whenever  there  is  the  slightest  disturbance,  and  that  he  can  do  this  without 
any-  regard  to  the  question  as  to  whether  that  community  is  able  to  and  ready 
to  enforce  the  law  itself,  and,  inasmuch  as  the  executive  is  the  sole  judge  of 
the  question  as  to  whether  any  disturbance  exists  or  not  in  any  part  of  the 
country,  this  assumption  means  that  the  executive  can  send  Federal  troops  into 
any  community  in  the  United  States  at  his  pleasure,  and  keep  them  there  as 
long  as  he  chooses.  If  this  is  the  law,  then  the  principle  of  self-government 
either  never  did  exist  in  this  country  or  else  has  been  destroyed,  for  no  com- 
munity can  be  said  to  possess  local  self-government,  if  the  executive  can,  at 
his  pleasure,  send  military  forces  to  patrol  its  streets  under  pretense  of  enforc- 
ing some  law.  The  kind  of  local  self-government  that  could  exist  under  these 
circumstances  can  be  found  in  any  of  the  monarchies  of  Europe,  and  it  is  not 
in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  our  institutions. 

Second — It  is  also  a  fundamental  principle  in  our  government  that  except 
in  times  of  war  the  military  shall  be  subordinate  to  the  civil  authority.  In 
harmony  with  this  provision,  the  State  troops  are  ordered  out  to  act  under 
and  with  the  civil  authorities.  The  troops  you  have  ordered  to  Chicago  are  not 
under  the  civil  authorities,  and  are  in  no  way  responsible  to  them  for  their 
conduct.  They  are  not  even  acting  under  the  United  States  Marshal  or  any 
Federal  officer  of  the  State,  but  are  acting  directly  under  military  orders  issued 
from  military  headquarters  at  Washington,  and  in  so  far  as  these  troops  act  at 
all,  it  is  military  government. 

Third — The  Statute  authorizing  Federal  troops  to  be  sent  into  States  in 
certain  cases  contemplates  that  the  State  troops  shall  be  taken  first.  This  pro- 
vision has  been  ignored  and  it  is  assumed  that  the  executive  is  not  bound  by 
it.  Federal  interference  with  industrial  disturbances  in  the  various  States  is 
certainly  a  new  departure,  and  it  opens  up  so  large  a  field  that  it  will  require 
a  very  little  stretch  of  authority  to  absorb  to  itself  all  the  details  of  local  gov- 
ernment. 

Fourth — You  say  that  troops  were  ordered  into  Illinois  upon  the  demand 
of  the  postoffice  department,  and  upon  representations  of  the  judicial  officers 
of  the  United  States  that  process  of  the  courts  could  not  be  served,  and  upon 
proof  that  conspiracies  existed.  We  will  not  discuss  the  facts,  but  look  for  a 
moment  at  the  principle  involved  in  your  statement.  All  of  these  officers  are 
appointed  by  the  executive.  Most  of  them  can  be  removed  by  him  at  will. 
They  are  not  only  obliged  to  do  his  bidding,  but  they  are  in  fact  a  part 
of  the  executive.  If  several  of  them  can  apply  for  troops,  one  alone  can; 
so  that  under  the  law,  as  you  assume  it  to  be,  an  executive,  through  any  one 
of  his  appointees,  can  apply  to  himself  to  have  the  military  sent  into  any  city 
or  number  of  cities,  and  base  his  application  on  such  representations  .as  he  sees 


672  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

fit  to  make.  In  fact,  it  will  be  immaterial  whether  he  makes  any  showing  or 
not,  for  the  executive  is  the  sole  judge,  and  nobody  else  has  any  right  to  inter- 
fere or  even  inquire  about  it.  Then  the  executive  can  pass  on  his.  own  appli- 
cation— his  will  being  the  sole  guide — he  can  hold  the  application  to  be  suffi- 
cient, and  order  troops  to  as  many  places  as  he  wishes  and  put  them  in  com- 
mand of  any  one  he  chooses,  and  have  them  act,  not  under  the  civil  officers, 
either  Federal  or  State,  but  directly  under  military  orders  from  Washington, 
and  there  is  not  in  the  Constitution  or  laws,  whether  written  or  unwritten,  any 
limitation  or  restraint  upon  his  power.  His  judgment,  that  is,  his  will,  is  the 
sole  guide,  and  it  being  purely  a  matter  of  discretion,  his  decision  can  never  be 
examined  or  questioned. 

This  assumption  as  to  the  power  of  the  executive  is  certainly  new,  and  I 
respectfully  submit  that  it  is  not  the  law  of  the  land.  The  jurists  have  told  us 
that  this  is  a  government  of  law,  and  not  a  government  by  the  caprice  of  an 
individual,  and,  further,  instead  of  being  autocratic,  it  is  a  government  of  lim- 
ited power.  Yet  the  autocrat  of  Russia  could  certainly  not  possess,  or  claim 
to  possess,  greater  power  than  is  possessed  by  the  executive  of  the  United 
States,  if  your  assumption  is  correct. 

Fifth — The  executive  has  the  command  not  only  of  the  regular  forces  of 
all  the  United  States,  but  of  the  military  forces  of  all  the  States,  and  can  order 
them  to  any  place  he  sees  fit;  and  as  there  are  always  more  or  less  local  dis- 
turbances over  the  country,  it  will  be  an  easy  matter  under  your  construction 
of  the  law  for  an  ambitious  executive  to  order  out  the  military  forces  of  all  of 
the  States,  and  establish  at  once  a  military  government.  The  only  chance  of 
failure  in  such  a  movement  could  come  from  rebellion,  and  with  such  a  vast 
military  power  at  command  this  could  readily  be  crushed,  for,  as  a  rule,  sol- 
diers will  obey  orders. 

As  for  the  situation  in  Illinois,  that  is  of  no  consequence  now  compared 
with  the  far-reaching  principle  involved.  True,  according  to  my  advices,  Fed- 
eral troops  have  now  been  on  duty  for  over  two  days,  and  although  the  men 
wxre  brave  and  the  officers  valiant  and  able,  yet  their  very  presence  proved  to 
be  an  irritant  because  it  aroused  the  indignation  of  a  large  class  of  people,  who, 
while  upholding  law  and  order,  had  been  taught  to  believe  in  local  self-govern- 
ment and,  therefore,  resented  what  they  regarded  as  unwarranted  interference. 

Inasmuch  as  the  Federal  troops  can  do  nothing  but  what  the  State  troops 
can  do  there,  and  believing  that  the  State  is  amply  able  to  take  care  of  the 
situation  and  to  enforce  the  law,  and  believing  that  the  ordering  out  of  the 
Federal  troops  was  unwarranted,  I  again  ask  their  withdrawal. 

(Signed)  JOHN   P.  ALTGELD. 

REPUBLICAN     PARTY     HAS     CONDEMNED     FEDERAL 
INTERFERENCE. 

When  all  of  the  facts  pertaining  to  the  situation  in  Chicago  are 
brought  out  it  becomes  apparent  that  if  you  were  to  concede  the  right 
of  the  President  to  send  troops  to  any  part  of  the  Union  whenever 
he  pleased  and  on  any  pretext  he  pleased,  there  was  no  occasion  for 
sending  them  to  Chicago  at  all  and  especially  not  at  the  time  that  the 
order  was  given,  which  was  in  advance  of  any  trouble.  Let  us  con- 
sider whether  it  is  true  that  under  our  constitution  and  form  of  gov- 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  673 

ernment  the  Federal  government  can  interfere  at  will,  and  for  this 
purpose  let  us  see  what  construction  the  Republican  party  has  placed 
upon  the  Constitution.  It  will  be  remembered  that  prior  to  1861  there 
was  an  act  of  Congress  which  permitted  slave-holders  to  pursue  their 
slaves  through  free  States  and  which  expressly  made  it  the  duty  of 
the  courts  and  all  officials  to  assist  the  slave-holder  in  that  particular. 
That  act  was  of  the  same  dignity  and  had  just  as  much  binding  force 
as  any  other  act  of  Congress  could  have  relating  to  the  exercise  of 
federal  power  and  an  order  of  a  federal  court  made  in  pursuance  of 
that  act  would  have  the  same  force  that  an  order  made  under  any 
other  act  of  Congress  on  this  subject  would  have,  and  if  it  is  proper 
to  have  the  United  States  courts  interfere  by  means  of  injunction  and 
other  orders  issued  by  them  to  carry  out  acts  of  Congress,  and  if  it  is 
proper  to  use  the  United  States  troops  to  enforce  these  orders  of  the 
United  States  courts,  as  is  now  contended  for  by  the  managers  of  the 
McKinley  campaign,  then  it  was  proper  for  the  United  States  courts 
prior  to  1860  to  make  such  orders  and  to  use  the  United  States 
troops  to  enforce  those  orders.  After  the  Dred  Scott  decision  there 
were  several  flagrant  cases  of  Federal  interference  at  different  places, 
growing  out  of  this  question  and  when  the  Republican  National  Con- 
vention met  at  Chicago  in  1860,  on  the  i6th  of  May,  it  adopted  a  plat- 
form which  contained  the  following  resolution: 

"Section  4.  That  tlie  maintenance  inviolate  of  the  rights  of  the 
States,  and  especially  the  right  of  each  State  to  order  and  control  its 
domestic  institutions  according  to  its  own  judgment  exclusively  is 
essential  to  that  balance  of  power  on  which  the  perfection  and  en- 
durance of  our  political  fabric  depends,  and  we  denounce  the  lawless 
invasion  by  armed  forces  of  the  soil  of  any  State  or  Territory,  no  mat- 
ter under  what  pretext,  as  among  the  gravest  of  errors." 

The  armed  forces  here  referred  to  were  federal  forces  sent  to  ex- 
ecute acts  of  Congress  and  the  orders  of  federal  courts. 

THE    POLICY    OF    JEFFERSON. 

I  have  not  the  time  to  enter  upon  a  general  discussion  of  the  pri- 
ciples  involved.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  specified  the 
conditions  under  which  the  federal  government  can  interfere  in  cases 
of  domestic  violence  in  any  State.  It  provides  it  can  be  done  only  on 
the  application  of  the  Legislature  or  of  the  State  Executive,  when  the 
Legislature  is  not  in  session.  Now,  even  if  it  were  true,  which  it  is 
not,  that  the  acts  of  Congress  have  attempted  to  enlarge  the  powers 
of  the  President  in  this  regard,  they  would  be  void,  because  Congress 
could  not,  under  any  pretense,  invest  the  President  with  any  greater 
43 


674  LIFE   QUESTIONS. 

power  than  it  has  itself  under  the  Constitution.  The  plank  of  the 
Republican  platform  of  1860,  which  I  have  just  read,  was  intended  as 
a  condemnation  of  the  use  of  the  federal  authority  in  the  affairs  of 
the  States  under  the  fugitive  slave  act  of  Congress.  The  old  Federalist 
party,  of  which  the  Republican  party  was  the  successor,  had  always 
leaned  toward  concentrating  power  in  the  federal  government,  but 
this  plank  in  the  Republican  platform  followed  the  doctrines  of  Jef- 
ferson, who  said: 

"It  is  by  dividing  and  subdividing  these  republics  from  the  great 
national  one  down  through  all  its  subordinations,  until  it  ends  in  the 
administration  of  every  man's  farm  by  himself;  by  placing  under  every 
one  what  his  own  eye  may  superintend,  that  all  will  be  done  for  the 
best.  What  has  destroyed  liberty  and  the  rights  of  man  in  every 
government  which  has  ever  existed  under  the  sun?  The  generaliza- 
tion and  concentrating  all  cares  and  powers  into  one  body,  no  matter 
whether  of  the  autocrats  of  Russia  or  France,  or  the  aristocrats  of 
a  Venetian  Senate.  And  I  do  believe  that  if  the  Almighty  has  not 
decreed  that  man  shall  never  be  free  (and  it  is  a  blasphemy  to  be- 
lieve it),  that  the  secret  will  be  found  to  be  in  the  making  himself  the 
depository  of  the  powers  respecting  himself,  so  far  as  he  is  competent 
to  them,  and  delegating  only  what  is  beyond  his  competence,  by  a 
synthetical  process,  to  higher  and  higher  orders  of  functionaries,  so 
as  to  trust  fewer  and  fewer  powers  in  proportion  as  the  trustees  be- 
come more  and  more  remote." 

The  Democratic  National  Convention  in  1892,  in  Chicago,  which 
nominated  Grover  Cleveland  for  President,  contained  the  following: 

"We  believe  that  the  public  welfare  demands  that  these  (Jeffer- 
sonian)  principles  be  applied  to  the  conduct  of  the  federal  government 
through  the  accession  to  power  of  the  party  that  advocates  them,  and 
we  solemnly  declare  that  the  need  of  a  return  to  these  fundamental 
principles  of  free  popular  government,  based  on  home  rule  and  indi- 
vidual liberty,  was  never  more  urgent  than  now  when  the  tendency 
to  centralize  all  power  at  the  federal  capital  has  become  a  menace  to 
the  reserved  rights  of  the  States,  that  strikes  at  the  very  roots  of  our 
government,  under  the  Constitution  as  framed  by  the  fathers  of  the 
republic." 

These  are  the  fundamental  principles: 

LOCAL  SELF-GOVERNMENT  THE  FOUNDATION  OF  FREEDOM. 

The  act  of  the  President  was  an  entirely  new  departure  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  government,  and  Judge  Cooley,  a  great  constitutional 
writer  of  the  country,  in  complimenting  the  President  upon  having 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  675 

taken  this  step,  speaks  of  it  as  a  great  step  taken  in  constitutional 
construction,  and  is  thankful  that  it  cost  so  little  bloodshed,  thus 
practically  stating  that  this  new  departure  was  a  violation  of  the  Con- 
stitution as  it  had  been  understood  for  a  century.  The  old  doctrine 
of  State  rights  is  in  no  way  involved.  Nobody  for  a  moment  questions 
the  supremacy  of  the  Union.  But  it  does  involve  the  question 
whether,  in  connection  with  federal  supremacy,  there  does  not  go 
hand  in  hand  the  principle  of  local  self-government.  These  two  prin- 
ciples, i.  e.,  federal  union  and  local  self-government,  have  for  a  century 
been  regarded  as  the  foundation  upon  which  the  glory  of  our  whole 
governmental  fabric  rests.  One  is  just  as  sacred,  just  as  inviolable, 
just  as  important  as  the  other.  Without  federal  union  there  must 
follow  anarchy,  and  without  local  self-government  there  must  follow 
despotism.  Both  are  destructive,  not  only  of  the  liberties,  but  of  the 
higher  aspirations  and  possibilities  of  a  people.  The  great  Civil  War 
settled  that  we  should  not  have  anarchy.  It  remains  to  be  settled 
whether  we  shall  be  destroyed  by  despotism.  If  the  President  can, 
at  his  pleasure,  in  the  first  instance,  send  troops  into  any  city,  town 
or  hamlet  in  the  country,  or  into  any  number  of  cities,  towns  or  ham- 
lets in  the  country,  whenever  and  wherever  he  pleases  (as  is  now 
contended  he  can)  under  the  pretense  of  enforcing  some  act  of  Con- 
gress, his  judgment,  which  means  his  pleasure,  being  the  sole  criterion, 
then  there  can  be  no  difference  whatever  in  this  respect  between  the 
powers  of  the  President  and  those  of  Emperor  William  or  of  the  Czar 
of  Russia.  Neither  of  these  p6tentates  ever  claimed  anything  more. 
The  question  is  whether  the  local  and  State  authorities  should  not 
first  be  called  to  enforce  the  law  and  maintain  order,  using  for  that 
purpose  such  local  agencies  and  forces  as  the  law  has  created,  or 
whether  he  can  ignore  all  these  and  bring  a  foreign  force  and  station 
it  in  any  community  at  pleasure.  In  this  respect  federal  civil  officers 
and  the  federal  army  do  not  stand  On  the  same  footing.  The  federal  civ- 
il officers  always  have  acted  directly  in  the  matter  within  their  jurisdic- 
tion, but  the  American  people,  as  all  other  free  and  intelligent  people, 
are  jealous  of  a  central  military  power,  hence  great  precautions  have 
been  taken  to  limit  the  use  of  such  power,  and  these  limitations  have 
always  been  recognized  in  this  country,  and  were  recognized  by  the 
Attorney  General  so  late'as  June  16,  1894.  Again,  the  Constitution 
provides  that  the  military  shall  be  subordinate  to  the  civil  authorities, 
and  in  all  cases  where  State  troops  are  ordered  out  they  are  subject 
to  the  control  of  the  local  civil  authorities  and  act  under  their  direc- 
tion, but  the  federal  troops  ordered  to  Chicago  in  1894  did  not  act  un- 
der any  civil  officer,  whether  federal  or  State.  They  did  not  act  under 


'676  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

the  United  States  Marshal,  but  directly  under  orders  from  military 
headquarters  at  Washington,  and  were  subject  to  those  orders  only. 
So  far  as  they  acted  at  all,  it  was  military  government.  Local  self- 
government  is  the  very  foundation  of  freedom  and  of  republican  in- 
stitutions, and  no  people  possess  this  who  are  subject  to  have  the 
army  patrol  their  streets,  acting  not  under,  but  independently  of  the 
local  authorities,  and  do  this  at  the  mere  discretion  of  one  man, 
or  of  a  central  power  that  is  far  away.  Such  local  self-government 
as  would  be  possible  under  these  conditions  may  be  found  all  over 
Russia.  We  grew  great  and  powerful  and  won  the  admiration  of  the 
world  while  proceeding  under  a  different  form  of  government,  and  if 
we  are  to  go  on  in  this  same  line,  then  the  American  people  must  arrest 
and  rebuke  this  federal  usurpation.  In  all  history  no  power  possessed 
by  government  was  ever  allowed  to  lie  dormant  long.  Either  the 
man  or  the  class  soon  appeared  who,  for  selfish  purposes,  proceeded 
to  exercise  it.  If  the  acts  of  the  President  are  to  stand  unchallenged 
and  thus  form  a  precedent,  then  we  have  undergone  a  complete 
change  in  our-  form  of  government,  and  whatever  semblance  we  may 
keep  up  in  the  future,  our  career  as  a  republic  is  over.  We  will  have 
a  rapidly  increasing  central  power  controlled  and  dominated  by  class 
and  by  corporate  interests.  Holding  these  views  and  knowing  that 
the  law  had  been  enforced,  property  protected  and  order  maintained 
for  a  whole  century  by  constitutional  agencies,  and  feeling  that  the 
mighty  State  of  Illinois  needed  neither  assistance  nor  interference 
from  any  outside  source,  I  considered  it  my  duty,  as  the  executive 
of  the  State,  to  protest  against  the  presence  of  federal  troops  under  the 
existing  circumstances,  and  requested  their  withdrawal.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter of  special  regret  to  many  of  our  patriotic  citizens  that  this  blow  at 
free  institutions  should  have  been  struck  by  a  President  who  was 
placed  in  power  by  a  party  that  had  made  local  self-government  a 
cardinal  principle  for  more  than  a  century. 

According  to  Judge  Cooley,  Mr.  Cleveland  gave  the  Constitution 
a  new  cofistruction.  This  may  be  true,  but  he  stabbed  republican 
government  to  the  vitals  when  he  did  it. 

I  have  felt  disposed  to  excuse  ex-Mayor  Hopkins  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  natural  for  him  to  want  his  administration  to  demonstrate 
its  ability  to  do  what  prior  administrations  had  done.  But,  however  this 
may  be,  he  is  now  working  for  the  election  of  McKinley  by  trying  to 
defeat  the  Democratic  candidate.  Let  the  McKinley  orators  abuse 
him  if  they  like. 

In  the  fall  of  1874,  during  the  administration  of  President  Grant, 
the  governor  of  Louisiana  applied  for  federal  troops  to  quell  internal 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  677 

disturbances  in  that  State,  and  acting  on  this  request  troops  were 
sent  there.  On  January  4,  1875,  by  order  of  the  governor,  these 
troops  dispersed  the  lower  house  of  the  Legislature  on  the  ground  that 
it  was  a  mere  mob,  and  the  action  of  the  troops  was  sustained  and 
endorsed  by  the  administration  at  Washington.  This  aroused  in- 
dignation throughout  the  Northern  States,  and  on  January  15,  1875, 
a  meeting  was  held  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  to  protest  against  this  act 
of  the  federal  government.  Mr.  William  Gray  was  made  President 
and  there  was  a  large  list  of  Vice-Presidents,  comprising  a  number 
of  the  most  distinguished  men  of  Boston. 

At  this  meeting  resolutions  were  adopted  which  strongly  con- 
demned the  administration — Mr.  Gray,  Col.  Henry  Lee,  Gen.  S.  M. 
Quincy,  John  Quincy  Adams,  Hon.  F.  W.  Bird,  Hon.  Leverett  Sal- 
tonstall,  Hon.  Albert  Mason,  Richard  Olney  and  Robert  M.  Morse 
made  speeches.  Mr.  Olney  among  other  things  said :  "Apparently  the 
administration  meant,  to  assert  that  the  President  might  enter  a  State 
with  troops  to  suppress  disorder  and  violence  at  his  own  discretion 
upon  his  own  view  of  the  exigency  and  without  waiting  for  the  request 
or  consent  of  the  State  itself.  No  more  glaring  attempt  at  usurpation 
can  be  imagined.  If  successful  it  would  revolutionize  our  whole  gov- 
ernmental system  and  clearly  annihilate  the  right  of  local  self  gov- 
ernment by  a  State." 

Mr.  Olney  here  struck  the  right  key  note,  and  as  shown  by  his 
dispatch  to  Judge  Allen  at  Springfield,  he  still  held  this  view  on 
June  16,  1894.  It  was  immediately  after  this  last  date  that  the  great 
corporations  demanded  that  a  new  precedent  be  set  and  that  the 
federal  government  take  them  directly  under  its  wing  so  that  they 
might  ignore  and  in  the  end  defy  local  government.  As  Mr.  Olney 
was  himself  a  corporation  man  he  joined  with  Mr.  Cleveland  in  grant- 
ing this  demand.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  draw  a  distinction 
between  the  laws  of  Congress  and  the  United  States  courts  on  the 
one  hand  and  the  laws  of  a  State  and  State  tribunals  on  the  other, 
claiming  that  federal  troops  could  be  used  in  the  first  instance  to 
execute  the  laws  of  Congress  and  the  decrees  of  the  United  States 
courts  while  the  State  troops  could  be  used  only  to  execute  the  laws 
of  the  State  and  the  processes  of  State  tribunals.  But  there  is  no 
such  distinction,  nor  was  there  ever  before  such  a  contention. 

The  laws  of  Congress  are  the  laws  of  each  State  and  of  each 
city  just  as  much  as  the  acts  of  the  State  legislature  or  of  a  city  coun- 
cil. And  it  is  the  duty  of  a  State  and  of  a  city  to  execute  and  enforce 
the  laws  of  Congress  just  as  much  as  it  is  to  enforce  the  local  laws. 
In  this  respect  there  is  no  distinction  between  laws.  The  mere  fact 


678  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

that  the  federal  government  as  a  matter  of  expediency  has  seen  fit 
to  create  judicial  machinery  to  enforce  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
does  not  relieve  a  State  nor  even  a  city  of  the  fundamental  duty  of 
enforcing  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  To  repeat — these  laws  are 
just  as  much  in  force  as  the  acts  of  the  State  legislature  or  the  ordi- 
nances of  a  city  government. 

Local  self  government  means  that  a  municipality  or  a  state  shall 
use  all  the  power  in  its  possession  to  enforce  all  laws  that  are  in  force 
within  its  borders  whether  they  be  federal,  State  or  municipal,  and  if 
the  power  of  the  State  is  inadequate  for  this  purpose  then  the  Con- 
stitution has  provided  a  method  for  bringing  in  federal  troops. 

It  is  as  much  the  duty  of  the  State  to  furnish  all  necessary  force 
to  execute  the  process  of  a  federal  court  held  within  its  borders  as  it 
is  to  furnish  the  necessary  force  to  execute  the  process  of  a  State 
tribunal.  Mr.  Olney  clearly  recognized  this  principle  when  he  tele- 
graphed Judge  Allen  of  the  United  States  court  at  Springfield  that 
the  United  States  marshal  of  that  district  should  apply  to  the  State  for 
the  necessary  assistance  to  execute  the  process  and  the  decrees  of  the 
United  States  courts. 

To  further  illustrate  this  point :  the  fugitive  slave  law  was  an  act 
of  Congress — it  was  a  law  of  the  United  States.  The  United  States 
courts  in  a  number  of  instances  rendered  judgments  and  decrees  under 
this  law  and  it  was  to  execute  these  judgments  and  decrees  that  the 
United  States  forces  were  sent  to  assist  the  United  States  marshal 
at  Boston  and  in  several  other  instances  prior  to  1860.  As  already 
shown,  when  the  national  Republican  convention  met  in  Chicago  in 
1860  it  violently  denounced  these  acts  of  federal  interference,  as 
'destructive  of  our  institutions,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  denounced  these 
acts  with  great  earnestness  in  his  speeches.  The  fact  that  the  federal 
troops  had  been  used  to  execute  decrees  of  the  United  States  courts 
founded  on  acts  of  Congress  was  not  accepted  as  a  justification. 

It  has  been  asked :  "Suppose  the  officials  and  the  people  of  a 
State  in  time  of  trouble  refuse  to  enforce  the  law  and  refuse  to  ask  for 
federal  assistance,  then  must  you  let  all  society  go  to  destruction?" 
You  might  as  well  ask,  "Suppose  the  President  failed  or  refused  to  do 
his  duty  then  would  the  republic  perish  and  all  society  be  destroyed?" 

This  idea  is  absurd  and  grows  out  of  the  assumption  that  we 
exist  and  are  held  together  by  a  force  coming  from  above,  instead  of 
governing  ourselves.  It  assumes  that  seventy  millions  of  people  may 
go  to  destruction  and  free  institutions  be  destroyed  unless  some  official 
reaches  out  and  saves  them.  It  ignores  the  fact  that  our  government 
is  founded  on  the  theory  that  the  people  themselves  do  the  governing 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  679 

and  that  the  world's  experience  has  shown  that  they  can  be  trusted 
a  thousand  times  over  rather  than  some  office-holder,  and  it  further 
ignores  the  fact  that  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  the  people  of 
this  country  have  so  governed  themselves,  and  that  it  was  during  this 
time  that  our  institutions  were  developed,  our  cities  were  built  and  our 
greatness  was  achieved. 

AMATEUR   SAVIORS   OF   SOCIETY. 

It  is  amazing  to  see  the  young  saviors  of  society  that  have  recently 
sprung  up.  During  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  in  which  this 
country  grew  great  and  won  the  admiration  of  the  world  they  were 
unheard  of  and  were  not  needed.  But  through  the  accident  of  an 
election  or  an  appointment  they  were  brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
American  people  and  then  these  debutants  suddenly  felt  that  the 
responsibility  of  saving  the  republic  was  on  them  and  that  society 
would  go  to  destruction  unless  they  reached  out  and  saved  it.  All  the 
intelligence,  the  ability,  the  patriotism,  yea,  the  experience  and  suc- 
cess in  self  government  counts  for  naught,  and  we  have  been  given 
to  understand  that  unless  a  few  young  men,  some  of  whom  had  bor- 
rowed money  to  get  a  new  suit  of  clothes  before  going  to  Washing- 
ton, now  save  society,  all  will  be  lost. 

GOVERNMENT    BY    INJUNCTION. 

The  immortal  Jefferson,  after  having  written  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  helped  to  launch  the  new  republic,  watched  the 
operations  of  the  new  government  for  years,  and  with  a  vision  that 
was  prophetic  wrote  the  following: 

"It  has  long  been  my  opinion  and  I  have  never  shrunk  from  its 
expression,  that  the  germ  of  dissolution  of  our  federal  government 
is  in  the  constitution  of  the  federal  judiciary,  an  irresponsible  body 
working  like  gravity,  by  day  and  by  night,  gaining  a  little  to-day  and 
a  little  to-morrow  and  advancing  its  noiseless  step  like  a  thief  over 
the  field  of  jurisdiction  until  all  shall  be  usurped  from  the  States  and 
the  government  of  all  become  consolidated  into  one.  To  this  I  am 
opposed  because  when  all  government,  domestic  and  foreign,  in  little 
and  in  great  things  shall  be  drawn  to  Washington  as  the  center  of  all 
power,  it  will  render  powerless  the  checks  provided  of  one  government 
on  another  and  will  become  as  venal  and  oppressive  as  the  government 
from  which  we  separated." 

See  how  accurately  he  located  the  danger  and  described  the  future. 
I  have  not  the  time  to  point  out  the  alarming  encroachments  and 
usurpations  of  the  federal  courts  since  the  days  of  Jefferson.  I  will 


68o  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

only  call  attention  to  their  most  recent  and  astounding  pretension  and 
usurpation  of  power.  During  the  last  decade  they  have  established 
a  form  of  government  that  is  government  by  injunction,  under  which 
the  federal  judge  becomes  at  once  legislator,  judge  and  executioner. 
Sitting  in  his  chambers  and  without  notice  to  anybody  he  issues  a 
ukase,  which  he  calls  an  injunction,  against  all  the  people  of  a  State, 
forbidding  anything  that  he  sees  fit  to  forbid  and  which  the  law  does 
not  forbid,  for  when  the  law  forbids  a  thing  there  is  no  need  of  an 
injunction.  When  the  law  is  violated  provision  has  been  made  for 
punishment,  and  if  it  is  found  at  any  time  to  be  inadequate  it  can 
always  be  remedied  by  legislation.  But  by  this  injunction  the  judge 
can  forbid  anything  which  whim,  prejudice  or  caprice  may  suggest, 
and  his  order  is  law  and  must  stand  until  it  is  reversed  by  a  superior 
authority,  and  this  may  take  months  and  even  years,  and  when  any 
individual  disregards  this  injunction  he  is  arrested  by  the  United  States 
marshal  and  dragged  to  the  point  where  the  court  is  held,  sometimes  a 
distance  of  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  away  from  his 
friends,  on  a  charge,  not  of  committing  a  crime,  not  of  violating  the 
law,  but  on  a  charge  of  being  guilty  of  contempt  of  court,  that  is,  of 
having  disregarded  the  judge's  injunction,  and  he  is  tried,  not  by  a 
jury,  as  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  land,  not  ac- 
cording to  the  forms  of  law  even,  but  he  is  tried  by  the  same  judge 
whose  dignity  he  is  charged  with  having  offended,  and  then  he  is  sent 
to  prison  indefinitely.  Had  he  committed  a  murder  or  a  heinous 
crime,  had  he  violated  the  law  in  a  flagrant  manner  he  would  have 
been  entitled  to  be  tried  by  a  jury,  according  to  the  forms  of  law, 
and  in  the  county  where  the  offense  was  committed  and  where  he 
could  produce  his  witnesses,  but  not  so  when  he  is  guilty  of  showing 
a  want  of  respect  for  the  order  of  a  judge  which  was  made  outside  of 
the  law  and  in  violation  of  the  Constitution.  When  the  Sultan  of 
Turkey  or  the  Czar  of  Russia  issues  a  ukase  forbidding  something 
that  the  law  had  not  forbidden  he  at  least  leaves  the  task  of  trying 
those  who  are  charged  with  disregarding  this  ukase  to  some  other 
individual.  Common  decency  and  common  justice  would  suggest  such 
a  course,  but  in  our  country  a  federal  judge  assumes  to  do  things 
which  would  be  discountenanced  even  in  Russia  or  Turkey.  Several 
years  ago  it  was  charged  that  the  management  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
railway  had  robbed  that  road  of  about  sixty  million  dollars,  and  after 
this  charge  was  made  the  same  managers  went  before  Judge  Jenkins, 
of  the  United  States  court  at  Milwaukee,  and  got  him  to  appoint  their 
friend,  Mr.  Henry  C.  Payne  of  Milwaukee,  and  two  other  friends,  as 
receivers  of  the  road,  and  instead  of  trying  to  collect  back  the  sums 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  681 

that  were  charged  to  have  been  wrongfully  taken  from  the  road  the 
first  thing  that  Mr.  Payne  did  was  to  reduce  the  wages  of  the  men 
who  worked  on  the  road,  and  did  it  without  notice  to  the  men,  and 
then  he,  together  with  his  attorney,  Mr.  Spooner  of  Wisconsin,  went 
before  this  same  Judge  Jenkins  and  he  got  that  judge  to  issue  an 
injunction  forbidding  the  men  from  quitting  the  employment  of  the 
road.  This  also  was  issued  without  notice  to  the  men.  If  any  man 
quit  the  employment  of  the  road  while  that  injunction  was  in  force 
he  was  guilty  of  contempt  of  court,  liable  to  be  tried,  not  by  a  jury, 
but  by  the  judge  who  issued  the  injunction  himself,  and  sent  to  prison 
indefinitely.  A  somewhat  similar  order  to  this  had  been  made  some 
time  previous  by  a  federal  judge  at  Toledo,  Ohio. 

Judge  Ross  of  California  issued  an  injunction  compelling  the  em- 
ployes of  a  railroad  to  go  to  work.  Think  of  a  judge  legislating  that 
way.  When  an  individual  has  an  employe  who  won't  work  he  dis- 
charges him,  but  this  judge  ordered  railroad  employes  sent  to  jail  if 
they  did  not  go  to  work.  He  undertook  to  run  a  railroad  and  just 
sat  down  and  made  law  to  suit  him.  He  legislated,  judged  and  ex- 
ecuted. The  Constitution,  the  law,  trial  by  jury,  and  the  rights  of  the 
citizen  were  all  brushed  aside  by  this  federal  judge.  During  the 
railroad  strike  of  1894  Judges  Wood  and  Grosscup,  in  the  United 
States  court  at  Chicago,  issued  a  number  of  these  injunctions  which, 
in  so  far  as  they  forbade  what  the  law  forbade  were  unnecessary,  and 
in  so  far  as.  they  forbade  what  the  law  did  not  forbid  amounted  to  new 
legislation.  After  they  were  issued  the  farce  was  enacted  of  having 
an  officer  attempt  to  read  them  to  a  mob,  which,  under  the  circum- 
stances, could  neither  hear  nor  understand  them,  and  the  United  States 
marshal  at  Chicago  swore  in  four  thousand,  four  hundred  and  two 
deputy  marshals  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  these  injunctions.  Some 
of  these  injunctions  were  obtained  as  early  as  June  29  and  June  30, 
a  number  of  days  ahead  of  any  trouble,  yet  as  a  preventative  they 
were  total  failures  and  accomplished  nothing.  The  trouble  kept 
spreading  and  growing  just  as  if  there- had  been  no  injunctions.  Ac- 
cording to  their  own  statements  the  United  States  marshals  arrested 
about  four  hundred  and  fifty  men  on  a  mere  charge  of  being  guilty  of  a 
contempt  of  court,  and  these  had  nearly  all  to  be  discharged  after 
having  been  dragged  to  the  court  because  nothing  whatever  could'  be 
proved  against  them.  One  man  was  a  train  master  and  had  done 
nothing  whatever  except  simply  to  quit  work,  but  he  had  won  the 
enmity  of  his  superior  and  he  was  arrested,  was  taken  a  hundred  miles 
in  charge  of  officers,  remained  in  their  custody  for  several  days,  and 
when  his  case  came  to  be  heard  he  was  dismissed  with  the  simple 


682  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

statement  that  the  government  did  not  care  to  prosecute.  For  the 
time  the  corporations,  through  Mr.  Walker,  were  the  government. 
In  other  cases  men  were  taken  a  hundred  and  a  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  from  their  homes  and  were  lodged  in  jail  until  their  cases 
could  be  heard  and  had  to  be  discharged  because  nothing  could  be 
proved  against  them  and  then  they  found  themselves  penniless  and 
had  to  beg  their  way  back.  Through  these  injunctions  certain  cor- 
porations and  individuals  have  been  able,  at  various  times,  to  make  a 
kind  of  side  door  convenience  of  the  federal  courts  and  thus  lower  and 
destroy  the  respect  for  and  confidence  in  the  tribunals  of  justice  and 
create  the  impression  in  the  land  that  courts,  by  making  law  for  them- 
selves and  robbing  men  of  a  trial  by  jury  and  violating  the  Constitu- 
tion, are  instruments  of  oppression. 

GOVERNMENT    BY    INJUNCTION    A    USURPATION. 

A  mere  glance  at  this  invasion  shows  that  government  by  injunc- 
tion is  incompatible  with  republican  institutions,  and  if  it  is  to  be 
sustained  then  there  is  an  end  to  trial  by  jury  in  our  country,  and 
instead  of  being  governed  by  law  we  will  be  subject  to  government 
by  judges,  and  if  government  by  injunction  is  to  be  sustained  as  to 
federal  judges,  then  we  will  soon  have  it  on  the  part  of  State  judges 
and  the  very  foundations  of  free  institutions  will  have  disappeared. 
These  injunctions  are  outside  of  the  regular  machinery  of  government ; 
so  far  as  they  are  outside  of  the  law  they  are  usurpations,  and  where 
they  are  not  usurpations,  they  are  wrong,  because  the  Constitution 
has  created  other  machinery  to  enforce  the  criminal  law.  Courts  of 
chancery  were  not  created  for  this  purpose.  In  Chicago  they  did  not 
prevent  the  burning  of  a  freight  car  or  the  ditching  of  a  train.  Our 
country  has  existed  for  more  than  a  hundred  years.  During  this 
time  all  our  greatness  and  our  glory  has  been  achieved.  Property  has 
been  protected,  law  and  order  has  been  maintained  by  the  machinery 
established  by  the  Constitution.  This  machinery  has  at  all  times  been 
found  to  be  sufficient  for  every  emergency.  If  both  the  Constitution 
and  our  past  experience  are  now  to  be  disregarded  and  the  courts  are 
to  be  permitted  to  set  up  this  new  form  of  government,  then  the  affairs 
of  life  will  soon  be  regulated,  not  by  law,  but  by  the  personal  pleasure, 
prejudice  or  caprice  of  a  multitude  of  judges.  Formerly,  when  a  man 
charged  with  contempt  filed  an  affidavit  purging  himself  of  the  con- 
tempt, that  is,  denying  it,  the  matter  ended.  All  that  could  be  done 
was  to  prosecute  him  for  perjury  if  he  had  sworn  to  what  was  not 
true.  But  after  thus  purging  himself  he  could  not  be  tried  for  con- 
tempt by  the  very  judge  whose  dignity  he  was  charged  with  having 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION. 

offended.  In  other  words,  when  a  man  denied  his  guilt  he  could  not 
be  sentenced  to  prison  without  a  trial  by  jury.  But  this  protection  of 
the  citizen  is  now  brushed  away  with  a  mere  wave  of  the  hand.  The 
citizen  is  robbed  of  a  trial  by  jury,  and  he  is  tried  by  the  judge  for 
whom  he  is  alleged  to  have  shown  a  want  of  respect  and  is  sent  to 
prison  indefinitely. 

It  was  the  extraordinary  action  of  a  few  judges  that  called  the 
attention  of  the  American  people  to  the  possibilities  and  to  the  ex- 
tremely dangerous  character  of  this  system,  and  which  makes  law 
abiding  and  patriotic  men  feel  that  if  not  checked  it  must  destroy 
free  institutions. 

(For  a  more  full  discussion  of  government  by  injunction  see  speech 
delivered  at  Philadelphia  September  5,  1897,  in  this  volume.) 

THE  SUPREME  COURT. 

The  Chicago  platform  denounces  the  peculiar  conduct  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  in  the  income  tax  case. 

The  platform  declares  that  the  income  tax  law  had  been  passed  in 
strict  pursuance  of  the  uniform  decisions  of  that  court  for  nearly  one 
hundred  years ;  that  the  court  had  in  the  last  decision  sustained  objec- 
tions to  that  law  which  had  previously  been  overruled  by  the  same 
court,  and  the  platform  therefore  in  substance  declares  in  favor  of 
securing  the  reversal  of  that  decision  if  possible  and  of  having  Con- 
gress do  all  in  its  power  to  equalize  the  burdens  of  taxation  so  that 
wealth  may  bear  its  due  proportion  of  the  expense  of  government. 

This  criticism  of  the  Supreme  Court  is  denounced  as  subversive  of 
order  and  destructive  of  the  respect  that  is  due  that  tribunal.  Aston- 
ishing as  it  may  appear,  men  formerly  connected  with  the  Democratic 
party  and  men  connected  vith  the  Republican  party  insist  that  courts 
are  of  a  sacred  character  and  above  the  reach  of  criticism.  My  friends, 
I  give  way  to  no  man  in  admiration  for  American  institutions.  My  life 
has  been  spent  in  trying  to  protect  the  flag  of  my  country  and  trying 
to  advance  the  educational  institutions  of  the  country,  and  as  an  officer 
of  the  court  serving  in  the  capacity  of  prosecutor  and  for  five  years  as 
a  judge  of  the  superior  court  of  Chicago,  and  after  this  experience 
at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench,  I  say  to  my  countrymen  that  there  cannot 
be  in  a  republic  any  institution  exempt  from  criticism,  and  that  when 
any  institute  is  permitted  to  assume  that  attitude  it  will  destroy 
republican  government.  The  judicial  branch  of  the  government  is  just 
as  much  subject  to  the  criticism  of  the  American  people  as  are  the 
legislative  or  executive  branches,  and  it  needs  this  criticism  more  than 
does  either  of  the  other  two  branches,  because  by  reason  of  frequent 


684  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

changes  the  people  can  make  their  will  felt  in  the  legislative  and 
executive  offices,  but  as  the  federal  judges  are  not  appointed  by  the 
people  and  are  not  responsible  to  them,  and  for  all  practical  purposes 
cannot  be  reached  except  by  the  moral  sentiment  and  sense  of  justice 
created  in  the  public  mind  by  free  criticism.  The  judges  of  our  federal 
courts  are  as  honest  as  other  men  and  no  more  so.  They  have  the 
same  passions  and  prejudices  that  other  men  have,  and  are  just  as 
liable  to  make  mistakes  and  to  move  in  the  wrong  direction  as  other 
men  are,  and  the  safety  of  the  republic  not  only  permits,  but  actually 
requires,  that  the  action  of  the  courts  should  be  honestly  and  thor- 
oughly scanned  and  be  freely  criticised,  not  with  a  view  of  arousing 
resistance  to  the  decision  of  the  court,  but  for  the  purpose  of  forcing 
the  court  in  the  end  to  see  its  error  and  to  correct  it.  The  mere  fact 
that  the  Supreme  Court  has  all  through  its  career  repeatedly  reversed 
its  own  decisions  shows  its  fallibility.  Everybody  admits  that  the 
decision  of  a  court  is  binding  in  the  case  in  which  it  was  rendered  and 
until  it  is  reversed  constitutes  a  precedent  to  indicate  how  the  courts 
will  decide  the  same  question  again,  but  this  fact  does  not  prevent 
men  from  doing  what  they  can  to  get  the  court  to  reverse  its  decision. 
Nor  does  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  any  case  become  a 
rule  of  political  action  the  correctness  of  which  the  voter  dare  not 
question.  The  Supreme  Court  cannot  by  mere  decision  upon  a  con- 
stitutional question  rob  the  people  of  the  powers  of  self-government 
nor  prevent  the  American  people  from  deciding  for  themselves, 
through  the  properly  constituted  machinery,  whether  they  will  accept 
the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  as  being  final  or  whether  they  will 
refuse  to  accept  it  as  a  rule  of  action.  As  Mr.  Lincoln  said,  "It  does 
not  necessarily  become  a  rule  of  political  action."  The  people  have 
not  parted  with  their  power  of  self-government  in  favor  of  either 
legislative,  executive  or  the  judicial  branch  of  the  government.  For 
the  benefit  of  so-called  Democrats  who  have  criticised  this  plank  in 
the  platform,  I  would  recall  the  language  of  Jefferson  already  quoted, 
and  will  add  the  following:  In  1800  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  to  a  friend 
as  follows :  "You  seem  to  consider  the  judges  as  the  ultimate  arbiters 
of  all  constitutional  questions.  A  very  dangerous  doctrine  indeed  and 
one  which  would  place  us  under  the  despotism  of  an  oligarchy.  Our 
judges  are  as  honest  as  other  men  and  not  more  so.  They  have  with 
others  the  same  passions  for  party,  for  power,  and  the  privilege  of 
their  corps  and  their  power  is  the  more  dangerous,  as  they  are  in  office 
for  life  and  not  responsible  as  the  other  functionaries  are  to  the  elec- 
tive control.  The  Constitution  has  erected  no  such  tribunal,  knowing 
that  to  whatever  hands  confided  with  the  corruption  of  time  and  of 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  685 

party  its  members  would  become  despots.  The  Constitution  has  more 
wisely  made  all  the  departments  co-equal  and  co-sovereign  within 
themselves."  I  would  likewise  remind  you  of  the  language  of  Andrew 
Jackson.  After  the  Supreme  Court  had  held  the  national  bank  bill  to 
be  constitutional  in  all  parts,  he  refused  to  be  bound  by  that  de- 
cision, and  asserted  that  he,  as  President,  would  not  be  bound  to  hold 
the  national  bank  to  be  constitutional,  even  though  the  Supreme 
Court  had  decided  it  to  be  so.  He  accepted  the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson and  acted  upon  it  under  his  official  oath  in  vetoing  a  charter 
for  the  national  bank,  and  I  would  remind  the  Republicans  who  are 
making  this  criticism  of  the  attitude  of  Lincoln  toward  the  Supreme 
Court  when  discussing  the  Dred  Scott  decision  in  the  Lincoln  and 
Douglas  debate,  when  in  referring  to  that  decision  he  said :  "We  do 
oppose  that  decision  as  a  political  rule  which  shall  be  binding  on  a 
voter  to  vote  for  nobody  who  thinks  it  wrong ;  which  shall  be  binding 
on  the  members  of  Congress  or  the  President  to  favor  no  measure 
that  does  not  actually  concur  with  the  principles  of  that  decision.  We 
do  not  propose  to  be  bound  by  it  as  a  political  rule  in  that  waj.  Judge 
Douglas  would  make  that  decision  a  rule  of  political  action  for  the 
people  and  all  of  the  departments  of  the  government.  I  would  not. 
By  resisting  it  as  a  political  rule,  I  disturb  no  right  of  property,  create 
no  disorder  and  incite  no  mobs."  Again  he  says,  "We  offer  no  re- 
sistance to  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  but  we  think  it  is  erroneous.  We 
know  the  court  that  made  it  has  often  overruled  its  own  decisions,  and 
we  shall  do  what  we  can  to  have  it  overrule  this  one." 

In  his  first  inaugural  address  he  said :  "The  candid  citizen  must 
confess  that  if  the  policy  of  the  government,  upon  vital  questions 
affecting  the  whole  people,  is  to  be  irrevocably  fixed  by  decisions  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  the  instant  they  are  made,  as  in  ordinary  litigation 
between  parties  in  personal  actions,  the  people  will  have  ceased  to 
be  their  own  rulers,  having  to  that  extent  practically  resigned  their 
government  into  the  hands  of  that  eminent  tribunal." 

CHICAGO  PLATFORM  VOICES  JEFFERSONIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Now  that  is  the  attitude  which  the  Chicago  platform  takes  to- 
ward the  Supreme  Court  at  present.  It  recognizes  the  decision  of 
the  court  as  being  binding  so  long  as  it  stands,  but  we  believe  the 
decision  to  be  wrong  and  in  violation  of  the  Constitution.  It  was 
made  by  a  divided  court  and  under  circumstances  that  look  very 
strange,  if  not  suspicious,  to  the  American  people. 

Let  me  quote  a  little  more  standard  Republican  authority.  Sena- 
tor Sumner,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  on  February  3,  1865,  in  refer- 


686  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ring  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  charged  Chief  Justice  Taney  with 
flagrantly  perverting  the  truth  of  history.  He  compared  him  with 
the  infamous  Jeffreys  of  England,  charged  him  with  being  a  tool  of 
the  slave  power,  and  said :  "I  declare  that  the  opinion  of  the  Chief 
Justice  in  the  case  of  Dred  Scott  was  more  thoroughly  abominable 
than  anything  of  the  kind  in  the  history  of  courts.  Then  and  there 
judicial  baseness  reached  its  lowest  points.  An  outrageous  judgment 
was  sustained  by  falsification  of  history ;  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  every  principle  of  liberty  and  historical  truth  were 
falsified." 

But  we  need  not  look  for  authority  outside  of  the  court  itself  upon 
the  question  as  to  whether  it  is  sacred  or  is  exceedingly  fallible  and 
needs  the  wholesome  influence  of  criticism  as  well  as  any  other  insti- 
tution in  this  country.  Let  me  read  you  a  few  sentences  from  the 
dissenting  opinion  in  the  income  tax  case  of  Mr.  Justice  White,  con- 
curred in  by  Justice  Harlan,  both  members  of  that  court:  "I  con- 
sider that  the  result  of  the  opinion  of  the  court  just  announced  is  to 
overthrow  a  long  and  consistent  line  of  decisions  and  to  deny  to  the 
legislative  department  of  the  government  the  possession  of  a  power 
conceded  to  it  by  universal  consensus  for  one  hundred  years,  and  which 
has  been  recognized  by  repeated  adjudications  of  this  court."  And 
again  he  says :  "And  now  after  one  hundred  years,  after  long  continued 
action  by  other  departments  of  the  government,  and  after  repeated 
adjudications  by  this  court,  this  interpretation  is  overthrown,  and  the 
Congress  is  declared  not  to  have  a  power  of  taxation  which  may  at 
some  time,  as  it  has  in  the  past,  prove  necessary  to  the  very  ex- 
istence of  the  government." 

And  again :  "Great  as  is  my  respect  for  any  view  announced  by 
this  court,  I  cannot  resist  the  conviction  that  its  opinion  in  this  case 
annuls  its  previous  decisions  in  regard  to  the  powers  of  Congress  on 
the  subject  of  taxation,  and  is  therefore  fraught  with  danger  to  the 
court,  to  each  and  every  citizen  and  to  the  republic.  The  conserva- 
tive and  orderly  development  of  our  institutions  rest  on  our  accept- 
ance of  the  results  of  the  past.  Their  use  as  lights  guide  our  steps 
in  the  future.  Teach  the  lesson  that  settled  principles  may  be  over- 
thrown at  any  time  and  confusion  and  turmoil  must  ultimately  result." 

SUPREME  COURT  NOT  INFALLIBLE. 

Now,  my  fellow  citizens,  we  insist  that  the  language  in  this  Chi- 
cago platform  relating  to  the  Supreme  Court  is  more  kindly  and  is 
much  more  respectful  than  was  the  language  of  any  of  the  great 
men  I  have  named.  These  great  men  all  recognized  the  fact  that  that 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  687 

court,  like  all  other  courts,  is  fallible,  as  all  other  human  institutions 
are.  That  while  its  decisions  were  binding  and  conclusive  in  the  cases 
in  which  they  were  rendered  and  were  entitled  to  great  respect  in  all 
cases,  yet  to  accept  them  as  a  binding  rule  of  political  action  would 
lead  to  the  destruction  of  republican  institutions  and  the  establishment 
in  the  end  of  oligarchy  in  government.  And  when  you  reflect  that  we 
have  already  reached  a  point  where  a  federal  judge,  in  fact,  several 
federal  judges,  have  actually  issued  orders  prohibiting  men  who  are 
working  for  a  railroad  from  quitting  their  employment  and  threatened 
to  imprison  men  for  refusing  to  work,  you  see  that  there  is  no  limit 
to  the  authority  which  they  attempt  to  exercise. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  great  corporations  and  trusts  and  syndi- 
cates have  carefully  looked  after  the  matter  of  appointments  to  the 
federal  bench,  and  so  great  was  their  influence  that  few  could  be  ap- 
pointed who  were  not  satisfactory  to  them.  In  many  cases  men  were 
taken  out  of  the  corporation  offices  and  put  on  the  federal  bench.  These 
men  brought  with  them  all  of  the  bias  and  prejudice  that  take  pos- 
session of  men  who  have  long  been  subject  to  corporate  influence  and 
environment,  and  when  some  of  these  men  trample  justice  and  equity 
under  foot  and  render  outrageous  decisions  in  the  interest  of  their 
former  employers,  shall  it  be  said  that  the  American  people  have  no 
right  to  criticise  their  action  just  as  they  would  criticise  the  action  of 
a  governor  or  a  legislature  ?  If  they  have  not  this  right  when  did  they 
lose  it?  Let  me  remind  you,  my  countrymen,  that  neither  the  poor 
people  nor  the  great  toiling  masses  of  the  earth  have  ever  destroyed  a 
government.  All  the  great  governments  and  institutions  of  the  past 
were  destroyed  by  the  rich  and  powerful,  who  shut  their  eyes  to  in- 
justice and,  through  selfish  greed,  inaugurated  policies  that -pulled 
clown  the  pillars  of  state,  and  while  thus  engaged  in  bringing  ruin 
upon  their  country  they  made  a  pharisaical  pretense  of  patriotism. 
These  things  are  now  happening  in  our  land. 

QUESTIONS    INVOLVED. 

No  campaign  ever  made  in  this  country  involved  so  many  far- 
reaching  questions  as  this  one  does.  Questions,  every  one  of  which 
goes  to  the  foundation  of  free  government  and  affects  the  perpetuity 
of  our  institutions. 

First — The  question  whether  the  people  have  surrendered  the  right 
of  self-government  into  the  hands  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  and  whether  the  courts  are  thus  placed  above  criticism  and 
their  acts  exempt  from  that  scrutiny  which  every  patriotic  and  intelli- 


688  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

gent  man  should  give  to  the  acts  of  the  other  branches  of  the  gov- 
ernment. 

Second — Whether  both  the  constitution  and  the  traditions  of  the 
government  shall  henceforth  be  ignored  and  the  President  shall  be 
conceded  the  power  of  sending  federal  troops  at  his  pleasure  into 
any  neighborhood  in  the  United  States  or  a  thousand  neighborhoods 
at  one  time ;  troops  who  will  not  be  subject  to  the  civil  authorities  nor 
to  the  local  authorities ;  who  are  under  instructions  from  Washington ; 
whether  this  can  be  done  not  only  without  the  request  of  the  local 
authorities,  but  in  defiance  of  them  ? 

Third — Whether  the  people  of  this  country  and  especially  the  lab- 
oring masses  who  do  not  have  much  of  a  voice  in  the  selection  of 
judges  shall  recognize  and  thus  perpetuate  the  system  of  governing 
:by  injunction,  which  does  away  with  constitutional  government,  which 
does  away  with  government  by  law,  does  away  with  trial  by  jury,  does 
away  with  trial  according  to  the  forms  of  law  and  substitutes  the 
caprice,  whim,  prejudice  or  passion  of  a  judge  for  all  these,  making 
him  at  once  legislator,  judge  and  to  a  certain  extent  executioner? 

Fourth — Whether  we  shall  dissolve  in  boodle,  bribery  and  corrup- 
tion. Whether  the  men  who  have  grown  great  as  lobbyists  shall  rule 
this  land.  Whether  we  shall  declare  to  the  world  scoundrelism  is  in 
the  end  the  loftiest  form  of  patriotism.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that 
those  men  and  those  influences  whose  slime  is  dissolving  our  institu- 
tions are  all  helping  Mr.  Hanna.  Everything  within  their  reach  is 
being  prostituted.  Where  they  can,  they  degrade  the  religious  press 
and  defile  the  pulpit.  They  have  dragged  the  American  flag  in  the 
mire  by  using  it  as  an  advertising  sheet  for  McKinley  and  Hobart. 
In  Chicago  it  is  a  fitting  coincidence  that  most  of  the  buildings  from 
which  the  flag  is  thus  degraded  do  not  pay  their  fair  share  of  taxes. 
Wave  the  flag  and  plunder  the  public,  is  the  gospel  of  McKinleyism. 

Fifth — Whether  the  British  monetary  policy  shall  be  made  per- 
petual so  that  the  toiling  and  producing  masses  of  this  country  will  be 
reduced  in  their  purchasing  power ;  will  be  reduced  in  the  end  to  a 
lower  plane  of  civilization  ;  will  be  reduced  in  the  end  to  the  conditions 
of  the  men  who  till  the  fields  of  Europe  or  the  Valley  of  the  Nile? 

McKINLEY  VS.  THE  PEOPLE. 

It  is  a  remarkable  circumstance  that  Mark  Hanna  and  the  whole 
crowd  of  men  who  are  supporting  this  British  policy  of  plutocracy  are 
against  the  people  of  this  country  on  all  of  these  great  questions. 
That  crowd  of  men  who  nominated  Mr.  McKinley  and  who  treat  him 
as  a  kind  of  convenience,  favor  federal  military  interference,  sustain 


SPEECH  AT  COOPER  UNION.  689 

the  usurpation  of  the  federal  courts,  sustain  government  by  injunc- 
tion, and  sustain  this  English  monetary  policy  which  makes  every- 
thing that  the  American  people  produce,  everything  that  the  American 
people  create,  cheap,  while  it  makes  what  the  English  have  to  sell, 
namely,  money,  very  dear. 

The  American  people  are  called  on  this  year  to  make  a  new  declara- 
tion of  independence  to  mankind.  Over  a  hundred  years  ago  the 
declaration  that  was  made  by  less  than  three  million  people  to  the 
world  was  that  they  were  not  only  free  but  that  they  were  independent 
of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth ;  now  the  American  people  are  asked  to 
announce  to  the  world  that  free  institutions  have  perished  among 
them ;  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  has  arbitrary  power 
with  respect  to  the  use  of  troops,  as  great  as  the  Czar  of  Russia  or 
Emperor  William ;  they  are  asked  to  announce  to  the  world  that  the 
people  have  given  up  and  surrendered  to  the  courts  of  the  United 
States  the  power  of  self-government  and  are  bound  now  to  take  with- 
out question  or  without  criticism  whatever  policy  those  courts  may 
dictate ;  the  people  are  asked  to  make  a  declaration  to  the  world  that 
we  are  no  longer  governed  absolutely  by  law  and  according  to  the 
forms  of  law,  but  that  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  has  been  abolished 
and  that  every  man  now  walks  the  streets  only  by  the  grace  of  the 
federal  courts.  We  are  asked  to  make  a  declaration  to  mankind 
that  we  were  once  free  and  were  once  independent  of  all  the  nations 
on  the  globe,  but  we  are  now  a  mere  financial  dependency  of  England. 
These  are  the  issues  involved  in  this  campaign.  Low  prices  have  de- 
stroyed the  purchasing  power  of  our  farmers  and  in  that  way  have 
shut  up  the  mills  and  the  factories,  turned  the  laborer  out  of  his  job 
because  there  was  and  is  no  market  for  what  he  makes.  Low  prices 
have  spread  poverty,  misery  and  increased  crime  throughout  the  civ- 
ilized world.  They  are  the  result  of  that  legislation  in  Europe  and  in 
this  country  which  interfered  with  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  with 
regard  to  money ;  that  legislation  which  by  destroying  a  part  of  the 
world's  supply  of  money  and  by  making  gold  the  sole  standard  in- 
creased the  demand  for  gold.  So  long  as  this  standard  is  perpetuated 
so  long  will  these  conditions,  which  it  has  produced,  continue.  If  the 
toiling  masses  of  this  country,  if  the  patriotic  men  of  this  country 
favor  a  continuation  of  these  conditions  then  let  them  vote  for  Mr. 
Hanna  and  plutocracy,  for  Mr.  McKinley  is  scarcely  a  factor  in  this 
campaign.  Mr.  Mark  Hanna  and  the  agents  of  syndicates  and  trusts 
constitute  the  power  that  is  subverting  free  institutions. 

44 


690  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

A  NEW  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 

My  fellow  citizens,  if  you  do  not  believe  in  the  policy  advocated  by 
these  men,  if  you  are  not  in  favor  of  converting  this  republic  into  an 
oligarchy,  if  you  believe  that  this  country  should  at  least  be  in  part 
governed  by  the  men  who  toil  and  not  solely  and  alone  governed  by 
the  men  who  devour  the  fruit  that  others  toil  for,  then  rise  in  your 
manhood,  stand  out  in  the  sun  and  before  the  Almighty  declare,  as 
did  the  fathers  over  a  hundred  years  ago,  that  we  are  not  only  a  free 
but  that  we  are  an  independent  people.  Declare  that  the  time  has 
not  yet  come  when  this  country  must  be  made  a  financial  dependency 
upon  England,  that  the  experiment  of  twenty  odd  years  of  having 
the  world's  business  done  on  a  single  gold  standard  has  been  a  failure, 
that  it  has  covered  the  earth  with  misery  and  distress,  and  that  it 
must  be  brought  to  an  end.  Stand  up  and  declare  that  this  country 
must  return  to  that  standard  of  prices  which  had  been  the  world's 
standard  through  all  the  centuries  that  have  passed ;  that  standard 
under  which  the  foundations  of  this  republic  were  laid,  under  which 
we  grew  great  and  mighty  and  became  the  most  powerful  people  of 
the  earth ;  that  standard  under  which  everything  that  is  great,  grand 
and  glorious  in  the  world  today  was  created ;  that  standard  upon 
which  this  wonderful  civilization  of  the  nineteenth  century  rests.  De- 
clare yourselves  to  be  in  favor  of  that  policy  under  which  the  mints 
shall  again  be  opened  to  both  of  the  metals  so  that  there  will  be  an  end 
of  this  destructive  fall  in  prices ;  so  that  prudent  men  will  again  feel 
that  it  is  safe  to  go  into  business  or  to  embark  in  new  enterprises.  De- 
clare in  favor  of  an  American  policy  which  will  result  in  instantly 
inducing  intelligent  and  enterprising  men  to  open  up  new  fields  of 
industry,  which  will  at  once  create  a  demand  for  all  kinds  of  labor, 
all  kinds  of  skill  and  for  all  kinds  of  talents.  Our  fathers  made  a 
declaration  of  independence  and  there  followed  a  century  of  the  grand- 
est development  ever  known  upon  the  earth.  If  you  believe  in  the  in- 
stitutions of  the  fathers  and  in  perpetuating  them,  then  go  to  the 
polls  on  the  3d  of  November  and  make  a  new  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence and  there  will  follow  another  century  which  in  grandeur  and 
glory  and  in  achievement  and  the  blessings  to  be  showered  upon  man- 
kind will  surpass  the  century  that  is  closing. 


THE  ELECTION  OF  1896.  691 

THE  ELECTION  OF  1896. 

Chicago,  Nov.  4,  1896. 

To  the  Democrats  of  Illinois :    Although  defeated  I  desire  to  thank 

you  for  the  loyal  support  you  have  given  me  and  I  congratulate  you 

on  the  heroic  fight  you  have  just  made.    Consider  that  only  six  months 

ago  our  great  party  lay  prostrate.    It  had  been  betrayed  into  the  hands 

of  jobbers   and  monopolists   by   President   Cleveland ;   it  had  been 

robbed  of  everything  democratic  except  a  name.    It  stood  for  no  great 

principle,  and  its  flesh  was  being  torn  by  political  birds  of  prey.     It 

was  loaded  with  political  deadheads,  men  who  never  did  anything  for 

the  party  except  to  ride  it,  and  it  was  infested  by  political  vermin  of 

both  the  smooth  and  rough  and  dusty  variety ;  yet  under  these  sore 

conditions  the  party  broke  the  cords  with  which  the  Lilliputians  had 

tied  it ;   it  rose  with  new  energy,  it  cut  loose  from  the  domination  of 

trusts  and  syndicates,  it  repudiated  the  men  who  betrayed  it,  it  threw 

off  the  load  of  deadheads,  it  drove  out  the  political  vermin  and  with  a 

new  inspiration  it  again  proclaimed  democratic  principles  and  espoused 

the  cause  of  toiling  humanity.     Although  it  was  obliged  to  reform 

while  under  the  fire  of  the  enemy,  it  has  made  the  most  heroic  political 

fight  ever  seen  in  this  country.     It  was  confronted  by  all  the  boodle 

that  could  be  scraped  together  on  two  continents ;   it  was  confronted 

by  all  the  banks,  all  the  trusts,  all  the  syndicates,  all  the  corporations, 

all  the  great  papers.     It  was  confronted  by  everything  that  money 

could  buy ;  that  boodle  could  debauch  or  that  fear  of  starvation  could 

coerce.     It  was  confronted  by  the  disgust  which  the  majority  of  the 

American  people  felt  towards  the  national  administration  for  which 

they  held  us  responsible.    It  was  confronted  with  the  unfounded  charge 

of  being  partly  responsible  for  the  hard  times.     It  was  confronted 

by  a  combination  of  forces  such  as  had  never  been  united  before  and 

will  probably  never  again  be,  and  worse  still  the  time  was  too  short 

to  educate  the  public.     While  we  are  defeated  our  party  is  more 

vigorous  and  in  better  condition  generally  than  it  has  been  for  a  third 

of  a   century.     I  call  your  attention  to  the  utter  insignificance  as 

shown  by  the  returns  of  those  men  who,  after  having  helped  to  ruin 

our  party,  were  either  driven  out  or  left  it  in  this  campaign.    Two  years 

ago  these  men  were  with  us  and  always  insisted  on  occupying  front 

seats  and  wanted  to  lead ;    then  we  were  not  confronted  with  any 

powerful  opponent  and  we  lost  the  State  by  upwards  of  one  hundred 

and  fifty  thousand  majority.     This  year  these  men  opposed  us  and 

we  had  to  meet  all  the  forces  I  have  named.    We  had  no  sinews  of 


692  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

war,  we  had  all  the  power  of  corrupt  wealth  against  us,  we  had  to 
reform  under  the  fire  of  the  enemy  and  the  time  was  too  short  to  make 
a  proper  campaign,  yet  we  reduced  the  adverse  majority  of  two  years 
ago  by  about  one-third;  these  men  are  at  last  where  they  belong. 
While  we  are  defeated  we  have  dug  the  grave  of  the  British  gold 
standard.  One  more  campaign  of  education  will  forever  bury  the 
palsied  form  of  that  curse  which  has  blighted  prosperity  and  happi- 
ness of  mankind.  My  fellow  Democrats,  on  account  of  my  health  I 
welcome  the  retirement  which  is  now  assured  and  which  I  have  long 
wished  for,  but  let  me  say  in  parting  that  if  you  cherish  republican 
institutions  then  your  country  will  need  your  services.  Two  years  ago 
several  States  were  carried  by  the  same  forces  that  have  triumphed 
this  year,  and  in  every  one  there  followed  a  saturnalia  of  corruption 
and  rottenness.  Now  these  conditions  are  to  be  spread  over  the  whole 
country,  and  it  will  devolve  upon  the  Democratic  party  to  ultimately 
stop  them.  The  shadow  of  the  man  and  the  influences  that  will  con- 
trol the  coming  administration  is  already  on  the  land.  Republicans  tell 
us  that  the  newly  elected  President  is  weak ;  that  he  allowed  the  man- 
ufacturers to  frame  his  tariff  bill,  and  that  as  Governor  of  Ohio  he 
was  very  weak.  We  may  assume  that  the  coming  administration  will 
be  controlled  by  the  men  who  have  been  so  prominent  in  securing  this 
election.  Look  at  some  of  them :  Mr.  Hanna,  Mr.  Carnegie,  Mr. 
Depew,  Mr.  Pullman,  Mr.  Huntington,  Mr.  Payne,  Mr.  Thurston,  of 
Pacific  Railroad  fame,  and  a  number  of  others  of  the  same  character. 
Many  of  them  have  long  been  regarded  as  corrtiptionists,  as  men 
who  have  helped  to  spread  a  moral  leprosy  over  this  country,  and 
who  use  the  government  as  a  convenience  to  make  money  for  cor- 
porations. There  will  be  some  bond  issues  and  all  manner  of  govern- 
ment jobs,  and  although  we  have  no  enemy  on  either  side  of  us  an 
effort  will  be  made  to  give  this  country  a  standing  army  because  plu- 
tocracy demands  this.  An  effort  will  be  made  to  advance  the  doctrine 
that  local  self-government  does  not  go  hand  in  hand  with  federal 
supremacy,  but  that  the  President  shall  have  the  same  power  to  use 
the  army  that  the  Czar  of  Russia  has  to  use  his  army.  Efforts  will 
be  made  to  perpetuate  government  by  injunction  and  destroy  trial  by 
jury,  because  plutocracy  demands  these  things.  An  effort  will  be  made 
to  still  further  tighten  the  grip  of  the  money  power  on  the  throats  of 
the  people  and  to  gradually  convert  the  republic  into  a  plutocratic 
oligarchy,  and  it  will  devolve  upon  the  Democratic  party  to  save  free 
institutions.  I  believe  thaf  at  the  next  general  election  of  the  people 
the  Democrats  will  triumph. 

Remember,  it  was  Jefferson  who  led  the  way  in  freeing  us  from 


MISSION  OF  MINORITY  PARTY.  693 

British  domination  in  1776.  It  was  again  Jefferson  who  saved  free 
institutions  in  1800.  It  was  Jackson  who  freed  the  people  from  the 
clutches  of  the  money  power  in  1832.  It  was  the  great  common  peo- 
ple of  America  and  not  the  rich  who  saved  our  institutions  in  1861, 
and  it  will  devolve  on  the  great  common  people  of  this  country  to 

save  free  government  in  1900. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


THE    MISSION    OF    A    MINORITY    PARTY. 

(The  following  address  was  delivered  at  a  Democratic  banquet  at  the 
Tremont  House,  Chicago,  January  8,  1897.) 

In  a  free  country  a  political  party  stands  for  either  a  principle  or 
an  appetite,  and  a  majority  party  may  for  a  short  time  represent  both. 
When  it  stands  for  a  principle  it  is  composed  of  men  who  have  con- 
victions, who  are  held  together  by  those  convictions,  who  are  conse- 
quently positive  in  character  and  who  give  that  positive  character 
to  the  party.  No  matter  how  small  their  number,  they  become  an 
aggressive,  advancing  force.  But  when  the  party  represents  only 
appetite  it  is  composed  of  men  who  either  have  no  convictions  or 
are  willing  to  lay  aside  all  convictions  for  the  sake  of  preferment.  Such 
a  party  is  a  mere  negative  force,  incapable  of  advancement.  It  dare 
not  move  to  the  left  for  fear  of  losing  votes.  It  dare  not  move  to  the 
right  for  fear  of  giving  offense.  It  dare  not  move  forward  for  fear 
of  losing  in  the  rear,  and  when  such  a  party  gets  into  power  it  is  not 
by  reason  of  anything  it  has  done  but  because  the  public  is  disgusted 
with  the  opposite  party. 

All  great  reforms,  all  forward  movements  of  the  human  race, 
were  born  of,  were  nurtured,  rocked  and  reared  by  minority  parties. 
The  majority  party  being  occupied  with  the  details  and  difficulties  of 
administration  and  being  compelled  to  make  all  manner  of  concessions 
and  compromises  in  order  to  hold  together  conflicting  interests  and 
thus  maintain  its  hold  on  power  may  be  well  adapted  to  carry  out 
reforms  that  the  country  has  already  spoken  on,  but  it  is  not  adapted 
to  the  development  of  new  truths  or  the  promulgation  of  further  re- 
forms. The  minority  party  on  the  other  hand,  being  free  from  these 
embarrassments,  can  devote  its  best  efforts  to  the  consideration  of 
great  principles.  Its  mission  is  to  discover  the  pole  star  of  eternal 
right  and  to  meet  the  newly  developing  wants  and  needs  of  our  civiliza- 
tion. The  mission  of  the  minority  party  is  therefore  of  a  much  higher 
order  than  that  of  the  majority  party. 

In  our  country  the  earnest  advocacy  of  a  great  principle  has  always 


694  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

furnished  the  most  direct  road  to  power  and  even  to  the  public  crib. 
While  we  were  yet  British  colonies  Jefferson  advocated  the  abolition 
of  the  aristocratic  system  of  primogeniture  and  entail  and  he  advo- 
cated the  freedom  of  religion.  These  propositions  were  received  with 
horror  and  alarm  by  the  majority,  and  by  established  society.  They 
were  looked  upon  as  destructive,  and  he  was  denounced  as  an  enemy, 
but  in  a  very  brief  time  the  men  who  advocated  these  reforms  consti- 
tuted the  majority  and  controlled  the  government.  The  idea  that 
men  are  born  equal  and  that  governments  derive  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed,  was  born  of  the  minority,  was  ridiculed 
and  denounced  and  its  advocacy  was  even  made  a  crime,  but  in 
time  its  advocates  formed  the  majority  and  shaped  the  policy  of  the 
government.  During  the  adminstration  of  John  Adams  the  majority 
which  was  then  in  power  favored  strong  centralized  government  and 
invested  the  President  with  powers  that  were  destructive  of  liberty. 
Hamilton,  speaking  for  the  majority,  said :  The  people  can  not  be 
trusted.  You  must  have  great  centralized  power.  You  must  curb  the 
liberties  of  the  people.  Limited  monarchy  bottomed  on  corruption, 
such  as  England  has,  is  the  best  government.  Let  the  government 
help  the  rich  and  trust  to  the  rich  to  help  the  poor.  Hug  the  shore,  said 
Hamilton,  follow  the  customs  of  the  past. 

Jefferson,  who  spoke  for  the  minority,  declared  that  the  people 
could  be  trusted.  He  said :  Yonder  is  the  ocean  of  freedom  calm 
and  deep.  Steer  the  ship  of  state  out  upon  it  and  ride  in  safety.  Keep 
away  from  the  dangerous  shoals  and  rocks  near  the  shore.  Keep 
away  from  the  dangerous  debris  which  the  ages  of  superstition, 
tyranny  and  oppression  have  deposited  there.  Take  your  longitude 
and  latitude  from  the  sun  and  from  the  never  changing  stars  and  steer 
toward  the  port  of  liberty  and  the  rights  of  humanity,  and  before  his 
utterances  had  died  away  in  the  distance  he  was  called  to  the  head 
of  the  government.  During  the  decades  which  followed  different 
political  parties  succeeded  each  other  in  power,  representing  different 
principles.  Each  remained  in  power  simply  long  enough  to  test  its 
theories. 

Meanwhile  a  few  men  in  the  East  were  giving  expressions  to  the 
doctrine  that  no  man  can  have  a  property  right  in  a  fellow  man  and 
that  slavery  was  an  abomination.  They  were  not  simply  denounced, 
they  were  prosecuted  and  persecuted.  Strange  as  it  may  seem  to  us 
to-day,  cultured  Boston  closed  its  doors  to  these  men.  The  church 
denounced  them.  The  fashionable  people  and  the  so-called  respecta- 
ble citizens  avoided  them.  Yet  so  direct  did  their  course  lead  towards 
power  that  before  they  had  time  to  change  their  garments  they  found 


MISSION  OF  MINORITY  PARTY.  695 

themselves  at  the  head  of  the  government.  Under  ordinary  circum- 
stances their  career  would  have  been  short,  but  the  Civil  War  raised 
new  issues,  and  gave  them  opportunities  to  perpetuate  their  party  in 
power.  Since  the  war  that  great  party  has  represented  little  else 
than  organized  greed  wearing  the  mantle  of  pharisaism.  Had  there 
been  an  aggressive  party  standing  for  a  definite  principle  opposed  to 
it  it  would  have  been  driven  from  power  in  disgrace.  But  unfor- 
tunately during  nearly  all  of  the  years  since  the  war  the  opposite  party 
took  no  definite  and  aggressive  stand  on  any  question.  Some  gentle- 
men in  the  East  who  amassed  vast  fortunes  got  control  of  that  great 
party.  These  gentlemen  were  of  two  classes :  One  cared  little  for  the 
honor  but  saw  they  could  make  vast  fortunes  out  of  the  government 
by  manipulation.  Their  desire  was  to  control  both  political  parties, 
hence  every  firm  and  every  corporation  had  its  Republican  manager 
and  its  Democratic  manager.  The  other  class  consisted  of  men  who 
wanted  political  prominence.  They  saw  that  the  Republican  party 
was  already  crowded  with  rich  men  and  that  the  opportunities  were 
not  so  good  for  preferment  and  although  they  were  Republicans 
in  taste,  in  theory  and  in  association,  and  although  they  had  not  a  sin- 
gle drop  of  Democratic  blood  in  them"  and  were  not  capable  of  com- 
prehending a  Democratic  principle,  and  although  they  stood  for  those 
forces  which  devour  the  substance  of  the  people,  they  managed  to  get. 
control  of  the  Democratic  party  and  used  it  for  their  own  ends.  Hav- 
ing no  principles  of  their  own  to  carry  out,  they  prevented  the  party 
from  advocating  any.  In  1884  the  Standard  Oil  and  other  corporate 
interests  came  to  Chicago  and  controlled  the  Democratic  convention. 
They  did  not  want  a  Democrat,  nor  did  they  in  reality  want  a  Presi- 
dent. What  they  wanted  was  a  registrar,  some  one  who  would  do 
their  bidding.  They  knew  their  man  and-they  got  him.  We  won,  not 
because  of  what  our  party  stood  for,  but  because  of  the  dissatisfaction 
of  the  people  with  the  opposite  party.  In  1888  the  Standard  Oil  and 
other  trusts  and  great  corporate  interests  went  to  St.  Louis  and  con- 
trolled the  Democratic  convention.  In  1892  the  Standard  Oil  and 
other  trusts  and  great  corporate  interests  went  to  Chicago  and  con- 
trolled the  Democratic  convention.  Men  who  stood  for  everything 
that  is  destructive  of  Democratic  principles  yet  controlled  the  party 
of  the  people.  A  platform  was  presented  to  that  convention,  framed 
to  suit  the  men  who  controlled  it,  and  it  stood  for  nothing.  Some 
one  in  the  convention  got  it  amended  so  as  to  make  a  stand  for  some- 
thing definite  on  the  tariff.  To  a  limited  extent  we  became  an  aggres- 
sive force.  The  country  being  dissatisfied  with  the  opposite  party, 
we  won.  Then  the  Democracy  went  to  sleep  under  an  upas  tree. 


696  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Hamilton  would  have  been  amazed  had  he  returned  and  seen  how  a 
so-called  Democratic  administration  was  robbing  him  of  all  of  his 
glory  by  making  a  complete  surrender  to  concentrated  wealth.  In 
1896  the  Standard  Oil  and  the  great  trusts  and  corporate  interests 
came  to  Chicago  to  again  control  the  party,  which  by  that  time 
they  considered  as  belonging  to  them  by  a  vested  right,  but  the 
Democracy  of  America  had  shaken  off  its  stupor.  They  proclaimed 
again  the  rights  of  humanity,  they  raised  again  the  banners  of  Jeffer- 
son and  of  Jackson  and  they  declared  that  the  Democratic  party  must 
again  stand  for  Democratic  principles.  They  adopted  a  new  declara- 
tion of  independence,  and  they  selected  for  their  standard  bearer  him 
who  made  the  most  remarkable  campaign  ever  witnessed  by  man.  As 
an  intellectual  achievement,  as  a  feat  of  genius,  as  a  heroic  struggle  on 
the  most  lofty  plane  of  intelligence  and  morality  his  performances 
are  without  a  parallel  in  all  history.  Never  before  \vas  a  great  cause 
more  brilliantly  and  more  ably  championed.  Never  before  was  there 
such  a  combination  of  adverse  currents  and  hostile  forces  to  meet. 
While  the  forces  of  plutocracy  and  corruption  will  seat  Mr.  McKinley 
now,  the  silent  usher  in  Fame's  great  temple  will  conduct  the  people's 
champion  to  the  highest  place  of  honor. 

We  are  to-day  the  minority  party  and  we  stand  for  certain  great 
definite  principles.  If  we  will  be  true  to  them  then  you  will  soon 
hear  the  voice  of  the  nation  calling  the  Democratic  party  to  power. 

Now,  gentlemen,  why  do  we  celebrate  the  birth  of  Andrew  Jack- 
son? It  is  because  he  stood  erect  in  the  sight  of  Omnipotence  and 
all  the  children  of  man,  and  defied  the  forces  of  plutocracy.  It  is  be- 
cause he  stood  for  the  great  toiling  masses  of  humanity,  because  he 
stood  for  those  doctrines  that  are  vital  to  free  government.  What 
is  the  situation  now?  Jefferson  declared  that  the  prerogative  of  is- 
suing money  or  bills  which  should  circulate  as  money,  belonged  to  the 
government  alone,  and  that  banks  of  issue  were  destructive  of  the 
liberties  of  the  people.  Yet  the  present  administration  has  trampled 
that  principle  into  the  mud  and  openly  advocated  that  the  govern- 
jnent  should  surrender  its  prerogative  of  issuing  bills  that  shall  cir- 
culate as  money  to  the  corporations.  Jackson  found  the  money 
changers  in  the  temple  and  drove  them  out,  and  when  the  plutocracy 
of  his  day  became  insolent  and  oppressive  as  it  is  to-day,  he  declared : 
"By  the  Eternal,  the  people  shall  rule  this  land  and  not  the  money 
power."  The  present  federal  administration  instead  of  following  the 
footsteps  of  Jackson  has  made  a  complete  surrender  to  the  money 
power,  has  registered  its  decree  and  its  will  in  every  particular.  Every 
principle  vital  to  free  government  advocated  by  Jefferson  has  been 


RETIRING  SPEECH.  697 

scouted  by  this  administration,  and  every  declaration  in  favor  of  gov- 
ernment by  the  people  made  by  Jackson  has  been  waved  aside  with 
a  sneer  by  the  present  administration.  Yet  notwithstanding  these 
facts  there  will  gather  to-day  at  various  places  in  this  country  some 
gentlemen  who  uphold  and  applaud  the  present  administration  for  the 
course  it  has  taken  in  insulting  the  memory  of  Jefferson,  and  spit- 
ting upon  the  good  name  of  Jackson,  who  yet  insist  upon  calling 
themselves  Democrats.  We  know  that  we  stand,  for  certain  princi- 
ples. They  boast  of  representing  the  opposite  principles,  yet  there  are 
men  in  the  land  who  say  we  should  unite.  Think  of  opposites  unit- 
ing !  Let  me  ask,  what  would  we  represent  then  ?  Certainly  nothing 
but  an  appetite.  Form  such  a  union  and  there  will  be  nothing  left 
that  is  worthy  of  the  ambition  of  any  honorable  man.  Even  the  road 
to  the  fleshpots  will  be  lengthened,  but  if  we  stand  by  our  colors  then 
success  is  in  sight,  and  the  relief  of  the  people  is  near  at  hand. 


RETIRING    SPEECH,  JANUARY   11,   1897. 

NOTE. — It  had  been  the  invariable  custom  at  the  inauguration  of  a  new 
administration  in  Illinois  for  the  retiring  Executive  to  deliver  a  retiring 
speech.  At  the  inauguration  in  January,  1893,  this  courtesy  was  extended  to 
Governor  Fifer,  who  delivered  an  able  address.  But  in  January,  1897.  Governor- 
elect  Tanner  requested  the  managers  of  the  House  and  Senate  not  to  permit 
the  retiring  Executive  to  speak,  and  although  Senator  Mahony  moved  that  this 
courtesy  should  be  extended  in  accordance  with  custom  he  was  overruled.  So 
as  the  following  address  was  already  in  the  possession  of  the  press,  it  was 
printed. 

This  occasion  does  not  invite  extended  remarks  from  me.  The 
world  has  decreed  that  an  actor  who  has  played  his  part  shall  simply 
make  his  bow  and  retire  from  the  stage.  Men  turn  their  faces  toward 
the  rising  sun  and  so  it  should  be,  for  while  the  past  may  admonish  it 
is  the  future  that  inspires. 

But  we  may  pause  long  enough  to  note  the  character  of  this  oc- 
casion and  the  lesson  it  teaches.  It  took  the  world  thousands  of  years 
to  reach  a  point  where,  such  a  scene  as  this  was  possible.  Mankind 
struggled  through  weary  and  bloody  centuries  before  anything  like 
government  was  evolved  and  then  there  followed  dark  ages  before  it 
became  possible  to  take  the  reins  of  government  out  of  the  hands  of 
one  political  party  and  place  them  in  the  hands  of  a  hostile  party 
without  bloodshed.  The  scene  which  we  witness  here  to-day  shows 
the  triumph  of  republican  government  and  teaches  us  that  the  journey 
of  man,  when  viewed  from  headland  to  headland,  has  been  onward 


69$  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

and  upward;  that  passion  is  retiring  and  reason  is  mounting  the 
throne,  and  we  may  congratulate  ourselves  upon  the  fact  that  in  this 
great  advancement  America  has  set  the  example  for  the  nations. 

The  presence  of  the  defeated  and  retiring  party  is  not  necessary 
for  the  peaceful  change  of  administration,  yet  in  order  to  add  the 
graces  to  republican  form  it  is  customary  for  the  retiring  party  to  be 
represented  and  participate  in  the  ceremonies  of  inauguration,  and 
to-day  the  great  party  which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent,  not  only 
assists  in  these  ceremonies,  but  it  expresses  the  hope  that  the  new 
administration  will  direct  the  destinies  of  this  mighty  State  along 
the  paths  of  honor  and  of  glory.  While  politically  divided  we  are  all 
Illinoisans  and  the  greatness  and  the  grandeur  of  this  State  rise  above 
all  considerations  of  persons  or  of  party.  Her  past  thrills,  her  present 
awes  and  her  future  dazzles  the  intellect  of  man. 

To  the  distinguished  gentleman  who  is  to  stand  at  her  head  I 
extend  the  most  cordial  greeting  and  hearty  good  wishes.  Loving 
Illinois  as  I  do  I  shall  applaud  his  every  act  that  tends  to  her  ad- 
vancement. I  have  given  her  four  of  my  best  years  and  have  brought 
all  my  offerings  to  her  altar.  Had  it  been  necessary  to  do  so  I  should 
have  considered  life  itself  but  a  small  sacrifice  in  her  interest  and  I 
retire  from  her  service  and  from  the  high  office  to  which  her  people 
elected  me  without  any  trace  of  bitterness  or  disappointment.  I  have 
tried  to  further  the  best  interests  of  my  country,  and  while  I  erred 
in  many  cases  they  were  errors  of  judgment  and  I  go  forth  with  a 
peaceful  conscience.  I  have  endeavored  to  carry  out  those  principles 
that  form  the  basis  of  free  government  and  I  have  acted  on  the  con- 
viction that  it  would  be  better  to  be  Governor  but  for  one  day  and 
follow  the  dictates  of  justice  than  to  hold  office  for  fifty  years  by 
winking  at  wrong.  In  my  judgment  no  epitaph  can  be  written  upon 
the  tomb  of  a  public  man  that  will  so  surely  win  the  contempt  of  the 
ages  than  to  say  of  him  that  he  held  office  all  his  life  and  never  did  any- 
thing for  humanity.  We  believe  that  the  institutions  of  the  State  are 
in  excellent  condition.  Some  of  my  friends  feel  that  we  have  been 
cleaning  house ;  that  we  have  been  putting  things  in  order.  Permit 
me  to  say  that  if  any  of  the  measures  which  we  haVe  inaugurated  should 
prove  beneficial  to  the  country  the  people  will  be  in  no  wise  indebted 
to  me,  for  when  a  public  man  gives  to  his  country  the  very  best  services 
in  his  power  he  has  done  no  more  than  he  agreed  to  do  and  has  done 
no  more  than  the  public  had  a  right  to  expect.  I  do  not  endorse  the 
charge  that  republics  are  ungrateful.  I  believe  that  in  the  end  there 
is  a  disposition  to  give  every  man  his  meed.  In  fact,  many  men  have 


RETIRING  SPEECH.  699 

been  loaded  by  republics  with  honors  which  were  far  beyond  their 
deserts.    We  turn  the  affairs  of  the  State  over  to  our  successors. 

I  would  remind  my  distinguished  successor  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  repose  in  the  universe;  that  the  centripetal  and  centrifugal 
laws  are  constantly  at  work ;  that  nothing  stands  still ;  that  nothing  is 
ever  perfect ;  that  there  is  a  perpetual  development  and  a  constant  dis- 
integration, and  that  the  institutions  of  this  State  must  go  on  develop- 
ing, reaching  a  higher  and  a  higher  plane  successively  or  they  must 
retrogade,  and  I  will  further  say  to  him  that  rarely  does  the  hand  of 
fate  open  the  gate  to  a  more  alluring  pathway  of  glory  than  is  open 
to  him  now.  Illinois  is  already  the  guiding  star  of  the  American 
constellation.  Her  people  have  outstripped  all  other  peoples  of  the 
earth  and  they  will  surely  shape  the  destiny  of  this  republic.  Their 
institutions  of  every  kind  and  character  should  be  the  models  for  the 
earth  and  the  flame  of  intelligence  burning  on  her  prairies  and  by  the 
inland  sea  must  brighten  the  sky  for  all  people,  and  there  could  not 
possibly  be  a  greater  achievement  than  to  assist  in  directing  the 
thought  and  shaping  the  institutions  of  such  a  people. 

But  I  warn  my  distinguished  friend  and  successor  that  the  task 
is  not  a  light  one.  It  is  beset  •with  the  greatest  difficulties  and  will 
require  wisdom,  courage  and  intense  determination  and  persistence. 
The  selfish  forces  of  greed  are  always  ready  to  tear  to  pieces  the 
noblest  creations  of  patriotism.  Hence  it  has  been  well  said  that  the 
tablets  of  immortality  are  harder  than  flint  and  that  only  persevering 
genius  can  engrave  a  name  or  an  act  there. 

To  the  members  of  that  great  political  party  to  which  I  have 
the  honor  of  belonging  let  me  say  that  while  we  are  relieved  of  the 
responsibility  of  administration  our  responsibility  in  another  direction 
is  increased,  for  in  a  republic  it  is  the  minority  party  which  creates  the 
sentiment  and  develops  the  principles  which  the  government  shall  in 
the  end  carry  out.  Not  being  hampered  or  embarrassed  by  the  detail 
of  administration,  the  minority  party  can  devote  its  best  energies  to  the 
discussion  of  great  principles,  while  the  majority  party,  being  obliged 
to  conciliate  conflicting  interests  and  to  compromise,  is  in  that  respect 
hampered  and  generally  spends  its  force  in  endeavoring  to  carry  out 
a  policy  already  determined  upon  by  the  country  and  is  not  able  to 
deal  in  an  independent  manner  with  new  questions  which  are  from 
time  to  time  evolved.  It  is  the  minority  party  that  has  made  progress 
possible  not  only  in  this  country  but  in  Europe.  In  England  it  was 
the  minority  party  that  repeatedly  forced  the  government  to  adopt 
new  and  great  reforms.  The  immortal  orators  of  England  spoke  for 
the  minority.  In  our  country  the  great  forensic  efforts  which  helped 


760  'LIVE  'QUESTIONS. 

to  move  the  nation  forward  were  made  by  men  who  stood  in  the  ranks 
of  the  minority.  In  fact,  every  great  reform  in  our  country  had  to 
first  confront  a  hostile  majority.  In  a  sense  the  mission  of  the  minority 
is  of  a  higher  order  than  that  of  the  majority.  True,  it  does  not  deal 
in  spoils,  it  has  no  fleshpots  to  distribute,  but  it  is  its  high  mission  to 
discover  the  eternal  essence  of  things  and  to  point  out  the  way  of 
justice. 

We  go  out  of  power  with  nothing  to  regret.  Conscious  of  having 
struggled  for  a  great  cause  we  smile  at  the  frowns  of  fate  and  go  forth 
with  renewed  hope  and  a  firmer  purpose.  We  need  not  inquire  what 
were  the  reasons  for  our  defeat.  We  know  there  were  some  condi- 
tions for  which  we  were  not  responsible,  and  on  account  of  these  con- 
ditions the  currents  began  to  run  against  us  nearly  three  years  ago 
and  they  ran  with  such  irresistible  force  two  years  ago  that  they  cov- 
ered the  State  like  a  deluge,  submerging  everything.  In  the  last 
campaign  the  same  currents  were  still  running  with  the  same  force, 
other  hostile  forces  were  added  which  in  themselves  seemed  irresist- 
ible. Our  party  was  obliged  to  reform  as  it  were  in  the  face  of  the 
enemy.  It  eliminated  many  elements  of  weakness,  elements  which  for 
years  had  tended  to  neutralize  the  party,  and  make  it  impotent,  so  that 
it  stood  for  no  definite  or  great  principle  and  was  incapable  of  making 
an  aggressive  fight.  After  eliminating  these  elements  of  weakness  the 
party  made  one  of  the  grandest  campaigns  ever  witnessed. 

But  all  this  belongs  to  the  past.  No  American  has  a  right  to  stand 
with  his  face  toward  that  which  is  gone.  Government  is  the  con- 
stant meeting  of  new  conditions.  It  is  not  the  things  of  yesterday 
but  the  things  of  to-morrow  that  must  engage  our  attention.  The  prin- 
ciples we  hold  are  the  only  ones  upon  which  free  government  can  en- 
dure. Let  us  renew  our  devotion  to  them  and  kindle  anew  our  en- 
thusiasm. Let  us  not  follow  the  example  of  those  who  try  to  use  the 
names  of  Jefferson  and  Jackson  to  hide  the  most  undemocratic  prin- 
ciples and  even  the  most  destructive  practices.  In  so  far  as  the  new 
administration,  federal  and  State,  shall  adhere  to  the  great  doctrines 
of  human  right  and  shall  adhere  to  those  great  principles  that  lie  at 
the  very  basis  of  republican  institutions  let  us  give  them  our  hearty 
commendation  and  support,  but  let  us  be  watchful  and  whenever  it 
shall  seem  to  us  that  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  our  great  country 
are  being  endangered  let  us  raise  the  alarm  and  let  us  all  the  time 
feel  an  abiding  confidence  that  right  will  in  the  end  prevail. 


RECEPTION  SPEECH.  701 

RECEPTION   SPEECH   AT  TREMONT   HOUSE. 

NOTE. — On  January  23,  1897,  the  Democrats  of  Chicago  tendered  me  a 
•ception,  at  which  I  delivered  the  following  address: 

)emocrats  of  Chicago : 

I  thank  you  for  this  expression  of  good  will  and  I  congratulate  all 
i  so  far  as  this  occasion  is  intended  to  represent  or  endorse  certain 
leas  in  government.  It  is  ideas  that  distinguish  political  parties  and 
lat  ultimately  shape  the  character  of  government.  I  desire  also  on 
lis  occasion  to  thank  those  members  of  the  general  assembly  who 
onored  me  by  making  me  the  minority  candidate  for  the  Senate, 
'he  Democratic  party  owed  me  nothing ;  it  had  conferred  so  many 
ubstantial  honors  upon  me  that  I  am  greatly  its  debtor,  and  I  feel 
lat  this  last  compliment  should  have  been  given  to  some  one  of  the 
lany  able  exponents  of  the  last  national  Democratic  platform.  The 
)emocratic  party  is  not  a  one-man  party.  Sometimes  one  man  may, 
}r  a  short  period,  be  unduly  prominent  in  it,  but  that  condition  does 
ot  last  long. 

Now  that  the  Senatorial  election  is  over,  and  that  the  new  political 
lachinery  is  slowly  getting  into  motion,  it  may  be  well  for  the  men 
.'ho  love  their  country  to  take  a  brief  retrospect,  not  from  the  stand- 
oint  of  partisans,  but  from  the  standpoint  of  patriots — and  see  in 
'hat  direction  we  are  drifting.  Let  us  refer  only  to  what  are  matters 
f  history. 

Last  summer  the  great  Republican  party,  meeting  at  St.  Louis, 
iced  about  and  declared  in  favor  of  a  gold  standard.  Prior  to  that 
ime  nearly  every  prominent  man  in  it  had,  for  years,  been  denouncing 
lie  gold  standard  and  demanding  the  repeal  of  the  law  which  de- 
lonetized  silver.  That  convention  was  controlled,  even  to  its  minutest 
etails,  by  the  representatives  and  agents  of  the  great  trusts  of  this 
ountry,  and  nearly  every  man  who  was  prominent  in  it  had  estab- 
shed  a  reputation  before  the  American  people  of  being  a  lobbyist, 
nd  a  manipulator  of  legislation.  When  the  convention  was  over 
icarly  all  the  public  men  of  that  party  ate  or  swallowed  all  their 
iast  utterances  and  proceeded  to  defend  the  gold  standard,  and  pro- 
eeded  to  abuse  and  vilify  those  men  who  were  not  willing  to  thus 
uddenly  flop  and  surrender  all  their  convictions  to  the  money  power. 

This  is  one  of  the  saddest  spectacles,  for  it  shows  that  the  men 
yho  are  leading  and  controlling  the  great  Republican  party  of  this 
ountry  to-day,  no  longer  represent  a  great  principle  or  are  actuated 
>y  deep  convictions,  but  are  simply  time-servers,  ready  to  do  the 


702  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

bidding  of  any  master  who  can  furnish  power  and  boodle.  Thank 
God  there  were  a  few  men  in  it  who  would  not  bow  to  Mammon,  but 
they  were  driven  out  of  the  synagogue.  Then  an  effort  was  made  to 
commit  the  Democratic  convention  to  the  monied  interests,  but 
it  failed,  and  that  convention  adopted  a  declaration  of  principles  which 
was  in  harmony  with  what  both  parties  had  in  prior  conventions  de- 
clared to  be  right. 

As  the  campaign  progressed,  people  were  astonished  to  see  a 
number  of  men  who  had  grown  great  as  lobbyists  and  corruptionists, 
who  had  established  reputations  as  manipulators  of  legislation  and 
"fixers"  of  courts,  come  forward  and  strike  a  high  moral  attitude  and 
pose  before  the  world  as  high  priests  of  morality  and  public  honor; 
and  every  agency  and  every  individual,  high  or  low,  that  money  or 
influence  could  purchase,  direct  or  control,  was  finally  enlisted  on  that 
side.  Nothing  was  sacred  from  the  church  to  the  character  of  man.  A 
corruption  fund,  amounting  to  many  millions,  was  raised  by  the 
corporations  and  monied  interests  of  the  country  that  want  to  control 
the  government,  and  this  corruption  fund,  controlled  by  one  man, 
swept  over  the  land  and  seemed  to  penetrate  every  pore  of  society. 
When  the  campaign  closed,  Mr.  Mark  Hanna  had  debauched  a  con- 
tinent. 

When  the  returns  finally  came  in  they  showed  on  their  face  that 
Mr.  McKinley  was  elected,  yet  so  close  was  it  in  a  number  of  States 
that  30,000  votes,  properly  distributed,  would  change  the  result  of 
the  election.  As  the  smoke  began  to  clear  away,  it  was  found  that  the 
Republican  ticket  had  received  the  support  of  the  following  classes  of 
people. 

First :  The  negroes  of  the  country.  Second :  The  very  poor  and 
very  ignorant  foreign-born  people,  living  in  our  country,  who  had  been 
cajoled  and  frightened,  and  delivered  by  their  bosses.  Third:  The  pur- 
chasable vote  all  over  the  country  had  gone  as  a  unity  for  that  party. 
Fourth :  The  repeating  and  fraudulent  vote.  Fifth :  The  entire  vote 
that  could  be  controlled  by  the  money  power  through  the  news- 
papers, and  through  the  trusts,  syndicates,  corporations  and  the  people, 
rich  and  poor,  who  are  swayed  by  these  influences. 

Mr.  Bryan,  on  the  other  hand,  received  the  support  of  the  great 
body  of  intelligent,  patriotic  American  people,  most  of  whom  were 
American  born.  The  great  majority  of  the  men  who  investigate  and 
think  for  themselves  gave  him  their  support. 

I  have  called  attention  to  the  sad  fact  that  the  leaders  of  the  Re- 
publican party  showed  themselves  ready  to  abandon  any  position  or 
conviction  in  order  to  gain  power  and  office.  And  I  now  call  atten- 


RECEPTION  SPEECH.  703 

tion  to  another  fact,  which  must  fill  every  patriot  with  anxiety,  and 
that  is  that  the  plutocratic  forces  of  the  country  have  demonstrated 
their  ability  to  unite  and  to  control  the  very  ignorant  vote  of  the 
country,  and  in  that  manner  to  override  and  to  defeat  the  will  of  the 
more  intelligent  and  patriotic  element  in  American  politics.  But  other 
facts  have  developed  since  the  election  which  show  a  still  more  alarm- 
ing condition.  These  facts  consist  of  the  indisputable  and  unanswer- 
able evidences  of  fraud  carried  on,  in  a  wholesale  manner  and  prac- 
ticed in  every  way  that  the  ingenuity  of  man  could  devise. 

Let  it  be  understood  that  we  are  uttering  no  whine ;  we  seek  to 
raise  no  disturbance ;  the  men  declared  to  have  been  elected  will  be 
seated,  and  I,  for  one,  regret  these  developments  more  than  language 
can  express,  for  so  long  as  I  feel  that  the  sentiment  of  the  majority 
of  the  American  people  can  rule,  so  long  shall  I  feel  that  republican 
institutions  are  safe.  For  while  the  people  sometimes  are  misinformed 
and  make  mistakes,  they  are  reasonably  certain  to  right  them  in  the 
end ;  but  the  developments  of  the  last  two  months  show  clearly  that 
the  will  of  the  people  was  overridden ;  that  they  were  defeated  by  a 
count  of  votes  that  were  not  legally  cast.  These  developments  show 
that  in  each  of  the  fifteen  States  which  Mark  Hanna  started  out  to 
carry,  there  have  been  many  more  votes  counted  than  there  are  male 
inhabitants  over  twenty-one  years  of  age.  For  example,  in  Ohio,  there 
were  nearly  200,000  more  votes  counted  in  1896  than  there  were  in 
1892,  which  would  indicate  an  increase  of  population  in  that  State, 
during  four  years,  of  very  nearly  i  ,000,000  of  people ;  whereas  in 
reality,  there  has  not  been  an  increase  of  a  third  of  a  million  in  that 
time.  In  other  words  it  is  clear  that  in  Ohio  over  94,000  fraudulent 
votes  were  counted,  and,  as  the  returns  show,  that  Mr.  McKinley  had 
only  a  majority  of  49,000  in  that  State,  it  is  certain  that  Mr.  Bryan 
carried  Ohio  by  over  40,000. 

A  similar  condition  of  affairs  exists  in  fourteen  other  States.  In 
all  of  the  remainder  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  the  increase  in  the 
vote  is  a  normal  increase  and  is  in  harmony  with  past  experience  and 
bears  a  proper  relation  to  the  population  of  those  States ;  but  in  the 
States  which  were  made  the  battleground  during  the  last  campaign 
there  is  everywhere  an  excess  of  votes  over  the  number  of  male  in- 
habitants in  those  States.  This  list  of  fifteen  States  includes  several 
Southern  States.  The  figures  indicate  that  in  Illinois  there  were  over 
100,000  fraudulent  votes  counted. 

In  1892  we  had  an  exciting  election  in  Illinois;  practically  every 
legal  vote  was  cast,  yet  in  1896  there  were  243,000  more  votes  counted 
than  there  were  in  1892;  which  would  indicate  an  increase  of  popula- 


704  'LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

tion  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  for  four  years,  of  about  i  ,200,000  people. 
During  the  whole  past  history  of  Illinois  our  population  had  not 
reached  four  million ;  in  the  ten  years  from  1880  to  1890,  during  which 
our  growth  was  greatest,  the  population  of  the  State  increased  only 
about  750,000 ;  yet,  according  to  the  late  election  returns,  the  popula- 
tion of  this  State  increased  in  four  years,  that  is,  from  1892  to  1896, 
nearly  i  ,200,000.  This  shows  the  monstrously  fraudulent  character  of 
the  whole  proceeding. 

To  cite  one  more  example:  The  registration  last  fall,  in  the  city 
of  Springfield,  was  abnormally  large,  so  large  as  to  excite  comment 
and  suspicion  of  fraud,  yet,  notwithstanding  this  large  registration, 
on  election  day,  in  one  precinct,  in  the  first  ward  of  that  city,  there 
were  one  hundred  and  forty  men  sworn  in  by  affidavits,  nearly  all 
negroes.  Many  of  them  simply  gave  their  names  as  Jones.  They  were 
challenged,  but  the  judges  of  election  simply  laughed  at  the  chal- 
lenges and  received  the  votes.  Nobody  knew  anything  about  these 
men  at  the  time,  and  they  have  nearly  all  disappeared  since.  Yet  these 
votes  were  counted.  Similar  occurrences  happened  in  a  number  of 
precincts  in  that  city  and  in  every  other  large  city  in  the  State.  It 
should  be  said  that,  notwithstanding  these  fraudulent  votes,  McKinley 
did  carry  Illinois,  but  only  by  a  small  majority,  and  not  by  143,000 
majority  as  reported ;  but  it  is  certain  that  he  did  not  carry  Ohio, 
or  Indiana,  or  Kentucky,  or  California,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  he 
carried  a  number  of  other  States  that  are  credited  to  him. 

Let  me  repeat,  we  do  not  expect  to  personally  profit  by  calling  at- 
tention to  this  alarming  condition.  We  know  that  the  people  who  are 
capable  of  practicing  fraud  of  that  sort  simply  ridicule  all  reference 
to  it.  We  do  not  propose  to  make  any  disturbance  about  the  matter ; 
we  are  simply  calling  attention  to  facts  that  are  indisputable  and  can- 
not be  sneered  or  laughed  away ;  but  I  desire  to  ask  this  question : 
If  an  election  in  the  American  republic  can  be  carried  by  fraud,  when- 
ever a  large  enough  corruption  fund  is  raised,  then  how  long  can  our 
institutions  endure  ?  There  is  another  thing  to  which  we  cannot  shut 
our  eyes,  and  that  is  the  general  tendency  towards  Pharisaism  and 
fraudulent  pretense ;  the  persistent  and  apparently  successful  effort 
to  fool  the  people  with  platitudes.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the 
present  federal  administration  has  refused  to  make  any  effort  toward 
enforcing  the  law  against  trusts  and  illegal  combinations,  but  has  on 
the  other  hand  placed  all  of  the  powers  of  the  government  at  their 
disposal,  yet  in  the  message  which  the  President  sent  to  Congress  he 
actually  denounced  trusts  and  combinations.  The  newly  elected  Presi- 
dent is  the  child  of  the  trusts,  yet  on  the  fourth  of  March  he  will  stand 


RECEPTION  SPEECH.  705 

on  the  steps  of  the  Capitol  and  denounce  trusts.  This  will  be  for 
the  people,  while  the  agents  of  the  trusts  will  simply  give  a  knowing 
smile  and  continue  to  run  the  government.  Meanwhile  those  forces 
and  conditions  which  have  spread  distress  all  over  the  world  and  low- 
ered the  prices  of  property  everywhere  are  still  at  work.  The  paralysis 
is  becoming  greater  and  the  suffering  more  intense.  The  promise  of 
prosperity  in  the  event  of  McKinley's  election  was  illogical  and  a  pure 
delusion.  A  united  people  are  ready  to  welcome  it,  but  it  has  not  and 
cannot  come.  The  laws  that  now  prevent  it  are  as  immutable  as  gravi- 
tation. The  principle  we  contended  for  is  eternally  right  and  must 
prevail  or  civilization  must  go  down.  We  are  fighting  the  battle  of 
civilization  and  will  surely  win. 

Now  let  us  cast  one  glance  nearer  home.  Illinois  has  had  some 
able  and  distinguished  Republican  governors.  They  were  men  of 
high  character  and  ability.  Their  induction  into  office  was  always 
in  harmony  with  that  simplicity  which  should  characterize  republican 
government.  None  of  them  asked  or  had  great  military  display; 
but  this  year  all  is  changed  and  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
the  State  a  large  portion  of  the  National  Guard  was  transported  to 
Springfield  in  order  to  give  military  pomp  and  splendor  to  the  in- 
auguration of  a  Governor.  Let  me  say  that,  as  individuals,  we  need 
care  nothing  about  this,  but,  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  public  ten- 
dency, all  these  facts  have  a  great  significance ;  for,  in  the  first  place, 
pomp  and  corruption  go  together.  It  is  true  of  all  times  and  in  all 
countries,  and  if  our  governments  are  to  be  conducted  with  great 
pomp  and  military  display,  we  must  expect  a  large  degree  of  corrup- 
tion to  creep  into  them,  and  secondly  as  the  military  is  made  prom- 
inent in  a  free  country,  the  civil  power  will,  by  degrees,  become  sub- 
ordinate. In  other  words,  it  indicates  a  tendency  toward  aristocratic, 
plutocratic  and  even  monarchic  government,  and  shows  that  we  are 
drifting  away  from  those  institutions  of  simplicity  and  integrity  and 
lofty  patriotism  that  were  founded  by  the  fathers. 

No  Republican  who  loves  his  country  more  than  partisan  advantage 
can  contemplate  the  recent  occurrences  and  present  tendencies  without 
alarm.  On  the  other  hand,  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say  that  there  are 
signs  of  hope.  During  the  last  election  there  were  over  six  million 
men  in  America  who  could  not  be  bought ;  who  could  not  be  fright- 
ened ;  who  could  not  be  cajoled ;  who  insisted  upon  doing  their  own 
thinking,  and  who  had  the  courage  to  stand  erect  in  the  sight  of  the 
Almighty  and  vote  their  own  convictions.  It  may  also  be  said  that 
it  is  not  likely  there  can  be  such  another  combination  of  conditions 
and  forces,  all  of  which  were  hostile  to  true  republican  government,  as 
45 


706  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

there  were  last  year.  In  the  first  place  our  party  was  held  responsible 
for  the  hard  times.  Second :  It  was  held  responsible  for  unpopular 
and  undemocratic  acts  of  the  federal  administration.  Third :  It  had 
to  weed  the  undemocratic  element  out  of  its  own  ranks.  Fourth : 
There  was  the  promise  of  an  immediate  return  of  prosperity  in  the 
event  of  McKinley's  election.  It  is  true  this  promise  held  out  a  false 
hope,  but  in  such  deep  despair  were  many  of  the  American  people  that 
they  grasped  at  this  delusion.  Fifth :  It  is  doubtful  whether  all  of 
the  great  corporations  and  concentrations  of  capital  in  this  country 
can  be  again  mustered  into  such  a  solid  phalanx  against  the  interests 
of  the  masses  of  the  people  as  they  were  last  fall.  The  struggle  is 
daily  becoming  more  intense  and  will  in  the  end  narrow  down  to  a 
contest  between  patriotic  intelligence  on  the  one  hand  and  the  cor- 
rupt forces  of  plutocracy  on  the  other.  We  are  on  the  side  of  eternal 
right  and  if  we  will  but  keep  our  faces  toward  the  sun  we  will  see  the 
glory  of  a  new  era  and  the  joy  of  a  liberated  people. 


ELECTION   FRAUDS   OF   1896. 

Chicago,  February  13,  1897. 
Hon.  Orrin  N.  Carter, 

County  Judge  of  Cook  County. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  open  letter,  dated  January  28  and  addressed  to  me, 
is  at  hand.  You  take  exception  to  some  remarks  I  recently  made  at 
the  Tremont  House  in  reference  to  the  late  election.  Especially  do 
you  object  to  the  charge  of  fraud  and  you  ask  for  facts. 

Let  us  have  a  clear  understanding  of  the  subject.  In  the  speech 
referred  to  I  tried  to  call  attention  to  the  following  points : 

First — That  the  St.  Louis  Republican  convention  was  controlled 
by  trusts  and  professional  lobbyists. 

Second — That  the  Republican  party  had,  in  nearly  all  of  its  prior 
platforms,  insisted  on  the  restoration  of  silver  and  that  nearly  all  of 
its  leaders  had  condemned  the  act  demonetizing  it;  yet  when  trie 
convention,  at  the  dictation  of  the  Eastern  money  power,  declared  for 
a  gold  standard,  nearly  all  these  leaders  instantly  renounced  their  con- 
victions, swallowed  all  of  their  previous  utterances  and  not  only  sup- 
ported the  new  platform,  but  heaped  abuse  on  everybody  who  would 
not  stultify  himself  and  surrender  his  convictions. 

Third — That  while  the  Republican  party  of  Lincoln  stood  for  great 
principles  and  held  convictions,  the  leaders  of  that  party  to-day  have 


ELECTION  FRA  UDS  OF  1896.  707 

shown  themselves  to  be  time-servers,  ready  to  serve  any  power  that 
can  furnish  money  and  preferment. 

Fourth — That  after  the  convention  a  host  of  men  who  had  grown 
great  as  lobbyists  and  corruptionists  and  others,  many  of  whom  had 
the  odor  of  scoundrelism  in  their  garments,  came  forward  as  the  high 
priests  of  honor  and  national  integrity,  and  that  the  campaign  was  the 
most  stupendous  exhibition  of  pharisaism  ever  witnessed. 

Fifth — That  during  the  campaign  there  was  a  perfect  combination 
between  the  money  power,  the  trusts  and  the  corporations.  That  these 
controlled  the  press  and  the  entire  hanging-on  class  of  society,  and 
that  they  practiced  every  form  of  coercion,  deception,  corruption  and 
terrorism  known  to  man,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  the  election,  and 
did  it  in  the  name  of  patriotism.  Debtors  were  coerced  and  nearly 
every  employe  was  threatened  if  he  did  not  yield.  Assurances  of  im- 
mediate prosperity,  raise  of  wages  and  permanent  employment  were 
given  if  McKinley  should  be  elected,  while  ruin  and  starvation  were 
held  up  as  the  certain  result  of  Bryan's  election.  Men  claiming  to  be 
honorable  did  not  hesitate  to  lie  in  regard  to  having  large  orders  for 
goods  all  depending  on  the  election.  One  prominent  manufacturer  in 
this  city  employing  nearly  one  thousand  men  and  making  some  pre- 
tensions to  respectability,  told  his  employes  just  before  the  election 
that  if  McKinley  was  elected  they  would  have  permanent  employment 
and  a  raise  of  wages,  and  they  should  come  back  the  day  after  election ; 
while  if  Bryan  was  elected  they  need  not  come  back,  and  in  order  to 
make  the  deception  impressive  he  had  the  shops  cleaned  up  and  the 
machinery  covered  with  muslin.  Similar  tactics  were  employed  by 
almost  every  great  manufacturer  in  the  United  States.  (Let  me  say 
here  in  parenthesis  that  nearly  every  man  who  coerced  and  tricked  his 
employes  during  the  campaign  has  since  the  election  either  discharged 
the  men  or  reduced  their  wages.) 

Sixth — That  a  confidence  game  had  been  practiced  on  the  Ameri- 
can people. 

Seventh — That  the  promises  of  prosperity  under  a  gold  standard 
were  utterly  illogical  and  impossible  of  performance ;  that  a  continua- 
tion of  this  policy  must  perpetuate  the  existing  distress  and  ultimately 
lower  the  condition  of  humanity. 

Eighth — That  a  party  with  money  can  protect  itself  against  fraud ; 
that  men  who  commit  election  frauds  do  not  work  for  nothing  and 
board  themselves,  they  work  for  gains.  The  Democrats,  not  having 
money  enough  to  even  pay  their  janitors,  could  not  commit  fraud  if 
they  had  wished  to,  and  could  not  protect  themselves. 

Ninth — That  the  election  returns  showed  the  following  classes  of 


;o8  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

people  had  supported  Major  McKinley :  The  negroes,  the  purchasable 
voters,  the  very  ignorant  foreign  born  voters,  who  were  delivered 
through  the  bosses  of  their  own  nationality,  the  repeating,  the  fraud- 
ulent and  the  illegal  vote.  All  those  voters  who  could  be  controlled  by 
the  corporations,  the  newspapers  and  the  trusts.  Lastly,  all  those  men 
who  want  to  use  the  government  as  a  convenience  to  help  them 
plunder  the  public. 

Tenth — That  the  money  power  had  demonstrated  its  ability  to 
control  the  ignorant  vote  of  the  country,  and  that  this  was  an  alarming 
symptom. 

Eleventh — That  the  majority  of  the  American-born  white  vote 
supported  Mr.  Bryan.  That  altogether  over  six  million  intelligent  and 
patriotic  men,  who  could  not  be  bought,  cajoled  or  frightened,  voted 
for  Mr.  Bryan,  and  that,  considering  the  character  of  these  men,  this 
was  a  hopeful  sign. 

Twelfth — That  even  on  the  face  of  the  returns  Mr.  Bryan  was  so 
nearly  elected  that  about  30,000  more  votes,  properly  distributed, 
would  have  made  him  President. 

Thirteenth — That,  not  suspecting  that  any  great  frauds  had  been 
committed,  I  promptly  accepted  the  result,  and  on  the  day  after  the 
election  published  a  letter  conceding  the  victory  to  the  Republicans, 
and  that  I  then  prepared  to  join  my  fellow-citizens  in  welcoming  the 
advance  agent  of  prosperity,  who,  by  the  way,  has  not  yet  come,  but 
appears  to  have  cancelled  his  engagement. 

Fourteenth — But  that  since  the  election  there  had  been  developed 
such  evidence  of  gigantic  and  wholesale  frauds  as  must  alarm  patriotic 
citizens  who  love  their  country  more  than  partisan  preferment;  that 
there  had  apparently  been  a  perfect  system,  devised  at  headquarters 
and  spread  over  many  States,  to  commit  election  frauds ;  and  that  in  a 
number  of  States  there  had  been  many  more  votes  returned  than  there 
were  male  inhabitants  over  twenty-one  years  old  in  those  States. 

Fifteenth— That  if  the  election  returns  were  right,  then  Illinois  must 
have  gained  nearly  1,200,000  population  in  four  years. 

Sixteenth — That  we  did  not  propose  to  contest  the  election  or  to 
throw  the  country  into  suspense;  that  the  reason  for  exposing  these 
frauds  was  to  bring  them  to  the  attention  of  those  men  of  America 
who  love  their  country  and  whose  combined  efforts  will  be  necessary 
to  prevent  a  repetition  of  them.  Let  me  repeat  here  that  nothing 
in  connection  with  the  late  election  has  given  me  so  much  sorrow 
as  the  development  of  these  frauds.  I  love  republican  institutions, 
and  feel  that  they  are  safe  so  long  as  the  people  control — the  people 
may  at  times  be  misinformed,  may  commit  great  errors,  but  they  will 


ELECTION  FRAUDS  OF  1896.  709 

right  matters  in  the  end.  But  when  the  will  of  the  people  can  be  over- 
ridden by  fraud  and  corruption,  when  it  is  once  demonstrated  that 
the  trusts  and  other  enemies  of  our  institutions  can  carry  an  election 
by  simply  placing  enough  money  in  the  hands  of  desperate  men,  then 
this  republic  must  go  down.  Loss  of  office  does  not  hurt  me,  but  the 
destruction  of  our  institutions  must  bring  sorrow  to  the  whole  human 
race.  You  ask  me  to  be  a  little  more  specific.  Let  us  begin  with 
Illinois.  In  this  State  there  was  formed  about  three  years  ago  an 
organization  known  as  the  "Republican  machine."  This  machine  took 
control  of  the  Republican  party.  The  managers  decided  to  begin  at 
the  bottom  and  look  after  details.  In  this  State  the  township  officers 
(in  counties  which  have  township  organization)  constitute  the  judges 
and  clerks  of  election,  and  in  counties  which  do  not  have  township 
organization  outside  of  Cook  county  and  one  or  two  others,  the  county 
board  of  trustees  or  commissioners  appoint  the  judges  and  clerks  of 
election,  and  in  all  counties  this  board  selects  the  grand  jurors,  with- 
out whose  action  no  man  can  be  indicted  for  a  violation  of  law.  These 
township  and  county  offices,  being  local  in  character,  were  regarded 
by  many  as  non-partisan.  But  the  Republican  machine,  seeing  how 
important  they  could  be  made  in  a  political  contest,  quietly  captured 
them.  Whenever  it  was  possible  they  secured  the  election,  not  simply 
of  Republicans,  but  of  Republicans  who  could  be  relied  on  to  do  cer- 
tain political  work,  and  when  they  could  not  secure  the  election  of  a 
Republican  they  tried  to  secure  a  harmless  Democrat  who  would  not 
be  in,  their  way.  Soon  it  developed  that  the  election  machinery  of 
more  than  two-thirds  of  the  election  precincts  of  the  State  were  in 
the  hands  of  Republicans,  and  not  only  were  the  county  boards  of 
fully  two-thirds  of  the  counties  Republican,  but  the  county  clerks, 
who  have  charge  of  all  papers  and  documentary  evidence  pertaining 
to  elections  were  Republican,  and  most  of  the  State's  attorneys  were 
Republican.  So  that  the  Republicans  had  it  in  their  power  to  pre- 
vent the  prosecution  of  any  of  their  friends  if  they  saw  fit  to  do  so. 
Mark  you,  I  say  it  was  in  their  power.  We  know  that  all  Republican 
officials  are  above  any  such  selfish  considerations  because  they  them- 
selves assure  us  that  this  is  the  case.  We  know  they  are  all  honor- 
able, because  they  admit  it ;  but  unfortunately  there  are  many  men 
in  this  country  who  think  that  everything  is  fair  in  politics  if  you  can 
only  win,  and  you  will  admit  that  if  a  county  board  did  not  want  its 
friends  indicted  it  is  possible  the  grand  jurors  selected  by  that  board 
may  feel  the  same  way.  And  if  a  county  clerk  did  not  want  a  Demo- 
crat mousing  around  his  office  in  search  of  evidence  to  convict  Re- 
publicans, it  might  take  that  Democrat  a  long  time  to  find  certain 


710  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

papers.  And  if  a  State's  attorney  should  feel  that  it  was  asking  a 
good  deal  of  a  man  to  send  his  friends  to  the  penitentiary  for  doing 
those  things  which  helped  to  elect  him  to  office,  it  would  take  him  a 
long  time  to  find  a  jury  that  would  convict.  When  a  man  is  asked 
to  impeach  the  title  to  his  farm  or  his  office,  he  needs  time  to  collect 
his  thoughts.  The  relevancy  of  this  will  appear  later.  In  the  mean- 
time let  us  look  at  some  figures. 

From  1870  to  1890,  being  a  period  of  twenty  years,  the  total  vote 
of  the  State  in  Presidential  elections  was  equal  to  about  one-fifth  of 
the  population.  This  has  been  the  rule. 

From  1880  to  1890  our  State  had  the  greatest  increase  in  its  popu- 
lation— the  total  increase,  including  native  born  and  immigrant,  being 
748,480  for  the  ten  years,  or  an  average  of  74,848  per  year ;  about  one 
in  five  being  voters,  the  average  increase  of  voters  in  the  State  for  the 
ten  years  was  about  15,000  per  year. 

In  1892  the  total  vote  for  President  was  873,646  (there  is  a  slight 
discrepancy  between  the  tables,  and  as  I  desire  to  concede  all  doubt- 
ful points,  I  use  the  largest  number  for  1892  and  the  smallest  for 
1896).  If  the  average  yearly  increase  from  1892  to  1896  was  the 
same  as  it  was  for  the  ten  preceding  years,  then  the  total  increase  of 
population,  native  born  and  immigrant,  for  the  four  years  would  have 
been  299,392,  and  the  total  vote  would  have  increased  in  these  four 
years  60,000.  True,  the  annual  rate  of  increase  of  a  large  population 
is  naturally  greater  than  that  of  a  slightly  smaller  population,  and 
ordinarily  the  increase  during  these  four  years  should  have  been  a 
little  greater  than  that  of  the  prior  years. 

But  during  the  year  1891  many  thousands  of  men  came  to  Chicago 
from  the  surrounding  States  in  the  hope  of  getting  work  at  the  World's 
Fair  grounds.  Most  of  these  were  here  and  voted  in  the  fall  of  1892, 
thus  swelling  our  vote  for  that  year.  After  the  panic  of  1893  the 
great  majority  of  these,  finding  themselves  unable  to  make  a  living 
here,  began  to  go  back  to  their  former  homes,  and  thus  for  a  time 
reduced  our  population,  so  that  at  the  election  held  in  1894  the  total 
vote  cast  in  the  State  was  nearly  15,000  less  than  that  of  1892.  To 
be  sure,  it  was  an  off  year,  but  if  there  was  anything  like  the  increase 
in  population  during  the  two  intervening  years  that  there  formerly 
was,  then  the  natural  increase  of  voters  during  that  time  would  much 
more  than  offset  the  stay-at-home  voters,  so  that  instead  of  the  rate 
of  increase  being  greater  than  formerly,  it  is  evident  that  it  is  smaller. 

This  is  further  illustrated  by  reference  to  the  school  census  of  Chi- 
cago. In  this  city  a  school  census  is  made  every  two  years,  and  the 
laudable  desire  to  show  a  large  population  generally  brings  this  ce.n.- 


ELECTION  FRA  UDS  OF  1896.  71 1 

sus  above  the  federal  census.  For  example,  the  school  census  of  1890 
showed  over  100,000  more  people  than  the  federal  census  for  the 
same  year.  I  shall  begin  with  1892,  because  there  were  some  an- 
nexations made  to  the  city  prior  to  that  time,  which  make  it  difficult 
to  compare  former  years  with  later  ones.  In  1892  the  school  census 
was  1,438,000.  In  1894  it  was  1,567,657.  That  is,  the  increase  shown 
for  two  years  was  129,657,  being  an  increase  of  25,931  voters;  while 
the  school  census  for  1896  was  1,616,625,  the  increase  for  the  two 
years  being  only  48,968  in  population  and  9,733  in  voters.  That  is, 
the  increase  was  only  a  little  over  one-third  as  much  during  the  last 
two  years  as  it  was  during  the  former  two,  and  the  total  increase 
of  population  during  these  four  years  was  only  178,625  in  Chicago, 
and  the  increase  in  the  voters  a  little  bit  less  than  36,000.  You  will 
recall  that  the  first  school  census  of  1896  showed  scarcely  any  increase 
over  the  population  of  1894,  and  the  Republican  newspapers  of  Chi- 
cago forced  the  census  taker  to  make  a  second  effort,  and  this  showed 
but  little  increase;  and  finally  he  was  driven  to  make  a  third  effort, 
and  after  all  this  effort  at  forcing  up  the  population,  he  was  able  to 
show  an  increase  of  only  48,968.  The  fact  seems  to  be  that  the  popu- 
lation of  Chicago  was  standing  still  during  those  years  of  depression. 
Yet  the  vote  returned  in  Chicago  in  1896  was  108,000  in  excess  of 
that  cast  in  the  same  territory  in  1892;  deducting  the  36,000  which, 
according  to  the  school  census,  was  all  the  real  increase  that  there 
was,  it  leaves  72,000  votes  in  Chicago  alone,  for  which  no  explanation 
has,  as  yet,  been  given. 

I  have  pointed  out  that  if  the  average  rate  of  increase  in  population 
in  the  State  from  1892  to  1896  had  been  the  same  as  in  some  former 
years  when  it  was  large,  then  the  total  increase  for  the  State  would 
have  been  299,392  for  the  four  years,  and  the  increase  in  the  vote  would 
have  been  about  60,000.  In  view  of  what  the  school  census  shows  for 
Chicago,  this  is  clearly  too  large  a  number.  However,  in  order  to 
be  more  than  safe,  we  will  take  this  sum.  But  the  vote  returned  in 
Illinois  in  1896,  according  to  latest  figures,  is  217,223  greater  than  it 
was  in  1892.  That  is,  after  making  an  excessive  allowance  for  increase 
of  population  and  admitting  an  increase  of  60,000,  there  are  still 
157,223  votes  left  which  do  not  seem  to  belong  to  Illinois.  If  they 
do  belong  here,  then  Illinois  increased  her  population  1,086,115  in 
four  years.  You  practically  admit  that  this  is  preposterous,  but  you 
attempt  to  explain  this  startling  phenomenon  by  claiming  that  owing 
to  the  excitement  in  the  last  campaign  many  men  voted  who  had 
failed  to  vote  at  prior  elections.  In  other  words,  that  in  1892  there 
were  over  157,223  legal  voters  in  this  State  who  did  not  vote  that 


712  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

year,  but  who  did  vote  in  1896.  This  would  make  an  average  of 
men  for  every  precinct  in  the  State.  Let  us  examine  this  point  a 
moment:  For  a  number  of  years  prior  to  1896  each  great  political 
party  during  a  campaign  made  not  only  one  but  two  or  three  polling 
lists,  giving  the  name  and  address  of  every  male  inhabitant  over 
twenty-one  years  of  age  in  every  precinct  in  the  State,  and  giving  full 
information  in  regard  to  him.  In  this  way  every  man  was  looked 
after  carefully  by  one  or  the  other  of  the  political  parties,  and  some- 
times by  both.  Each  party  hired  men  and  conveyances  to  see  to  it 
that  every  voter  was  brought  to  the  polls.  Each  party  had  men  with 
polling  lists  in  hand,  who  checked  off  the  name  of  every  man  who 
voted,  and  every  voter  who  did  not  voluntarily  come,  was  sent  for. 
This  was  especially  the  case  in  1892  at  the  Presidential  election,  when 
both  parties  were  reasonably  well  supplied  with  money  with  which  to 
hire  men  to  look  after  these  matters.  The  campaign  in  Illinois  that 
year  was  exciting ;  both  parties  made  tremendous  efforts,  and  as  a 
result  of  the  systematic  work,  almost  every  legal  voter  in  the  State 
was  registered  and,  in  the  end,  voted.  So  thorough  was  this  work 
that  in  many  precincts  over  the  State,  every  legal  vote  was  cast. 
Taking  the  State  as  a  whole,  it  is  doubtful  whether  there  were,  on  an 
average,  five  legal  voters  in  a  precinct  who  did  not  vote. 

As  there  are  nearly  3,000  precincts  in  the  State,  this  would  make 
less  than  15,000  votes,  and  nearly  all  of  these  were  cases  in  which  the 
voter  was  either  sick  or  necessarily  absent  from  home.  And  you 
must  bear  in  mind  that  the  number  of  sick  or  necessarily  absent  would 
be  greater  in  1896  than  in  1892,  because  the  population  is  assumed 
to  have  been  greater. 

A  careful  consideration  of  all  the  facts  leaves  it  doubtful  whether 
there  were  in  the  whole  State  five  thousand  legal  voters  who  were  not 
sick  and  not  necessarily  absent,  who  in  spite  of  all  the  solicitation 
of  their  neighbors  and  friends  refused  to  vote  in  1892,  and  did  vote 
in  1896. 

Some  other  explanation  must  be  found  for  these  157,223  votes. 
Kindly  follow  me  a  little  farther  and  I  think  we  will  find  the  key. 

In  Clay  County,  for  several  days  prior  to  the  election  prominent 
Republicans  were  riding  over  the  county  brazenly  offering  money  to 
induce  Democrats  to  remain  away  from  the  polls.  Two  of  the  ring- 
leaders were  arrested,  taken  before  a  magistrate  and  the  evidence 
was  so  overwhelming  against  them  that  they  were  bound  over  for  the 
action  of  the  grand  jury.  News  of  this  at  once  spread  over  the  coun- 
try and  the  other  conspirators  became  frightened  and  stopped  their 
efforts.  Consequently  the  increase  of  votes  in  the  county  was  simply 


ELECTION  FRAUDS  OF  1896.  713 

normal,  and,  although  the  county  had  formerly  been  a  Republican, 
it  gave  a  slight  majority  for  the  Democratic  ticket.  By  way  of  dis- 
tinction we  will  call  the  method  resorted  to  here,  "Criminal  Method 
No.  I."  You  may  ask  whether  these  men  have  been  sent  to  the 
penitentiary.  No,  the  county  board  which  had  been  elected  at  a 
prior  election  was  Republican,  The  grand  juries  selected  by  it  are 
Republican,  and  instead  of  going  to  the  penitentiary  I  am  informed 
that  one  of  these  men  already  holds  a  position  at  Springfield  under  the 
new  administration  and  the  other  is  promised  a  position  in  a  State 
institution. 

In  Lawrence  County  an  effort  was  made  to  buy  up  the  judges 
of  election.  In  the  township  of  Luken  the  arrangement  was  per- 
fected, the  judges  of  election  were  to  receive  $500,  and  were  actually 
paid  $400  in  advance  and  were  supplied  with  a  valise  full  of  bogus 
official  ballots ;  the  plan  being  that  these  bogus  official  ballots  were 
to  be  marked  for  the  Republican  ticket  and  placed  in  the  hands  of 
these  judges,  and  every  time  a  Democrat  handed  in  a  ticket  the  judges 
were  to  slip  into  the  box  one  of  the  bogus  tickets  and  destroy  the 
ticket  handed  in  by  the  Democrat.  On  the  day  before  election  the 
whole  scheme  was  divulged  and  two  prominent  Republicans  were 
arrested,  taken  before  a  magistrate,  the  evidence  was  absolutely  con- 
clusive, the  bogus  tickets  were  produced  in  court,  and  the  defendants 
admitted  having  paid  the  money.  They  were  bound  over  for  the 
action  of  the  grand  jury.  Have  they  been  punished?  No,  the  county 
board  elected  at  a  previous  election  was  Republican,  the  grand  jury 
selected  by  it  was  Republican,  and  instead  of  going  to  the  penitentiary 
I  am  informed  these  men  expect  to  get  a  job  under  the  new  admin- 
istration for  their  efforts  to  help  the  Republican  ticket.  By  way  of 
distinction  we  will  call  their  method  "Criminal  Method  No  2." 

In  the  city  of  Springfield  the  registration  last  fall  was  so  phe- 
nomenally large  as  to  arouse  suspicions  that  frauds  were  attempted. 
Yet,  notwithstanding  this  extraordinary  registration,  on  election  day 
in  the  second  precinct  of  the  First  Ward  182  men  who  were  not 
registered  were  sworn  in  and  permitted  to  vote.  They  were  mostly 
negroes,  many  of  them  simply  gave  their  name  as  "Jones,"  nobody 
seemed  to  know  anything  about  them,  and  they  have  since  nearly  all 
disappeared.  They  were  challenged  by  the  Democratic  challenger, 
but  the  judges  ignored  the  challenge  and  received  the  votes ;  not 
only  this,  but  they  refused  to  permit  the  men  to  be  questioned  as  to 
their  place  of  residence,  etc.  It  was  manifest  at  the  time  that  they 
were  fraudulent  voters  and  were  there  for  the  purpose  of  repeating. 
There  were  527  votes  counted  in  that  precinct ;  accordingly  it  should 


7 14  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

have  a  population  of  2,635  people.  Recently  a  census  has  been  taker! 
in  the  city  of  Springfield,  and  this  census  shows  that  instead  of  there 
being  2,635  people  in  that  precinct,  there  are  only  1,648,  or  nearly 
a  thousand  less  than  it  should  have  according  to  the  votes  returned 
last  fall.  In  other  words,  according  to  the  census  there  were  a  little 
over  300  legal  voters  in  that  precinct,  so  that  about  200  must  have 
been  fraudulent.  The  total  vote  reported  for  that  city  the  last  election 
was  a  little  over  8,000.  This  would  give  the  city  a  population  of  a 
little  over  40,000,  but  the  census  just  taken  shows  that  the  total  pop- 
ulation of  the  city  of  Springfield  is  only  31,000,  and  that  instead  of  its 
having  8,000  voters  it  has  only  about  6,200.  If  this  is  correct  then 
the  vote  returned  was  about  1,800  in  excess  of  what  it  should  have 
been.  There  are  twenty  precincts  in  Springfield.  We  have  shown 
that  there  were  nearly  200  fraudulent  votes  counted  in  one  precinct 
alone,  and  similar  tactics  were  resorted  to  in  a  large  number  of  the 
other  precincts.  This  accounts  for  the  increased  vote  there.  By 
way  of  distinction  let  us  call  this  method  of  swelling  the  vote  "Crim- 
inal Method  No.  3." 

In  one  of  the  precincts  of  Springfield  a  local  Democratic  candi- 
date had  placed  a  man  to  watch  the  canvass.  When  the  judges 
began  to  count  the  tickets  they  laid  a  certain  number  to  one  side 
and  declared  that  they  were  all  for  the  Republican  candidates.  This 
watcher  objected ;  said  there  was  a  mistake,  and  demanded  a  recount. 
The  judges  refused  to  grant  it,  but  after  being  threatened,  they 
yielded.  The  tickets  were  recounted,  and  it  was  found  that  seven 
votes  cast  for  the  Democrats  had  been  counted  for  the  Republicans, 
making  a  difference  of  fourteen  votes.  Let  us  call  this  "Criminal 
Method  No.  4."  It  seems  to  have  been  popular,  and  appears  to 
have  been  resorted  to  in  many  sections  of  the  State.  And  I  will 
remark  that  if  men  are  so  desperate  as  to  count  votes  for  one  man  that 
were,  in  fact,  cast  for  another,  they  would  not  hesitate  to  report 
votes  as  having  been  cast  when,  in  fact,  they  were  not ;  and  the 
numerous  cases  in  Chicago  in  which  there  were  great  discrepancies 
between  the  number  of  voters  reported  and  the  number  of  ballots 
returned  shows  how  extensively  this  method  was  practiced,  although  it 
was  only  in  cases  where  the  job  was  badly  bungled  that  the  public 
learned  of  it. 

During  the  campaign  the  Republicans  in  Springfield  seemed  to 
have  so  much  money  that  they  became  reckless  in  the  use  of  it,  and 
a  very  prominent  Republican,  who,  I  am  informed,  is  slated  for  an 
important  federal  office,  openly  and  brazenly  offered  Democrats  money 
to  induce  them  to  stay  away  from  the  polls.  You  may  ask,  "Why 


ELECTION  FRAUDS  OF  1896.  715 

were  not  all  these  people  prosecuted?"  Let  me  tell  you:  The  county 
commissioners,  that  had  been  elected  at  a  prior  election,  were  Re- 
publicans. When  the  election  was  over  they  selected  grand  jurors, 
who  proved  to  be  Republicans.  The  State's  attorney  went  before 
this  grand  jury  with  a  mass  of  evidence  to  prove  fraud  at  election. 
The  evidence  was  so  strong  and  so  conclusive  that  in  a  murder  case 
it  would  hang  a  man,  but  the  grand  jury  simply  laughed  at  it  all  and 
refused  to  indict  any  prominent  Republican ;  but  I  understand  that, 
for  appearance's  sake,  they  did  finally  bring  in  a  couple  of  indict- 
ments against  a  few  obscure  individuals  in  the  country,  charged  with 
very  trivial  irregularities,  and  for  which,  if  any  punishment  could 
be  imposed,  it  would  have  to  be  very  slight. 

The  city  of  East  St.  Louis  was  supposed  to  be  a  good  place  to 
practice  fraud.  The  registration  there  last  fall  was  so  large,  and 
contained  the  names  of  so  many  strangers,  as  to  arouse  the  suspicions 
of  the  Democrats,  and  some  of  them  determined  to  watch  develop- 
ments. A  couple  of  days  before  election  several  hundred  strangers 
appeared  in  town,  most  of  them  tramps,  who,  it  was  apparent,  had 
come  to  vote.  The  Democrats  advised  them  that  if  any  fraudulent 
voting  were  attempted  arrests  would  be  made.  Some  of  the  prominent 
Republicans  of  the  town  hooted  at  all  this,  and  insisted  that  the  men 
should  be  permitted  to  vote,  and  several  of  the  strangers,  who  were 
not  legal  voters,  did  try  to  vote ;  they  were  at  once  arrested,  which 
alarmed  the  others,  and  they  left  town ;  and  when  the  vote  was  returned 
it  was  found  that  the  increase  in  the  vote  was  simply  the  normal 
increase,  so  that  in  that  case  the  attempted  fraud  was  headed  off. 

In  some  precincts  of  the  State  the  Republicans  had  secured  an 
official  ballot  in  some  way  and  were  trying  to  work  what  has  been 
called  the  "endless  chain"  method  of  fraud;  that  is,  a  ballot  is  marked 
for  the  Republican  ticket  and  given  to  a  Democrat  who  is  willing  to 
sell  his  vote.  The  Democrat  is  instructed  to  go  to  the  polls,  get  a 
clean  ballot,  go  into  the  booth  and  put  this  clean  ballot  in  his  pocket, 
and  then  go  and  vote  the  ballot  handed  him  outside,  and  bring  the 
clean  ballot  to  the  people  with  whom  he  is  dealing;  then  he  will  be 
paid  his  money.  We  will  designate  this  method  as  "Criminal  Method 
No.  5."  And  let  me  state  that  these  are  only  typical ;  they  show  the 
desperate  work  the  machinery  was  doing.  Reports  of  similar  crimes 
and  frauds  come  from  many  sections  of  the  State,  and  in  every  case 
the  Republicans  were  in  complete  control  of  the  election  machinery, 
and,  as  a  rule,  also  in  control  of  the  grand  juries  and  prosecuting  ma- 
chine. It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  in  scarcely  a  case  in  which  the 
Republicans  were  not  in  absolute  control  of  all  this  machinery  was 


716  LIVE  QUESTION'S. 

there  any  extraordinary  increase  in  the  vote.  You  may  ask,  "Why 
don't  you  prosecute?"  Let  me  remind  you  of  that  case  in  Arkansas 
where  a  man  was  prosecuted  for  stealing  a  hog.  The  evidence  showed 
that  he  was  seen  driving  it  home ;  he  was  seen  in  the  act  of  butcher- 
ing it ;  most  of  the  meat  was  found  in  his  house,  and  the  bristles  were 
found  on  his  clothes.  He  declined  to  say  anything  in  his  behalf,  but 
simply  told  his  lawyer  to  abuse  the  other  side.  The  lawyer  did  so, 
and  the  jury  acquitted  him.  On  inquiry  it  was  found  that  every 
juror  had  had  a  little  of  the  pork  and  had  some  relatives  who  wanted 
to  get  a  little  more  of  it. 

Now  the  experience  of  the  Democrats  thus  far  in  attempting  to 
prosecute  Republicans  or  corrupt  members  of  their  own  party,  before 
men  who  have  had  some  of  the  pork  or  whose  relatives  are  hoping 
to  get  some  of  it,  has  been  highly  unsatisfactory. 

T  will  refer  to  one  more  count.  During  the  campaign  the  Re- 
publican committee  promised  a  beautiful  banner  to  the  county  that 
showed  the  greatest  Republican  gain,  and  recently  a  great  display  was 
made  over  the  fact  that  Lake  County  had  won  this  banner.  Waukegan 
is  the  county  seat  and  principal  town  of  Lake  County.  In  1892  the 
total  vote  of  Lake  County  was  5,159,  and  the  population  was  about 
26,000.  There  are  at  Waukegan  several  large  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments. I  sent  to  Waukegan  to  secure  information  in  regard  to 
the  number  of  men  these  establishments  employed,  and  the  following 
is  the  substance  of  the  report : 

In  1892  the  factories  ran  day  and  night  and  employed  about  1,500 
men.  In  1896  the  factories  were  running  about  half  time,  employing 
about  500  men,  wages  had  been  cut  over  40  per  cent,  and  the  sugar 
refinery  and  starch  works  had  closed  down  several  years  ago. 

The  report  also  contains  the  following : 

No  factory  in  the  West  used  such  rigid  means  to  force  their  men 
to  vote  for  McKinley  as  did  the  Washburn-Moen  Manufacturing 
Company.  They  closed  down  three  days  before  the  election  and 
notified  their  men  that  if  Bryan  was  elected  they  would  never  reopen, 
but  if  McKinley  was  elected  they  would  run  full  time  and  increase  the 
wages.  Since  the  election  the  men  have  been  greatly  disappointed, 
as  the  factories  are  running  about  one-third  time,  employing  only 
between  400  and  500  men,  and  in  some  cases  the  wages  have  been 
greatly  cut. 

Coercing  their  men  to  vote  against  their  convictions  would  not 
swell  the  total  vote,  but  it  shows  what  criminal  methods  were  resorted 
to  to  carry  an  election.  But  this  is  not  all.  Waukegan  is  a  small 
city,  and  in  all  small  cities,  when  a  large  manufacturing  establishment 


ELECTION  FRAUDS  OF  1896.  717 

shuts  down  or  greatly  reduces  its  force,  the  men  thus  thrown  out  of 
employment  are  obliged  to  go  elsewhere,  because  there  is  visually 
very  little  work  to  be  had  in  a  small  place. 

In  1892  there  were  1,500  operatives  in  the  factories  at  Waukegan. 
In  1896  only  about  500.  One  thousand  operatives  had,  in  the  interim, 
been  forced  to  look  elsewhere  for  work.  We  do  not  know  how 
many  actually  moved  away,  but  it  is  admitted  that  most  of  them  would 
be  obliged  to  do  so.  No  doubt,  a  part  of  these  1,000  were  minors, 
so  that  the  loss  in  votes  would  not  be  fully  a  thousand.  But  it  is 
clear  that  there  was  a  very  large  loss  in  this  one  instance,  and  nothing 
unusual  has  happened  in  Lake  County,  which  is  an  agricultural 
county,  during  those  four  years,  to  greatly  increase  the  population 
or  the  vote,  there  being  no  other  industrial  center  in  the  county. 
Yet,  notwithstanding  this  fact,  the  vote  reported  for  1896  is  6,933, 
being  a  net  increase  of  1,774  for  the  four  years. 

If  this  is  correct,  then  Lake  County  increased  in  population,  in 
four  years,  sufficiently  to  not  only  make  up  for  the  loss  referred  to, 
but  gained  nearly  9,000  in  addition.  Bearing  in  mind  that  the  total 
population  in  1892  was  only  26,000,  here  is  a  gain  of  thirty-three  and 
one-third  per  cent,  in  population,  in  four  years,  in  an  agricultural 
county  that  has  only  one  manufacturing  town  in  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  population  was  necessarily  decreased. 

An  eminent  Republican  from  that  county  recently  explained  this 
singular  phenomenon.  He  said  that  they  had  a  cannon  at  Waukegan 
which  they  fired  out  over  the  lake  the  moment  McKinley  was  nomi- 
nated, and  that  they  then  held  meetings  in  every  school  house  in  the 
county,  and  also  supplied  the  people  with  literature.  Now,  I  can 
understand  how  the  holding  of  a  meeting  in  each  school  house  and 
supplying  literature,  and  occasionally  a  green-colored  pocket  argu- 
ment, might  get  men  to  vote  the  Republican  ticket,  but  I  am  utterly 
unable  to  understand  how  the  firing  of  a  cannon  over  Lake  Michigan 
could  reach  backward  and  produce  an  increase  in  population  in  Lake 
County  of  thirty-three  per  cent. 

Let  us  glance  back  a  moment  at  the  township  of  Luken,  in  Law- 
rence County,  an  insignificant,  backwoods  township,  with  compara- 
tively few  votes ;  yet  the  judges  were  to  be  paid  $500  in  cash  and  were 
actually  advanced  $400  of  this  to  commit  frauds  there.  Adding  to  this 
the  expenses  of  the  campaign  in  that  township,  it  will  make  over 
a  thousand  dollars.  If  an  insignificant  township  did  cost  over  a 
thousand  dollars,  certainly  the  more  important  townships  where  the 
population  was  dense  would  cost  from  five  to  ten  times  that  much. 
There  are  about  two  thousand  townships  in  the  State.  If  each  town- 


718  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ship  cost  only  one  thousand  dollars  it  would  make  $2,000,000.  In 
view  of  these  facts  there  are  people  who  would  like  to  ask  a  few  ques- 
tions. 

First. — Did  Mr.  Hanna  actually  expend  from  $2,000,000  to  $5,000,- 
ooo  on  the  voters  of  Illinois? 

Second. — While  the  trusts  and  the  corporations  supplied  him  with 
all  the  cash  he  needed,  he  had  to  have  some  desperate  men  to  do  the 
criminal  work  of  placing  this  money  where  it  would  accomplish  the 
best  results.  Did  all  of  the  men  who  assisted  in  placing  this  money 
belong  to  the  machine,  or  were  there  some  others  who  assisted  in 
this  work? 

You  ask  whether  I  mean  to  insinuate  that  there  was  fraud  com- 
mitted in  Chicago.  I  answer  I  do  not  care  to  make  insinuations.  I 
say  positively  that  I  am  satisfied  that  there  were  frauds  committed  in 
Chicago.  We  have  already  seen  that  there  was  a  reported  increase 
of  108,000  votes  in  Chicago  between  1892  and  1896,  during  which  time 
there  were  no  material  additions  made  to  the  city.  We  have  also  seen 
that,  according  to  the  school  census  of  Chicago  and  to  other  data 
bearing  upon  this  question,  the  natural  and  normal  increase  of  voters 
in  Chicago  during  these  four  years  could  hardly  have  reached  36,000. 
Deducting  this  36,000  from  the  108,000,  it  leaves  72,000  votes  returned 
in  Chicago  last  fall  which  cannot  be  explained. 

You  say  that  in '1884,  the  election  machinery  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  Democrats  and  that  the  election  of  that  year,  showed  a  gain  over 
1892  in  the  city.  I  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  according  to  the 
school  census,  whatever  gain  there  was  between  1892  and  1896  had 
practically  occurred  before  the  elections  were  held  in  1894,  because, 
according  to  the  school  census  of  1896,  there  was  an  increase  of  only 
9,000  voters  between  1894  and  1896,  so  that  the  slight  increase  in  the 
city  shown  in  1894  would  not  signify  much. 

You  say  in  your  letter  that  the  increase  in  the  city  vote  from 
1894  to  1896  was  74,637.  We  know  that  this  is  the  vote  returned, 
yet  the  census  report,  made  in  1896,  shows  that  the  total  increase  of 
voters  for  these  two  years  could  only  have  been  about  9,000;  thus 
leaving  nearly  66,000  votes  in  this  one  case  whose  existence  cannot 
be  explained.  Let  me  ask  you  a  question.  The  census  of  1894  showed 
an  increase  of  population  of  129,657  over  that  of  1892,  yet  the  increase 
of  vote  in  the  city  that  year,  over  that  of  1892,  was  only  33,000.  The 
census  for  1896  shows  an  increase  of  population  for  the  two  preceding 
years  of  only  48,963,  or  about  one-third  the  increase  shown  in  1894; 
and  yet  the  increase  in  the  city  vote,  in  1896  over  that  of  1894,  was 
74,637.  How  do  you  account  for  this  discrepancy?  In  other  words. 


ELECTION  FRAUDS  OF  1896.  719 

if  129,657  population  produces  only  33,000  voters,  is  it  possible  that 
one-third  as  many  people  can  produce  two  and  a  half  times  this  num- 
ber of  voters? 

You  say  that  you  are  in  absolute  charge  of  the  election  machinery 
here,  and  I  fully  admit  it.  You  further  say  that  over  one-third  of  the 
election  judges  in  Chicago  were  Democrats;  that  quite  a  number  more 
were  Populists,  representing  the  same  ticket  and  that,  therefore,  there 
was  no  opportunity  to  practice  frauds  in  Chicago.  Your  friends  insist 
that  you  have  a  keen  eye.  This  being  so,  I  do  not  see  how  it  could 
have  escaped  your  notice  that  a  large  per  cent,  of  the  so-called  Demo- 
cratic judges  were  in  communication  with  the  Republican  managers; 
some  members  of  the  Democratic  committee  assisted  in  this,  and 
appeared  to  want  such  memberships  for  the  express  purpose  of  mak- 
ing themselves  valuable  to  the  Republicans.  To  a  limited  extent 
this  condition  existed  in  1894.  In  1896  a  number  of  men  who  were 
connected  with  the  State  administration  worked  hard  for  the  Repub- 
lican ticket ;  some  openly  and  others  secretly,  but  their  movements 
and  their  actions  were  well  known,  and  here,  as  in  the  country,  you 
will  find  that,  as  a  rule,  in  those  precincts  where  the  greatest  Repub- 
licans gains  were  made,  and  in  those  precincts  where  there  was  the 
greatest  increase  in  the  total  vote,  the  Republicans  had  absolute  con- 
trol of  the  machinery,  no  matter  what  the  judges  called  themselves. 

It  is  true  that  the  census  for  Chicago  has  always  shown  a  much 
greater  number  of  male  inhabitants  over  twenty-one  years  of  age 
than  there  were  votes  cast.  But  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  Chicago 
has  always  been  and  is  now  a  great  immigration  center,  and  as  an 
immigrant  must  be  in  this  country  five  years  before  he  can  be  natural- 
ized, it  follows  that  all  of  the  male  immigrants  who  have  come  during 
five  years  will  be  included  in  the  census,  but  cannot  appear  on  the 
voting  list.  This  number  is  always  large.  The  per  cent,  of  these 
was  as  large  in  1896  as  in  former  years.  In  1892  the  work  of  natur- 
alization was  so  thoroughly  looked  after  that  almost  every  male  im- 
migrant over  twenty-one  years  of  age  who  had  been  here'the  requisite 
time  was  naturalized. 

If  you  say  that  at  prior  elections  the  actual  vote  polled  was  below 
the  number  registered  in  Chicago,  then  I  remind  you  that  this  was  the 
case  in  1896.  In  that  year  there  were  374,425  registered,  and  there 
were  354,851  votes  returned.  The  per  cent,  of  voters  registered  that 
year  who  did  not  vote  was  about  the  same  as  it  was  in  1892.  In 
view  of  all  these  facts  it  cannot  be  claimed  that  the  astonishing  in- 
crease in  the  vote  returned  for  1896  was  due  to  the  fact  that  154,000 


720  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

voted  that  year  who  could  have  voted  in  1892  and  did  not,  but  did  vote 
in  1896. 

Taking  the  entire  State  together,  several  things  stand  out  promi- 
nent. 

First. — That  in  those  precincts  where  the  greatest  Republican  gains 
were  made  and  in  those  precincts  where  there  was  an  astonishing  in- 
crease in  the  vote,  the  Republicans  absolutely  controlled  the  whole 
machinery — not  only  the  election  machinery,  but  the  prosecuting  ma- 
chinery. 

Second. — That  there  appears  to  have  been  a  system  in  the  method 
of  perpetrating  frauds,  as  there  were  at  least  five  distinct  methods 
practiced  in  different  sections  of  the  State. 

Third. — That  out  of  the  217,000  increased  vote  in  our  State  in 
1896  over  that  of  1892  only  about  60,000  were  legitimate  and  legal 
and  that  over  154,000  have  not  been  explained  and  can  neither  be 
explained  nor  located.  As  this  letter  is  already  much  too  long,  I  will 
only  glance  at  a  few  of  the  other  States. 

In  Ohio  the  vote  returned  in  1896  was  nearly  200,000  more  than 
that  returned  in  1892,  indicating  an  increase  in  the  population  of  about 
i  ,000,000  people  in  four  years ;  whereas  prior  to  that  time  it  had  taken 
the  State  three-quarters  of  a  century  to  gain  4,000,000.  Manifestly 
there  is  something  wrong  here.  Several  things  at  once  become  ap- 
parent on  examination. 

First. — That  in  the  agricultural  sections  of  the  State  and  in  those 
cities  where  there  is  not  a  large  ignorant  vote,  the  increase  in  popula- 
tion was  only  the  normal  increase,  and  the  Democrats  made  great 
gains. 

Second. — That  the  Republican  gains  and  abnormal  increase  in  vote 
was  reported  from  those  precincts  and  counties  in  which  the  Re- 
publicans had  the  entire  machinery  in  their  hands. 

Third. — That  the  great  Republican  gains  and  abnormal  increase  in 
the  vote  were  along  the  Ohio  River  and  in  those  manufacturing  and 
other  centers  where  there  was  a  large  colored  and  ignorant  foreign 
population. 

It  appears  that  there  were  many  thousands  of  Finns  and  other  for- 
eign-born men  who  were  brought  over  to  this  country  to  displace 
American  workmen,  and  who  are  not  legal  voters,  most  of  whom 
had  not  been  in  this  country  long  enough  to  secure  their  naturalization 
papers.  I  am  informed  that  in  one  precinct  in  Ashtabula  seventy- 
five  of  these  men,  who  were  not  legal  voters,  tried  to  vote,  but  the 
Republicans  did  not  have  control  of  the  machinery  in  that  precinct 
and  their  votes  were  rejected.  The  same  class  of  men  voted  in  hun- 


ELECTION  FRAUDS  OF  1896.  721 

dreds  of  other  precincts  in  the  State,  and  their  votes  were  received. 
In  my  speech  I  made  merely  an  incidental  reference  to  the  condi- 
tions in  Ohio.  How  did  the  Republicans  receive  these?  Precisely 
like  the  man  who  had  stolen  the  hog  in  Arkansas.  Mr.  Grosvenor, 
a  member  of  Congress  from  one  of  the  districts  along  the  Ohio 
River,  where  many  frauds  were  said  to  have  been  committed,  arose  in 
his  seat  in  the  house  and  abused  and  vilified  me,  and  then,  in  true 
Republican  fashion,  he  proceeded  to  certify  to  the  superior  virtues  of 
himself  and  his  associates.  Men  who  either  have  had  some  of  the 
pork  or  whose  friends  want  some  of  it,  care  but  little  how  the  animal 
was  captured.  Examination  of  the  facts  forces  the  conclusion  that 
Bryan  carried  Ohio  by  over  40,000  votes. 

A  similar  state  of  affairs  exists  in  Indiana,  Kentucky  and  in  Cal- 
ifornia— in  fact  in  every  State  that  Mr.  Hanna  made  a  strong  effort 
to  carry.  Wherever  you  find  a  State,  North  or  South,  where  there 
is  an  enormous  increase  in  the  vote,  you  will  find  that  Mr.  Hanna's 
agents  were  operating  there.  In  all  of  the  remainder  of  the  States 
of  this  Union  the  increase  in  the  vote  is  normal  and  harmonizes  with 
the  present  population  and  with  the  experience  of  the  past.  For  a 
while  Mr.  Hanna  expected  to  carry  Texas  and  Missouri,  and  made 
some  efforts  at  a  number  of  points  in  these  States,  and  it  was  exactly 
at  those  places  where  there  was  an  astonishing  increase  in  the  vote. 
In  all  other  places  the  increase  was  normal. 

An  examination  of  the  figures'  shows  that  a  majority  of  the  legiti- 
mate vote  of  the  country  went  for  Mr.  Bryan.  In  1892  Mr.  Cleveland 
carried  Illinois  by  about  27,000  plurality.  In  1896  Mr.  Bryan  received 
38,000  more  votes  in  Illinois  than  Mr.  Cleveland  did.  Mr.  Cleveland 
lost  Ohio  by  about  i  ,000.  Mr.  Bryan  received  70,000  more  votes  than 
Mr.  Cleveland  received,  showing  that  almost  the  entire  legitimate 
increase  in  the  vote  of  that  State  went  to  Mr.  Bryan.  Mr.  Cleveland 
carried  Indiana  by  7,000.  Mr.  Bryan  received  43,000  more  votes  than 
Mr.  Cleveland  did.  In  Kentucky  Mr.  Cleveland  received  a  plurality  of 
40,000.  Mr.  Bryan  received  43,000  more  votes  than  Mr.  Cleveland 
did,  and  yet  it  is  claimed  he  lost  the  State.  The  more  the  matter  is 
examined  the  more  glaring  the  frauds  appear.  I  am  informed  by 
people  living  in  the  South  that  it  has  recently  developed  that  during 
the  campaign  thousands  of  negroes  were  taken  from  different  places 
of  the  South  and  distributed  in  Kentucky,  West  Virginia,  Ohio,  In- 
diana and  Illinois. 

I  know  Mr.  McKinley  will  be  seated,  and  so  great  is  the  suffering 
of  our  people  and  so  strong  the  cry  for  relief,  that  I  not  only  hope 
that  his  administration  will  be  a  success,  but  I  most  fervently  hope  that 
46 


722  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

he  may  be  able  to  deliver  the  good  times  and  the  prosperity  that  were 
promised.  No  matter  how  I  might  otherwise  feel  about  it,  when  a 
great  nation  is  in  distress  and  crying  for  relief,  no  political  jealousy 
can  be  tolerated  for  a  moment.  On  the  other  hand,  if  our  institutions 
are  to  endure,  then  steps  must  be  taken  to  make  it  impossible  to 
repeat  the  work  of  last  fall.  If  corruption  and  crime  can  control  the 
elections  of  America,  then  the  flag  has  been  robbed  of  its  glory,  the 
doom  of  the  toiler  is  sealed  and  the  future  generations  will  simply 
be  born  into  sorrow. 

Very  respectfully, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


THE   CIVIL   SERVICE   LAW. 

ITS   EVASION   AND  VIOLATION   BY   THE   REPUBLICANS 
OF   CHICAGO. 

Managing  the  details  of  government  is  like  managing  the  details 
of  business.  Conditions  change  from  time  to  time,  as  the  country 
develops,  and  new  methods  have  to  be  adopted  to  meet  new  condi- 
tions. Merchants  and  manufacturers  are  compelled  to  employ  dif- 
ferent methods  now  from  those  they  employed  forty  and  fifty  years 
ago,  and  the  same  is  true  of  government.  Experience  has  shown  that 
when  the  old  methods  are  no  longer  adequate,  or  when  great  abuses 
have  grown  up  under  them,  considerable  experiment  is  necessary  in 
order  to  find  the  best  remedy. 

Early  in  the  history  of  our  government  there  were  comparatively 
few  employes  needed  in  the  public  service.  The  conditions  then  were 
very  much  as  they  are  to-day  out  in  the  country  and  in  the  smaller 
cities.  The  head  of  a  department  or  the  executive  of  a  city  knew 
nearly  all  of  the  inhabitants,  knew  their  character  and  their  capacity, 
and  when  a  clerk  or  an  assistant  was  needed,  he  simply  appointed 
him,  and  that  was  the  end  of  it.  That  was  the  best  method  for  those 
times. 

As  the  population  increased,  the  public  business  increased,  and 
that  method  no  longer  met  the  requirements  of  the  public  service. 
Instead  of  there  being  two  or  three  dozen  employes,  there  were,  in 
many  cases,  several  thousand.  Neither  an  executive  or  the  head  of 
a  department  could  or  did  know  all  of  the  applicants,  and  therefore 
could  not  act  upon  personal  knowledge  in  making  appointments. 
Again,  it  was  found  that  the  labor  in  the  public  service  was  light,  as 
compared  with  labor  in  private  employment,  also  that  the  salaries 


THE  CIVIL  SERVICE  LAW.  723 

paid,  in  many  cases,  were  almost  double  what  the  recipients  could  earn 
in  private  employment.  Consequently  these  positions  began  to  be 
sought  after.  In  time,  there  were  from  ten  to  twenty  applicants  for 
every  position,  so  that  for  every  thousand  positions  to  be  filled  there 
were  over  ten  thousand  applicants.  All  of  these  naturally  tried  to'  see 
the  executive,  or  head  of  a  department,  to  urge  their  claims,  not  only 
once,  but  a  number  of  times. 

But  this  was  not  all.  Every  applicant,  again,  got  as  many  of  his 
friends  as  possible  to  go  and  urge  his  appointment.  These  friends 
generally  were  politicians  who  were  under  some  obligation  to  the  ap- 
plicant, or  who  expected  to  derive  benefit  from  his  appointment,  and 
who  were  therefore  very  persistent  in  their  efforts  in  his  behalf.  So 
that  we  finally  reached  a  condition  where  it  took  almost  the  entire 
time  of  the  executive  to  hear  applications  for  office,  so  that  he  had 
scarcely  any  time  left  to  attend  to  public  business,  and  even  when  not 
thus  occupied  he  was  worn  out,  for  nothing  so  quickly  draws  the 
marrow  out  of  a  man's  bones  as  the  persistent  and  continuous  im- 
portuning for  office. 

The  trouble  did  not  cease  when  the  appointments  had  once  been 
made.  After  every  place  was  filled  the  applications  for  positions  still 
continued.  The  pressure  in  one  form  or  another  continued,  and  there 
was  a  constant  tendency  toward  stuffing  pay-rolls,  a  constant  tendency 
toward  appointing  many  more  than  the  service  required. 

A  number  of  years  ago  our  public  service  became  almost  a  stand- 
ing scandal,  not  only  to  the  great  detriment  of  the  service,  but  to  the 
injury  of  the  country.  Certain  politicians  were  enabled  to  form  po- 
litical machines  by  getting  their  friends  appointed  to  place,  and  by 
means  of  these  machines  were  able  to  dictate  nominations,  dictate 
party  policies,  and  thus  to  prostitute  political  parties  to  the  low  and 
corrupt  plane  of  the  spoilsmonger,  so  that  instead  of  standing  for 
great  principles  of  government  and  public  policy,  the  political  parties 
were  like  a  hen  in  the  barn-yard,  simply  scratching  for  worms. 

To  remedy  these  evils,  various  measures  were  discussed  for  years. 
Finally  the  matter  took  form,  and  a  national  civil  service  law  was 
passed,  which  embodied  four  cardinal  principles: 

First,  that  every  applicant  for  position  should  be  examined  by  an 
examiner  or  board  in  order  to  ascertain  his  qualifications. 

Second,  that  the  appointing  power  should  be  taken  away  entirely 
from  the  executive  or  head  of  department,  in  all  cases  except  in  those 
important  positions  in  which  the  appointee  must  be  vested  with  great 
discretion  and  responsibility. 

Third,  that  whenever  there  was  a  vacancy  the  place  should  be  filled 


724  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

by  taking  the  man  standing  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  those  who  had 
been  examined,  and  giving  him  a  trial. 

Fourth,  that  when  once  appointed  the  appointee  should  not  be  re- 
moved, except  for  cause,  and  the  question  as  to  whether  good  cause 
for  removal  existed  should  be  passed  on  by  the  civil  service  com- 
mission. 

This  law  grew  out  of  the  necessities  of  the  case.  It  was  absolutely 
necessary  that  something  should  be  done,  and  it  was  not  reasonable 
to  expect  that  the  remedy  should  be  perfect  at  the  beginning.  No 
remedy  ever  is.  But  in  so  far  as  relates  to  great  cities,  the  provisions 
of  this  law  requiring  an  examination  of  the  applicants,  depriving  the 
executive  or  head  of  department  of  the  power  of  appointment,  and  re- 
quiring vacancies  to  be  filled  by  taking  the  men  at  the  head  of  the 
list  and  giving  them  a  trial,  are  fundamental  and  must  be  maintained. 
Personally  I  believe  that  the  principle  of  making  appointees  of  the 
public  service  life  officers  is  not  in  harmony  with  republican  institu- 
tions, and  I  also  believe  that  in  time  that  feature  will  develop  a  weak 
and  unsatisfactory  service,  and  produce,  in  the  end,  a  class  of  public 
barnacles  who  are  kept  on  the  pay-rolls  simply  because  it  would  re- 
quire something  like  a  lawsuit  to  oust  them.  But  this  provision  can 
be  changed  when  the  necessity  for  it  appears.  That  is  a  question  of 
legislation,  and  need  not  be  considered  at  present. 

Here  in  Chicago  the  public  service  has  become  so  great  that  I 
understand  there  are  altogether  in  the  neighborhood  of  14,764  names 
upon  the  pay-rolls  in  the  various  departments  of  the  city,  and  the 
number  of  applicants  for  office  is  perhaps  greater  in  Chicago,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  places  to  be  filled,  than  anywhere  else  in  the 
world.  In  proportion  to  the  number  of  inhabitants,  we  have  more 
people  who  want  to  serve  their  country  by  drawing  a  salary  from  it 
than  are  found  anywhere  else.  The  work  is  light  and  easy,  and  the 
pay  is  usually  about  twice  what  the  same  amount  of  work  would  com- 
mand outside.  When,  therefore,  all  these  applicants  for  place  seek 
to  reach  the  Mayor,  and  get  all  their  friends,  political  or  otherwise,  to 
go  and  see  him  in  their  behalf,  it  makes  an  innumerable  multitude, 
and  if  the  Mayor  gives  a  minute's  audience  to  each,  it  takes  so  much 
of  his  time  that  he  cannot  attend  to  public  business,  and  it  makes  such 
a  drain  upon  his  vitality  that  he  will  not  be  in  a  condition  to  attend 
to  public  business. 

And  here,  as  it  formerly  was  in  the  federal  service,  the  fact  that 
there  may  be  no  vacancy  does  not  stop  the  importuning  for  place. 
Every  alderman,  every  man  who  thinks  he  has  influence,  has  some 
friend,  or  some  relative,  or  some  political  hustler,  for  whom  he  must 


THE  CIVIL  SERVICE  LAW.  725 

get  a  job.  Some  years  ago  I  went  to  the  City  Hall,  and  I  found  the 
corridor  packed  with  men  from  one  end  to  the  other,  and  the  stair- 
ways were  filled  with  men,  all  waiting  to  get  in  to  see  the  Mayor.  I 
was  told  that  this  had  been  the  condition  for  weeks.  The  people  of 
this  city  began  to  realize  that  something  must  be  done  to  meet  this 
situation  and  to  correct  this  abuse,  and  various  remedies  were  sug- 
gested. 

In  my  first  message  to  the  Legislature,  four  years  ago,  I  sug- 
gested that  some  reasonable  steps  should  be  taken  in  this  matter.  Two 
years  ago  I  again  urged  it.  Finally  some  bills  were  presented,  one  of 
which  I  was  told  had  been  drawn  under  the  direction  of  the  Civic 
Federation.  It  was  a  long  bill,  and  provided  for  the  creation  of  a 
great  machine.  It  created  a  Civil  Service  Commission  of  three  mem- 
bers, beside  a  secretary,  each  of  whom  was  to  get  three  thousand 
dollars  a  year,  and  it  provided  for  the  appointment  of  a  limitless 
number  of  examiners,  clerks,  etc.,  all  to  be  paid.  I  objected  to  the 
creation  of  so  many  new  salaried  offices,  and  I  suggested  to  the 
gentlemen  who  favored  that  particular  bill  that  there  are  thousands 
of  public-spirited,  able  men  in  Chicago  who  would  serve  as  members 
of  that  board  and  perform  all  of  its  duties  as  a  matter  of  patriotism, 
and  without  any  compensation;  that  inasmuch  as  the  law  contem- 
plated that  the  board  should  hire  men  to  act  as  examiners  and  do  all 
that  line  of  work,  there  was  no  necessity  for  paying  such  high  salaries 
to  the  commissioners;  and  that  in  fact,  if  men  were  appointed  who 
acted  solely  for  the  honor  of  holding  such  a  position  and  from  a  sense 
of  duty  to  their  country,  we  would  get  the  very  highest  grade  of 
service  possible.  But  the  gentlemen  who  represented  the  bill  ob- 
jected. They  wanted  it  passed  just  as  it  was.  They  wanted  a  salaried 
board. 

Again,  the  bill  provided  that  it  should  be  submitted  to  the  voters 
of  Chicago  at  the  ensuing  spring  election,  when  a  Mayor  was  to  be 
elected,  and  that  if  adopted  by  the  people  of  Chicago,  then  the  newly 
elected  Mayor  should,  inside  of  ninety  days,  issue  a  proclamation, 
declaring  the  law  to  be  in  force,  and  it  further  provided  that  he  should 
not  issue  this  proclamation  until  forty  days  after  he  had  been  elected. 
I  objected  strenuously  to  that  provision,  and  said:  "Gentlemen,  if 
the  people  of  Chicago  adopt  the  civil  service  law  at  the  same  time  that 
they  elect  a  Mayor,  there  is  no  need  of  having  him  issue  a  proclama- 
tion. Let  the  law  take  effect  immediately,  so  that  the  new  administra- 
tion will  be  obliged  to  carry  the  law  out."  But  the  gentlemen  repre- 
senting this  bill  were  opposed  to  this.  They  claimed  that  the  poli- 
ticians did  not  favor  any  bill,  and  that  if  the  bill  were  to  go  into  effect 


726  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

immediately  there  might  be  such  a  combination  of  politicians  as 
would  defeat  its  adoption  by  the  people;  that  therefore  it  was  neces- 
sary to  let  it  be  understood  that  the  newly  elected  Mayor  could,  if  he 
wanted  to,  make  appointments.  But  they  said  they  believed  Mr. 
Swift  was  going  to  be  elected  Mayor,  and  that  they  knew  he  would 
enforce  the  law  at  once,  and  would  make  all  of  the  offices  at  once  sub- 
ject to  the  civil  service  law.  They  represented  that  Mr.  Swift  was 
strongly  in  favor  of  this  law.  Practically  they  vouched  for  him,  and 
that  if  he  were  elected  Mayor  no  appointments  would  be  made,  except 
through  the  civil  service  commissioners.  So  strongly  were  they  op- 
posed to  having  any  changes  made  in  the  bill  in  these  particulars,  that 
it  became  a  question  of  allowing  that  bill  to  become  a  law  or  having 
no  legislation  upon  the  subject,  and  feeling  that  some  steps  should 
be  taken  toward  correcting  the  abuses  that  existed,  I  yielded  the 
point,  and  allowed  the  bill  to  become  a  law. 

Subsequently  another  bill  was  introduced,  creating  a  civil  service 
commission  for  the  county.  It  also  provided  for  salaries  and  for  a 
complete  establishment.  That  bill  also  passed  and  became  a  law. 
At  the  city  election  which  ensued  the  civil  service  law  was  adopted 
by  the  people,  by  an  overwhelming  majority.  Mr.  Swift  was  elected 
Mayor  by  over  forty  thousand  majority.  It  was  therefore  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  merit  system  would  at  once  be  established  and  all 
vacancies  filled  after  examination  of  the  applicants.  But  instead  of 
this  being  done,  the  proclamation  necessary  to  make  the  law  in  force 
was  not  issued  until  it  had  to  be  done,  under  the  law,  and  every  po- 
sition in  the  city  service,  big  or  little,  that  had  a  salary  attached  to  it, 
was  filled  before  the  proclamation  was  issued  and  the  law  went  into 
effect. 

I  am  not  criticizing  Mr.  Swift,  for  he  had  made  me  no  promises, 
but,  gentlemen,  I  ask  you,  are  the  men  who  insisted  that  they  knew 
that  Mayor  Swift  would  enforce  this  law  at  once,  are  they  denouncing 
him  to-day  for  not  having  enforced  it?  Have  they  risen  up  and  con- 
demned him  for  his  course?  Not  at  all.  On  the  contrary,  these  men 
are  to-day  telling  us  that  unless  the  Republican  party  is  kept  in 
power,  the  civil  service  law  will  be  overthrown ! 

Let  us  go  a  step  further.  After  the  law  had  gone  into  effect,  after 
the  places  had  been  filled,  the  Mayor  was  asked  to  have  the  new  ap- 
pointees submit  to  an  examination  by  the  Civil  Service  Board.  Now, 
mind  you,  he  was  not  asked  to  discharge  them.  They  were  to  be  per- 
mitted to  hold  their  positions.  They  were  not  asked  to  retire  and  come 
in  on  the  same  level  with  others.  He  was  asked  simply  to  require 
them  to  go  and  submit  to  an  examination,  but  he  refused.  No  doubt 


THE  CIVIL  SERVICE  LAW.  727 

he  felt  that  a  great  many  of  the  fellows  who  had  been  appointed  to 
place  could  not  pass  the  examination,  for  many  of  the  Republicans 
who  had  crept  into  position  were  not  of  a  class  that  could  stand  an 
examination.  But  no  matter  what  his  reason  was,  did  the  men  who 
have  been  talking  civil  service,  who  claim,  that  they  are  the  friends  of 
civil  service,  did  they  rise  up  and  condemn  the  Mayor  to  this  com- 
munity for  his  action?  Did  they  condemn  him  for  the  fact  that  he 
not  only  ignored  the  law,  but  kicked  it  out  of  his  way?  Not  at  all. 
We  hear  some  of  these  men  now  actually  telling  the  people  of  Chicago 
that  the  Republicans  established  civil  service  here,  and  that  unless  a 
Republican  Mayor  is  elected,  the  civil  service  law  is  in  danger. 

The  newspapers  of  the  city,  controlled  by  the  Republican  party, 
have  been  telling  the  people  that  the  present  city  administration  has 
established  the  merit  system  in  this  city.  Now,  gentlemen,  why  this 
hypocrisy?  Why  this  false  pretense?  They  know  that  this  adminis- 
tration has  made  a  farce  of  civil'  service.  They  know  that  if  this  pres- 
ent city  administration  had  been  a  Democratic  administration,  and 
had  done  exactly  what  has  been  done,  the  very  air  would  ring  with 
the  condemnation  of  an  indignant  people. 

Let  us  go  a  step  further,  and  see  what  the  two  Civil  Service 
Boards  of  the  city  have  accomplished,  and  what  they  have  cost  the 
public.  The  law  went  into  force  the  first  day  of  July,  1895,  and  up 
to  the  first  day  of  January,  1897,  had  been  in  force  a  year  and  six 
months.  During  that  time  the  City  Civil  Service  Board  had  expended 
$13,709.00  in  1895,  and  $30,970.00  in  1896.  The  County  Board  has 
published  no  report,  but  it  has  cost  the  people  of  Cook  County  over 
forty  thousand  dollars  a  year  to  maintain  these  two  machines.  For 
this  year  the  City  Board  asked  $55,000.00  and  has  been  granted  $35,- 
ooo.oo.  I  have  here  copies  of  the  reports  of  the  City  Civil  Service 
Board  which  show  that  this  board  held  37  meetings  during  the  year 
1896.  The  minutes  are  published  complete,  and  show  that  the  ses- 
sions as  a  rule  must  have  been  very  short.  Generally  the  board  met 
at  n  o'clock,  and  after  transacting  a  very  little  business,  adjourned. 
Sometimes  it  met  at  three  or  four  o'clock,  and  the  record  shows  that 
in  most  instances  after  a  motion  or  two,  on  some  minor  matter,  was 
passed,  the  board  adjourned.  Judging  from  the  work  done,  as  shown 
by  these  minutes,  I  should  say  that  the  board  did  not  spend  one 
hundred  hours  during  that  year,  on  the  civil  service,  but  each  member 
received  $3,000.00,  or  at  the  rate  of  $30.00  per  hour,  for  the  time  he 
gave  the  public.  Or,  if  you  take  it  per  meeting,  dividing  $3,000.00  by 
37,  you  find  that  each  of  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners  got  about 
$81.00  per  meeting,  that  is,  each  meeting  cost  about  $324.00.  So  you 


728  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

see  that  civil  service  has  been  a  very  profitable  business  for  a  number 
of  gentlemen.  To  be  sure  it  will  be  claimed  that  they  laid  awake 
nights  and  thought  about  the  civil  service — but  mind,  they  hire  all 
the  work  done,  and  each  of  these  gentlemen  carries  on  a  private  busi- 
ness. The  great  institutions  of  the  State  are  in  charge,  as  a  rule,  of 
boards  that  serve  solely  for  the  honor,  and  any  one  of  them  calls  for 
more  work  and  time  at  the  hands  of  the  board  than  this  civil  service 
requires  at  the  hands  of  the  commissioners.  And  I  now  repeat  that 
these  high  salaries  to  the  commissioners  and  to  the  secretary,  are  ut- 
terly unnecessary,  and  illustrate  the  general  tendency  of  the  Republican 
party  to  treat  the  public  like  a  mule  to  be  ridden  or  a  sheep  to  be 
shorn. 

During  the  year  1896  the  County  Commissioners  of  Civil  Service 
each  drew  $1,500.00  salary,  and  they  seem  to  have  had  so  little  to  do, 
aside  from  going  once  a  month  to  get  their  checks,  that  they  have  not 
even  deemed  it  worth  while  to  publish  a  report  of  their  proceedings. 

Now  let  us  see  what  are  the  results  achieved.  While  the  law  was 
clearly  intended  to  apply  only  to  cases  of  clerkships  and  other  offices 
where  the  employment  is  permanent,  yet  in  describing  its  scope  the 
word  "labor"  was  used  in  one  or  two  places,  and  it  has  been  con- 
strued so  as  to  embrace  all  labor,  skilled  and  unskilled,  and  the  board 
has  divided  the  applicants  for  examination  into  two  classes.  One  it 
styles  "Official  Service,"  and  the  other  it  calls  "Labor  Service."  The 
first  embraces  all  cases  that  I  think  the  Legislature  intended  to  cover, 
as  I  do  not  believe  it  was  the  intention  of  the  Legislature,  or  even  of 
the  framers  of  the  bill,  that  laborers,  whether  skilled  or  unskilled, 
who  are  not  permanently  employed,  who  are  called  in  only  as  neces- 
sity requires,  should  be  governed  by  the  civil  service  law.  However, 
the  commission  has  acted  upon  the  theory  that  they  are  to  be  ex- 
amined. 

I  hold  here  a  report  of  the  commission.  This  report  shows  that 
during  the  year  1896  the  board  passed  712  applicants  in  the  official 
service;  that  during  that  time  it  examined  and  passed  1,717  persons 
in  the  labor  service,  skilled  and  unskilled ;  that  667  were  certified  for 
the  purpose  of  filling  positions  in  the  official  service  and  729  laborers 
were  certified.  Taking  $31,000.00  which  the  board  expended  last 
year,  and  dividing  it  by  the  number  that  were  certified,  it  gives  $22.25 
as  the  cost  to  the  public  for  every  person,  skilled  and  unskilled,  cer- 
tified by  the  commission  for  appointment  in  that  year.  Or  if  you  say 
that  is  not  fair,  that  it  ought  to  get  credit  for  all  that  it  examines  and 
passes,  then  divide  the  $31.000.00  by  712,  the  total  number  of  those 
examined  and  passed  for  positions  other  than  labor,  and  it  gives 


THE  CIVIL  SERVICE  LAW.  729 

$43.50  as  the  cost  to  the  public  for  every  person  that  is  examined  and 
passed  in  the  clerical  or  official  service.  If  you  add  laborers,  it  makes 
$12.75  Per  head. 

It  is  alleged  by  the  friends  of  some  of  these  gentlemen  who  follow 
civil  service  as  a  lucrative  business,  that  the  present  board  should  be 
continued  by  the  new  Mayor,  whoever  he  may  be.  Well,  that  is  none 
of  my  business,  and  I  certainly  shall  not  mix  in  that  matter,  but  let 
us  see  where  the  new  Mayor  will  come  out.  If  the  work  done  by 
the  commissioners  last  year  is  a  fair  specimen  of  their  ability  and 
industry,  then  in  order  to  fill  all  of  the  places  that  are  subject  to  the 
civil  service,  it  would  take  over  six  years  to  supply  enough  men, 
both  in  the  official  and  in  the  labor  service.  In  other  words,  the  new 
Mayor  would  serve  his  term  out,  two  of  his  successors  would  serve 
their  terms,  and  there  would  still  be  a  host  of  the  politicians  whom 
Kent  and  Perry  Hull  succeeded  in  placing  in  positions  without  exami- 
nations holding  office  in  the  City  Hall. 

This  is  the  scheme  of  the  Republicans;  the  scheme  of  the  men 
who  make  a  loud  pretense  of  being  civil  service  reformers,  who  com- 
plain of  the  "action  of  the  machine,"  and  yet  uniformly  give  the  ma- 
chine their  support  and  want  a  course  pursued  which  will  keep  the 
machine  still  in  possession  in  the  City  Hall,  no  matter  who  is  elected 
Mayor. 

Look  around  and  see  from  whence  the  opposition  to  civil  service 
law  comes.  Only  a  few  weeks  ago,  Mr.  Grosvenor  of  Ohio,  who 
seems  to  be  the  leader  of  the  Republicans  in  Congress,  arose  in  his 
place  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and  fiercely  assailed 
the  whole  civil  service  system.  Another  prominent  Republican  of  the 
House  expressed  similar  views,  and  only  a  few  days  ago,  two  of  the 
most  distinguished  Republican  senators  arose  in  their  places  in  the 
United  States  Senate  and  denounced  the  whole  civil  service  system. 
That  is  the  way  they  regard  it  at  Washington.  Cast  your  eye  toward 
Springfield,  and  you  will  find  that  the  Republicans  in  the  Legislature 
of  Illinois  are  endeavoring  to  defeat  the  operation  of  the  law  by 
the  passage  of  a  bill  that  shall  keep  all  of  the  appointees  that  are  now 
in  the  City  Hall  in  their  places  for  all  time,  although  none  of  them 
were  examined  or  hold  places  on  their  merits. 

The  cold  truth  is  that  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  are 
opposed  to  the  civil  service  system.  They  have  defeated  its  operation 
here  in  Chicago  by  simply  ignoring  and  disregarding  it.  They  attack 
it  in  Washington.  They  are  seeking  to  prostitute  it  at  Springfield. 
Whenever  the  Democrats  are  in  power,  then  you  hear  Republicans 
talk  civil  service,  but  the  very  moment  that  they  get  into  power,  just 


730  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

that  moment  they  spit  upon  it.  The  action  of  a  number  of  Republi- 
cans in  this  city,  posing  as  friends  of  civil  service,  and  pretending  that 
it  will  be  in  danger  if  Mr.  Harrison  were  elected,  is  an  insult  to  the 
intelligence  of  our  people. 

We  seem  to  have  hit  upon  an  era  of  corruption,  hypocrisy,  and 
false  pretense.  In  the  early  history  of  the  Republican  party  it  stood 
for  principle.  There  was  no  false  pretense  about  Lincoln  and  his  sup- 
porters, but  to-day  it  stands  for  everything  that  is  destructive  of  man- 
hood and  destructive  of  republican  institutions.  Nothing  is  sacred  in 
its  eyes.  It  stands  for  personal  advantage  and  for  public  plunder. 
All  of  its  policies  and  all  of  its  actions  are  shaped  solely  with  reference 
to  enabling  a  few  to  eat  the  substance  of  the  many,  and  trnre  is  not  a 
pore  in  the  entire  body  politic  but  what  has  a  dozen  Republicans 
standing  around  it  and  seeking  to  draw  blood  from  it. 

Last  fall  this  nation  witnessed  the  spectacle  of  seeing  the  press 
bribed,  the  religious  journals  degraded,  the  pulpit  prostituted,  and  the 
American  flag  debauched,  all  in  the  name  of  an  honest  dollar.  That 
grand  old  American  flag  that  has  commanded  the  respect  of  nations 
and  has  been  looked  to  by  the  oppressed  of  all  lands,  was  dragged 
in  the  mud  and  reduced  to  a  mere  advertising  sheet.  All  classes  of  peo- 
ple were  sought  to  be  deluded  and  deceived.  Every  form  of  deception, 
every  form  of  coercion,  moral,  financial  and  otherwise,  was  practiced; 
all  for  the  sake  of  turning  the  government  over  to  a  class  of  men  who 
wanted  to  use  it  for  their  private  ends  at  the  expense  of  the  people,  and 
who  wanted  to  perpetuate  a  financial  policy  that  is  ruining  our  coun- 
try; who  wanted  to  perpetuate  a  theory  of  government  that  exalts 
the  dollar  and  destroys  the  man.  It  was  the  most  gigantic  confidence 
game  ever  practiced  upon  the  American  people,  and  all  this  was  done 
in  the  name  of  patriotism.  When,  early  in  the  century,  that  English- 
man declared  that  "patriotism  was  the  last  resource  of  scoundrels,"  he 
little  thought  that  he  was  giving  an  accurate  description  of  the  conduct 
of  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  year  1896.  One  of  the 
most  noticeable  things  in  our  country  for  some  time  has  been  the 
fact  that  those  men  who  deliberately  plan  to  plunder  the  people  always 
shield  themselves  behind  the  American  flag. 

We  are  confronted  with  a  new  issue.  The  time  is  come  for 
the  American  people  to  assert  their  manhood  and  to  put  an  end  to 
this  detestable  hypocrisy.  The  time  is  at  hand  for  the  people  of 
Chicago  to  go  to  the  polls  and  record  their  condemnation  of  these 
efforts  to  practice  a  great  confidence  game  upon  them  a  second  time. 
In  about  two  weeks  Carter  H.  Harrison  will  be  sworn  in  as  Mayor  of 
Chicago,  and  I  believe  that  the  reins  of  government  in  this  city  have 


THE  CIVIL  SERVICE  LAW.  731 

never  been  held  by  a  firmer  hand  than  will  control  them  for  the  next 
two  years. 

I  believe  that  Mr.  Harrison  has  more  manhood  and  honesty  of 
purpose  in  his  little  finger  than  you  will  find  in  a  regiment  of  those 
pharisees  who  fill  the  air  with  a  pretense  of  righteousness  and  then 
help  to  foster  iniquity.  A  class  of  men  who  tolerate  every  form  of 
abuse  provided  they  or  their  friends  are  getting  the  benefit  of  it. 

The  German  people  have  the  reputation  of  being  a  candid  people 
and  upon  the  whole  an  honest  people,  who  detest  hypocrisy  and 
Pharisaism.  There  is,  therefore,  a  peculiar  fitness  in  supporting  Mr. 
Harrison,  for  in  so  doing  you  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that 
you  are  not  joining  in  a  movement  to  deceive  and  gull  the  people  of 
Chicago,  and  let  me  say  to  those  gentlemen  who  supported  Mr.  Bryan 
in  the  last  campaign,  that  Mr.  Harrison  is  the  only  man  whom  you  can 
consistently  support  at  the  coming  election.  By  your  course  in  the 
last  campaign,  you  demonstrated  to  the  world  that  you  are  not  hypo- 
crits;  that  you  are  not  pharisees;  that  you  are  not  pretenders;  that 
you  are  not  mere  birds  of  prey  seeking  carrion,  for  that  class  of  men 
did  not  rally  to  the  support  of  Mr.  Bryan,  they  supported  the  Re- 
publican party  and  its  one-eyed  servant  girl,  known  as  the  Palmer 
movement.  The  denunciation  and  vulgar  abuse  heaped  upon  the 
supporters  of  Mr.  Bryan  and  the  friends  of  genuine  reform,  by  the 
forces  of  corruption  and  polished  rottenness  was  so  great  that  it  re- 
quired strength  of  character  to  stand  by  him.  The  weaklings,  the 
hirelings,  the  hangers-on,  the  lobbyists  and  the  vultures  remained  in 
that  camp,  which  furnished  the  most  fleshpots,  and  it  is  gratifying  to 
know  that  the  forces  that  rallied  around  the  Democratic  standard  last 
fall  in  support  of  the  rights  of  the  great  people  of  this  country  are 
standing  as  firm  as  the  heroes  of  Thermopylae.  I  do  not  wish  to  say 
anything  unkind  of  any  of  the  candidates.  I  do  not  care  to  notice 
their  personalities,  but  I  ask  you  to  look  at  the  men  who  are  back  of 
them.  It  is  true  they  are  divided.  It  is  true  they  are  calling  each 
other  names.  But,  gentlemen,  they  are  the  same  men  who  have 
helped  to  bring  about  the  conditions  we  see  in  this  city  to-day.  Let 
any  of  the  supporters  of  either  of  the  other  three  candidates  shape 
the  policies  and  control  the  administration  and  what  may  you  reason- 
ably expect  in  the  future?  It  is  claimed  that  Mr.  Harlan  is  saying 
some  splendid  things  on  the  stump.  Very  well!  Whose  candidate 
is  Mr.  Harlan?  The  candidate  of  the  newspaper.  There  is  to-day  no 
agency  in  American  politics  that  is  so  fiercely  hungry,  so  thoroughly 
unscrupulous,  so  absolutely  destitute  of  every  principle  of  honor  as 
the  great  newspapers  of  this  country,  and  God  has  not  yet  made  the 


732  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

man  who  can  do  anything  great  or  good  for  this  city  or  this  republic 
.while  guided  by  their  influence. 

Again,  in  recent  years  there  has  developed  a  spirit  of  political  in- 
dependence among  some  of  our  people.  This  in  itself  is  highly  com- 
mendable, but  the  Republicans  who  have  shown  themselves  able  to 
prostitute  and  pollute  everything  in  this  country,  from  the  courts  to 
the  pulpit,  from  the  flag  down  to  the  school-house,  for  partisan  pur- 
poses have  found  a  method  of  harnessing  these  independent  people 
and  in  the  end  tying  them  to  the  Republican  gate  post.  They  or- 
ganize associations  known  first  by  one  name  and  then  by  another 
which  pretend  to  be  non-partisan  and  independent  and  in  which  they 
put  about  half  a  dozen  men  who  have  called  themselves  Democrats. 
This  keeps  up  the  appearance  of  things,  but  the  Republicans  always 
see  to  it  that  the  management  and  direction  is  kept  absolutely  in  their 
hands,  and  whenever  a  campaign  is  on,  this  organization  moves  along 
the  line  of  independence  just  far  enough  to  get  control  of  as  many 
independent  men  as  possible  and  then,  by  gradual  steps  and  under  the 
claim  of  emergency,  they  manage  to  land  nearly  the  whole  net-full 
of  fish  into  the  Republican  boat. 

You  have  in  this  city  now  what  is  called  "The  Voters  League," 
which  assumes  to  tell  the  people  who  are  the  right  men  to  elect 
aldermen,  and  an  examination  of  its  list  shows  that  just  about  four  out 
of  every  five  of  the  men  whom  it  recommends  are  Republicans.  It  is 
only  here  and  there  that  a  Democrat  is  found  who  is  sufficiently  mild 
and  harmless  to  secure  the  support  of  this  so-called  "Non-partisan 
League."  You  need  not  go  into  an  analysis  of  the  work  done  by 
these  people.  A  mere  glance  at  its  recommendations  discloses  the 
false  pretense  of  it  all.  If  the  managers  of  such  movements  were 
candid  and  were  to  openly  declare  that  they  were  Republicans  and 
were  working  in  the  interests  of  the  party,  one  could  respect  them; 
yea,  more,  one  could  admire  them  for  the  shrewdness  and  tact  with 
which  they  succeed  in  catching  votes  that  could  not  otherwise  be  had. 
Gentlemen,  do  not  be  deceived  by  that  kind  of  tactics.  You  are  as 
capable  of  judging  whom  you  want  to  represent  you  as  is  a  man  who 
is  placed  at  the  head  of  a  non-partisan  league  by  Republican  manipula- 
tion. If  a  Democrat  were  to  set  himself  upon  a  pedestal  and  attempt 
to  tell  the  voters  of  Chicago  just  exactly  whom  they  should  support 
and  whom  they  should  avoid,  he  would  be  covered  with  ridicule. 

Now,  my  fellow  citizens,  this  election  is  one  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance to  all,  because  it  determines  what  kind  of  conditions  shall 
surround  us  here  during  the  next  two  years.  It  determines  whether 
we  shall  have  a  pharisaical  and  hypocritical  rule,  thoroughly  rotten, 


SPEECH  AT  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.  733 

or  whether  we  shall  have  a  straightforward,  manly  administration  of 
public  affairs,  and  to  those  of  my  fellow  citizens  who  stood  together 
for  the  cause  of  humanity,  the  cause  of  the  great  toilers  of  this 
country  in  the  last  political  struggle,  this  campaign  is  of  far  reaching 
importance.  Great  reforms  are  never  won  easily.  They  require  many 
struggles  and  many  hardships.  They  require  constant  discipline  of 
the  armies  that  are  fighting  the  battle  of  justice.  This  campaign,  no 
matter  how  it  results,  should  line  up  the  forces  of  bimetallism  shoulder 
to  shoulder  and  prepare  them  for  the  achievement  in  the  years  to  come 
of  a  victory  for  justice  and  humanity,  a  victory  which  shall  put  an  end 
to  the  canonizing  of  the  dollar  and  the  enslavement  of  the  human 
race. 


SPEECH  AT  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.,  JULY  5,  1897. 

(Established  society  always  supports  existing  wrongs  and  denounces  every 
effort  at  reform  as  unpatriotic.) 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

For  more  than  one  hundred  years  the  American  people  have  cele- 
brated the  anniversary  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  For  years 
it  was  a  day  of  universal  rejoicing.  Gradually,  as  the  country  passed 
through  different  crises,  it  became  also  a  day  of  retrospection;  men 
studied  the  experience  of  yesterday  in  order  to  meet  the  problems  of 
to-morrow.  To-day  a  continent  is  crowning  the  heroes  of  1776.  Let 
us,  with  uncovered  heads,  join  in  that  coronation. 

To-day  the  most  wonderful  nation  on  earth  is  in  distress.  Its 
children  are  suffering,  and  its  foundation  stones  are  slipping  away. 
May  we  not  ask  the  reason  why? 

In  the  affairs  of  man,  as  in  nature,  there  is  no  fixed  status.  Every- 
where there  is  motion;  there  is  either  growth  or  there  is  disinte- 
gration. 

In  the  economic  and  governmental  arrangements  there  has  been 
a  steady  advancement.  The  forms  and  appliances  of  one  age  being 
inadequate  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  next,  man  has  from  time  to  time 
had  to  deal  with  new  conditions.  Progress  and  prosperity  rewarded 
him  when  he  succeeded;  decay  and  death  claimed  him  when  he  failed. 
All  progress  and  growth  have  come  from  below ;  evolution  works  from 
the  bottom  and  never  from  the  top.  In  society  and  in  government 
there  is  constantly  forming  at  the  top  a  crust  which  tends  to  repress 
all  there  is  beneath,  and  tends  to  check  progress.  Established  wrongs 
and  legalized  injustice  are  always  imbedded  in  this  crust.  Reform  is 


734  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

simply  an  effort  to  improve  a  condition  or  right  a  wrong,  and  every 
reform  ever  carried  out  had  to  force  its  way  through  this  crust. 

I  am  not  here  to  denounce — nothing  is  so  idle  or  so  foolish  as 
mere  denunciation.  It  accomplishes  nothing.  On  the  other  hand,  to 
shut  our  eyes  to  danger  means  death.  We  must  deal  with  conditions 
as  we  find  them,  and  to  act  wisely  we  must  know  the  facts. 

What  is  the  lesson  of  our  career,  and  what  is  the  duty  of  every 
patriot  to-day? 

Let  us  glance  back  over  the  last  century,  the  most  eventful  in  the 
history  of  man.  Let  us  read  the  inscriptions  which  that  century  has 
written  on  the  bulletin  boards  of  the  nations. 

Where  were  the  fountains  of  patriotism?  What  were  the  forces 
that  made  us  great?  Whose  were  the  voices  raised  for  freedom? 
Whose  were  the  hands  that  smote  for  human  rights,  and  whose  were 
the  lives  that  were  offered  on  the  altar  of  liberty? 

Nearly  every  nation  celebrates  the  anniversary  of  its  birthday. 
But  as  a  rule  they  commemorate  only  the  deliverance  from  some  for- 
eign oppression.  They  commemorate  only  the  substitution  of  a  home 
yoke  for  a  foreign  one,  and  are  of  little  interest  to  mankind. 

We  celebrate  not  simply  the  release  from  foreign  oppression,  but 
the  promulgation  of  a  new  principle  which  is  destined  to  lift  up  the 
whole  human  race. 

For  the  first  time  a  government  was  founded  on  the  principle  that 
all  men  are  born  equal,  and  that  governments  derive  their  just  pow- 
ers from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  as  expressed  by  the  majority. 

The  visions  of  philosophers,  even  the  songs  of  the  poets,  had  be- 
come reality. 

How  did  the  Old  World  receive  this  declaration?  With  a  con- 
temptuous sneer.  Kings  denounced  it;  the  clergy  condemned  it; 
the  wealthy  and  fashionable  ridiculed  it;  the  office-holding  class  jeered 
at  it. 

Lord  Mansfield  solemnly  decided  that  Parliament  could  rightfully 
tax  the  colonies  without  giving  them  representation. 

How  did  the  New  World  receive  it?  When  the  agitation  in  behalf 
of  independence  began  in  the  colonies,  the  official  classes,  the  clergy, 
the  monied  classes,  and  what  was  then  called  "fashionable  society," 
as  a  rule  were  tories,  and  adhered  to  English  interests.  The  men 
who  advocated  independence  were  denounced  as  irresponsible  agita- 
tors. The  men  who  were  clearing  the  forests  and  building  a  State,  were 
ready  to  die  for  liberty,  and  favored  independence;  but  the  influential 
classes  were  opposed  to  it. 

When  Patrick  Henry  uttered  the  famous  words,  "give  me  liberty 


SPEECH  AT  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.  735 

or  give  me  death,'1  in  the  Assembly  of  Virginia,  nearly  half  of  the 
members  taunted  him  with  treason. 

When  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  read  in  the  Court 
House  yard  in  Philadelphia  on  July  4th,  1776,  a  writer  who  adhered 
to  the  influential  classes  was  present,  and  in  giving  an  account  of  it, 
he  stated  with  apparent  satisfaction  that  there  were  very  few  people 
of  any  respectability  in  the  crowd  that  listened  to  the  reading  of  the 
document. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  all  times  men  who  profit  by  wrong, 
or  seek  the  smile  of  injustice,  assume  an  air  of  superiority.  But  their 
names  are  never  stamped  on  any  roll  of  honor  and  no  tears  moisten 
their  graves.  Fortunately,  the  marching  columns  of  humanity  go 
forward  ignoring  the  existence  of  such  men. 

The  reading  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  that  common 
crowd  in  that  court  house  yard  was  one  of  the  most  momentous  events 
in  the  annals  of  this  world,  and  when  the  last  sound  of  the  bell  had 
died  away  over  the  hills  of  Pennsylvania  a  new  era  had  been  born. 
The  common  people  had  spoken,  and  principle  had  triumphed.  The 
men  who  toil  had  not  only  founded  a  new  nation,  but  they  had  created 
a  light  that  was  to  gladden  the  earth.  Had  the  powerful  and  influen- 
tial classes  triumphed,  this  republic  would  not  have  been  born.  Every 
European  nation  would  to-day  be  owning  parts  of  North  America. 
No  star  of  liberty  would  ever  have  crossed  the  firmament  of  the  na- 
tions or  aroused  the  spirits  of  men. 

We  will  not  dwell  on  the  long,  weary  struggle  that  followed.  You 
are  familiar  with  it. 

HAMILTON    AND   JEFFERSON. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  war  there  were  two  great  political  par- 
ties in  the  country,  the  Federalists  and  the  Democrats,  then  called 
Republicans.  The  very  wealthy,  the  powerful  and  the  fashionable, 
were  Federalists,  while  the  great  masses  of  the  people  who  were  doing 
the  nation's  work,  adhered  to  the  Republicans.  The  Federalists  wanted 
a  splendid  central  government  modeled  after  the  English  government, 
with  aristocratic  and  monarchical  features;  the  Republicans  wanted  a 
government  possessing  all  necessary  powers,  but  one  that  should  be 
free  from  those  features  that  made  European  government  a  curse. 
They  believed  that  government  to  be  best  which  interfered  as  little 
as  possible  with  the  freedom  of  the  individual. 

Hamilton  and  Jefferson  were  the  respective  representatives  of  these 
two  opposing  forces.  The  former  has  been  described  as  a  young  man 
of  33,  who  tried  to  introduce  the  English  system.  He  claimed  that 


736  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

government  was  an  affair  of  the  rich;  that  government  should  take 
care  of  the  rich,  and  let  the  rich  take  care  of  the  poor. 

Jefferson  said:  "Nay,  it  is  the  business  of  the  government  to  do 
equal  justice  to  all  men,  and  to  grant  special  privileges  to  none." 

Hamilton  said:  "The  people  cannot  be  trusted  to  govern  them- 
selves. Only  a  special  class  should  be  intrusted  with  government." 

Jefferson  said:  "The  people  can  be  trusted,  and  they  are  capable 
of  governing  themselves.  Let  the  same  hands  that  do  a  nation's 
work,  and  create  a  nation's  wealth,  also  guide  a  nation's  government, 
and  all  will  be  well." 

Hamilton  said:  "Hug  the  shore,  and  follow  the  example  of  Euro- 
pean nations." 

Jefferson,  with  eyes  fixed  on  the  sunlit  peaks  of  the  future,  cried: 
"Nay,  yonder  lies  the  ocean  of  freedom.  Steer  out  upon  it.  Keep 
away  from  the  rocks  and  the  debris  which  the  centuries  of  ignorance 
and  injustice  have  strewn  near  the  shore;  steer  for  the  haven  of 
human  rights,  the  haven  of  equal  justice;  steer  for  the  great  harbor 
of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  and  glorious  will  be  your  career." 

Jefferson  was  denounced  as  a  demagogue,  while  wealth,  rapacity 
and  privilege  applauded  Hamilton. 

Let  me  say  here,  that  no  man,  in  any  country  or  any  age,  ever 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  toiler  or  raised  his  voice  for  the  common 
people  without  being  denounced  as  a  demagogue. 

After  the  Constitution  had  been  adopted,  Hamilton  trusted  that 
some  future  crisis  might  force  the  government  to  become  more  and 
more  like  the  English  model.  He  favored  life  tenure  in  office. 

Jefferson  opposed  life  tenure,  and  wanted  every  official  made  di- 
rectly responsible  to  the  people,  and  with  a  vision  that  was  awfully 
prophetic  declared  that  the  liberties  of  the  American  people  were  in 
danger  of  being  ultimately  destroyed  by  the  federal  judiciary.  Of 
this  he  said:  "It  has  long  been  my  opinion  that  the  germ  of  dissolu- 
tion of  our  federal  government  is  in  the  constitution  of  the  federal 
judiciary,  an  irresponsible  body  working  like  gravity  by  day  and  by 
night, '  gaining  a  little  to-day  and  a  little  to-morrow  and  advancing 
its  noiseless  step  like  a  thief  over  the  field  of  jurisdiction  until  all  shall 
be  usurped."  Again,  in  writing  to  a  friend,  he  said:  "You  seem  to 
consider  the  judges  as  the  ultimate  arbiters  of  all  constitutional  ques- 
tions. A  very  dangerous  doctrine  indeed,  and  one  which  would  place 
us  under  the  despotism  of  an  oligarchy.  Our  judges  are  as  honest 
as  other  men,  and  not  more  so.  They  have,  with  others,  the  same 
passions  for  party,  for  power,  and  the  privilege  of  their  corps:  and 
their  power  is  the  more  dangerous,  as  they  are  in  office  for  life,  and  not 


SPEECH  AT  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.  737 

responsible  as  the  other  functionaries  are  to  the  electors'  control.  The 
Constitution  has  erected  no  such  tribunal,  knowing  that  to  whatever 
hands  confided,  with  the  corruption  of  time  and  of  party,  its  members 
would  become  despots." 

During  the  administration  of  Washington  the  general  policy  was 
Federalistic;  but  he  prevented  excesses.  Both  Hamilton  and  Jefferson 
were  in  his  cabinet. 

During  the  administration  of  John  Adams  Federalistic  theories  ran 
wild.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  became  a  string  of  merely 
high-sounding  but  meaningless  phrases.  Legislation  was  enacted 
which  gave  the  President  powers  not  possessed  by  the  King  of  Eng- 
land. Small  men  in  office  exercised  the  powers  of  European  poten- 
tates. It  looked  as  if  the  end  of  civil  liberty  had  already  come;  as 
if  the  American  people  had  simply  thrown  off  a  foreign  yoke  to  wear 
a  more  galling  home  yoke.  The  young  republic  had  come  to  a  fork 
in  the  road.  It  was  a  momentous  hour,  not  only  in  the  history  of  the 
government  but  of  the  human  race. 

On  the  one  side  were  the  classes,  standing  for  privilege  and  greed, 
led  by  Hamilton  and  supported  by  the  federal  courts.  On  the  other 
were  the  masses,  representing  the  toil,  the  sinew,  and  the  patriotism 
of  the  country,  led  by  Jefferson. 

Jefferson  triumphed.  It  was  the  second  victory  for  free  govern- 
ment. A  victory  of  the  people  over  those  who  devour  the  substance 
of  the  people.  It  was  this  triumph  that  determined  the  course  of  the 
republic  and  gave  it  its  wonderful  career.  It  was  this  triumph  that 
made  our  country  the  hope  of  the  oppressed  of  all  lands,  and  brought 
to  our  shores  that  brain,  and  that  muscle,  that  industry,  energy  and 
enterprise  which  helped  to  transform  the  continent.  It  is  honest  toil 
that  founds  States  and  builds  cities. 

We  cannot  stop  to  study  the  events  of  the  next  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury, which  all  teach  the  same  lesson;  but  we  will  stop  a  moment  be- 
fore the  figure  of  Jackson,  one  of  the  most  heroic  of  all  the  nations. 
The  great  national  bank  of  that  day  had  its  branches  all  over  the  land, 
and  practically  ruled  the  country.  The  people  were  at  its  mercy. 
Its  charter  was  about  to  expire  and  it  demanded  a  renewal.  It  con- 
trolled Congress  just  as  the  money  power  controls  the  legislative 
bodies  of  to-day.  It  controlled  the  federal  courts  just  as  the  money 
power  controls  the  federal  courts  of  to-day.  Congress  passed  its  bill ; 
the  court  held  it  to  be  constitutional.  Mr.  Biddle,  the  president  of 
the  bank,  went  to  Jackson,  who  was  then  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  demanded  his  approval,  declaring  that  the  bank  could 
defeat  any  man  for  President. 
47 


738  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Jackson  regarded  the  bank  as  a  menace  to  the  people,  and  he 
vetoed  the  charter  on  the  ground  that  it  was  unconstitutional.  He 
then  stood  for  re-election.  The  bank  charter  became  the  issue.  Con- 
gress and  the  courts  were  on  the  side  of  the  bank.  The  politicians, 
the  newspapers  and  that  horde  of  men  whom  money  could  reach,  were 
on  its  side;  with  few  exceptions  the  rich,  the  powerful,  the  fashion- 
able, were  on  its  side.  Every  man  not  for  it  was  denounced  as  a 
demagogue  and  unworthy  of  respect.  But  the  men  who  toil  with  their 
hands  stood  by  Jackson  and  triumphed. 

It  was  the  third  great  victory  for  republican  institutions  won  by 
the  common  people  against  the  forces  of  greed  and  plunder,  and  it 
postponed  for  nearly  half  a  century  the  paralyzing  and  blighting  grip 
of  the  money  power  over  this  land. 

The  next  great  force  to  control  the  land  was  the  "slave  power." 
It  assumed  the  aggressive,  and  not  only  controlled  the  government, 
but  all  organized  society.  The  President,  Congress  and  the  federal 
judiciary  were  simply  so  many  conveniences  for  it  to  use.  The  fash- 
ionable preachers  defended  it.  Scholars  excused  it  and  society  smiled 
on  it.  Although  slavery  existed  in  less  than  half  of  the  land,  the 
men  of  the  other  half  were  under  its  fatal  spell.  But  the  new  soil  and 
the  new  time  were  bringing  forth  new  ideas. 

One  day  there  was  a  riot  in  Boston.  An  educated  man  was  pur- 
sued like  a  wild  beast  by  an  infuriated  crowd,  made  up  of  eminently 
respectable  citizens,  led  by  men  dressed  in  broadcloth. 

Do  you  ask  what  this  man  had  done  to  arouse  the  vengeance  of 
these  good  people?  He  had  dared  to  proclaim  on  the  streets  of 
Boston  that  "no  man  can  have  a  property  right  in  human  flesh  and 
blood." 

This  was  a  doctrine  too  dangerous  to  be  tolerated.  While  mur- 
derers, robbers  and  fiends  of  every  kind  were  left  to  the  law,  the  safety 
of  society  required  that  this  man  be  instantly  suppressed. 

But  the  more  rigorous  the  suppression,  the  more  the  idea  grew. 
New  apostles  came  forward.  They  were  denounced  and  persecuted 
as  agitators,  who  threatened  the  peace  and  good  order  of  society. 
The  church  condemned  them  for  questioning  God's  peculiar  institu- 
tion. Business  men  deprecated  their  doctrine  for  fear  it  might  injure 
trade.  The  rich  and  powerful  demanded  their  prosecution  on  general 
principles,  and  society  could  not  tolerate  such  dangerous  people  in  its 
drawing-rooms. 

Wendell  Phillips,  one  of  the  grandest  specimens  of  noble  man- 
hood New  England  ever  produced,  a  man  pure,  lofty,  noble  and  cul- 
tured, found  the  doors  of  society  closed  to  him. 


SPEECH  AT  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.  739 

For  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  agitation  was  carried  on.  It  would 
take  volumes  to  describe  all  the  outrages  committed  on  these  men 
and  women.  But  day  by  day  the  noble  band  grew;  they  were  im- 
prisoned, but  complained  not;  they  were  jeered,  but  heeded  not; 
they  were  egged,  but  went  on;  they  were  stoned,  but  turned  not  back. 
While  the  palaces  were  closed,  the  doors  of  the  patriotic  masses  were 
open,  and  by  1860  their  number  was  so  great  as  to  change  political 
conditions. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  nominated  for  President,  and  men  who  have 
since  helped  to  canonize  him,  then  denounced  him  as  a  demagogue 
and  a  vulgar  clown,  with  whom  no  respectable  man  could  associate; 
he  was  regarded  as  an  agitator  who  was  endangering  our  institutions. 
There  were  at  that  time  twenty-three  preachers  of  the  gospel  in  Spring- 
field, Illinois,  which  was  his  home,  and  history  has  recorded  the  fact 
that  only  three  supported  Mr.  Lincoln.  The  other  twenty  thanked 
God  daily  for  having  guided  their  feet  in  pleasant  paths,  and  they 
looked  with  mingled  contempt  and  pity  on  this  vulgar  man  who  would 
disturb  the  good  order  of  society. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected,  not  by  the  monied  interests,  "but  by  the 
common  people.  For  the  fourth  time  in  less  than  a  century  the 
toiling  masses  saved  the  day  for  liberty. 

The  slave  interests  would  not  accept  the  result.  They  assumed 
the  offensive,  and  it  was  necessary  to  make  sacrifices  to  save  the 
Union.  The  business  interests  held  back;  the  monied  classes  bought 
the  government's  bonds  at  forty  cents  on  the  dollar  and  went  home. 
Had  the  government  rested  on  these  classes,  all  would  have  been  lost. 
But  a  million  men  came  forward  and  offered  their  lives  to  defend  the 
flag.  They  came  from  the  fields,  the  shops,  the  school-houses;  they 
came  from  the  homes  of  the  husbandmen,  from  the  cottages  of  the 
artisans,  and  from  the  huts  of  the  poor.  Wall  Street  men  smelled  the 
battle  from  afar.  The  sharks  of  the  land  carried  no  muskets  and  faced 
no  bullets. 

During  the  war,  gold  left  the  country,  as  it  always  does  in  times 
of  need.  The  government  carried  on  the  war  with  paper  money,  and 
then  sold  bonds.  Paper  money,  being  all  there  was  in  circulation, 
became  the  standard  of  values  among  the  people.  Property  and  labor 
were  sold  on  this  standard;  debts  were  based  on  it;  business  adjusted 
itself  to  it.  A  bushel  of  wheat  sold  for  two  dollars,  and  all  other  prop- 
erty in  proportion.  When  the  government  sold  bonds,  it  received 
not  specie  but  paper  money,  and  at  times  it  took  over  two  dollars  of 
this  money  to  buy  one  of  specie.  A  thousand  dollar  bond  cost  on  the 


740  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

average  $500.00  in  specie.  Thus  the  bond-holder,  got  12  per  cent, 
interest  on  all  specie  invested. 

When  the  war  was  over,  an  effort  was  made  to  reduce  the  volume 
of  paper  to  a  specie  basis,  and  thus  greatly  increase  the  value  of 
bonds. 

On  this  subject,  Senator  Sherman,  in  1869,  used  this  language 
in  the  United  States  Senate:  "The  contraction  of  the  currency  is  a 
far  more  distressing  operation  than  the  senators  suppose.  Our  own 
and  other  nations  have  gone  through  that  operation  before;  it  is  not 
possible  to  take  that  voyage  without  the  sorest  distress.  To  every 
person,  except  a  capitalist  out  of  debt,  or  a  salaried  officer,  or  an 
annuitant,  it  is  a  period  of  loss,  danger,  lassitude  of  trade,  fall  of 
wages,  suspension  of  enterprise,  bankruptcy  and  disaster;  it  means 
the  fall  of  all  agricultural  productions  without  any  reduction  of  taxes. 
What  prudent  man  would  dare  to  build  a  house,  a  railroad,  a  factory, 
or  a  barn,  with  this  certain  fact  before  him?" 

Having  pictured  the  ruin  that  would  follow,  he  turned  around 
and  carried  out  this  policy  of  contraction  by  which  the  bond-holders 
were  to  get  two  dollars  of  specie  for  every  one  dollar  invested.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Treasury  reports,  the  volume  of  money  in  circulation 
was  reduced  more  than  one-half,  and  prices  of  property  fell  in  pro- 
portion. A  bushel  of  wheat  sold  for  one  dollar,  and  all  other  prop- 
erty in  proportion.  But  debts,  interest,  taxes  and  all  fixed  charges 
remained  the  same. 

The  farming  and  producing  classes  could  not  stand  it.  They 
could  no  longer  buy,  and  when  they  ceased  buying  the  mills  of 
America  ceased  running  and  business  was  paralyzed.  The  picture 
which  the  senator  had  drawn  became  an  awful  reality.  The  panic 
of  1873  was  born,  and  caused  more  ruin  and  misery  than  the  Civil 
War.  The  war  devastated  the  South;  the  panic  paralyzed  the  re- 
public. But  we  were  now  on  a  specie  basis. 

Xot  content  with  this,  the  same  forces  led  by  the  bond-holding 
classes  of  Europe,  in  1873,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  American 
people,  got  our  government  to  arbitrarily  strike  down  one  of  the 
money  metals  of  the  world.  Most  of  the  European  nations  gradually 
followed,  until  nearly  one-half  of  the  world's  money  was  destroyed  by 
the  arbitrary  acts  of  government.  Having  to  do  twice  the  work  that 
it  formerly  had  to  do,  gold  became  twice  as  important,  twice  as  many 
people  needed  it,  and  consequently  its  purchasing  power  was  gradu- 
ally doubled.  A  gold  dollar  would  buy  twice  as  much  of  the  property 
and  of  the  products  of  the  earth  as  formerly,  while  the  debts,  interest, 
taxes  and  all  fixed  charges  remained  the  same.  This  time,  the  pur- 


SPEECH  AT  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.  741 

chasing  power  of  the  farming  and  producing  classes  of  the  civilized 
world  was  destroyed. 

In  Europe,  the  effect  of  this  legislation  began  to  be  felt  very  soon 
after  the  panic  of  '73.  Here  there  were  local  causes  that  stimulated 
and  saved  us  for  a  few  years,  but  gradually  the  paralysis  caused  by 
falling  prices  spread  over  the  world,  and  resulted  in  the  complete 
break-down  of  1893.  Like  the  panic  of  '73,  it  has  been  more  ruinous, 
and  has  produced  more  misery  than  war,  and  pestilence,  and  famine 
combined. 

To-day  it  takes  four  times  as  much  of  American  products  to  pay 
a  dollar  of  interest  or  principal  of  the  national  debt  as  we  received, 
or  as  was  necessary  when  the  debt  was  created ;  and  it  takes  twice  as 
much  to  pay  any  other  debt,  or  to  pay  taxes,  or  other  fixed  charges, 
as  it  did  after  we  had  resumed  specie  payments.  At  the  close  of  the 
war,  our  national  debt  was  over  twenty-five  hundred  million  dollars. 
Since  then  the  people  have  paid  the  interest  and  about  half  of  the 
principal.  Yet  to-day,  thirty  years  after  the  close  of  the  war,  after  half 
has  been  paid,  it  will  require  twice  as  much  of  the  products  of  our 
people  to  pay  what  is  left  of  that  debt  as  would  have  been  necessary 
to  pay  it  all  at  the  beginning. 

Reflect  a  moment.  A  whole  generation  has  paid  at  that  debt  and 
has  reduced  it  by  one-half.  Yet  such  has  been  the  governmental 
policy  that  to-day  it  will  still  require  twice  as  much  of  our  products  to 
pay  the  remainder  as  would  have  been  necessary  to  pay  it  all  when  it 
was  created.  Being  a  producing  and  debtor  nation,  it  was  a  crime  to 
legislate  exclusively  in  favor  of  the  creditor  classes  of  Europe  and 
thus  destroy  the  purchasing  power  of  our  people. 

I  will  not  enter  upon  a  general  discussion  of  the  money  question, 
but  will  say  in  passing  that  every  great  abuse  is  intertwined  with  it, 
and  you  cannot  ignore  it;  for  it  fixes  the  limitations  on  enterprise 
and  material  prosperity. 

Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  the  industry  and  energy  of  the 
human  race  would  transform  this  world  into  a  garden  if  not  hampered 
by  money?  There  must  ultimately  come  a  system  of  finance  or  ex- 
change that  will  not  depend  on  chance,  will  have  a  philosophic  basis, 
and  will  not  restrict  human  effort.  But  until  this  does  come,  we 
demand  the  restoration  of  the  bimetallic  system  as  it  formerly  existed 
in  our  country,  because  it  was  the  best  thus  far  given  to  the  world. 

Effects  follow  causes  in  the  economic  and  commercial  world  as 
they  do  in  the  physical  world.  The  paralysis  of  our  country  has  been 
produced  by  certain  causes.  Not  one  of  these  causes  has  been  re- 
moved, and  so  long  as  they  exist,  they  must  continue  to  produce  the 


742  LIVE   QUESTIONS'. 

same  effects.  We  were  promised  prosperity;  it  has  not  come,  and  it 
requires  no  prophet  to  see  that  under  existing  conditions  no  perma- 
nent prosperity  can  come.  The  forces  of  destruction  are  still  at  v/ork, 
gathering  the  substance  of  the  nation  into  the  hands  of  the  few. 
The  country  is  paralyzed.  The  patient  is  told  that  if  he  would  only 
have  confidence  and  go  to  work  he  would  be  well.  But  in  spite  of 
these  assurances  he  is  unable  to  rise. 

Suppose  he  did.  Suppose  that  a  temporary  stimulant  could  create 
a  temporary  activity?  It  would  be  along  the  old  lines;  it  would  be  in 
harmony  with  those  forces  that  paralyzed  us;  it  would  be  simply  a 
continuation  of  the  process  of  making  a  few  enormously  rich  and  the 
great  masses  poor.  The  patient  would  soon  collapse  a  second  time, 
and  then  the  case  would  be  hopeless.  A  spurt  of  activity  under  Mc- 
Kinley  conditions  means  the  more  certain  death  of  free  institutions; 
it  means  that  the  poison  of  corruption  shall  go  on  until  every  organ 
in  the  body  is  destroyed. 

Again,  after  the  Civil  War,  it  was  found  that  our  industrial  and 
commercial  institutions  were  undergoing  a  change.  The  spirit  of 
concentration  and  enlargement  which  is  shaping  the  civilization  of 
the  century  was  everywhere  active.  Little  shops  gave  way  to  great 
factories;  little  stores  to  great  establishments;  little  railroads  to  great 
lines.  Everywhere  there  was  consolidation,  and  legislation  was  passed 
by  nearly  all  the  States  to  further  the  formation  of  corporations.  In 
this  way  limitless  money  could  be  concentrated  in  one  establishment 
as  it  could  not  well  under  a  partnership. 

In  one  sense  this  movement  was  beneficial;  it  tended  to  cheapen 
production  and  in  many  ways  increased  the  convenience  of  the  pub- 
lic, and  I  believe  that  it  is  yet  destined  to  be  a  blessing  to  the  world. 

But  it  brought  with  it  unforeseen  evils,  for  which  the  world  had 
made  no  preparation. 

First,  the  process  of  crushing  out,  or  consolidating,  was  carried 
so  far  that  in  time  many  of  the  most  important  industries  were  con- 
trolled by  trusts,  and  all  competition  was  destroyed.  A  few  individuals 
sitting  in  a  rear  room  could  arbitrarily  fix  the  price  of  labor  or  raw 
material  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  price  of  their  products  on  the  other. 
They  could  crush  on  the  one  hand,  and  extort  on  the  other. 

Second,  so-called  Christian  gentlemen  eagerly  accepted  from 
agents  large  sums  of  money  made  by  unscrupulous  or  corrupt  means 
when  they  themselves,  in  their  individual  business,  would  have  hesi- 
tated to  use  those  means. 

Third,  money  means  power,  and  men  controlling  vast  sums  be- 


SPEECH  AT  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.  743 

came  impatient  of  the  restraint  of  the  laws,  and  began  to  ride  over 
them  in  some  cases  and  to  evade  them  in  others. 

Fourth,  it  was  found  that  the  shortest  road  to  great  wealth  was 
through  governmental  aid,  and  accordingly  many  great  trusts  and  the 
monied  interests  made  it  their  business  to  influence  government,  na- 
tional, state  and  municipal,  in  order  to  escape  their  share  of  public 
burdens,  and  to  get  advantages  and  privileges  that  would  make  for- 
tunes. It  rarely  happens  that  a  private  individual  has  enough  interest 
in  any  matter  to  either  corrupt  a  Legislature  or  to  obtain  control  of 
all  branches  of  the  government.  The  universal  corruption  that  is 
to-day  destroying  our  country  comes  from  the  concentration  of  capi- 
tal ;  and  the  alarming  aspect  is  that  it  is  practiced  by  men  who  talk 
patriotism,  and  who  stand  high  in  the  estimation  of  the  public.  It  is 
die  to  talk  about  purifying  the  government,  so  long  as  men  of  in- 
fluence and  position  offer  vast  sums  to  corrupt  it.  Cut  off  the  hand 
that  offers  a  bribe  and  you  will  end  corruption. 

We  must  devise  some  way  of  removing  overwhelming  temptations 
on  the  one  hand,  and  of  distributing  among  all  men  the  benefits  and 
advantages  flowing  from  the  process  of  concentration. 

As  power  never  limits  itself,  we  must  find  a  method  of  curbing  it 
Let  it  be  understood,  the  American  people  are  broad  and  gen- 
They  envy  no  man  the  fruits  of  superior  effort  or  good  for- 
They  heartily  applaud  the  achievements  of  genius,  and  in  this 
broad  land  to-day  there  is  nowhere  a  voice  raised  against  the  man 
who  has  honestly  acquired  a  competency;    there  is  no  voice  raised 
the  corporations  that  confine  themselves  to  legitimate  busi- 
ness and  legitimate  methods.     The  complaint  is  against  monopoly 
against  fortunes  that  have  been  corruptly  made,  and  are  now  used  to 
ther  plunder  the  public  and  to  destroy  free  institutions     The  pro 
s  against  laws  which  enrich  some  at  the  expense  of  others     The 
idictment  runs,  not  against  capital,  but  the  criminal  use  of  it     It  is 
not  wealth,  but  the  abuse  of  it,  that  is  working  our  destruction 

Look  at  the  situation!    Lobbyists  and  corruptionists  sit  in  hi-h 
places  and  are  accounted  the  great  men  of  the  land.     Instead  of  the 
government  controlling  the  corporations,  the  corporations  run  the 
government.     Greed  makes  the  laws,  and  labor  carries  the  burden 
We  hear  of  assessors  being  bribed;   city  councils  being  owned-  legis- 
atures  being  bought,  while  Congress  registers  the  will  of  the  million- 
Men  reach  the  White  House  through  the  portals  of  banks  and 
the  higher  judgeshipii  on  a  certificate  from  the  corporations 

side     f^  COUnt7  "^  inru°  '"^  haVC  thC  higllCr  C°"rtS  been  °"  the 
>de  of  the  people,  or  of  liberty.    They  are  everywhere  the  exponents 


744  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

and  defenders  of  that  force  which  for  the  time  being  dominates  the 
land. 

Since  the  war  the  higher  courts  as  a  rule  have  occupied  the  same 
position  toward  the  corporations  and  money  power  that  they  formerly 
did  toward  slavery,  and  for  thirty  years  they  have  been  regarded  as 
cities  of  refuge  by  the  corporations.  In  some  respects  they  have  done 
more  to  bring  about  the  present  unhappy  conditions  than  has  Con- 
gress, for  Congress  did  occasionally  pass  a  measure  intended  for  the 
protection  and  relief  of  the  people.  But  almost  every  one  of  these 
acts  has  been  killed  by  judicial  construction. 

At  the  same  time  the  law  has  been  strained  to  deprive  the  humble 
man  of  his  liberty,  to  defeat  trial  by  jury,  and  to  destroy  the  safe- 
guards which  the  Constitution  has  thrown  around  the  citizen.  The 
darkest  forebodings  of  Jefferson  have  been  realized. 

But  these  things  should  not  discourage  our  people,  for  the  courts 
have  never  yet  permanently  stopped  human  progress.  The  colonies 
were  freed  in  spite  of  the  Chief  Justice  of  England;  Jefferson  saved 
the  liberties  of  the  American  people  in  spite  of  the  federal  judiciary; 
Jackson  triumphed  in  spite  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  slavery  went 
down  in  spite  of  the  decision  of  Chief  Justice  Taney. 

Again,  the  powers  of  injustice  and  oppression  do  not  relent,  and 
do  not  reason,  but  press  insolently  forward  to  their  own  destruction. 
Their  grip  never  relaxes  until  cut  loose.  England  not  only  oppressed 
but  scorned  the  colonies,  and  lost  them.  The  Federalists  would  not 
listen  to  reason  and  were  overthrown. 

The  great  bank  insisted  on  domineering  the  land,  and  it  went  down 
in  awful  rottenness.  The  slave  power  rode  roughshod  over  protest 
and  principle,  and  it  perished.  The  growing  insolence  of  corrupt 
wealth  to-day  augurs  its  speedy  downfall. 

You  ask:  "What  shall  we  do?"  My  friends,  no  mortal  can  tell 
you  long  in  advance.  The  exigencies  must  be  met  as  they  arise. 
The  great  purpose  is  to  restore  the  basic  principles  of  the  fathers,  and 
to  reverse  the  present  destructive  policies;  to  meet  the  new  needs 
of  the  times;  to  end  this  corrupt  reign  of  the  dollar,  and  substitute 
the  voice  of  the  citizen ;  to  have  the  government  control  the  corpora- 
tions, instead  of  having  the  corporations  run  the  government;  to 
restore  a  financial  system  under  which  the  world  had  prospered,  and 
which  will  not  paralyze  America  for  the  benefit  of  England:  to  pre- 
vent the  federal  courts  from  becoming  mere  conveniences  for  concen- 
trated wealth;  to  do  justice  to  the  hand  that  toils;  to  end  monopo- 
lies, whether  of  money,  land,  products,  or  privilege.  In  short,  the 


SPEECH  AT  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.  745 

purpose  is  to  maintain  free  government  among  men,  and  make  fur- 
ther progress  possible. 

The  first  thing  necessary  is  to  assert  our  manhood;  to  have  con- 
victions and  dare  to  maintain  them.  Double-headed  platforms  and 
colorless  men  are  the  instruments  by  which  the  abuses  of  the  time  are 
made  possible. 

In  1776  the  fathers  said:  "We  do  not  know  just  what  the  gov- 
ernment may  have  to  do,  but  whatever  is  necessary  to  achieve  inde- 
pendence will  be  done.  We  do  not  know  whether  there  will  be  a  battle 
of  Bunker  Hill,  or  of  Yorktown,  but  we  will  cither  fill  the  graves  of 
the  conquered  or  live  the  lives  of  freemen." 

In  1860  the  Northern  patriots  said:  "We  do  not  know  whether 
the  government  will  issue  paper  money,  or  enact  tariff  laws,  but 
whatever  is  necessary  will  be  done.  We  do  not  know  whether  there 
will  be  a  Bull  Run,  a  Vicksburg,  a  Gettysburg  or  an  Appomattox, 
but  we  will  maintain  this  republic  or  sleep  in  Southern  graves." 

To-day,  if  asked  whether  the  government  will  take  the  railroads 
or  establish  referendum,  say  you  do  not  know,  but  that  every  step 
which  may  become  necessary  to  save  free  government  and  restore 
happiness  in  this  land  will  be  taken;  say  that  if  necessary  to  do  so, 
the  government  will  not  only  take  the  railroads,  but  every  monopoly 
and  concentration  of  property  which  interferes  with  either  the  rights 
or  the  welfare  of  the  people. 

For  a  century  representative  government  was  a  success;  it  repre- 
sented the  people.  But  new  conditions  have  arisen,  concentrated  capi- 
tal offers  temptations  too  great  for  the  average  representative  to  re- 
sist— whether  in  the  Senate  or  city  council — and  we  are  regularly  be- 
trayed. Some  men  in  both  parties  seek  office  hoping  to  be  bribed. 
Either  the  power  to  sell  us  must  be  taken  away,  or  the  temptations 
must  be  removed;  either  have  all  important  matters  submitted  to  the 
people,  or  have  the  government  take  all  railroads  and  monopolies, 
and  thus  force  the  briber  out  of  employment. 

I  do  not  care  to  discuss  remedies  to-day.  The  American  people 
will  find  a  remedy,  or  a  hundred  remedies,  when  once  aroused,  and 
no  remedy  has  any  merit  until  the  people  get  in  earnest. 

You  hear  men  say  in  light  speech  that  we  must  have  reform  or 
revolution.  My  friends,  in  this  land  revolution  can  offer  no  hope  to 
the  toiler.  It  simply  means  more  cruelty,  more  police,  and  more 
military.  It  means  a  brutal  despotism  with  more  flunkeyism  and  snob- 
bery at  the  top  and  more  misery  at  the  bottom. 

Let  us  move  along  the  line  of  evolution.    Let  the  plant  of  justice 


746  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

break  through  the  crust  by  natural  processes.  We  have  peaceable 
remedies  in  our  hands;  all  we  need  is  the  courage  to  apply  them. 

The  rescue  must  be  made  by  the  great  patriotic  masses  of  the 
people,  by  the  Democrats  of  America,  by  the  men  who  adhere  to 
republican  institutions,  no  matter  what  they  call  themselves.  From 
no  other  source  can  relief  come.  They  alone  have  saved  our  country 
in  every  past  emergency,  and  they  will  do  it  again.  We  have  now 
had  over  thirty  years  of  Hamiltonism — that  is,  government  by  the 
rich,  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  rich,  and  we  are  reaping  the  natural 
and  legitimate  harvest.  Hamiltonism  has  produced  the  same  results 
here  that  it  has  all  over  the  earth;  that  is,  great  concentration  of 
wealth  and  great  distress  among  the  people ;  and  the  most  destructive 
form  of  Hamiltonism  this  country  ever  saw,  was  endured  through  the 
two  so-called  Democratic  administrations,  the  last  of  which  has  just 
closed.  Greed  flourished,  while  the  hands  of  industry  were  held  out 
for  the  bread  of  charity.  But,  fortunately  for  mankind,  the  Almighty 
has  foreordained  a  limit  to  all  things. 

I  say,  our  country  must  be  rescued  by  the  Democrats.  But  be 
not  deceived.  Lobbyists  and  corruptionists  who  debauch  legislatures, 
or  pollute  the  stream  of  justice,  are  not  Democrats.  So-called  leaders 
who  use  their  position  in  their  party  to  assist  corporations  in  getting 
an  unfair  advantage  over  the  public,  are  not  Democrats.  Men  who 
are  ready  to  soil  their  fingers  and  sell  the  birthright  of  their  children 
for  the  sake  of  personal  gain,  are  not  Democrats.  The  word  "demo- 
crat" is  one  of  the  most  inspiring  in  the  language;  it  is  as  broad  as 
humanity,  and  no  man  is  worthy  of  it  who  has  no  higher  purpose 
than  to  get  a  personal  advantage.  Offices  must  be  filled,  and  it  is 
better  to  have  them  filled  by  men  of  conviction  and  character  than  by 
men  who  have  neither.  But  unless  there  is  a  higher  aim  and  pur- 
pose; unless  there  is  a  great  principle  to  support,  there  is  nothing 
worthy  of  the  ambition  of  an  honorable  man.  We  can  only  succeed 
through  organization,  that  is,  through  party,  and  it  is  necessary  that 
minor  differences  be  yielded  in  order  to  advance  some  great  principle. 
But  unless  a  party  stands  specifically  for  something  that  directly 
affects  the  welfare  of  humanity,  it  will  accomplish  nothing. 

For  thirty  years  our  party  has  been  a  neutral  party;  the  manip- 
ulators who  wished  to  use  it  as  a  convenience  did  not  want  it  to 
stand  for  anything. 

There  were  interests  that  seemed  to  control  both  parties;  this  was 
the  easiest  way  of  controlling  national  legislation.  Had  there  been 
a  positive,  compact  and  aggressive  minority  party  standing  for  prin- 
ciple, the  cry  of  distress  would  not  be  heard  in  this  land  to-day.  Had 


SPEECH  AT  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.  747 

there  been  such  a  party,  the  Standard  Oil  trust  never  could  have 
nominated  the  same  man  three  times  in  succession  for  the  Presi- 
dency. Trading  politicians  made  this  possible. 

Let  me  repeat  that  compromisers,  traders,  and  neutral  men  never 
correct  abuses,  never  found  or  save  free  institutions,  and  never  fight 
for  human  rights.  They  always  become  instruments  for  the  enemy. 
Wherever  they  are  in  control,  the  party  is  unworthy  of  the  respect  of 
mankind.  Only  men  of  conviction  and  courage  can  save  this  land. 
Only  the  men  who  stand  erect,  ever  get  recognition  from  that  great 
Speaker  who  presides  over  the  deliberations  of  the  universe. 

Unfortunately,  we  seem  to  have  been  slowly  and  unconsciously 
losing  our  personal  independence.  Through  the  scramble  for  the 
dollar,  the  longing  for  position,  political  or  social,  the  fear  of  the 
press  and  the  dread  of  criticism,  we  are  all  becoming  cowardly;  cow- 
ardly in  conscience,  in  thought,  in  speech  and  in  action,  and  we  are 
losing  our  birthrights.  Cow  the  nobler  instincts  of  man,  and  he 
becomes  first  a  slave  and  then  a  brute. 

Independence  is  the  mother  of  all  human  progress.  It  lifts  the 
human  soul;  it  clears  the  human  mind;  it  ennobles  human  speech, 
and  it  exalts  human  action.  Independence  inspires  confidence  and 
elevates  purpose;  it  searches  nature:  it  measures  the  stars;  it  spans 
the  rivers ;  it  tunnels  the  mountains,  and  it  covers  the  continents  with 
cities.  Restore  the  independence  of  the  American  citizen  and  this 
republic  will  again  leap  forward  on  a  career  of  happiness  and  splendor 
that  will  eclipse  all  the  ages  of  the  past. 

No  other  country  has  drawn  so  much   from   the  storehouses  of 
Omnipotence  as  has  ours.     In  all  that  makes  wealth,  greatness    or 
glory,  we  have  been  overloaded.     In  climate,  in  soil,  in  resources 
and  in  the  energy  and  character  of  our  people,  we  have  no  competi- 
tors. 

Two  great  oceans  separate  us,  not  only  from  the  old  worlds  but 
from  the  old  superstitions— and  let  us  hope  from  the  old  follies '  and 
the  old  calamities.  Limitless  riches  are  within  our  grasp  centuries 
of  happiness  are  within  our  reach.  A  kindly  father  bids  us  go  forth 
and  enjoy  the  estate  He  has  prepared  for  us. 

Meantime,  we  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  despoiler;  and  the 
poison  of  political  leprosy  is  entering  our  blood. 

If  we  submit,  all  is  lost;  if  we  rise  in  our  manhood  and  crush  the 
enemy,  it  will  give  a  new  inspiration  to  mankind.  It  will  be  a  new 
Declaration  of  Independence,  broader  and  deeper  than  that  of  our 
forefathers. 

You  ask,  is  there  hope?     Without  entering  too  far  on  the  field  of 


748  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

partisan  discussion,  we  may  glance  at  what  are  now  matters  of  history. 
Look  back  eight  months,  and  gaze  upon  a  spectacle  that  marked  the 
highwater  point  of  corruption.  There  were  arrayed  against  the 
people  nearly  all  the  banks,  the  corporations,  the  trusts,  the  railroads, 
most  of  the  great  papers,  and  every  influence  that  money  could  con- 
trol. Manufacturers  and  small  merchants  were  coerced;  debtors  were 
forced,  and  laborers  were  driven  by  the  lash  of  hunger.  All  of  the 
corruption  funds  that  could  be  raised  on  two  continents  were  used 
to  debauch  the  people;  the  lobbyists,  the  trading  politicians,  and  the 
time  servers,  were  on  that  side. 

The  men  who  owed  their  wealth  and  their  position  to  the  fact  that 
they  had  helped  to  corrupt  legislation,  and  to  pollute  the  stream  of 
justice,  were  on  that  side.  The  clubs  and  the  fashionable  pulpits 
were  on  that  side.  False  promises  of  every  kind  were  held  out ;  every 
method  of  defeating  the  will  of  the  people  at  the  polls  was  practiced. 

On  the  face  of  the  returns,  it  appeared  as  if  the  enemy  had  won. 
According  to  these  returns,  thirty  thousand  more  votes  properly  dis- 
tributed would  have  changed  the  result.  Only  eight  months  have 
elapsed,  and  the  people  have  already  discovered  that  they  were  made 
the  victims  of  deception.  Only  eight  months  have  elapsed,  but  the 
harvest  is  already  being  reaped. 

In  Illinois  we  have  just  had  a  carnival  of  official  debauchery,  such 
as  the  world  has  rarely  seen.  The  living  have  been  robbed;  the  un- 
born have  been  defrauded  of  their  rights,  and  saddled  with  unjust 
burdens;  public  property,  privileges  and  franchises,  worth  untold 
millions,  have  been  given  to  monopolies;  numerous  acts  striking  down 
liberty  have  been  passed,  and  the  people  are  helpless.  Had  corrup- 
tion burned  fifty  cities  a  free  people  would  have  rebuilt  them  in  ten 
years;  but  the  destruction  of  republican  institutions  blasts  the  hopes 
of  man  and  increases  the  sorrows  of  the  world.  Look  where  you 
will,  the  conditions  are  everywhere  the  same.  They  are  the  legiti- 
mate harvest  of  that  poisonous  seed  that  was  sown  broadcast  last  fall. 

The  people  see  that  they  were  misled,  and  I  do  not  believe  that 
even  a  special  providence  could  soon  again  unite  all  of  the  forces  that 
worked  together  in  the  last  campaign.  Disintegration  is  already  at 
work  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemy. 

Now,  look  on  the  other  side.  Over  six  million  of  intelligent,  patri- 
otic and  substantial  citizens  fought  for  the  rights  of  man.  They  were 
men  who  had  convictions,  and  dared  to  act  on  them.  They  were  men 
who  could  not  be  bought ;  who  could  not  be  cajoled ;  who  could  not  be 
frightened;  they  were  the  men  who  do  most  of  the  country's  work,  and 
bear  its  burdens.  Thev  had  no  boodle,  but  thev  had  manhood. 


NEW  YORK  CITY  CAMPAIGN.  749 

They  refused  to  be  Europeanized,  but  fought  for  American  institu- 
tions. 

Look  at  these  men  to-day.  They  stand  in  solid  phalanx,  eager, 
determined,  confident.  None  have  deserted;  none  have  laid  down 
their  arms.  Their  line  of  battle  stretches  across  a  continent;  their 
banners  are  waving;  their  drums  are  beating,  and  they  are  moving 
on  the  enemy.  They  see  the  gilded  palaces  of  injustice;  they  listen  to 
the  cry  of  labor.  They  hear  the  wail  of  free  institutions,  and  with  an 
appeal  to  the  Omnipotent,  they  resolve  that  England  shall  not  devour 
this  land.  In  every  State  the  people  are  aroused.  They  see  their 
condition  growing  worse;  they  see  the  hope  of  their  children  disap- 
pearing ;  they  see  poverty  hanging  over  the  future ;  they  see  the  black 
flag  of  hunger  floating  over  some  of  the  richest  sections  of  God's 
earth,  and  they  are  crying  for  justice. 

My  friends,  that  cry  will  free  the  American  people.  Even  if  we 
should  be  borne  down  again  and  again,  the  voice  of  humanity  will 
arise  from  the  dust,  and  drive  the  money  changers  out  of  the  temple, 
and  the  traitors  out  of  the  land. 

The  Benedict  Arnold  of  1780  sleeps  on  English  soil.  Let  the 
Benedict  Arnolds  of  this  age  make  their  graves  beside  him. 


THE  NEW  YORK  CITY  CAMPAIGN. 

Mr.  Moses  Oppenheimer,  Chairman  Conference  Committee,  New 
York  City. 

Dear  Sir: — Answering  your  communication  of  the  25th  inst.,  I 
would  say  that,  personally,  I  am  not  advised  as  to  the  situation  in  New 
York  city,  and  I  have  no  desire  to  interfere  in  politics  anywhere,  but 
I  will  say  that  corruptionists,  bribe-givers  and  monopolists  are  not 
Democrats,  no  matter  what  they  call  themselves.  They  are  all  cov- 
ered with  the  slime  of  "Hannaism,"  and  belong  to  the  ranks  of  the 
common  enemy,  and  the  election  of  that  kind  of  a  man  to  the  mayor- 
alty of  New  York,  or  the  election  of  any  man  who  would,  even  in  the 
slightest  degree,  be  subject  to  the  influence  or  the  desire  of  this  class 
of  men  would  be  the  greatest  calamity  that  could  befall  the  great 
Democratic  party. 

A  political  party  must  stand  for  certain  great  definite  principles  or 
it  can  be  of  no  use  on  earth  to  our  republic.  Whenever  a  party  stands 
merely  for  spoils  and  as  a  convenience  for  monopolists  and  corrup- 
tionists, then  it  is  a  curse  to  the  country.  The  principles  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  were  enunciated  last  year,  both  upon  the  financial  ques- 


750  'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

tions  and  upon  other  problems  that  are  demanding  solution,  and  every 
day  that  has  elapsed  since  the  last  campaign  has  demonstrated  the 
necessity  of  religiously  carrying  out  the  principles  of  that  platform  if 
we  would  save  republican  institutions  in  this  country. 

The  real  Democrats  all  over  the  country  would  hail  with  delight 
the  election  of  a  genuine  Democrat  as  mayor  of  New  York,  and  would 
gladly  assist  in  bringing  this  about.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a  man  is  to 
be  elected  who  is  a  mere  convenience  for  monopolists  and  corrup- 
tionists  and  spoils-dividers,  then,  in  Heaven's  name,  let  him  come 
from  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  for  there  is  where  he  belongs. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

Chicago,  September  28,  1897. 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA,  SEPTEMBER  sTH,  1897,  ON 
CORRUPTION    AND    USURPATION     IN     GOVERN- 
MENT,    AND     MUNICIPAL    AND     GOVERN- 
MENTAL OWNERSHIP. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — Aside  from  the  money  question,  the  most 
serious  problem  that  confronts  the  people  of  America  to-day  is  that 
of  rescuing  their  cities,  their  States  and  the  federal  government,  in- 
cluding the  federal  judiciary,  from  absolute  control  of  corporate 
monopoly.  How  to  restore  the  voice  of  the  citizen  in  the  government 
of  his  country;  and  how  to  put  an  end  to  those  proceedings  in  some  of 
the  higher  courts  which  are  farce  and  mockery  on  one  side,  and  a 
criminal  usurpation  and  oppression  on  the  other. 

Corporations  that  were  to  be  servants  and  begged  the  privilege  of 
supplying  cities  with  conveniences,  or  of  serving  the  country  at  large, 
have  become  masters. 

We  have  had  thirty  years  of  colorless  politics  in  which  both  of  the 
political  parties  were  simply  conveniences  for  organized  greed.  There 
was  nothing  to  arouse  the  deep,  slumbering  patriotism  of  the  masses 
and  a  race  of  politicians  came  to  the  front,  most  of  whom  had  no 
convictions  and  many  of  whom  straddled  every  proposition  and  then 
waited  to  be  seduced.  They  were  men  who  made  every  promise 
to  the  laborer,  and  then  betrayed  him.  These  men  became  the  in- 
struments through  which  the  corporations  worked.  Having  learned 
what  vast  sums  can  be  extorted  from  the  American  people,  the  monop- 
olies used  a  part  of  the  wealth  they  got  from  this  source  to  corrupt 
the  people's  representatives,  and  thus  obtained  unlimited  privileges 
of  plunder,  until  almost  every  great  city  in  this  country  is  tied  and 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  751 

gagged,  and  cannot  even  enter  a  protest  while  being  robbed  All  of 
this  falls  with  crushing  force  on  the  laborer,  for  his  hands  must  earn 
the  taxes  the  landlord  pays — he  is  forced  to  depend  on  the  public  con- 
veniences, and  always  suffers  under  bad  government. 

An  individual  rarely  has  interest  enough,  or  money  enough,  to 
bribe  a  city  council  or  buy  a  legislature.  But  the  corporations  have 
both,  and,  as  the  money  all  comes  off  the  public,  they  offer  temptations 
that  are  too  strong  for  average  man  to  resist. 

Inasmuch  as  no  government  can  endure  in  which  corrupt  greed 
not  only  makes  the  laws,  but  decides  who  shall  construe  them,  many 
of  our  best  citizens  are  beginning  to  despair  of  the  republic.  Others 
urge  that  we  should  remove  the  bribe-givers — that  is,  destroy  this 
overwhelming  temptation  by  having  the  government  take  all  these 
monopolies  itself  and  furnish  the  service  which  they  now  furnish,  and 
thus  not  only  save  our  institutions,  but  have  the  great  profits  which 
now  go  into  the  pockets  of  private  corporations  turned  into  the  public- 
treasury. 

But  the  corruptionists,  the  monopolists,  and  all  men  who  are  fat- 
tening on  the  existing  rottenness  and  injustice  cry  angrily,  "Why, 
that  would  be  socialism,  rank  socialism,  and  we  are  opposed  to  it!" 
Some  of  these  men  know  the  meaning  of  socialism  and  some  do  not, 
but  they  control  all  those  men  who  cling  to  the  skirts  of  wealth. 

Socialism  has  been  defined  as  a  system  of  government  in  which 
the  competitive  system  is  entirely  abolished  and  the  principle  of  as- 
sociated effort  is  applied  to  everything.  According  to  the  standard 
authorities,  socialism  is  an  ideal  state  founded  on  justice,  and  in  which 
the  benefits  of  modern  invention  and  of  monopoly  shall  be  shared 
by  all  the  people  instead  of  being  controlled  by  the  few  and  used  by 
these  few  to  make  themselves  the  absolute  masters  of  the  many.  The 
word  "socialism"  is  used  as  a  term  of  derision  only  by  the  ignorant  or 
the  servile. 

However,  the  world  is  not  ripe  for  the  application  of  socialism. 
There  are,  as  yet,  hundreds  of  things  that  cannot  be  done  successfully 
by  the  State  and  that  must  be  left  to  the  individual.  But  this  fact 
certainly  does  not  deprive  an  association  of  men  from  pursuing  the 
best  business  policy — does  not  deprive  government  from  doing  what- 
ever may  be  necessary  to  preserve  free  institutions. 

During  the  former  administration  of  Lord  Salisbury  as  Premier  of 
England,  it  was  once  charged  that  the  tendency  of  the  government 
was  socialistic;  that  there  was  a  tendency  for  the  government  to  do 
those  things  which  always  had  been  left,  and  should  be  left,  to  the 
individual;  that  most  of  the  great  cities  of  the  empire  had  not  only 


752  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

assumed  the  functions  of  supplying  their  inhabitants  with  water,  gas, 
electric  light  and  street  railway  service,  but  that  they  were  going  a 
great  deal  farther  and  were  even  building  and  renting  houses  and 
doing  a  host  of  other  things  that  were  not  within  the  province  of 
government. 

He  was  reported  as  saying,  in  answer  to  this  criticism,  that  it  was 
not  a  question  of  socialism  at  all,  but  simply  a  question  of  business; 
a  question  whether  a  given  community  can  secure  certain  advantages 
and  supply  certain  needs  common  to  all  of  its  people  more  cheaply 
or  in  a  more  satisfactory  manner,  when  acting  collectively,  than  by 
leaving  everything  to  individual  effort;  that  a  collective  body  has  the 
same  right  to  pursue  the  best  business  methods,  and  do  all  things 
necessary  to  its  welfare,  or  the  welfare  of  its  members,  that  an  indi- 
vidual has;  that  the  best  interest  of  the  community  must  be  the  cri- 
terion by  which  to  decide  each  case;  that  there  was  a  time  when 
private  individuals  carried  the  mails  and  charged  what  they  pleased, 
there  being  no  government  postoffice;  but,  as  the  world  advanced, 
every  government  took  the  postal  business  into  its  own  hands,  and  no 
intelligent  man  would  have  it  turned  over  to  a  private  corporation. 

That  government,  whether  State  or  local,  has  found  it  necessary 
to  make  the  roads,  and  where  private  companies  have  built  roads  and 
are  charging  toll,  the  public  is  acquiring  them;  that  there  was  a  time 
when  education  was  an  individual  affair,  but,  as  the  world  advanced 
it  was  found  to  be  a  matter  of  such  importance  to  the  State  that  every 
enlightened  government  makes  provision  for  educating  all.  That  it 
was  a  question  of  development,  and  each  age  must  not  only  sup- 
ply its  own  needs,  but  must  determine  the  method  for  doing  it. 

This  lays  down  an  indisputable  principle.  For  it  would  be  absurd 
to  claim  that  an  association  of  men  cannot  employ  the  best  business 
methods  to  supply  its  wants,  and  promote  the  health,  the  life  or  the 
physical,  moral  and  intellectual  development  of  its  members. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  hundreds  of  things  which,  in  our 
age,  cannot  be  done  successfully  by  the  municipality  or  the  govern- 
ment, but  must  be  left  to  individual  effort. 

Let  us  see  what  civilized  man  is  doing  elsewhere. 

Take  the  cities  of  Great  Britain  first,  for  they  have  the  same  power 
of  self-government  that  American  cities  have.  In  all  that  pertains 
to  the  comfort  and  enterprise  of  the  individual  we  are  far  in  the  lead; 
but  in  government  of  cities  we  are  far  behind.  Glasgow  has,  to-day, 
nearly  one  million  inhabitants  and  is  one  of  the  great  manufacturing 
and  commercial  cities  of  the  world.  Thirty  years  ago  there  was 
scarcely  a  city  that  was  in  a  worse  condition.  Private  corporations 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  753 

furnished  it  a  poor  quality  of  water,  taken  from  the  Clyde  River,  and 
they  charged  high  rates  for  it.  The  city  drained  into  the  Clyde,  and 
it  became  horribly  filthy.  Private  corporations  furnished  a  poor  qual- 
ity of  gas,  at  a  high  price;  and  private  companies  operated  the  street 
railroads.  Private  companies  had  the  same  grip  on  the  people  there 
that  they  have  in  most  American  cities.  Owing  to  the  development 
of  great  ship  building  and  other  industries  in  the  valley  of  the  Clyde, 
the  laboring  population  of  Glasgow  became  very  dense  and  the  means 
of  housing  the  people  were  miserable.  Poorly  lighted,  poorly  ven- 
tilated, filthy  houses  brought  high  rents.  In  many  cases  two  families 
lived  in  one  room.  Cleanliness  was  impossible;  the  sanitary  con- 
ditions were  frightful  and  the  death  rate  was  high.  As  for  educational 
facilities,  there  were  none  worth  mentioning  for  these  people.  The 
condition  of  the  laboring  classes  was  one  of  degradation  and  misery; 
children  were  growing  up  mentally,  morally  and  physically  diseased; 
a  generation  was  coming  which  threatened  to  be  an  expense  and  a 
menace  to  the  country.  It  was  a  great  slum  city. 

But  patriotic  and  public  spirited  men  came  to  the  front  and  gave 
the  city  the  benefit  of  their  services,  free.  In  fact  none  of  the  highest 
city  officials  in  Great  Britain  received  any  pay  other  than  the  well 
being  of  humanity  and  the  good  opinions  of  their  country. 

The  city  rid  itself  of  the  private  companies  by  buying  them  and 
then  brought  fresh  water  from  the  highlands,  a  distance  of  sixty  miles. 
It  doubled  the  quantity  of  water  furnished  the  inhabitants,  and  reduced 
the  cost  to  consumers  by  one-half.  And  yet  the  department  now 
yields  over  $200,000  a  year  net  income  over  all  fixed  charges. 

The  municipality,  after  much  difficulty,  bought  the  private  gas 
plants  and  gradually  reduced  the  price  of  gas  from  $1.14  to  58  cents, 
and  it  now  illuminates  not  only  the  streets  and  public  places,  but  all 
passageways  and  stairways  in  flat  buildings,  experience  having  shown 
that  a  good  lamp  is  almost  as  useful  as  a  policeman.  The  total  debt 
of  the  city  for  plants,  extensions,  etc.,  to  perfectly  illumine  all  the 
city  had  reached  nearly  five  and  a  half  millions  of  dollars.  Notwith- 
standing the  low  price  at  which  gas  is  sold,  this  sum  has  gradually 
been  reduced  to  less  than  two  and  a  half  millions  of  dollars  out  of  the 
earnings  of  the  system,  and  it  will  soon  be  wiped  out  and  the  entire 
revenue  go  into  the  city  treasury. 

The  street  railways  were  owned  by  the  city,  but,  until  1894,  they 
were  leased  out  under  an  arrangement  which  paid  the  city  full  cost 
of  construction,  with  interest,  besides  a  yearly  income  of  $750  per 
street  mile.  In  1894  the  city  began  to  operate  the  lines  itself.  The 
fares  were  reduced  33  per  cent.,  besides  special  tickets  to  laborers, 
48 


754  'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

so  that  the  average  is  under  2  cents,  and  over  one-third  of  all  fares  are 
I  cent  each. 

The  private  company  had  worked  its  men  12  and  14  hours  a  day 
and  paid  irregular  and  unsatisfactory  wages.  The  city  at  once  re- 
duced the  number  of  hours  to  ten,  and  fixed  a  satisfactory  scale  of 
wages.  And,  compared  with  what  it  formerly  was,  the  service  has 
been  greatly  improved.  In  spite  of  all  these  acts  for  the  benefit  of 
the  public,  the  roads  which  had  cost  the  city  nothing,  now  net,  over 
all  charges  for  improvements,  etc.,  one-fourth  of  a  million  annually. 

In  1892  the  city  bought  out  a  private  electric  light  company,  and 
now  has  the  monopoly  of  furnishing  electric  light  and  power.  This 
promises  to  be  a  source  of  enormous  revenue  for  the  city. 

For  sanitary  reasons,  the  city  built  a  number  of  public  wash- 
houses,  with  all  modern  conveniences,  so  that  a  woman  living  in  a 
small  apartment  can  take  her  basketful  of  clothes  to  a  public  wash- 
house,  and  for  four  cents  an  hour  can  have  a  stall  and  use  all  the 
machinery  for  washing  and  drying,  and  at  the  end  of  an  hour  take 
her  basket  of  clothes  home,  washed  and  dried.  For  the  same  reasons, 
public  baths  and  parks  or  pleasure  grounds  were  established ;  and  the 
city  condemned  a  large  amount  of  poor  tenement  property  and  tore 
the  houses  down  and  built  whole  rows  of  apartments,  airy  and  well 
lighted,  which  it  now  rents  to  laborers  and  which,  in  time,  will  pay 
for  themselves  and  will  then  be  a  great  source  of  revenue. 

The  city  had  become  filled  with  cheap  lodging  houses  which  were 
overcrowded  and  were  filthy  and  prolific  of  both  disease  and  crime. 
On  sanitary  and  police  grounds  combined,  the  municipality  built  a 
number  of  airy  and  well-lighted  lodging  houses,  some  for  men  and 
some  for  women,  where,  for  from  6  to  9  cents,  a  person  can  get  a 
bed  in  a  small,  separate  room,  with  the  use  of  a  large  sitting  room  and 
the  privilege  of  cooking  his  own  food  at  the  kitchen  range. 

The  city  has  acquired  all  the  docks  and  dock  privileges  and  fur- 
nishes all-  the  labor  in  managing  them.  It  also  has  the  exclusive 
ownership  of  all  the  markets  and  slaughter  houses  and  derives  a  large 
income  from  them. 

Instead  of  draining  into  the  Clyde,  large  settling  works  have  been 
established,  in  which  the  solid  matter  is  all  taken  out  of  the  sewage 
and  is  pressed  into  cakes  and  loaded  automatically  onto  cars  and  then 
taken  to  the  country,  where  it  is  used  as  manure  on  a  farm  belonging 
to  the  city,  and  where  all  the  food  for  the  city's  horses  is  raised,  while 
the  liquid  sewage  is  run  through  filtering  beds  and  made  clear  and 
odorless. 

Manchester  has  within  its  narrow  limits  only  a  little  over  half  a 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  755 

million  people,  but  within  a  radius  of  twenty  miles  from  her  city  hall 
there  are  over  three  million  inhabitants.  These  have  to  be  considered 
in  discussing  Manchester,  which  is  essentially  a  manufacturing  and 
commercial  city.  Its  history  is  in  many  respects  a  parallel  of  that  of 
Glasgow.  It  seemed  to  be  a  great  city  of  slums,  degradation  and 
misery,  and  was  in  the  grip  of  private  monopolies. 

To-day  the  city  furnishes  all  the  service  that  is  furnished  here  by 
private  corporations,  and  does  it  at  about  one-half  the  cost.  It  fur- 
nishes gas  at  56  cents  a  thousand,  and,  after  deducting  all  that  is  used 
to  perfectly  illuminate  the  streets,  and  after  applying  $200,000  a  year 
on  the  original  cost  of  plants,  etc.,  it  still  turns  $300,000  a  year  into 
the  public  treasury,  although  the  aim  in  nearly  all  English  cities  is  not 
to  make  money,  but  to  serve  the  public. 

The  city  constructed  an  aqueduct  ninety  miles  to  secure  pure 
water  and  furnishes  this  for  a  little  more  than  half  what  the  private 
company  had  charged  for  a  poor  quality  of  water.  It  owns  the  street 
railways,  and  besides  giving  greatly  reduced  rates  and  giving  half- 
fare  tickets  to  workingmen,  the  city  derives  a  large  revenue  from  this 
source. 

Like  Glasgow  and  Birmingham,  the  city  owns  large  cemeteries 
in  which  there  are  separate  sections  for  the  different  religious  denom- 
inations, and  prices  are  so  arranged  that  while  those  who  desire  to 
do  so  can  get  lots  costing  from  ten  to  thirty  dollars,  yet,  "a  decent 
burial  with  inscription  on  stone  over  a  grave  can  be  had  at  about 
four  dollars  for  adults  and  three  dollars  for  children.  This  charge 
including  all  cemetery  fees  and  expenses." 

The  city  owns  the  markets  and  slaughter  houses.  It  has  provided 
parks  and  swimming  baths  and,  like  Birmingham  and  Glasgow,  it 
maintains  large  technical  schools  in  which  thousands  of  young  men 
are  instructed  in  the  industrial  arts  and  sciences,  so  as  to  be  able  to 
maintain  Manchester's  greatness. 

Birmingham  has  over  half  a  million  of  people,  and  its  experience 
resembles  that  of  Glasgow  and  Manchester.  Formerly  private  cor- 
porations controlled  almost  everything  and  charged  very  high  rates 
for  very  poor  service,  and  the  sanitary  conditions  were  frightful.  But 
here  again,  municipal  statesmen  came  to  the  front,  the  most  promi- 
nent among  whom  was  the  Honorable  Joseph  Chamberlain,  who  has 
since  been  conspicuous  in  the  British  government.  He  gave  his  time 
free  and  was  three  times  elected  mayor.  Under  his  guidance  the  gas 
works  were  purchased  of  the  private  companies  for  $10,000,000. 
There  are  about  two  thousand  men  employed  in  connection  with  the 
gas  works ;  they  work  only  eight  hours  a  day ;  the  price  of  gas  has  been 


756  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

reduced  to  58  cents;  the  streets  have  been  better  lighted  than  ever 
before,  and  the  net  amount  now  annually  turned  into  the  city  treas- 
ury, after  deducting  all  fixed  charges,  is  over  $300,000. 

The  water  works  were  purchased  of  the  private  companies  for 
$6,750,000.  The  system  was  greatly  extended,  the  supply  doubled 
and  the  cost  to  consumers  very  much  reduced. 

The  city  has  condemned  the  worst  section  of  the  slums  and  thus 
acquired  the  ground  at  a  cost  of  about  $8,000,000,  and  upon  this 
ground  it  has  built  modern  houses  which  it  rents,  and  the  death  rate 
in  this  section  has  been  reduced  from  an  average  of  80  to  the  thou- 
sand persons  down  to  an  average  of  20,  and  it  has  now  been  demon- 
strated that  in  the  end  this  property  will  pay  for  itself  and  thereafter 
go  far  toward  defraying  the  annual  expenses  of  the  city. 

Not  going  further  into  detail,  let  me  say  there  are  at  present  in 
the  United  Kingdom  185  municipalities  that  supply  their  inhabitants 
with  water,  with  gas  and  electric  light,  and  one-third  of  the  street 
railway  mileage  of  Great  Britain  is  owned  by  the  municipalities. 
Leaving  out  London,  it  amounts  to  two-thirds.  And  in  most  in- 
stances in  which  they  do  not  own  the  street  railways,  they  have  com- 
pelled the  companies  to  grant  low  fares  and  divide  profits. 

Everywhere  the  tendency  is  toward  collective  ownership  and  en- 
terprise, and  so  satisfactory  has  this  been  found  that,  where  once 
tried,  the  public  will  tolerate  no  other  method.  It  is  objected  that  in 
some  of  the  English  cities  the  street  railway  service  is  not  as  good 
as  it  is  here.  But  this  is  not  the  question.  The  question  is:  How 
does  it  compare  with  the  service  formerly  given  by  the  private  com- 
panies? 

On  the  continent,  the  awakening  of  the  cities  toward  a  higher 
life  is  as  marked  as  in  Great  Britain.  About  two-thirds  of  the  large 
cities  of  Germany  own  and  operate  their  own  gas  and  electric  light 
works.  This  movement  has  been  so  rapid  that  it  will  not  be  long 
until  there  will  not  be  a  private  gas  plant  in  Germany.  Wherever 
street  railways  are  not  owned  by  the  municipality,  they  are  oper- 
ated under  strict  regulations,  giving  reduced  fare  to  workmen,  and 
they  have  also  to  divide  profits  with  the  government.  This  is  true  in 
nearly  all  continental  cities. 

Most  of  the  German  municipalities  run  savings  banks  for  the  com- 
mon people,  and  the  public  pawnshops  protect  the  poor.  They  issue  fire 
insurance  and  sick  list  pensions;  and  the  government  is  now  providing 
for  an  old  age  pension  or  insurance.  The  principle  acted  on  is  that 
the  collective  body  can  only  prosper  by  first  improving  the  condition 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  757 

of  each  of  its  members,  and  that  no  community  can  be  happy  so  long 
as  it  has  a  large  ignorant  or  pauper  population. 

Besides  making  general  education  compulsory,  nearly  every  city 
on  the  continent,  like  the  cities  of  Great  Britain,  maintains  technical 
or  trade  schools  in  which  thousands  of  the  young  are  trained  in  the 
technical  knowledge  pertaining  to  these  industries  for  which  the 
municipality  may  be  noted.  The  cities  of  England  hold  that  they 
need  no  other  protection  than  that  which  this  superior  knowledge 
and  training  gives  them. 

The  cities  and  governments  of  Europe  simply  did  what  common 
business  sense  suggested.  They  did  not  attempt  to  establish  a  social- 
istic State — the  governing  forces  there  are  opposed  to  socialism  and 
try  to  crush  it  wherever  possible — but  they  appear  to  have  been  driven 
to  the  conclusion  that  all  of  those  things  that  are  the  subject  of 
monopoly  can  be  managed  by  government  and  that  this  is  the  only 
way  that  a  government  can  protect  its  people  against  robbery. 

While  these  things  are  taking  place  in  Europe,  the  private  cor- 
porations in  America  are  bribing  legislatures  and  city  councils,  re- 
ducing wages,  charging  higher  rates,  and  collecting  dividends  on 
millions  and  millions  of  watered  stock.  According  to  legislative  in- 
vestigation, the  stock  in  the  Boston  Street  Railroad  is  over  half  water; 
in  New  York,  in  Brooklyn  and  in  Philadelphia  the  ratio  is  4  to  i. 

Every  business  reason  applicable  to  the  municipalities  and  gov- 
ernments of  Europe  is  applicable  here.  We  want  as  pure  water,  as 
good  drainage,  as  cheap  service  as  they  have,  and  we  want  the  same 
privilege  of  supplying  ourselves  as  they  exercise;  and  when  it  is 
apparent  that,  by  acting  collectively,  we  can  do  business  more  success- 
fully, can  serve  ourselves  better  in  every  way,  and  can  secure  for  the 
public  treasury  these  millions  which  now  go  into  the  pockets  of  grasp- 
ing individuals,  have  we  not  a  right  to  do  it?  If  we  find  that,  in  this 
manner,  we  can  give  steadiness  to  labor,  and  can  elevate  its  standard 
and  improve  the  conditions  of  all  our  people,  dare  we  not  do  it?  Every 
one  of  the  reforms  carried  out  in  England  and  on  the  continent  met 
with  fierce  opposition  from  the  same  classes  that  oppose  them  here, 
but  the  business  sense  and  patriotic  impulse  of  the  people  prevailed, 
and  I  believe,  will  prevail  here.  Even  if  private  corporations  were 
to  serve  us  cheaper  and  better  than  we  could  serve  ourselves,  we  will 
be  forced  to  take  the  corporations  in  order  to  prevent  free  institutions 
from  being  overthrown  by  corruption.  This  reason  did  not  exist  in 
Great  Britain,  yet  the  people  took  the  corporations. 

It  is  objected  that  the  cities  dare  not  take  the  corporations  because 
of  this  rottenness,  but  we  find  that  in  so  far  as  this  corruption  related 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

to  legislatures,  city  councils,  etc.,  as  well  as  to  the  higher  officials, 
the  most  of  it  is  due  to  the  temptations  offered  by  the  corporations, 
and  it  will  continue  just  as  long  as  the  corporations  exist;  while  the 
rottenness  in  departments  is  mostly  due  to  the  absence  of  a  proper 
civil  service  system.  With  the  gradual  introduction  of  an  improved 
civil  service  system,  most  of  the  little  peculations  will  end.  But  let 
us  suppose  that  municipal  governments  will  not  improve.  As  things 
are  now,  the  people  have  to  bear  the  burden  of  corruption  among 
officials,  have  to  fatten  a  lot  of  politicians,  and  have  to  fill  the  coffers 
of  insatiable  corporations  besides,  while,  if  these  corporations  were 
wiped  out,  the  sums  which  they  now  get  could  go  into  the  public 
treasury,  and  the  people  themselves  would  again  get  control  of  their 
government,  and  they  would  no  longer  be  sold  by  their  own  repre- 
sentatives, nor  defeated  in  their  purpose  by  a  horde  of  rotten  lobbyists, 
hired  by  corporations,  with  money  which  had  been  extorted  from  the 
people  themselves. 

So  long  as  there  was  competition,  our  people  preferred  to  let  it 
regulate  everything;  but  competition  is  being  entirely  wiped  out  by 
pools  and  trusts  and  our  people  will  be  devoured  by  vultures  unless 
the  government  comes  to  their  rescue. 

POSTAL    SAVINGS    BANKS. 

In  Great  Britain  and  in  many  of  the  continental  countries  the  gov- 
ernments maintain  postal  savings  banks,  in  which  the  poor  can  de- 
posit their  little  savings  from  time  to  time  and  get  a  low  rate  of  inter- 
est on  them.  In  England,  this  postal  savings  department,  run  in 
connection  with  the  postoffice,  performs  a  variety  of  service  that 
is  of  the  greatest  benefit  to  the  people.  It  provides  a  system  for  re- 
ceiving the  small  deposits,  even  of  children,  a  cheap  and  safe  system 
of  sending  small  sums  of  money  from  one  to  another  point,  and  it 
issues  life  insurance  policies  for  small  amounts.  In  this  way  poor 
people  are  encouraged  to  form  habits  of  economy  and  thrift  and  also 
to  make  provision  for  sickness,  accident,  and  for  old  age,  and  can  do 
this  at  a  very  nominal  expense,  and  are  never  in  danger  of  losing  a 
life's  work  by  a  bank  failure,  or  of  having  the  insurance  company 
break,  after  paying  it  premiums  for  years. 

In  our  country  the  poor  people  are  left  at  the  mercy  of  private 
individuals  and  private  companies.  The  history  of  both,  in  banking 
as  well  as  in  insurance,  has  been  tainted  with  failures,  bankruptcy  and 
even  frauds,  and,  owing  to  the  high  charges,  our  poor  people  are  de- 
prived of  the  benefit  of  life  insurance.  The  total  amount  which  any 
individual  can  deposit  in  a  savings  bank  is  not  large,  and  consequently 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  759 

it  does  not  interfere  with  the  general  business  of  the  country,  and, 
instead  of  paying  interest  on  bonds  held  by  the  rich  of  foreign  coun- 
tries, the  government  pays  interest  to  its  own  people. 

Recently  a  banker,  in  addressing  a  banker's  convention  at  De- 
troit, in  opposition  to  postal  savings  banks,  said: 

"I  am  confident,  therefore,  that  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  the 
people  will  view  with  misgiving  any  movement  in  that  direction. 
Besides,  this  scheme  is  not  consistent  with  the  spirit  of  our  form  of 
government. 

"With  nations  abroad,  the  tendency  and  policy  is  to  make  the  peo- 
ple subservient  to  the  government.  Our  theory  looks  to  making  the 
government  subservient  to  the  people.  The  spirit  of  individual  in- 
dependence runs  through  our  whole  governmental  system." 

This  is  beautiful  language  and  beautiful  theory,  but,  unfortunately, 
in  our  country  to-day  both  government  and  people  are  subservient 
to  the  corporations,  and  one  argument  in  favor  of  postal  savings 
banks  is  that  it  would  help  to  free  both  government  and  people  from 
this  domination.  Four-fifths  of  the  people  favor  it,  and  it  is  safe  to 
predict  that  the  class  to  which  the  gentleman  belongs  will  not  only 
oppose  it,  but  will  use  corruption  funds  to  defeat  it. 

TELEGRAPH    AND    TELEPHONE    SERVICE. 

Nearly  every  government  in  the  world,  except  ours,  owns  and 
operates  its  own  telegraph  and  telephone  lines,  to  the  great  advantage 
of  its  people.  But  we  still  give  all  the  benefit  to  the  corporations. 

An  examination  shows  that  the  total  cost  of  the  construction  and 
equipment  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  line  has  been  only  be- 
tween twenty-five  and  thirty  millions  of  dollars  and  that,  owing  to 
wear  and  tear,  etc.,  it  is  now  not  worth  over  twenty  millions  of  dol- 
lars; yet  it  has  issued  stocks  and  bonds  amounting  to  over  ninety- 
seven  millions  of  dollars,  and  it  is  paying  interest  on  this  sum.  In 
other  words,  it  is  now  paying  twenty  per  cent,  on  what  the  plant  has 
cost  and  what  it  is  now  in  reality  worth.  During  the  last  twenty-five 
years  it  has  paid  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  dividends.  All 
of  this  money  has  come  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  American  people. 

If  the  government  were  to  take  the  telegraph  at  fair  price  and 
make  it  part  of  the  postal  system  and  issue  three  per  cent,  bonds  for 
it,  and  were  to  maintain  the  present  charges,  the  net  earnings,  after 
paying  interest  on  the  bonds,  would  pay  for  the  entire  system  in  about 
five  years.  On  the  other  hand,  if  it  should  decide  to  do  as  Great 
Britain  has  done,  that  is,  reduce  the  charges  so  as  to  bring  the  service 


760  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

within  the  reach  of  all  the  people,  the  charges  could  be  cut  in  two  and 
the  system  still  be  self-supporting. 

When  Great  Britain  took  charge  of  the  telegraph  lines,  the  rate 
was  two  and  a  half  shillings  per  shortest  message.  The  government 
has  reduced  this  rate  to  sixpence,  or  twelve  cents,  a  reduction  of 
eighty  per  cent.  And  now,  for  twelve  cents,  a  man  can  send  a  message 
from  any  part  of  Great  Britain  to  any  other  part,  yet  last  year  the 
deficit  in  this  department  was  only  $150,000. 

In  France  the  rate  is  one  cent  a  word  to  any  part  of  the  republic. 
In  most  of  the  other  countries,  the  rates  are  about  the  same  as  in 
France,  except  where  the  government  seeks  to  make  the  telegraph 
a  great  source  of  revenue. 

In  Great  Britain  there  are  twice  as  many  telegrams  sent  per  capita 
as  there  are  in  the  United  States,  and  in  Switzerland  there  is  an  excess 
over  our  country  of  thirty-three  per  cent,  per  capita. 

In  the  United  States  the  rate  for  the  shortest  distance  is  twenty- 
five  cents  for  ten  words,  and  to  some  points  of  the  country  over  a 
dollar.  That  is  from  two  to  ten  times  as  high  as  in  Great  Britain  or 
France. 

TELEPHONES. 

In  England  the  government  does  not  yet  furnish  telephones  to 
private  subscribers,  but  it  furnishes  public  telephone  service  at  the 
rate  of  six  cents  of  our  money  for  every  twenty-five  miles  of  distance, 
while  here  the  charge  is  ten  cents  for  connections  at  the  central  office 
and  generally  one  cent  a  mile  to  outside  points.  That  is  just  four 
times  as  high  as  in  England. 

Prior  to  1894  the  United  States  government  hired  its  telephones  of 
the  Bell  Company  at  $75  per  year.  Since  that  time  it  has  operated  its 
own  telephones  at  a  yearly  cost  of  only  $10.23  each,  and  has  had  far 
better  service.  If  the  government  owned  the  telephones,  a  farmer  could 
go  to  his  neighborhood  postofrke  and,  for  a  few  cents,  use  the  public 
telephone  and  communicate  with  any  of  the  great  cities,  and  thus  be 
brought  into  closer  relations  with  the  world.  It  would  bring  the  most 
remote  neighborhoods  in  closer  contact  with  the  centers  of  intelli- 
gence, and  the  effect  upon  the  whole  people  would  be  to  the  highest 
degree  beneficial. 

COAL  MINES. 

In  the  spring  of  1894,  there  was  a  strike  on  the  part  of  the  coal 
miners,  which  extended  nearly  all  over  the  United  States,  and  which 
was  so  protracted  that  a  coal  famine  ensued  and  many  of  the  largest  in- 
dustrial establishments  were  obliged  to  shut  down:  and  laboring  men, 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  761 

who  had  no  connection  with  that  industry,  were  thrown  out  of  em- 
ployment and  there  was  much  derangement  of  the  business  of  the 
country. 

The  strike  was  for  living  wages;  the  condition  of  the  coal  miner 
had,  for  years,  been  getting  steadily  worse;  spasmodically  he  had 
struck  against  the  hand  that  was  crushing  him  and  crushing  his  fam- 
ily, but  all  to  no  purpose;  his  wages  were  reduced  from  time  to  time, 
and,  as  the  business  depression  spread  over  the  country  and  industrial 
establishments  became  idle,  there  was  a  reduction  in  the  amount  of 
coal  consumed  and  many  miners  were  unable  to  do  more  than  get 
half  time,  while  others  were  entirely  idle. 

During  the  strike  in  1894  one  of  the  largest  operators  in  Illinois 
stated  that  he  had  some  excellent  men  in  his  employ,  who  had  families 
to  support,  who  were  sober  and  industrious,  and  who  had  not  been  able 
to  make  over  eight  dollars  a  month  for  a  year  past.  The  majority  of 
the  operators  were  not  to  blame;  they  had  to  compete  in  the  market 
in  order  to  sell  their  coal;  they  had  their  money  invested  in  mines 
and  in  mining  machinery;  they  found  that  a  few  unscrupulous  and 
conscienceless  men  had  taken  advantage  of  the  hunger  of  miners  and 
got  them  to  go  to  work  at  starvation  wages,  and  were  thus  able  to  put 
their  coal  upon  the  market  at  greatly  reduced  prices.  This  forced  the 
honest,  humane,  honorable  men  engaged  in  the  mining  business  to 
sell  their  coal  at  a  similar  price,  or  go  out  of  the  business,  and  the 
result  was  they  likewise  had  to  reduce  wages.  So  that  it  was  the 
unscrupulous  and  conscienceless  men  who  fixed  the  wages. 

Already  in  1894  the  mining  population  had  been  reduced  to  a  state 
of  misery  and  degradation.  The  miner  could  not  educate  his  chil- 
dren, he  could  not  respectably  clothe  his  wife  and,  in  many  cases, 
he  could  not  furnish  bread,  and  he  struck.  He  felt  that  his  condition 
was  already  so  bad  that  it  could  not  be  made  much  worse,  and  that 
he  had  nothing  to  lose  by  striking;  but,  although  the  struggle  was 
protracted  and  bitter,  no  substantial  good  came  of  it.  Since  that 
time  the  conditions  have  been  getting  steadily  worse,  and  finally,  in  a 
spirit  of  desperation,  only  three  years  after  the  last  destructive  strike, 
the  miners  of  this  country  struck  again — struck  against  hunger  and 
struck  against  nakedness — and  they  have  again  made  an  honorable 
and  heroic  struggle  to  improve  their  condition. 

Considering  the  extreme  poverty  to  which  they  were  reduced, 
the  fact  that  there  was  no  hope  for  themselves  or  their  children,  that 
they  were  slowly  passing  into  slavery  that  was  worse  than  chattel 
slavery  (for  the  new  masters  refused  to  feed,  or  clothe,  or  bury  them, 
as  the  old  masters  of  negro  slavery  had  done),  considering  these 


7&>  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

things,  the  conduct  of  the  miners  in  maintaining  the  law,  in  keeping 
the  peace,  has  been  of  a  character  to  arouse  the  admiration  of  man- 
kind. No  assembly  of  millionaires  or  of  corporation  agents  ever 
submitted  to  such  suffering,  or  ever  displayed  such  high  patriotism  or 
nobility  of  character. 

The  great  majority  of  operators  this  time  actually  sympathized 
with  the  miners  who  had  struck  and  wished  them  success.  They 
complained  of  the  fact  that  a  few  great  corporations,  owned  by  some 
of  the  wealthiest  men  of  the  country,  were  pursuing  a  course  that 
must  not  only  lower  the  social  status  of  the  miner  and  his  children 
for  all  time,  but  that  was  calculated  to  bankrupt  all  those  operators 
who  wished  to  act  honorably  by  their  employes. 

Among  other  companies  of  this  character,  which  they  named,  was 
the  New  York  and  Cleveland  Gas  and  Coal  Company,  managed  by 
Mr.  De  Armit  and  chiefly  owned,  it  was  said,  by  Mr.  Carnegie  and 
Mr'  Rockefeller  and  a  few  other  gentlemen  of  great  wealth;  that  this 
corporation  had  used  its  great  power  to  crush  out  all  organization 
among  its  laborers,  and  had  so  crushed  the  spirit  of  its  employes  that 
it  could  mine  its  coal  more  cheaply  than  the  other  companies,  and 
could  force  the  others  to  cut  wages  or  get  out  of  the  market. 

This  strike  has  interfered  with  the  regular  operations  of  the  coun- 
try upon  which  the  welfare  of  society  depends.  The  struggle  has 
been  protracted  and  does  not  promise  to  settle  anything  definitely 
nor  to  furnish  protection  to  the  country  against  further  disturbance 
of  this  character.  True,  the  miners  have  lost  nothing,  for  they  had 
nothing  to  lose;  and,  should  the  struggle  go  against  them,  at  the  end 
of  it  they  will  be  just  as  well  off  as  they  were  at  the  beginning. 

Mr.  De  Armit  has  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that,  with  the  great 
power  placed  in  his  hands,  he  has  been  able  to  force  the  weaker  class 
a  notch  lower  in  the  scale  of  misery  and  degradation.  The  fact  that 
the  labor  of  this  weaker  class  had  created  the  wealth  which  was  thus 
used  to  crush  them  did  not  help  them;  and  if  Mr.  De  Armit,  Mr.  Car- 
negie and  their  rich  associates  exult  over  success,  they  should  feel 
as  proud  as  a  man  who  has  whipped  his  wife  or  as  a  son  who  has 
thrashed  his  mother. 

But  these  things  are  now  matters  of  history.  The  only  question 
of  interest  to-day  is,  how  long  shall  this  go  on  and  where  will  it  end? 
Hyenas  are  sometimes  satiated  and  lie  down  to  rest,  leaving  the  world 
to  others;  but  recent  years  have  demonstrated  that  the  hunger  of 
corporations  grows  fiercer  with  the  feeding,  and  that,  if  left  to  have 
their  way,  the  contest  must  become  fiercer  and  the  public  will,  at  all 
times,  be  in  danger  of  a  fuel  famine  and  a  general  disturbance  of  its 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  763 

industries.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  miners  are  to  be  reduced  to 
such  a  state  of  helplessness  and  degradation  that  they  will  not  have  the 
spirit  to  strike,  if  hunger  and  nakedness  are  to  become  natural  con- 
ditions among  the  adults  and  ignorance  and  crime  are  to  be  the  en- 
vironment of  the  children,  then  we  will  soon  have  in  our  country  a 
large  population  that  will  be  a  constant  menace  to  free  government 
and  republican  institutions. 

Now,  suppose  the  United  States  government  should  say: 
"The  constant  recurrence  of  these  disturbances  of  industrial  and 
economic  conditions  of  the  country  growing  out  of  disputes  between 
the  mine  owner  and  the  miners  cannot  longer  be  endured;  neither  can 
I  permit  a  large  portion  of  the  most  industrious  of  my  people  to  be  re- 
duced to  such  a  low  condition  that  they  will  be  unfit  to  maintain  free 
institutions.  These  people  should  have  living  wages,  so  that,  by 
industry,  economy  and  prudence  they  can  support  their  families  and 
educate  their  children.  On  the  other  hand,  the  owners  of  the  coal 
mines  should  have  a  reasonable  income  from  their  property.  I  will 
take  these  mines  myself.  I  will  buy  them  where  I  can,  and  where 
I  cannot  I  will  have  their  value  ascertained  by  fair  trial  and  pay  the 
owner;  so  that  every  man  will  get  a  good,  fair  compensation  for  his 
property.  I  will  issue  bonds  bearing  a  low  rate  of  interest  for  these 
mines,  and  I  will  operate  these  mines  as  I  now  run  the  postoffice.  I 
will  fix  a  scale  of  wages  which  will  give  every  man  a  fair  wage  for 
his  work,  as  I  now  pay  other  government  employes.  I  will  fix  the 
price  of  coal,  so  that  every  man  will  know  what  it  will  cost  him.  I 
will  fix  this  price  so  low  that  all  the  people  of  America  can  get  their 
fuel  at  the  cost  of  production  and  such  slight  addition  as  will  pay  the 
low  interest,  and,  in  the  course  of  years,  reimburse  the  purchase  price, 
so  that  the  mines  will  cost  the  public  nothing.  I  will,  in  the  same 
manner,  take  the  anthracite  coal  fields,  which  are  now  operated  as 
a  monopoly,  the  price  for  such  coal  being  arbitrarily  fixed  without 
reference  to  competition.  I  will  sell  that  coal  to  the  American  peo- 
ple at  the  cost  of  production,  with  slight  addition  for  the  payment 
of  interest  and  the  ultimate  payment  of  the  purchase  money;  thus 
enabling  the  people  to  get  anthracite  coal  for  much  less  than  they 
now  get  it.  This  will  give  stability  to  the  coal  supply;  it  will  elevate 
that  large  population  that  now  depends  on  mining  for  a  living,  make 
of  it  a  higher  grade  of  citizens;  it  will  reduce  the  cost  of  living  to 
every  American  citizen,  and  will  be  a  blessing  to  the  country." 

Having  heard  the  government  thus  express  itself,  what  would  be 
the  response  of  the  country?  I  imagine  that  I  hear,  coming  from  the 
great  laboring  masses,  and  from  the  manufacturers,  and  from  the 


764  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

millions  of  citizens  who  love  their  country  and  want  it  to  reach  the 
highest  plane  of  civilization,  an  enthusiastic  voice  of  approval. 

But  I  also  hear  the  insolent  voices  of  the  monopolists  and  their 
followers,  protesting  that  the  government  dare  not  do  anything  ex- 
cept furnish  courts,  sheriffs,  marshals  and  bayonets  with  which  to 
crush  the  miner,  and  silence  every  man  who  dares  to  insist  that 

humanity  has  rights. 

RAILROADS. 

Fifty-four  of  the  governments  of  the  earth  own  and  operate  their 
steam  railroads.  In  the  United  States  the  roads  are  owned  and  oper- 
ated exclusively  by  corporations. 

Governor  Larrabee  of  Iowa,  after  careful  research,  estimated  that 
the  average  cost  of  construction  and  equipment  of  the  railroads  of  this 
country  was  only  from  $25,000  to  $30,000  per  mile,  whereas  they  are 
bonded  and  stocked  for  more  than  double  that  sum,  and  a  constant 
effort  is  made  to  compel  the  American  people  to  pay  interest  on  this 
large  amount,  over  half  of  which  is  water. 

Other  authorities  have  estimated  that  the  people  of  this  country 
have  been  compelled  to  pay  interest  at  the  rate  of  eighteen  per  cent, 
on  the  amount  which  the  railroads  and  their  equipments  have  actu- 
ally cost,  or  are  now  worth. 

It  appears  that  there  are  now  about  six  hundred  railroad  presi- 
dents, with  their  staffs,  in  this  country  who  are  drawing  high  salaries, 
while  the  legal  expenses  growing  out  of  contests  between  the  roads 
themselves  run  far  up  into  the  millions,  so  that  several  of  the  ablest 
statisticians  of  this  country  hold  that  if  the  railroads  were  all  con- 
solidated and  run  by  the  government,  there  would  be  so  many  large 
items  of  saving  that  it  would  amount  to  several  hundred  millions  a 
year  and  would  soon  pay  for  the  roads. 

One  of  the  large  items  in  the  present  expenses  of  the  railroad  com- 
panies is  the  corruption  fund,  that  is,  the  fund  with  which  they  bribe 
legislatures,  bribe  city  councils,  carry  elections  and  otherwise  debauch 
the  public.  It  is  apparent  that  the  railroads  of  this  country  must 
charge  higher  rates  than  would  be  necessary  if  they  were  operated 
by  the  government;  and  it  is  found  that,  on  the  average,  they  are  just 
about  twice  as  high  for  the  masses  of  the  people  here  as  they  are  in 
Europe.  In  most  of  the  European  countries  there  are  three  and 
sometimes  four  classes  of  passenger  rates.  There  is  a  first  class  rate 
for  those  who  wish  to  be  exclusive.  This  rate  is  only  a  trifle  higher 
than  the  general  rate  in  America,  and  only  about  four  per  cent,  of 
the  total  traffic  belongs  to  this  class.  The  second  class  is  somewhat 
of  the  same  order,  and  only  ten  per  cent  of  the  traffic  belongs  to  this. 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  765 

The  third  class  is  the  one  used  by  the  public  at  large  and  corresponds 
with  our  regular  service;  and  over  one-half  of  all  the  traffic  belongs 
to  this  class.  While  the  fourth  class  comprises  thirty-six  per  cent, 
of  the  traffic,  it  is  but  little  cheaper  than  the  third  class.  Taking  the 
third  and  fourth  classes  together,  they  embrace  about  eighty-six  per 
cent,  of  all  the  passenger  traffic  in  Germany,  and  the  rates  for  these 
two  classes  are  but  little  more  than  half  what  they  are  in  this  country. 

According  to  the  report  of  the  United  States  Railway  Commission 
the  average  cost  per  mile  on  our  roads  for  each  passenger  was  2.26 
cents  per  mile,  while  the  average  rate  paid  by  eighty-six  per  cent,  of 
the  travel  of  Germany  is  but  little  over  half  this  amount  per  mile,  the 
exact  third  class  rates  per  mile  in  Europe  being:  Germany,  i  29-100 
cents;  France,  i£  cents;  Belgium,  i  1-5  cents;  Austria-Hungary, 
66-100  to  116-100  cents;  Sweden,  i  1-5  cents;  Russia,  94-100  cent 

A  careful  analysis  shows  that  it  costs  our  people  a  great  deal  more 
to  have  their  freight  moved  than  it  does  the  people  of  Europe.  It  is 
true  that  an  effort  is  sometimes  made  to  show  that  it  costs  more  per 
mile  to  move  a  ton  in  Europe  than  it  does  here,  the  long  distance 
here  helping  this  theory,  but  railway  officials  now,  themselves,  state 
that  distance  adds  but  little  to  the  cost  of  moving  freight,  except  in 
cases  where  that  distance  is  very  great;  the  chief  expense  in  handling 
freight  being  at  the  terminal  stations;  that,  when  once  in  motion, 
a  freight  train  can  be  moved  five  hundred  miles  for  very  little  more 
money  than  it  can  three.  Taking  the  same  grade  of  goods,  it  is 
found  that  the  freight  charges  here  are  much  higher  than  in  Europe. 

Comparing  the  protection  of  human  life  on  the  European  roads 
with  that  on  our  roads,  and  taking  the  year  1894,  we  find  that  the 
number  of  passengers  in  the  United  States  who  were  killed  or  injured 
amounted  to  one  passenger  in  each  203,064;  while  in  Germany  it  was 
one  in  each  1,805,323;  and  in  Austria  one  in  every  1,291,300. 

It  has  been  estimated  by  some  of  the  ablest  authorities  we  have 
that,  if  the  government  would  take  the  roads  at  a  fair  valuation  and 
issue  three  per  cent,  bonds  for  them,  these  bonds  would  be  taken  up  at 
once  by  the  people  and  that  the  actual  saving  effected,  in  the  rate  of  in- 
terest and  in  the  operation  of  the  roads,  would  pay  for  them  in  a  com- 
paratively short  time,  so  that  they  would  not  cost  the  government  a 
cent,  and  would  ultimately  become  the  source  of  such  great  revenue 
as  would  alone  support  the  government,  and  thus  solve  the  problem 
of  keeping  the  treasury  supplied. 


766  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

RAILROAD    OWNERSHIP. 

For  years  I  was  opposed  to  railroad  ownership  by  government. 
I  felt  that  private  enterprise  could  manage  them  better  than  the  pub- 
lic and,  further,  that  the  addition  of  such  an  army  of  men  to  the 
patronage  of  the  government  would  be  giving  a  dangerous  power 
to  any  federal  administration.  This  last  objection  has  been  partially 
removed  by  the  application  of  the  civil  service  law,  and  it  is  now 
settled  that  a  system  of  railroad  management  could  be  established 
which  would  not  interfere  in  politics — certainly  not  so  much  as  the 
present  systems  interfere  in  politics.  During  the  last  campaign, 
millions  of  dollars  were  collected  from  the  railroads  with  which  to 
debauch  the  public,  and  the  employes  of  almost  every  railroad  in 
this  country  were  forced  not  only  to  march,  but  in  many  cases  to 
vote  against  their  will. 

But  in  recent  years  the  question  of  railroad  ownership  in  this 
country  has  changed  and  now  presents  entirely  new  problems. 

First. — The  colossal  over-capitalization  of  the  American  railways 
and  the  persistent  attempt  to  pay  dividends  on  watered  stock  places 
a  burden  on  the  American  people  which  they  cannot  and  should  not 
bear,  and  would  not  need  to  bear  if  the  government  owned  them. 

Second. — The  roads  have  been  used  by  unscrupulous  men  as  a 
convenience  in  great  stock-jobbing  operations,  sometimes  managed 
on  purpose  to  force  them  into  bankruptcy,  in  order  to  reduce  the 
value  of  stocks,  and  sometimes  managed  in  a  method  equally 
dishonest  for  the  purpose  of  raising  the  value  of  stocks,  with  the  result 
that  millions  of  honest  Americans  who  had  invested  their  little  for- 
tunes in  railroad  stocks  were  ruined,  which  would  not  have  happened 
had  the  government  owned  them. 

Third. — A  system  of  favoritism  has  grown  up  and  is  practiced 
by  all  the  roads,  by  which  rebates  and  special  rates  are  given  to  some 
snippers  and  not  to  others.  Under  this  the  favored  business  man 
or  manufacturer,  or  other  shipper,  gets  an  advantage  which  enables 
him  to  crush  his  rival,  who  does  not  get  the  same  favor.  Especially 
is  this  true  of  certain  large  dealers  who,  from  handling  large  quan- 
tities, are  able,  in  many  cases,  to  absolutely  name  the  sum  they  shall 
pay,  and  are  able,  by  this  assistance,  which  they  receive  from  the  rail- 
roads, to  utterly  crush  out  the  smaller  dealer.  Many  of  the  large 
establishments  of  this  country,  whether  in  pork  packing,  iron  manu- 
facturing or  other  industry,  owe  their  greatness  almost  entirely  to 
this  species  of  favoritism. 

Railroad  service  is  in  a  sense  public  service,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  767 

government  to  see  that  all  of  its  citizens  enjoy  equal  privileges  in  so  far 
as  relates  to  public  service.  The  business  man  with  limited  means 
gets  his  letters  carried  by  the  government  for  the  same  price  that  his 
great  competitor  has  to  pay,  but  here  the  parallel  ends.  In  almost 
all  other  respects  he  is  discriminated  against,  not  only  to  his  injury, 
but  to  his  destruction.  This  would  not  be  so  if  the  government  owned 
the  roads. 

Fourth. — While  private  management  of  railroads  pays  enormous 
salaries  to  the  few  at  the  top,  there  is  a  constant  tendency  to  shorten 
the  wages  of  the  men  at  the  bottom;  whereas,  if  the  government 
owned  the  roads,  it  would  reduce  the  salaries  at  the  top  and  raise  the 
wages  at  the  bottom.  Some  great  railroads  of  America  have  been 
periodically  robbed  by  stock  jobbers  and  then,  under  the  pretense  of 
economy,  the  laborers  who  operated  the  line  and  made  it  capable  of 
earning  money,  had  their  wages  reduced.  All  of  which  would  not 
have  happened  if  the  government  had  owned  them. 

Fifth. — If  there  were  municipal  and  governmental  ownership,  it 
would  take  so  large  a  number  of  men  out  of  the  competitive  labor 
column  as  to  give  steadiness  and  a  more  healthy  condition  to  the  whole 
labor  world. 

Sixth. — The  business  and  even  the  social  affairs  of  this  country 
have  all  been  adjusted  with  reference  to  the  regular  operation  of  the 
railroads,  and  any  interruption  of  this  service  causes  inconvenience 
and  loss  and  brings  ruin  if  long  continued.  Yet,  owing  to  disputes 
between  the  railroads  and  their  employes,  this  country  is  at  all  times 
in  danger  of  suffering  from  a  strike  or  a  tie-up. 

Seventh. — But  the  fact  which  overshadows  all  others  is  that  of 
corruption.  With  the  concentration  of  capital  have  come  the  interest 
and  the  money  to  debauch  and  control  government.  Surrounding 
every  legislature,  whether  city,  State  or  national,  there  is  a  corrupt 
lobby  working  for  the  corporations.  As  a  result,  the  people  are  be- 
trayed by  their  own  representatives. 

The  public  is  made  to  pay  every  form  of  tribute  to  these  new 
masters,  and  is  helpless.  During  the  last  six  months  corruption  has 
done  more  to  destroy  republican  government  in  Illinois  than  a  hostile 
army  could  have  done,  and  the  money  used  for  this  purpose  was 
wrung  from  the  people  themselves.  In  almost  every  city  and  State 
capital,  as  well  as  at  Washington,  the  conditions  are  the  same. 

Some  years  ago,  before  an  investigating  committee,  Mr.  Gould 
testified  that  he  contributed  money  to  control  the  legislatures  of  four 
States,  and  it  was  proven  that  the  Erie  Railroad  had  spent  one  million 
dollars  in  a  single  year,  under  his  management,  to  get  legislation  and 


768  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

carry  elections;  while  the  New  York  Central  Railroad  had  paid  $205,- 
ooo  in  one  year  for  the  same  purpose.  However  humiliating  it  may 
be  to  our  people,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  they  are  obliged  to  furnish 
the  funds  with  which  corporation  managers  debauch  and  corrupt  pub- 
lic servants. 

Several  years  ago  a  committee  from  the  New  York  Board  of 
Trade,  after  an  investigation  into  the  question  of  transportation,  said 
in  its  report:  "The  railroads  control  absolutely  the  Legislatures  of  a 
majority  of  the  States  of  the  Union.  They  make  and  unmake  gov- 
ernors, United  States  senators  and  congressmen,  and,  under  the  forms 
of  popular  government,  they  dictate  the  governmental  policy  of  the 
United  States." 

The  question  of  putting  an  end  to  this  wholesale  corruption,  put- 
ting an  end  to  the  selling  of  legislation,  putting  an  end  to  the  control 
of  government  by  corporations,  is  a  question  that  will  determine  the 
existence  of  this  republic.  Unless  we  can  check  it,  there  is  no  hope 
for  this  country.  The  only  way  by  which  we  can  stop  this  corruption 
at  present  is  to  remove  temptation;  and  from  present  appearances, 
the  only  way  this  can  be  done  is  to  have  the  government  take  all  these 
corporations  and  monopolies  that  are  now  destroying  it.  Every  effort 
to  enforce  the  criminal  law  against  these  great  offenders  has  ended  in 
a  farce.  It  is  no  longer  a  question  of  economy,  it  is  not  a  question  of 
policy,  it  is  a  question  of  existence.  We  are  face  to  face  with  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  the  government  has  the  right  and  the  power  of 
self-preservation. 

If  what  is  called  the  referendum  in  legislation  should  be  adopted, 
it  will  tend  to  protect  us  from  further  corrupt  legislation,  but  it  could 
not  remove  the  monopolies  and  the  injustice  that  now  exist  in  our 
industrial  system. 

GOVERNMENT    BY    INJUNCTION. 

The  corporations  discovered  years  ago  that  to  control  the  con- 
struction of  the  law  was  even  more  important  than  to  control  the 
making  of  it,  as  the  federal  judges  hold  office  for  life,  are  independent 
of  the  people  and  surrounded  by  monied  influence,  the  corporations 
have  constantly  labored  to  secure  the  appointment  to  the  federal 
bench  of  men  whom  they  believed  would  be  their  friends,  that  is,  men 
who,  by  nature,  education  and  environment  would  be  in  sympathy 
with  them,  and  they  now  fly  to  these  courts  like  the  ancient  murderers 
fled  to  cities  of  refuge.  They  do  not  buy  these  courts  because  it  is 
not  necessary. 

Some  years  ago  Congress  passed  the  Inter-State  Commerce  Law 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  769 

for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  public  against  overcharge  and  unjust 
discriminations.  The  corporations  opposed  -this  law  and  have  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  the  federal  courts  to  destroy  it  by  construction. 

Again,  Congress  passed  an  income  tax  law,  to  compel  the  con- 
centrated wealth  of  the  land  to  bear  its  share  of  the  burdens  of  gov- 
ernment. For  a  hundred  years  such  laws  had  been  held  to  be  consti- 
tutional by  the  Supreme  Court;  but  this  time  the  great  corporations 
objected  and  the  Supreme  Court  at  once  came  to  their  rescue  and 
held  the  law  to  be  unconstitutional.  The  favor  or  the  opposition  of 
the  corporations  has  come  to  be  almost  the  sole  test  of  the  constitu- 
tionality of  a  law. 

Congress  has  passed  some  anti-trust  laws  for  the  protection  of 
the  public,  but  they  are  simply  sneered  at  by  the  federal  courts  and 
to-day  the  formation  of  trusts  is  almost  the  only  industry  that  pros- 
pers in  this  country. 

Nearly  all  efforts  to  curb  corporations  or  to  bring  great  offenders 
to  justice  have  been  failures.  In  many  cases  the  law  and  the  courts 
seem  to  assume  an  apologetic  attitude  when  facing  men  whose  forms 
have  been  made  rotund  by  ill-gotten  millions,  while  in  many  other 
cases  both  the  law  and  the  courts  become  terrible  in  their  majesty 
when  dealing  with  men  whose  forms  are  bent,  whose  clothes  are  poor 
and  whose  stomachs  are  empty.  The  fact  that  the  bony  and  indus- 
trious hands  of  these  men  helped  to  create  the  capital  that  is  now 
setting  its  heel  on  their  necks  and  crushing  their  families  docs  not 
help  them. 

Not  content  with  the  law  as  they  found  it,  the  federal  rourts  in 
their  eagerness  to  serve  the  corporations,  have  usurped  the  functions 
belonging  to  the  legislative  and  executive  branches  of  the  govern- 
ment and  have  invented  a  new  form  of  tyranny,  called  "Government 
by  injunction." 

During  the  entire  century  in  which  this  continent  was  developed 
when  our  railroads,  our  factories  and  our  cities  were  built  no  govern ' 
ment  by  injunction  was  heard  of,  nor  is  it  heard  of  in  any  other  country 
-day.  The  law  of  the  land  was  ample  for  all  purposes.'  Life  and  prop- 
erty were  protected,  order  was  maintained,  law  was  enforced  and  our 
nation  became  the  wonder  of  the  earth.  And  the  law  of  the  land  as  it 
existed  for  over  a  century,  is  ample  for  every  purpose  to-day 

But  when  the  great  leaders  of  industry  began  to  pass  awav  then 
there  came  to  the  front  a  class  of  manipulators  who  knew  nothing 
about  the  art  of  building,  but  who  had  learned  the  art  of  legalized 
robbery,  and  these  manipulators  and  plunderers  demand  a  new  form 
of  government.  The  former  leaders  allowed  the  laborer  a  little  of 


49 


770  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

the  bread  he  toiled  for,  but  the  new  manipulator  wanted  it  all.  The 
laborers  were  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  these  men.  They  first  got 
hungry  and  then  restive,  a  whip  was  needed  to  restore  contentment, 
and  the  federal  courts  promptly  furnished  it. 

Government  by  injunction  operates  this  way:  When  a  judge  wants 
to  do  something  not  authorized  by  law  he  simply  makes  a  law  to 
suit  himself.  That  is,  he  sits  down  in  his  chambers  and  issues  a  kind 
of  ukase  which  he  calls  an  injunction  against  the  people  of  an  entire 
community,  or  of  a  whole  State,  forbidding  whatever  he  sees  fit  to 
forbid,  and  which  the  law  does  not  forbid,  and  commanding  whatever 
he  sees  fit  to  command,  and  which  the  law  does  not  command — for 
when  the  law  forbids  or  commands  a  thing  no  injunction  is  necessary. 
Having  thus  issued  his  ukase,  the  same  judge  has  men  arrested  and 
sometimes  dragged  fifty  or  a  hundred  miles  away  from  their  homes 
to  his  court,  on  a  charge  of  violating  the  injunction — that  is  contempt 
of  court.  And  the  men,  after  lying  in  prisons  a  while,  are  tried — not 
by  a  jury,  as  is  required  by  the  Constitution,  when  a  man  is  charged 
with  a  crime — but  they  are  tried  by  the  same  judge  whose  dignity 
they  are  charged  with  having  offended,  and  they  are  then  sentenced 
to  prison  at  the  mere  pleasure  of  this  judge,  who  is  at  once  legislator, 
judge  and  executioner. 

When  the  Czar  of  Russia  issues  a  ukase,  he  leaves  it  to  other 
•men  to  enforce,  but  not  so  with  these  judges.  Let  us  cite  just  a  few 
examples  out  of  a  number. 

Several  years  ago  it  was  charged  that  the  Northern  Pacific  Rail- 
road had  been  robbed  by  the  men  who  controlled  it  of  over  sixty 
millions  of  dollars.  These  same  men  went  before  Judge  Jenkins,  of 
Milwaukee,  and  got  him  to  appoint  three  of  their  friends  receivers 
of  the  road,  and  these  receivers,  instead  of  collecting  the  money  al- 
leged to  have  been  wrongfully  abstracted,  proceeded  to  cut  down 
the  wages  of  the  operatives,  without  any  notice  to  them,  and  for 
fear  these  operatives  might  get  restless,  these  receivers  went  before 
this  same  Judge  Jenkins  and  got  him  to  issue  an  injunction  forbidding 
the  operatives  from  leaving  the  employment  of  the  railroad.  About 
the  same  time  a  large  number  of  employes  on  a  California  railroad 
refused  to  go  to  work  because  they  were  not  paid  and  a  Judge  Ross, 
who  was  operating  the  road  through  his  court,  issued  an  order  com- 
manding them  to  go  to  work  and  threatened  to  send  them  to  jail  if 
they  refused.  Since  that,  almost  everything  that  a  corporation  lawyer 
could  think  of  has  been  covered  by  these  injunctions. 

Recently  a  judge  in  West  Virginia  issued  an  injunction  forbidding 
the  exercise  of  free  speech  and  actually  forbidding  men  from  march- 


SPEECH  A  T  PHILADELPHIA.  77 1 

ing  on  the  highway,  no  matter  how  peaceable  they  might  be.  There 
are  a  few  noble  men  on  the  federal  bench  who  have  refused  to  prosti- 
tute their  courts  at  the  bidding  of  corrupt  greed  but  they  will,  in  time, 
have  to  follow  the  precedents  set  by  the  others. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  these  injunctions  are  simply  a  whip  with 
which  to  lash  the  back  of  labor.  It  is  also  apparent  that  if  they  suc- 
ceed, they  must  ultimately  destroy  the  interests  in  whose  behalf  they 
are  now  issued,  and  that  they  are,  therefore,  short-sighted.  For  if 
the  laborers  of  this  country  are  ever  reduced  to  the  helpless  condition 
of  the  laboring  classes  in  some  European  countries  (a  condition  in 
which  they  will  have  no  purchasing  power)  the  great  American  mar- 
ket must  disappear  and  our  great  railroads  and  industrial  properties 
will  not  be  worth  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar. 

Glancing  at  this  proceeding,  we  find  that  it  entirely  supersedes 
government  by  law  and  according  to  the  forms  of  law,  as  guaranteed 
by  the  Constitution,  and  it  substitutes  government  according  to  the 
whims,  caprice  or  prejudice  of  an  individual,  and  is,  therefore,  a  clear 
usurpation  of  power  and  a  crime. 

Second:  When  the  law  forbids  or  commands  something,  no  in- 
junction is  necessary.  When,  therefore,  an  injunction  forbids  or  com- 
mands something  that  is  not  forbidden  or  commanded  by  law,  it  is 
legislation  pure  and  simple,  and,  therefore,  a  usurpation  of  power  and 
a  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and  is  high  crime,  within  the  meaning 
of  that  instrument. 

Third:  It  is  the  function  of  the  Legislature  to  define  crime  and  to 
declare  what  acts  shall  be  punishable,  and  also  to  fix  the  punishment; 
and  when,  therefore,  a  judge  undertakes  to  do  these  things,  he  usurps 
the  functions  of  the  Legislature. 

Fourth:  The  law  has  created  special  tribunals  and  special  machi- 
nery to  enforce  the  criminal  law;  and  courts  of  chancery  have  no 
power  to  arrogate  this  to  themselves  and  substitute  contempt  pro- 
ceedings for  the  forms  prescribed  by  law.  In  those  cases  in  which 
an  injunction  is  made  to  cover  what  is  already  forbidden  by  law, 
it  is  simply  a  device  to  rob  a  man  of  a  trial  by  jury,  for  when  he  is 
charged  with  violating  the  law  he  must  be  tried  by  a  jury  according 
to  the  forms  of  law;  but  when  charged  with  violating  an  injunction 
he  can  be  railroaded  to  prison  without  any  ceremony. 

Fifth:  All  of  these  proceedings  in  the  federal  courts  are  an  at- 
tempt to  do  things  that  belong  exclusively  to  the  police  powers  of 
each  locality,  in  the  administration  of  which  these  courts  cannot  inter- 
fere without  being  guilty  of  usurpation. 

Sixth :    But  depriving  men  of  a  trial  by  jury  and  robbing  them  of 


772  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

their  liberty  and  imprisoning  them  without  a  trial,  according  to  the 
forms  prescribed  by  law,  is  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  and  a  high 
crime. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  say  to  you  that  republican  institutions 
and  government  by  injunction  cannot  both  exist  in  the  same  country. 
They  are  exactly  opposite  in  character  and  one  or  the  other  must  die. 

If  a  hostile  army  should  burn  half  our  cities,  or  if  a  pestilence 
should  carry  off  half  our  people  we  would  soon  rally,  and  under  free 
institutions  our  nation  would  be  happy  again.  But  by  brushing  away 
the  very  foundations  of  liberty,  these  courts  are  committing  a  crime 
which,  if  unchecked,  will  cast  a  gloom  over  many  generations  and 
increase  the  sorrows  of  unnumbered  millions  of  the  human  race,  be- 
cause it  tends  to  wipe  republican  government  from  the  earth. 

Even  in  conservative  England  they  recognize  the  rights  of  the 
laborer.  They  recognize  the  fact  there  that  the  days  when  competi- 
tion regulated  wages  are  past. 

By  reason  of  the  great  concentration  of  capital,  there  are  com- 
paratively few  employers  and  these  arbitrarily  fix  wages,  because 
the  men  are  at  their  mercy,  and  it  is  mockery  to  tell  the  men  to  look 
for  other  jobs  if  they  are  dissatisfied.  They  also  recognize  the  fact 
over  there  that  corporations  have  no  conscience  and  that,  if  the  la- 
borer is  left  to  their  mercy,  his  status  as  a  man  and  a  citizen  must 
get  lower  and  lower,  and  that  the  only  way  in  which  he  can  prevent 
himself  and  his  children  from  being  ground  into  atoms  is  to  combine 
with  his  fellow  laborers,  so  as  to  meet  combination  with  combination, 
and  by  concert  of  action,  in  refusing  to  work,  that  is,  by  a  strike,  can 
he  secure  anything  like  fair  treatment. 

They  also  see  that  when  organized  laborers  strike  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  a  raise  in  wages  or  improving  their  condition,  all  laborers, 
whether  organized  or  not,  will  derive  a  benefit  from  it,  if  successful, 
and  that,  consequently,  when  some  men  in  the  midst  of  a  strike  are 
induced  to  go  to  work  so  as  to  defeat  the  purpose  of  the  strike,  such 
men  not  only  harm  all  their  fellows  but  also  the  condition  of  them- 
selves and  their  children,  although  they  may  get  temporary  bread  by 
doing  so. 

Recognizing  all  these  things,  the  governing  forces  of  England 
permit  the  laborer  to  use  all  peaceable  means  to  induce  other  laborers 
to  join  in  the  strike.  He  is  simply  forbidden  to  use  violence,  or  to 
break  the  peace. 

The  practice  of  "picketing,"  that  is,  of  sending  men  to  induce  other 
laborers  to  quit  work  through  persuasion,  or  any  other  peaceable 
means,  is  recognized  as  perfectly  lawful. 


SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA.  773 

Courts  there  disdain  to  use  their  machinery  as  a  mere  convenience 
for  corporate  greed. 

The  government  of  England  is  monarchical.  Here  we  boast  of 
republican  government  and  free  institutions.  Shall  we  allow  the  in- 
dividual in  this  country  to  be  robbed  of  even  such  rights  and  protec- 
tion as  a  monarchy  would  give  him?  Shall  the  corporations  of  this 
land  be  permitted  not  only  to  devour  our  substance,  but  also  to  de- 
stroy our  liberties?  My  friends,  let  us  save  our  institutions;  gov- 
ernment by  injunction  must  be  crushed  out. 

If  the  government  takes  some  of  the  great  corporations,  then 
there  will  not  be  so  many  corporation  men  appointed  to  the  bench. 
But  the  Constitution  has  pointed  out  a  way  to  end  these  usurpations 
without  having  the  government  take  the  corporations,  and  that  way 
is  by  impeachment.  Every  one  of  these  judges,  whether  of  high  or 
low  degree,  who  has  been  trampling  on  the  Constitution  and  usurp- 
ing power  not  given  him,  is  subject  to  impeachment. 

The  American  people  can  remove  every  one  of  them  and  consign 
them  to  that  infamy  which  is  now  embalming  the  memory  of  Jeffreys. 
But  this  cannot  be  done  so  long  as  Congress  is  made  up  largely 
of  men  who  are  mere  corporation  conveniences.  It  will  be  necessary 
to  send  men  to  Congress  who  will  be  true  to  the  people.  This  may 
not  happen  at  the  next  election,  nor  yet  at  the  next;  but  it  must  come 
and  must  come  soon. 

Providence  has  ordained  that  nothing  shall  go  on  forever.  Our 
fathers  said  that  every  lane  had  a  turn.  We  have  been  traveling 
in  a  lane  that  has  run  in  the  same  direction  for  thirty  years,  and  we 
are  approaching  a  turn.  Yea,  my  friends,  do  not  despair.  A  turn  in 
the  road  is  already  in  sight,  and  if  the  American  people  are  but  true 
to  their  nobler  instincts  they  will  soon  be  restored  to  their  inheritance, 
while  justice  and  liberty,  equal  rights  and  equal  privileges  will  cover 
our  land  with  a  halo  of  glory  and  give  our  people  a  new  century  of 
prosperity  and  happiness. 

But  if  they  do  not  rise  in  their  manhood  and  stand  for  the  prin- 
ciples of  eternal  justice,  then  all  is  lost. 

This  is  Labor  Day  throughout  the  United  States,  and  many  beau- 
tiful things  will  be  said  about  the  dignity  of  labor,  but  I  want  to  say 
to  you  that  if  our  government  is  not  rescued  from  corporations  and  if 
the  snaky  form  of  government  by  injunction  is  not  crushed,  then  it 
would  have  been  better  for  your  children  if  they  had  never  been  born 


774  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

PROBLEMS   THAT   CONFRONT  US. 

Editor  Cleveland  Recorder:  September  ist,  1897. 

Dear  Sir:  Answering  your  favor  I  will  say  that  three  great  ques- 
tions confront  us.  First,  the  question  of  government  by  injunction, 
by  which  some  corporation  creatures,  acting  as  federal  judges,  run 
their  courts  as  if  they  were  mere  clerks  for  corporations  and,  in  their 
eagerness  to  assist  corporation  managers  in  crushing  the  spirit  of 
labor  they  usurp  the  function  of  both  legislative  and  executive 
branches  of  the  government  and  strike  at  the  very  basis  of  our  liber- 
ties. 

Second,  the  question  of  removing  the  bribe-giving  and  debauch- 
ing corporations,  which  offer  temptations  too  strong  for  the  average 
man  to  resist  and  thus  induce  some  of  the  representatives  of  the 
people  to  betray  their  country  and  their  race.  I  say  removing  them, 
because  this  debauchery  will  last  just  as  long  as  these  corporations 
last  and  they  must,  therefore,  be  removed  or  the  government  must  go 
down. 

Third,  how  to  secure  for  the  great  toiling  masses  of  the  world  their 
fair  share  of  the  products  of  their  own  labor  and  also  of  the  benefits 
which  machinery  and  invention  have  given  to  the  world. 

Government  by  injunction  must  be  stopped  by  impeachment.  Every 
one  of  these  judges  who  has  robbed  a  citizen  of  the  right  of  trial  by 
jury,  or  has  otherwise  usurped  a  power,  is  subject  to  impeachment; 
and  all  that  is  necessary  to  drive  them  from  office  in  disgrace  is  that 
we  should  have  a  Congress  that  will  be  jealous  of  its  own  rights  and 
will  protect  the  people  in  their  liberties.  The  only  way  that  is  now 
feasible  of  putting  an  end  to  the  overwhelming  temptations  offered 
by  the  corporations  is  to  have  the  government  itself  take  all  these 
corporations  which  are  destroying  it  and  then  furnish  the  service 
which  they  were  intended  to  furnish. 

To  secure  for  the  laboring  people  their  fair  share  of  the  products 
of  their  own  labor,  and  to  secure  for  all  of  our  people  their  fair  share 
of  the  blessings  and  advantages  that  flow  from  invention  and  modern 
enterprise,  it  will  be  necessary  to  bring  about  some  changes  in  the 
industrial  and  economic  conditions  of  our  country;  and  inasmuch  as 
most  of  the  injustice  and  wrong  that  exists  to-day  in  this  connection 
is  the  direct  result  of  monopolistic  legislation,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
wipe  out  much  of  this  legislation. 

It  will  be  seen  that  all  of  the  above  remedies  call,  in  a  degree,  for 
governmental  action,  consequently  the  laborer  must  exercise  greater 
care  in  the  selection  of  men  to  represent  him;  and  it  will  be  neces- 


RESTRICTING  FREEDOM  OF  SPEECH.  77$ 

sary  for  the  laboring  people  in  this  country,  both  those  that  are  out- 
side and  those  that  are  inside  of  unions,  to  stand  together.  They 
suffer  now  because  of  the  fact  that  they  do  not  stand  together.  The 
laboring  classes  have  allowed  themselves  to  be  divided  by  unscrupu- 
lous men  and  they  have  thus  frittered  away  their  strength.  Instead 
of  having  to  stand  at  the  outer  gate,  as  they  now  do,  and  beg  and 
plead  for  justice,  they  could  be  in  a  position  to  administer  justice 
themselves.  They  have  gone  on  year  after  year  supporting  men  who 
were  mere  tools  of  corporations  and  never  in  their  lives  made  an 
honest  effort  to  help  the  laborer. 

Let  the  laboring  classes  of  America  only  stand  together  for  a 
few  years ;  they  can  drive  every  tool  of  the  corporations  off  the  bench ; 
they  can  put  an  end  to  that  legislation  which  robs  the  American  peo- 
ple to  fatten  the  trusts;  they  can  put  an  end  to  those  conditions  under 
which  honest  and  industrious  men  become  more  helpless  than  slaves 
and  they  can  build  an  entirely  new  sky  over  the  future  of  their 
children. 


RESTRICTING  FREEDOM   OF   SPEECH  IN  COLLEGES  A 
USURPATION  OF  POWER. 

Chicago,  111.,  Sept.  25,  1897. 

Dear  Mr.  Shibley:  Answering  your  favor  I  will  say  that  freedom 
of  thought  and  freedom  of  speech  in  our  great  institutions  of  learn- 
ing are  absolutely  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  our  country.  The 
moment  that  either  is  restricted,  liberty  begins  to  wither  and  die  and 
the  career  of  a  nation  after  that  time  is  downward.  I  believe  that  the 
men,  who  in  the  past  gave  their  money  to  endow  colleges  and  univer- 
sities, did  so  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in  the  search  for  truth,  and  as 
this  can  only  be  secured  by  free  investigation  and  free  discussion,  it 
is  evident  that  when  any  set  of  trustees  attempt  to  prevent  this  they 
are  exceeding  their  authority.  If  any  institution  was  not  founded  for 
the  purpose  of  aiding  in  the  discovery  of  the  truth,  then  it  is  un- 
American  and  should  be  forbidden  to  issue  diplomas  of  the  kind  they 
now  issue.  It  is  safe  to  assume  that  when  trustees  fear  the  effect  of 
free  discussion  they  feel  that  truth  is  not  on  the  side  they  wish  to 
have  favored,  and  institutions  that  are  run  by  such  narrow  or  such 
bigoted  men  cannot  become  the  correct  standard  of  American  edu- 
cation and  they  should  be  restricted  in  regard  to  the  character  of 
diplomas  they  are  authorized  to  issue. 

Very  truly  yours, 
George  H.  Shibley,  Esq.  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


776  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

MEMORIAL  ADDRESS  ON  HENRY  GEORGE. 
(Delivered  at  the  Auditorium,  Chicago,  Dec.  5,   1897.) 

Mr  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

We  have  seen  men  of  wealth  and  influence  pass  away;  we  have 
seen  men  of  power  called  home,  and  the  world  scarcely  looked  at  the 
bier  of  the  one  or  glanced  at  the  coffin  of  the  other. 

But  to-day  we  behold  the  American  people  bringing  their  flowers 
and  their  tears  to  the  grave  of  a  poor,  unpretentious  private  citizen. 

Men  of  varied  walks  and  professions,  men  of  varied  creeds  and 
convictions,  men  who  approved,  and  men  who  dissented  have  stopped 
to  express  a  regret  and  to  say  a  kind  word  for  the  spirit  that  has 
gone. 

Seldom,  indeed,  is  the  heart  of  this  nation  moved  by  the  taking 
off  of  one  man.  No  one  man  is  necessary  to  its  existence,  and  new 
men  press  so  quickly  to  fill  the  gap  that  the  column  seems  forever 
unbroken. 

Men  who  have  been  governors,  senators  or  congressmen  are  num- 
bered by  thousands,  and  although  each  is  impressed  with  his  own 
importance,  yet  when  the  end  comes  a  brief  notice  in  the  local  papers 
closes  the  chapter. 

We  have  eighty-eight  United  States  senators,  and  perhaps  a  million 
of  men  who  want  to  be  senators,  and  yet  if  the  whole  eighty-eight  were 
wiped  out  there  would  be  more  talk  about  successors  than  grief  for  the 
departed.  Their  places  would  be  filled,  and  they  would  scarcely  be 
missed. 

Why  is  this  so?  It  is  because  few  men  touch  the  heart  of  man- 
kind; they  serve  only  the  material,  and  matter  has  no  soul  that  can 
rise  up  and  bless  their  memory. 

Why,  then,  do  we  linger  around  the  grave  of  this  private  citizen 
who  lived  and  worked  a  thousand  miles  away  from  here,  who  held  no 
office,  who  possessed  neither  wealth  nor  power,  whose  life  had  been 
one  long,  hard  struggle;  who  had  eaten  the  crust  of  poverty  and 
drunk  the  bitter  waters  of  distress?  What  charm  had  this  man 
for  us? 

We  are  told  that  he  was  a  scholar;  that  his  literary  style  was  so 
superior  as  to  give  him  a  world-wide  fame;  that  after  the  appear- 
ance of  his  first  great  book  the  scholars  of  England  delighted  in  doing 
him  honor.  But  something  more  than  this  was  needed,  for,  as  a  rule, 
scholars  like  to  sup  at  rich  men's  tables;  as  a  rule  scholars  are  de- 
pendent, and  have  to  curb  their  tongues  and  put  a  jacket  on  their 


ADDRESS  ON  HENRY  GEORGE.  777 

consciences,  or  else  look  for  another  job.  Then,  too,  human  nature 
is  so  constituted  that  we  look  with  kindly  eye  on  the  hand  of  a 
patron. 

As  a  rule  the  scholars  of  the  world  work  with  old  or  neutral  straw 
or  else  they  mildly  defend  existing  wrongs. 

To  be  sure,  there  have  been  glorious  exceptions,  but  in  almost 
every  instance  the  exceptions  became  martyrs  who  not  only  bore  the 
taunts  of  their  fellows  but  went  forth  with  bleeding  feet  to  push  the 
car  of  civilization.  The  passing  of  a  mere  scholar  'or  literary  man 
does  not  necessarily  moisten  an  eye  or  quicken  a  heartbeat.  There 
must  be  something  more. 

We  are  next  told  that  Mr.  George  was  a  great  political  economist; 
that  he  dug  deeper  into  the  principles  of  government,  that  he  got 
nearer  to  the  foundation  stones  of  justice  than  any  other  man;  that 
he  not  only  gave  to  the  world  new  ideas,  but  presented  old  ones  in  a 
stronger  light ;  that  this  work  alone  must  give  him  an  enduring  fame 
and  must  ultimately  bless  the  human  race. 

Let  us  grant  it.  To  my  mind,  he  made  almost  as  great  an  im- 
pression on  the  economic  thought  of  the  age  as  Darwin  did  on  the 
world  of  science.  The  utterances  of  both  men  have  been  fiercely  de- 
nounced by  men  who  predicted  that  the  new  theories  would  bring 
all  manner  of  disaster.  But  to-day  you  have  to  go  far  into  the  forest 
of  prejudice  to  find  a  man  who  denies  the  doctrines  of  evolution  and 
of  natural  selection.  And  instead  of  religion  having  been  overthrown, 
it  has  simply  stepped  into  a  higher  plane,  where  it  breathes  a  purer 
atmosphere  and  is  more  vigorous  than  ever. 

And  already  the  thinking  world  is  recognizing  the  great  principle 
that  no  man  or  set  of  men  can  be  given  a  perpetual  monopoly  of  the 
lands  of  the  earth  or  of  the  resources  of  nature.  For  if  they  can,  then 
they  can  drive  everybody  else  off  of  it,  or  they  can  prescribe  the  con- 
ditions upon  which  others  may  remain,  and  that  moment  the  relation 
of  master  and  servant  is  created. 

So,  also,  do  men  already  admit  the  proposition  that  if  a  thousand 
men  by  their  industry  build  a  city  around  a  piece  of  land  that  is 
worth  only  $1,000,  and  thus  make  it  worth  a  million  dollars  more  than 
it  formerly  was,  this  extra  million  should  in  equity  and  good  con- 
science belong  to  the  public  that  made  it,  and  not  to  the  man  who  did 
nothing  toward  creating  it.  And  experience  has  already  taught  the 
world  that  all  policies  of  government  that  enrich  the  few  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  many  are  not  simply  unjust  but  are  pernicious,  and  in 
the  end  spread  suffering  and  misery  among  the  weaker  classes  of 
society. 


778  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

How  far  the  theories  of  Mr.  George  can  be  put  into  operation  is 
a  question  for  the  future — economic  theories  that  do  not  offer  advan- 
tages to  the  few  and  therefore  have  no  paid  lobby  to  push  them — 
have  to  stand  on  their  own  merits  and  must  possess  not  only  the 
element  of  justice  but  must  be  capable  of  application.  The  institutions 
of  society  cannot  be  easily  changed.  Those  interests  that  profit  by 
existing  wrongs  will  fight  to  keep  their  advantage.  But  let  us  assume 
that  in  time  these  theories  will  be  adopted  and  will  result  in  elevating 
the  race  and  greatly  reducing  human  misery.  This  would  bring  fame 
and  the  gratitude  of  the  world;  but  there  would  yet  be  something 
wanting. 

There  have  been  many  great  economists  who  won  fame,  and 
whose  doctrines  were  adopted  and  helped  to  shape  the  destiny  of  the 
world.  Aye,  some  of  them  helped  to  bless  the  race  and  yet  no  tears 
moistened  the  graves  of  their  authors. 

What,  then,  draws  the  world  to  this  man?  It  is  the  broad  sympathy 
for  suffering  mortals  which  he  possessed.  Henry  George's  soul  went 
out  toward  all  that  were  in  distress.  His  ear  caught  the  cry  of  sor- 
row that  has  saddened  the  ages  from  the  time  that  the  children  of 
Israel  sat  down  by  the  rivers  of  Babylon  and  wept. 

In  writing  Progress  and  Poverty  he  dipped  his  pen  into  the  tears 
of  the  human  race,  and  with  a  celestial  clearness  wrote  down  what  he 
conceived  to  be  eternal  truths.  When  he  died  there  was  nowhere  a 
soul  that  crie'd  out,  "There  is  one  iron  hand  less  to  grind  us,  one  wolf 
less  to  tear  our  flesh,"  but  everywhere  a  feeling  that  a  friend  of  the 
race  had  gone. 

He  recognized  the  great  fact  that  a  governmental  policy  may  deter- 
mine not  only  the  political  but  the  moral  and  physical  conditions  of  a 
people,  and  that  most  of  the  governments  of  the  past  and  many  of  the 
present  were  simply  powerful  machines  controlled  by  criminal  selfish- 
ness, which  not  only  crushed  the  aspirations  of  man  but  robbed  him  of 
his  substance  and  enslaved  his  children;  that  while  there  are  here 
and  there  individuals  of  such  exceptional  strength  as  to  overcome  their 
environment  the  mass  of  men  have  to  bend  to  the  conditions  around 
them;  that  while  intemperance  and  shiftlessness  will  destroy  indi- 
viduals in  any  station,  it  is  possible  to  reduce  a  whole  people  to  such 
poverty,  hardship  and  exposure  as  to  beget  intemperance,  degradation 
and  misery. 

Recognizing  these  great  facts,  he  strove  to  educate  the  world  to  the 
necessity  of  a  change  of  policies  and  governmental  theories.  In  doing 
this  he  fixed  his  eye  on  the  pole  star  of  justice  and  tried  to  bring  every 
sentence  into  line  with  that  vision.  Never  once  did  he  falter.  Other 


ADDRESS  ON  HENRY  GEORGE.  779 

so-called  thinkers  might  be  influenced  by  social,  financial  or  political 
considerations,  but  to  him  the  rays  of  justice  were  like  rays  of  light— 
they  would  not  bend,  and  he  wanted  them  to  shine  on  all  mankind. 

Labor  was  at  the  base  of  his  fabric.  He  wanted  every  man  to 
earn  what  he  got  and  was  opposed  to  all  systems  that  enabled  one 
man  to  devour  the  fruits  of  another  man's  toil.  He  believed  that 
tainted  dollars  eat  the  soul  of  the  owner  and  that  polluted  wealth  rots 
down  families. 

The  world  has  decided  that  modesty  is  indispensable  to  greatness. 
In  nature  the  shallows  murmur,  while  the  great  depths  are  dumb.  The 
late  Professor  Swing  once  said  in  a  sermon,  "We  leave  the  lofty  bear- 
ing and  the  high  stepping  to  salaried  servants.  A  man  has  something 
else  to  do." 

And,  my  friends,  when  one  turned  from  the  multitude  of  lofty 
bearing,  high  stepping  and  self-important  men,  it  was  like  entering  a 
morning  in  June  to  meet  the  quiet,  unpretentious  and  sincere  Henry 
George. 

I  last  saw  him  during  the  summer.  He  looked  feeble  and  worn. 
He  seemed  like  a  man  who  felt  that  his  career  was  over  and  who  calm- 
ly watched  the  shadows  grow  longer  and  had  nothing  to  regret.  He 
had  been  visited  by  a  great  family  affliction,  but  he  did  not  refer  to  it. 

He  seemed  much  alarmed  over  the  dangers  that  are  threatening 
our  country.  He  had  been  a  Democrat  of  the  kind  that  Lincoln  and 
Jefferson  were,  and  he  felt  that  corruption  was  eating  the  heart  out 
of  this  nation;  that  political  bossism  was  one  of  the  instruments 
through  which  corruption  worked;  that  party  names  were  often  used 
to  conjure  with  for  the  purpose  of  helping  dishonest  men  to  further 
their  schemes. 

As  I  took  leave  of  him  I  felt  that  he  could  not  do  much  more  for 
his  country.  But  I  was  mistaken;  for  soon  thereafter  the  mayoralty 
campaign  opened  in  New  York  City.  He  determined  to  register  a 
protest  against  the  two  political  machines  that  had  no  inscription 
upon  their  banners  except  corruption  and  spoils. 

There  was  no  prospect  of  being  elected,  but  he  hoped  that  the 
country  might  profit  by  his  example.  His  friends  tried  to  dissuade 
him;  his  physician  told  him  that  it  would  be  fatal,  that  he  could  not 
survive  the  campaign.  "Well,"  he  replied,  "I  cannot  die  in  a  better 
cause."  That  moment  Henry  George  stepped  into  the  charmed  circle 
of  the  world's  heroes.  A  readiness  to  give  up  life  for  a  principle  is 
the  highest  form  of  heroism  known  to  man. 

You  remember  the  fight  he  made.  The  American  people  looked 
on  in  amazement.  This  one  earnest  man  with  his  assistants  was 


780  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

stirring  the  great  city  to  its  depths;  the  people  were  arising  and  flock- 
ing to  him.  There  seemed  to  be  a  political  ground  swell  until  within 
a  few  days  of  the  election,  when  suddenly  a  hand  reached  out  from 
behind  the  great  curtain  and  took  him  away.  The  chapter  closed,  and 
Henry  George  was  dead. 

He  had  shown  what  one  earnest,  patriotic  man  can  do  toward 
restoring  the  people  to  their  inheritance  and  then  gone  home. 

He  is  gone,  we  are  here.  Have  we  the  patriotism,  the  courage, 
the  character,  the  manhood  to  carry  out  his  work?  Approve  of  his 
doctrines,  if  you  like,  or  reject  them ;  but  on  the  necessity  of  rescuing 
our  institutions  from  the  slimy  hands  of  the  corruptionist,  there  can 
be  no  difference  of  opinion.  Jackson  sent  word  that  if  any  man  pulls 
down  the  flag  shoot  him  on  the  spot.  My  friends,  polluting  the  flag 
is  a  thousand  times  worse  than  pulling  it  down,  for  it  destroys  the  peo- 
ple over  whom  it  floats.  Therefore,  let  the  word  go  over  this  land, 
"If  any  man  pollutes  the  flag,  hang  him  on  the  spot." 

Great  as  were  the  services  of  Mr.  George  as  a  scholar,  as  an 
economist  and  as  a  patriot,  the  example  he  has  set  the  young  men 
of  this  country  is  still  greater.  He  has  shown  how  to  pass  through 
those  long,  dark  days;  aye,  years,  during  which  neither  friends  nor 
sunshine  nor  dollars  draw  near,  and  during  which  the  road  to  perdi- 
tion seemed  so  alluring.  He  has  shown  that  labor,  lofty  purpose  and 
untiring  perseverance  will  surely  win,  and  that  without  them  there  can 
be  no  honorable  career.  He  has  shown  that  the  road  to  achievement 
rarely  runs  along  the  line  of  office  holding.  In  fact  very  few  of  the 
great  men  of  the  country  ever  hold  office. 

How  sad  it  is  to  watch  the  multitude  of  well  meaning  young  men 
coming  in  endless  procession ;  having  kind  parents,  good  homes,  a 
fair  education,  but  imbued  with  the  mistaken  idea  that  the  way  to  win 
glory  is  to  hold  office.  And  instead  of  struggling  up  the  hill,  they 
commence  work  in  the  underbrush  where  many  of  them  spend  their 
lives.  They  breathe  the  poisons  and  learn  the  tricks  that  prevail  there, 
and  soon  the  bleared  eye  tells  the  story  of  a  life  that  is  being  thrown 
away,  and  there  follows  financial,  mental,  moral  and  physical  disinte- 
gration. Even  if  they  succeed  for  a  time,  the  hands  of  the  fates  soon 
push  them  over  and  the  waters  of  oblivion  swallow  them  up. 

There  is  nothing  more  honorable  than  to  conscientiously  serve 
one's  country,  in  public  office  or  out  of  it.  But  those  cases  are  getting 
to  be  entirely  too  numerous  in  which  extraordinary  powers  of  manipu- 
lation, coupled  with  a  want  of  conviction,  keeps  some  men  in  high 
office  for  many  years,  and  then,  instead  of  an  old  age  that  is  glorious 
with  good  deeds,  they  are  simply  bent  with  the  wrinkles  of  duplicity 


'LETTER  TO  ST.  CLAIR  McKELWAY.  781 

and  they  finally  sink  into  graves  which  the  kindly  grasses  hide  from  a 
deceived  and  betrayed  people. 

The  life  of  Henry  George  tells  the  young  men  that  if  they  would 
render  great  service  to  their  country  they  must  be  conscientious  and 
independent.  They  must  be  able  to  "go  it  alone."  If  they  would 
breathe  the  purer  atmosphere  that  inspires  the  souls  of  men  they  must 
struggle  up  the  steeps,  they  must  travel  a  road  that  is  a  lonesome  road 
— a  road  that  is  rocky  and  dusty  and  that  has  neither  springs  nor 
shade  trees  beside  it.  But  that  is  the  road  along  which  are  found  the 
foot-prints  of  genius  and  the  finger-boards  that  point  to  immortality. 

"Let  the  breeze  blow  up  or  the  clouds  blow  over 
Nothing  cares  he  for  the  clouds  or  the  clover; 
But  he  welcomed  the  grave  which  was  just  at  hand, 
And  which  gave  him  a  share  of  his  Father's  land." 


LETTER  TO  ST.  CLAIR  McKELWAY. 

Coronado,  Cal.,  January  10,  1898. 

Hon.  St.  Clair  McKelvvay,  Editor  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.: 

Dear  Sir:  In  reply  to  your  favor  of  the  28th  ultimo,  relating  to 
the  question  as  to  whether  the  number  of  delegates  in  national  con- 
ventions should  be  decreased,  I  will  say  that  much  can  be  urged  on 
both  sides.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  conventions  would  be  more 
wieldy  and  more  orderly  and  could  therefore  be  much  better  reported 
if  they  were  smaller  in  size.  Still,  as  a  rule,  it  is  not  the  delegates  who 
create  the  confusion  but  the  vast  audience  of  non-delegates. 

At  first  blush  it  would  seem  desirable  to  have  smaller  conven- 
tions, but  experience  has  shown  that  corruptionists  and  manipulators 
can  always  handle  a  small  body  of  men  more  easily  than  they  can  a 
large  one.  You  have  no  doubt  noticed  that  the  corporations  and 
trusts  and  other  corrupting  agencies  always  address  themselves  first 
to  the  Senate  in  the  various  State  Legislatures  as  well  as  in  the 
United  States  Congress.  These  influences  generally  try  to  run  con- 
ventions also,  and  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  they  will  all  be  in  favor  of 
smaller  conventions.  It  is  true  that  even  large  conventions  have  been 
repeatedly  manipulated  and  controlled  in  the  past  by  a  few  indi- 
viduals. 

For  example:  Mr.  Whitney,  representing  the  Standard  Oil  Trust 
and  other  corporations,  went  to  Chicago  in  1884  and  forced  the  nomi- 
nation of  Mr.  Cleveland  in  the  Democratic  convention;  he  went  to 


782  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

St.  Louis  and  forced  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Cleveland  in  1888,  and 
again  he  went  to  Chicago  in  1892  and  forced  the  nomination  of  Mr. 
Cleveland  in  the  Democratic  convention  of  that  year.  In  that  year 
the  Illinois  delegation  was  against  Mr.  Cleveland  when  it  was  chosen, 
and  yet,  under  the  peculiar  influences  which  then  controlled  conven- 
tions, Mr.  Whitney  got  them  all.  Again  in  1896  Mr.  Hanna  went  to 
St.  Louis  and  forced  the  nomination  of  Mr.  McKinley  and  did  it 
against  what  seemed  then  to  be  the  majority  sentiment  of  his  party; 
but  in  all  of  these  cases  there  was  no  compact,  organized  and  deter- 
mined opposition  to  fight.  In  each  case  there  was  some  opposition 
but  it  was  of  a  scattered  character  and  stood  for  nothing  definite.  Had 
there  in  any  of  these  cases  been  a  compact,  aggressive  and  determined 
opposition  standing  for  a  great  principle  the  result  would  probably  in 
each  case  have  been  different. 

Personally,  I  never  attended  but  one  political  convention,  big  or 
little,  as  a  delegate  in  my  life;  that  was  the  convention  of  1896,  and 
I  am  not  an  authority  on  this  question,  but  I  have  observed  repeatedly 
that  the  interests  of  the  people  are  less  liable  to  be  bartered  away 
by  a  large  number  of  representatives  than  they  are  by  a  small  number 
and  in  these  days  this  is  a  question  which  rises  far  above  the  con- 
siderations of  order  and  decorum. 

In  regard  to  limiting  the  number  of  spectators  in  the  convention 
I  will  say  that  this  has  been  tried  repeatedly  and  is  always  found  to 
be  a  difficult  thing  to  do.  In  the  first  place  it  requires  a  great  deal 
of  money  to  prepare  for  a  convention  and  generally  a  large  portion 
of  this  is  raised  by  selling  tickets  in  bunches;  second,  there  are  of 
necessity  in  this  country  a  great  number  of  substantial  and  influential 
people  who  want  to  witness  the  proceedings  of  the  convention  and 
who,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  have  a  right  to  witness  the  proceedings  of  any 
convention  in  which  men  are  to  be  chosen  or  nominated  who  may 
possibly  have  to  rule  over  the  country.  The  convention  is  supposed 
to  represent  a  portion  of  the  American  people  attending  to  their  own 
business,  namely,  the  business  of  governing  and  they  have  a  right  to 
conduct  their  proceedings  in  any  manner  they  see  fit,  and  while  a 
National  Committee  could  refuse  to  provide  seating  capacity  and  thus 
shut  out  the  public  still  this  would  hardly  come  within  the  proper 
functions  of  the  committee.  The  committee  does  not  conduct  the 
convention,  it  simply  makes  preparations  for  the  people's  representa- 
tives to  come  together,  and  as  the  people  have  a  right  to  witness  the 
proceedings  of  their  representatives  a  National  Committee  would  natu- 
rally hesitate  to  deprive  them  of  this  privilege. 

It  is  true  that  the  line  must  be  drawn  somewhere,  as  in  fact  only 


JEFFERSON  AND  CLEVELAND.  783 

a  small  number  can  witness  a  convention  as  spectators,  still  it  would 
seem  to  me  to  be  better  to  draw  the  line  at  that  point  where  nature 
fixes  the  limits — that  is  the  point  beyond  which  it  is  impossible  to 
hear  well.  Any  other  limitation  must  of  necessity  be  arbitrary  and 
give  rise  to  much  dissatisfaction.  I  will  not  dwell  on  the  fact  that  in 
most  cases  the  men  who  propose  to  keep  spectators  out  of  the  con- 
ventions assume  that  they  themselves  will  of  course  be  admitted,  but 
they  can  see  no  reason  under  the  sun  why  the  other  fellows  should  be 
let  in. 

Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


JEFFERSON    AND    CLEVELAND. 

THE  FIRST  THE  FOUNDER  AND  THE  OTHER  THE  DESTROYER 
OF  DEMOCRACY.— "COMPARISON  IS  IMPOSSIBLE,  BUT 
CONTRAST  IS  INSTRUCTIVE."— THOMAS  JEFFERSON  WAS 
THE  GREAT  DEFENDER  OF  HUMAN  LIBERTY.— HE  EN- 
TERED PUBLIC  LIFE  RICH  AND  LEFT  IT  A  POOR  MAN.— 
CLEVELAND  BEGAN  HIS  PUBLIC  LIFE  WHEN  VERY  POOR 
AND  LEFT  THE  PRESIDENCY  A  WEALTHY  MAN.— SOME 
INTERESTING  CHAPTERS  FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES  AND  OF  THE  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY. 

(Speech  at  Central  Music  Hall,  April  13,  1898.) 

We  have  met  to  celebrate  the  birthday  of  the  first  President  elected 
by  the  Democracy  of  America,  and  inasmuch  as  the  last  President 
elected  by  the  Democracy  is  to  be  brought  to  our  city  to  define  na- 
tional honor  and  give  us  instruction  in  morals,  it  has  occurred  to  me 
that  this  fact  taken  in  connection  with  the  unhappy  conditions  of  our 
country,  as  left  by  the  last  President,  and  as  we  find  them  to-day, 
makes  it  proper  to  say  something  about  both  of  these  men — the  one 
the  founder  and  the  other  the  destroyer  of  the  Democratic  party — 
comparison  is  impossible,  but  contrast  may  be  instructive,  especially 
to  the  young  men  of  the  land. 

While  Virginia  was  yet  a  British  colony  a  young  man  named 
Thomas  Jefferson,  who  hailed  from  the  landed  gentry,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Legislature.  He  had  been  highly  educated,  was  a  student 
of  all  human  affairs,  and  was  a  member  of  the  bar.  Although  born 
an  aristocrat  he  saw  that  all  civilization  rests  on  the  hand  that  toils. 
He  saw  that  all  of  the  governments  of  the  earth  rested  on  restrictive 
policies  which  cowed  the  nobler  instincts  and  higher  activities  of 
men. 

He  felt  that  if  man  were  given  his  freedom  he  would  work  out  a 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

higher  destiny.  He  saw  that  all  men  came  into  the  world  equal  and 
that  institutions  which  created  inequality  were  a  curse  to  the  race, 
and  he  devoted  his  life  toward  securing  equality  for  mankind,  liberty 
and  justice.  The  agitation  in  behalf  of  independence  had  begun. 
Nearly  all  the  rich — the  powerful — the  fashionable  and  all  that  hang 
to  these  classes  were  tories  who  looked  with  contempt  on  those  men 
who  talked  of  liberty  and  independence;  the  latter  were  called  a  rabble 
of  demagogues  and  agitators. 

Jefferson  did  not  do  like  some  men  who  subsequently  became  dis- 
tinguished; he  did  not  allow  others  to  do  all  of  the  earlier,  unpopular 
and  dangerous  work  of  educating  and  formulating  public  sentiment, 
but  he  became  the  guiding  spirit  of  this  movement. 

THE    GUIDING    SPIRIT    OF    TRUTH. 

He  assisted  in  forming  the  celebrated  committee  of  correspond- 
ence for  disseminating  intelligence  among  the  colonies  and  bringing 
them  into  closer  relationship.  In  1774  he  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  Continental  Congress  and  drew  up  the  famous  "summary  view 
of  the  rights  of  British  America,"  which,  though  rejected  then  as  being 
too  radical,  was  adopted  by  some  colonies  and  was  extensively  pub- 
lished here  and  in  England.  He  helped  to  draft  every  important  doc- 
ument issued  by  the  Congress,  and  especially  the  answers  to  the  Eng- 
lish government.  And  when  the  cause  of  independence  had  ripened, 
his  brain  conceived,  his  heart  shaped,  and  his  hand  wrote  the  Declara- 
tion of  American  Independence ;  a  document  which  has  given  immor- 
tality even  to  those  who  did  nothing  except  sign  their  names  to  it — 
a  document  which  was  the  greatest  charter  of  human  rights  ever  given 
to  mankind. 

The  colony  of  Virginia  had,  in  the  meantime,  adopted  a  new  con- 
stitution, for  which  he  had  written  the  preamble,  and  in  October,  1776, 
he  resigned  his  seat  in  Congress  and  devoted  himself  to  bringing 
about  a  radical  revision  of  the  laws  of  the  colony.  Virginia  had  an 
established  church,  and  any  man  who  did  not  adhere  to  it  and  at- 
tempted to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  con- 
science was  not  only  prosecuted  but  persecuted. 

CHAMPION    OF    RELIGIOUS    FREEDOM. 

He  secured  the  establishment  of  religious  freedom  in  the  colony. 
He  secured  the  abolition  of  the  feudal  and  aristocratic  system  of 
primogeniture  and  entail — that  system  under  which  the  eldest  son  took 
all  the  land,  which  then  meant  nearly  all  the  property — and  he  founded 
a  free  common  school  system  which  was  subsequently  copied  in  most 


JEFFERSON  AND  CLEVELAND.  785 

of  the  States.  For  his  course  on  each  of  these  questions,  he  was  angrily 
denounced  by  those  who  considered  themselves  the  better  classes, 
consisting  of  the  rich,  the  influential  and  the  powerful,  as  a  dema- 
gogue, an  agent  of  Satan,  an  enemy  of  Christian  institutions  and  a 
dangerous  man.  But  he  never  wavered,  and  succeeded  in  bringing  the 
laws  of  his  colony  more  nearly  in  line  with  the  spirit  of  justice.  He 
hoped  that  he  had  eradicated  every  fiber  of  ancient  or  future  aristoc- 
racy. 

He  considered  slavery  a  moral  and  political  evil  and  said  concern- 
ing it  that  he  trembled  for  his  country  when  he  remembered  that  God 
was  just. 

After  the  Revolution,  he  founded  the  University  of  Virginia,  which 
has  given  this  country  hosts  of  great  men,  and  it  is  still  one  of  our 
greatest  institutions  of  learning.  The  services  he  rendered  his  colony 
alone  entitle  him  to  an  enduring  fame  and  the  gratitude  of  mankind. 
He  served  two  years  as  Governor  of  the  colony,  and  then  declined  a 
re-election,  and  retired  to  private  life,  but  re-entered  Congress  in 
1783,  and  reported  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain  acknowl- 
edging" the  independence  which  had  been  declared  in  '76.  He  next 
secured  the  establishment  of  the  decimal  system  of  coinage,  abolishing 
the  English  system  of  pounds,  shillings,  etc. 

Subsequently  he  was  sent  abroad  to  assist  in  negotiating  treaties 
of  commerce,  and  then  was  made  resident  minister  to  France,  where  he 
spent  about  four  years.  Here  he  published  his  famous  "Notes  on 

Virginia." 

ALWAYS   A    DEMOCRAT. 

One  feature  of  his  character  at  this  time  is  especially  noticeable, 
i.  e.,  he  was  always  a  Democrat.  In  recent  years  we  have  sent  men 
abroad  who  knelt  before  and  tried  to  ape  the  aristocracy,  some  of 
them  even  denouncing  the  country  which  had  given  them  a  commis- 
sion, but  in  every  line  of  Jefferson's  utterances  during  that  time,  in  all 
of  his  letters,  there  was  that  bold  expression  of  his  opinion,  that 
aristocracy  and  absolutism  were  a  curse  to  the  world,  and  that  the 
hopes  of  humanity  lay  in  a  broad  and  free  democracy. 

He  was  still  abroad  when  our  federal  Constitution  was  adopted. 
He  expressed  his  hearty  approval  of  most  of  it,  but  felt  alarmed  over 
the  provision  which  created  the  federal  judiciary.  Here  was  a  branch 
of  government  that  was  unrcpublican  and  undemocratic,  that  rested 
upon  an  aristocratic,  or  rather  a  monarchic  basis.  The  judges,  who 
would  have  all  the  prejudices  and  weaknesses  of  other  men,  were 
not  to  be  selected  by  the  people,  they  were  to  hold  office  for  life  and 
would  not  understand  the  needs  or  the  wrongs  of  the  people,  but 
50 


786  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

would  be  influenced  by  class  interests,  with  which  they  came  more  con- 
stantly in  contact.  He  urged  with  great  earnestness  that  such  a  tribu- 
nal would  go  on  extending  its  jurisdiction  by  day  and  by  night  until 
it  should  absorb  the  whole  field  and  become  the  tomb  of  liberty.  I 
am  sorry  to  say,  my  friends,  that  it  has  already  been  demonstrated 
that  these  forebodings  were  prophecies. 

JEFFERSON   AND    HAMILTON. 

After  the  Constitution  was  adopted  and  Washington  was  elected 
President,  it  became  necessary  to  have  the  young  republic  establish 
as  friendly  relations  as  possible  with  the  different  governments  of  the 
earth.  As  we  were  then  weak  and  unknown  and  as  our  government 
was  considered  but  an  experiment,  and  was  sneered  at  by  the  in- 
fluential classes  of  the  world,  it  was  a  most  delicate  and  difficult  task 
to  secure  for  us  even  respectable  treatment  from  foreign  governments. 
Mr.  Jefferson  returned  from  Europe  and  President  Washington  ap- 
pointed him  to  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State,  the  one  which  at  that 
time  was  the  most  difficult  to  be  filled.  Hamilton  was  also  in  Wash- 
ington's cabinet  and  except  as  to  bimetallism  stood  for  exactly  the 
opposite  of  all  of  those  principles,  convictions  and  theories  of  govern- 
ment which  were  represented  by  Jefferson.  Hamilton  was  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  and  made  an  able  and  exhaustive  report  on  the  finan- 
cial question.  He  submitted  a  copy  of  it  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  in 
referring  to  that  feature  of  it  relating  to  the  two  metals,  said:  "To 
annul  the  use  of  either  of  the  metals  as  money  is  to  abridge  the  quan- 
tity of  the  circulating  medium  and  is  liable  to  all  the  objections  which 
arise  from  a  comparison  of  the  benefits  of  a  full  with  the  evils  of  a 
scanty  circulation."  In  answering  this  letter  Mr.  JefferSon  wrote  to 
Hamilton  as  follows:  "I  concur  with  you  that  the  unit  must  stand  on 
both  metals." 

Jefferson  was  opposed  to  the  funding  and  other  financial  schemes 
of  Mr.  Hamilton  because  they  would  load  the  country  with  unneces- 
sary burdens  and  appeared  to  be  in  the  interest  of  stock  jobbers  and 
speculators.  He  abhorred  a  bank  of  issue  as  being  destructive  of  the 
welfare  of  the  country  and  especially  did  he  oppose  the  creation  of  a 
United  States  bank.  In  a  letter  to  Adams,  in  1814,  he  said:  "I  have 
ever  been  an  enemy  of  banks,  not  of  those  discounting  for  cash,  but  of 
those  foisting  their  own  paper  into  circulation.  My  zeal  against  those 
institutions  was  so  warm  and  open  at  the  establishment  of  the  bank  of 
the  United  States  that  I  was  derided  as  a  maniac  by  the  tribe  of  bank 
mongers  who  were  seeking  to  filch  from  the  public  their  swindling 


JEFFERSON  AND  CLEVELAND.  787 

and  barren  gains.    The  evils  they  have  engendered  are  now  upon  us 
and  the  question  is  how  we  are  to  get  out  of  them." 

BIRTH    OF    DEMOCRATIC    PARTY. 

At  this  time  the  American  people  became  divided  into  two  parties; 
one  called  Federalists  were  headed  by  Hamilton  and  were  strongly 
in  favor  of  American  independence,  but  did  not  comprehend  or  under- 
stand democratic  government,  or  democratic  principles.  They  believed 
in  following  the  example  of  European  governments;  they  believed  in 
the  government  by  wealth  tinctured  by  corruption  and  with  them 
the  Revolution  simply  meant  the  overthrow  of  the  foreign  aristocracy 
and  ruling  force  and  the  substitution  of  a  home  aristocracy  and  ruling 
force,  and  they  had  the  impudence  to  denounce  Jefferson  as  a  dema- 
gogue. They  believed  in  having  government  control  nearly  all  of  the 
affairs  of  the  citizens.  Under  their  theory  the  citizen  existed  by  per- 
mission of  the  government.  The  other  party  consisted  of  the  Demo- 
crats, then  called  Republicans,  headed  by  Jefferson,  and  believed  in  a 
system  of  government  that  should  interfere  as  little  as  possible  with 
the  affairs  of  the  private  individual ;  they  believed  that  all  power  rested 
in  the  people,  that  instead  of  the  people  existing  by  permission  of  the 
government,  the  government  was  the  creation  and  the  agent  of  the 
people.  They  were  bitterly  opposed  to  anything  like  a  ruling  aristoc- 
racy, or  governing  class.  They  believed  that  mankind  were  capable 
of  self-government  and  that  the  highest  development  of  man  could 
only  be  attained  in  free  institutions.  When  Washington  retired  from 
the  presidency,  he  was  succeeded  by  John  Adams,  a  Federalist  of  the 
narrowest  type.  During  his  administration  the  principles  of  the  Fed- 
eralistic  party  began  to  take  form.  The  whole  tendency  was  against 
the  masses  of  the  people  and  in  favor  of  the  central  power.  The  in- 
famous alien  and  sedition  laws  were  passed  during  this  administra- 
tion. Frightful  strides  were  made  towards  strangling  the  spirit  of 
democratic  institutions  and  establishing  in  their  stead  the  aristocratic 
principle.  Had  this  policy  become  permanent,  the  whole  career  of 
the  new  republic  would  have  been  different,  the  oppressed  and  the 
liberty-loving  of  all  lands  would  never  have  sought  our  shores. 

JEFFERSON   TO   THE   RESCUE. 

But  the  people  of  the  young  republic  had  not  thrown  off  a  British 
yoke  simply  to  wear  a  more  odious  home  yoke,  and  in  1800  they 
rallied  under  the  leadership  of  Jefferson  and  overthrew  the  odious  ad- 
ministration of  Adams  and  the  unrepublican  policy  of  the  Federal- 
ists. Jefferson  was  elected  President  and  the  objectionable  legislation 


788  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

of  the  prior  administration  was  wiped  out  at  once,  the  whole  policy  of 
the  government  was  reversed,  the  face  of  the  nation  was  turned  toward 
the  morning.  Liberty  and  progress,  humanity  and  justice  became 
the  watch-words  and  they  brought  to  us  the  best  muscle  and  brain  of 
the  world.  The  spirit  of  man,  being  thus  unchained  and  encouraged 
in  its  aspirations  and  efforts,  leaped  forward  and  gave  the  republic  a 
career  that  was  without  a  parallel  in  all  history.  Jefferson's  far-seeing 
eye  perceived  the  advantages  of  extending  our  domain,  and  under  what 
was  known  as  the  Louisiana  purchase  we  acquired  that  vast  territory 
lying  west  of  the  Mississippi  and  stretching  from  New  Orleans  north- 
west to  the  Pacific  ocean.  This  was  fiercely  opposed  by  the  Federal- 
ists. But  it  at  once  changed  our  character.  Instead  of  being  a  republic 
on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America,  we  became  the  great  Ameri- 
can Republic.  It  was  during  the  eight  years  of  Jefferson's  adminis- 
tration that  the  foundations  of  our  greatness  were  laid  and  that  our 
destiny  was  shaped.  The  great  mass  of  men  who  do  the  world's  work, 
who  love  freedom  and  hate  oppression,  who  love  justice  and  despise 
hypocrisy,  had  been  cemented  together.  The  great  Democratic  party- 
was  founded.  That  party  guided  the  republic  for  twenty-four  years, 
Jefferson  being  succeeded  by  Madison  and  he  being  followed  by  Mon- 
roe. The  Monroe  doctrine  that  we  hear  so  much  of  in  recent  years  was 
first  officially  promulgated  to  the  world  by  President  Monroe,  who 
was  a  pupil  and  disciple  of  Jefferson. 

JEFFERSON   LEFT   OFFICE  A   POOR   MAN. 

My  friends,  find  a  principle  of  government  that  has  helped  to 
make  us  distinctive  and  great  and  you  will  find  it  was  of  democratic 
and  Jeffersonian  parentage.  Glancing  at  this  quarter  of  a  century 
during  which  the  breath  of  Jefferson  was  animating  the  nation,  we 
find  that  none  of  these  great  men  indulged  in  political  huckstering  or 
trading.  They  stood  for  definite  principles  and  resolutely  carried  them 
out.  Office  came  to  them  incidentally,  there  was  no  deception  of  con- 
stituents, no  false  promises  made  before  election  and  broken  after- 
wards, no  efforts  to  mislead  and  no  betrayal.  Jefferson  entered  public 
life  wealthy,  and  served  his  country  faithfully.  He  retired  from  the 
presidency  poor  and  died  in  poverty.  In  the  light  of  more  recent 
events  I  am  impelled  to  declare,  "Thank  God  this  great  man  retired 
from  office  poor."  There  was  nothing  to  sully  his  character,  nothing 
to  dim  the  luster  of  his  star. 


JEFFERSON  AND  CLEVELAND.  789 

CLEVELAND   VS.    DEMOCRACY. 

We  now  turn  to  a  darker  picture.  In  1863,  Mr.  C.  C.  Torrance 
was  the  Democratic  district  attorney  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.  A  young  man 
came  to  him  and  asked  to  be  appointed  assistant,  pleading  that  he  was 
much  in  need.  After  hearing  his  appeal,  Mt.  C.  C.  Torrance  appointed 
him  assistant  state's  attorney.  Toward  the  end  of  the  term  Mr.  C.  C. 
Torrance  was  a  candidate  for  re-election  and  asked  to  be  renominated 
by  the  Democratic  convention,  when  he  found  to  his  astonishment 
that  the  young  man  whom  he  had  befriended  had  undermined  him  and 
managed  to  get  the  nomination  himself.  The  name  of  the  young  man 
was  Grover  Cleveland.  This  was  his  first  effort  in  politics  and  he  here 
gave  the  world  a  key  to  his  character,  he  here  exhibited  those  traits 
which  he,  in  later  years,  showed  in  dealing  with  the  Democratic  party. 
But  the  people  of  that  county  refused  their  sanction,  and  as  a  result 
Horace  Boies,  who  was  then  a  Republican,  and  later  became  Gov- 
ernor of  Iowa,  was  elected  state's  attorney.  Years  after  the  time  came 
to  nominate  a  sheriff.  The  prospects  of  the  Democrats  being  poor, 
there  were  no  aspirants.  Ordinarily  lawyers  take  pride  in  their  pro- 
fession and  even  if  poor  would  regard  it  as  an  insult  to  be  asked  to 
act  as  sheriff,  honorable  as  the  office  may  be  for  a  layman,  but  Grover 
Cleveland  came  forward  and  asked  the  nomination,  and,  in  the  ebb 
and  flow  of  politics,  he  was  elected.  The  personal  conduct  of  men 
is  frequently  referred  to  as  furnishing  a  key  to  their  public  career — 
by  showing  their  nature  and  mental  qualities.  The  course  of  Mr. 
Cleveland  through  a  number  of  years  at  this  period  furnishes  such  a 
key,  but  we  pass  it  by. 

FRIEND    OF    CORPORATIONS. 

He  was  next  elected  Mayor  of  Buffalo  and  he  had  not  long  been 
in  office  until  it  became  apparent  that  the  corporations  were  carrying 
away  everything  but  the  city  hall ;  that  the  corporations  were  on 
horseback  and  did  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  dismount  when  enter- 
ing the  Mayor's  office.  In  the  meantime  the  common  council  had 
passed  some  ordinances  relating  to  street  cleaning.  The  corporations 
that  were  influential  with  the  Mayor  had  no  interest  in  these  ordi- 
nances. The  Mayor  vetoed  them  and  charged  in  effect  that  the  men 
who  supported  these  ordinances  were  scoundrels.  These  messages 
attracted  attention.  There  were  at  that  time,  as  there  are  now,  certain 
papers  in  New  York  and  elsewhere  that  called  themselves  reform  pa- 
pers. These  reform  papers  loudly  praised  the  Mayor's  veto.  A  syste- 
matic effort  was  made  to  hold  the  Mayor  up  to  the  country  as  a  great 


790  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

patriot.  The  country  did  not  know  that  these  so-called  reform  papers 
were  mostly  owned,  and  are  entirely  controlled,  by  corporation  and 
syndicate  influence,  influences  that  despise  little  thieves  but  watch 
their  opportunity  to  filch  millions  from  the  public. 

PLATITUDES    AND    PLUNDER. 

Here  was  a  man  who  could  feed  platitudes  to  the  public  and  plun- 
der to  the  syndicates.  The  latter  decided  to  make  as  much  out  of  him 
as  possible.  They  secured  his  nomination  by  the  Democratic  conven- 
tion for  Governor  of  New  York.  It  happened  to  be  a  year  when  one 
wing  of  the  Republican  party  determined  to  punish  another  wing. 
By  this  means  Judge  Folger,  the  Republican  candidate,  was  defeated 
by  an  unprecedented  majority  and  the  ex-mayor  of  Buffalo  was  made 
Governor.  Here  the  corporations  became  still  more  aggressive;  they 
assumed  absolute  control.  The  records  show  that  every  measure  in 
their  interest,  of  which  there  were  many,  had  the  prompt  support  and 
approval  of  the  Governor,  while  every  measure  which  they  did  not 
favor  and  every  measure  framed  in  the  interest  of  the  men  who  toiled 
with  their  hands,  of  which  there  were  a  number,  was  promptly  vetoed. 
Monopoly  guarded  both  the  front  and  the  rear  entrances  of  the  exe- 
cutive mansion,  while  the  toiler  was  not  permitted  to  even  look  at  the 
gates  that  led  to  the  executive  grounds.  But  the  managers  who 
profited  by  this  condition  of  affairs  determined  to  operate  on  a  larger 
scale.  The  control  of  the  federal  government  promised  millions  where 
the  control  of  the  State  government  meant  but  thousands. 

NOMINATED    BY    THE    TRUSTS. 

In  1884  the  national  Democratic  convention  was  held  at  Chicago 
and  there  came  from  the  East  some  gentlemen  representing  those 
trusts  and  corporations  that  had  the  New  York  Governor  in  training. 
Mr.  Manning  represented  the  bankers  of  Wall  Street.  Mr.  Whitney 
represented,  not  only  the  great  Standard  Oil  Trust,  but  a  combination 
of  trusts  and  syndicates.  These  men,  by  appealing  to  similar  inter- 
ests elsewhere,  succeeded  in  forcing  the  nomination  of  the  New  York 
Governor  for  President.  Men  who  did  not  belong  to  these  interests 
declared  that  the  Governor  was  not  a  Democrat  and  that  it  would 
ultimately  destroy  the  party  to  take  him  up,  but  they  were  overruled. 
The  nomination  was  made  and  sufficient  funds  were  raised  among 
the  parties  interested  to  secure  his  election.  No  sooner  was  he  in- 
augurated than  certain  characteristics  became  painfully  prominent. 
He  knew  nothing  about  the  affairs  of  the  government  or  the  condi- 
tions of  the  country.  He  looked  upon  trusts  and  syndicates  as  the 


JEFFERSON  AND  CLEVELAND.  791 

embodiment  of  righteousness  and  regarded  all  men  who  did  not  belong 
to  these  concerns  as  being  unworthy  of  consideration.  He  showed  a 
liking  for  the  dilettante.  It  became  a  mugwump  administration,  which 
took  for  its  guidance  the  swamp  lights  of  Hamiltonism.  The  Demo- 
crats of  the  land  who  adhered  to  the  doctrines  of  Jefferson  became 
sick  at  heart  and  retired,  and  the  administration  became  contemptible. 

FIRST   FOUR   YEARS    OF   CLEVELAND. 

The  National  Democratic  Convention  of  1888  was  held  at  St.  Louis 
and  men  shrugged  their  shoulders  when  they  saw  Mr.  Whitney,  who 
still  represented  the  Standard  Oil  Trust  and  a  combination  of  syndi- 
cates, accompanied  and  assisted  by  other  representatives  of  concen- 
trated wealth,  go  to  St.  Louis  and  again  override  the  democratic  spirit 
of  the  country  and  again  force  the  nomination  of  Grover  Cleveland 
upon  the  Democratic  party.  The  election  came.  The  honest  Demo- 
cracy remained  in  its  tents  and  the  mugwump  administration  ended. 
During  the  four  years  which  followed,  the  iniquities  of  the  McKinley 
law  had  disgusted  the  American  people.  Then  the  Eastern  manipula- 
tors of  politics  again  saw  their  opportunity. 

TRUSTS    AGAIN    TO    THE    FORE. 

In  1892  the  national  Democratic  convention  was  held  in  Chicago 
and  good  men  sighed  for  their  country  when  they,  for  the  third  time, 
saw  Mr.  Whitney,  still  the  representative  of  the  Standard  Oil  Trust 
and  of  other  syndicates  and  corporations,  assisted  by  other  men  rep- 
resenting similar  interests,  coming  on  to  the  ground,  overriding  the 
honest  sentiment  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  for  the  third  time  forc- 
ing the  nomination  of  their  protege  upon  the  Democratic  party. 
During  the  campaign  the  candidate  gave  assurances  to  various  prom- 
inent Democrats  that  if  again  elected  he  would  be  a  Democrat  and 
would  give  the  country  a  Democratic  administration.  Relying  on 
these  assurances,  many  Democrats  gave  him  their  support  who  other- 
wise would  not  have.  The  election  which  followed  was  a  protest  by 
the  country  against  McKinleyism.  The  Democratic  ticket  triumphed, 
as  a  result  of  this  protest.  When  the  inauguration  was  over,  the 
syndicates  stepped  into  the  open  and  proceeded  to  claim  their  own. 
They  determined  to  reap  a  harvest  while  their  sun  was  shining.  At 
the  elections  the  country  had  expressed  itself  clearly  and  explicitly 
upon  the  subject  of  tariff  reform,  but  they  felt  no  interest  in  this. 
As  a  preliminary  step  to  subsequent  bond  operations,  they  demanded 
the  more  complete  establishment  of  the  gold  standard  and  the  final 
overthrow  of  silver,  knowing  that  this  would  force  the  government 


792  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

along  a  line  that  would  enrich  the  speculator.  The  Democratic 
party  which  had  just  elected  the  President  was  opposed  to  this  policy. 
All  of  its  conventions  had  emphatically  declared  against  a  gold  stand- 
ard and  in  favor  of  the  re-establishment  of  silver.  The  same  was  in 
fact  true  of  the  declarations  of  the  Republican  party.  The  masses  of 
the  American  people  were  opposed  to  the  demands  of  the  money 
power,  but  they  were  entitled  to  no  consideration,  and  the  new  Presi- 
dent, instead  of  carrying  out  the  policy  upon  which  the  country  had 
spoken,  instead  of  proceeding  at  once  to  carry  out  reforms  which  the 
Democratic  convention  that  nominated  him  had  promised  the  country, 
simply  listened  to  those  people  in  whose  wagon  he  had  ridden  from 
Buffalo  to  Albany  and  from  Albany  to  Washington.  He  immediately 
convened  Congress  in  special  session,  he  entirely  ignored  the  reforms 
to  which  he  was  pledged  and  he  demanded  of  Congress  legislation 
that  should  administer  the  final  death  blow  to  the  silver  cause,  that 
should  still  further  enhance  the  purchasing  power  and  influence  of 
gold,  further  reduce  the  price  of  commodities  and  of  labor,  and  par- 
alyze industry.  At  that  time  the  government  was  annually  issuing 
about  fifty  million  dollars  of  silver  certificates  based  upon  silver 
bullion  in  the  treasury. 

A   REVOLTING    SITUATION. 

It  was  that  much  addition  to  the  currency  of  our  coun- 
try every  year;  while  utterly  inadequate,  it  still  did  some- 
thing toward  having  the  volume  of  money  in  our  country 
keep  pace  with  the  increasing  population  and  the  increas- 
ing business.  To  put  an  end  to  this,  therefore,  meant  greater  strin- 
gency and  greater  distress.  The  Wall  street  brokers,  who  handled 
English  capital,  forced  the  Republican  congressmen  to  support  this 
measure.  The  majority  of  the  Democratic  congressmen  hesitated 
to  thus  betray  their  constituents,  but  the  administration  was  deter- 
mined. As  the  Democratic  congressmen  were  expected  to  secure 
more  or  less  offices  for  their  constituents,  the  administration  took 
advantage  of  this  fact.  Although  the  President  had  talked  loftily 
about  civil  service,  there  followed  such  a  prostitution  and  such  an 
abuse  of  the  patronage  of  the  American  government  as  had  never 
been  seen  at  Washington  from  the  time  the  capital  was  located  in  the 
valley  of  the  Potomac.  Congressmen  were  given  to  understand  that 
the  only  way  in  which  they  could  secure  even  a  hearing  in  behalf  of 
their  constituents  was  to  yield  to  the  demands  of  the  President.  By 
this  usurpation  men  were  whipped  into  line  against  their  convictions 
and  the  Wall  street  measure  was  forced  through  Congress  against  the 


'JEFFERSON  AND  CLEVELAND.  793 

protests  of  the  honest  Democrats  all  over  the  country.  Instead  of 
this  measure  giving  the  country  relief,  as  was  promised,  it  helped  to 
further  paralyze  the  industries  and  business  of  the  land.  Soon  there- 
after there  was  a  vacancy  on  the  Supreme  bench.  The  President  had 
some  favorite  whom  he  wished  to  place  there,  and  he  sent  first  the 
nomination  of  one,  and  when  that  was  rejected,  the  nomination  of 
another  of  his  friends  to  the  Senate  for  confirmation,  and  while  each 
of  these  nominations  were  pending  the  papers  were  filled  with  accounts 
of  cabinet  ministers  riding  over  the  city  of  Washington  at  midnight, 
pleading  with  different  Senators  and  offering  anything  in  the  shape 
of  patronage  if  the  latter  would  but  vote  for  confirmation,  but  the 
Senate  stood  firm  and  another  man  had  to  be  selected.  At  the  next 
session  of  Congress  a  tariff  bill  was  introduced.  The  President  talked 
loftily  against  community  of  pelf,  and  then  it  developed  that  the  ad- 
ministration through  its  treasury  department  had  helped  the  great 
Sugar  Trust  get  the  law  framed  to  suit  itself.  From  that  time  on  the 
honest  Democrats  of  the  land  avoided  the  White  House  and  looked 
with  pain  and  sorrow  upon  the  spectacle  of  a  horde  of  trusts  sleeping 
in  the  council  chambers  of  the  President,  and  dictating  the  policy  of 
the  American  government. 

CLEVELAND  THE  ENEMY  OF  LABOR. 

In  1894  there  occurred  what  was  known  as  the  great  railroad 
strike.  Its  center  seemed  to  be  Chicago;  reports  of  it  were  simply 
exaggeration  and  fabrication.  After  it  was  over  a  commission  was 
appointed  by  the  federal  government  to  make  an  inquiry  in  regard 
to  the  cause  and  extent  of  the  strike,  the  damage  which  had  been  done 
and  when  it  was  done.  The  records  of  the  fire  department  show  the 
exact  dates  on  which  any  property  was  destroyed  and  the  amount 
that  was  destroyed.  The  records  of  the  police  department  also  show 
the  dates  of  disturbances,  their  locality  and  extent.  We  have  now 
exact  information  upon  all  these  questions,  and  this  information  shows 
that  ten  days  prior  to  the  rioting,  prior  to  any  disturbances,  the  cor- 
'porations  asked  the  President  to  send  federal  troops  into  Chicago 
and  the  President  without  any  inquiry  of  the  local  authorities  as  to  the 
conditions  or  whether  they  needed  assistance,  without  any  inquiry  of 
the  State  authorities  as  to  whether  any  assistance  would  be  needed, 
and  three  days  before  there  was  any  rioting,  ordered  United  States 
troops  into  Chicago,  and  made  them  subject  to  military  orders  from 
Washington,  and  not  to  the  civil  authorities,  federal  or  State,  as  re- 
quired by  law,  thus  establishing  military  government. 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 


MISUSE   OF   FEDERAL   TROOPS. 

To  guard  the  postoffice  or  subtreastiry  would  have  looked  ridic- 
ulous, there  being  no  unrest  in  that  part  of  the  city.  It  was  in  the 
railroad  yards  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city  where  the  trouble  subse- 
quently came.  After  the  trouble  began  some  of  these  federal  troops 
were  sent  out  to  one  of  these  railroad  yards  to  quell  a  riot,  but  they 
soon  retired.  Thereafter  they  scarcely  made  another  effort.  They 
did  not  prevent  the  burning  of  a  single  car  or  the  ditching  of  a  single 
engine.  The  disturbance  was  quelled  by  the  regular  constitutional 
authorities.  At  the  suggestion  of  the  governor  the  mayor  applied 
for  assistance  from  the  State,  according  to  law,  and  within  a  few  hours 
thereafter  so  large  a  force  was  put  on  the  ground  as  to  completely 
control  the  situation. 

There  had  been  many  strikes  in  Chicago  which  were  more 
formidable  than  this  one  promised  to  be,  and  the  situation  was  con- 
trolled by  the  local  authorities.  But  the  great  corporations  of  the 
country  wanted  a  precedent  set  for  having  the  federal  government 
take  them  directly  under  its  wings  so  that  they  would  not,  in  any 
case,  need  to  apply  to  any  local  government  ;  in  fact  so  that  they  could 
in  every  case  not  only  ignore  but  even  defy  the  local  governments. 

Under  our  Constitution  federal  supremacy  and  local  self-govern- 
ment must  go  hand  in  hand.  This  principle  forms  the  basis  of  our 
institutions.  But  the  voice  of  the  corporations  was  potent  and  al- 
though it  was  necessary  to  violate  the  Constitution  and  the  law  of 
the  land,  and  although  it  was  necessary  to  trample  every  principle  of 
Jefferson  in  the  mud,  this  illegal  precedent  was  set  by  a  President 
who  had  been  elected  by  Democratic  votes. 

CLEVELAND    AND    CUBA. 

During  his  term  the  sad  cry  of  starving  and  bleeding  Cuba  \vas 
heard  by  the  world.  All  she  asked  was  recognition  which  would 
give  her  belligerent  rights  and  enable  her  to  buy  in  our  markets.  She 
would  fight  her  own  battles  and  needed  no  intervention.  This  nation 
spoke  in  tones  of  thunder  that  the  Spanish  assassin  must  not  be  helped 
by  us  and  that  Cuba  must  be  recognized.  Congress  promptly  passed 
such  a  resolution.  Had  this  been  acted  on  there  would  to-day  be  no 
Cuban  question,  for  once  able  to  buy  supplies  in  our  market  on  the 
same  footing  with  Spain,  the  brave  Cubans  would  long  ago  have 
driven  every  Spaniard  off  of  the  island.  But  then,  as  now,  the  voice 
of  the  money  changer  silenced  the  voice  of  statesmanship  —  of  com- 
mon sense  and  of  justice.  The  President  sneered  at  the  people  and 


JEFFERSON  AND  CLEVELAND.  795 

ignored  a  co-ordinate  branch  of  the  government,  and  the  great  navy 
of  this  proud  and  free  republic  was  made  to  perform  the  service  of 
a  policeman  for  the  convenience  of  Spain.  Thank  God  the  time  is 
at  hand  which  will  end  Spanish  barbarities  on  American  soil. 

FORCING  BOND    ISSUES. 

But  while  the  corporations  were  in  full  control  of  the  White  House, 
they  had  not  yet  reaped  their  great  harvest.  To  make  vast  fortunes 
by  the  turn  of  the  hand  it  was  necessary  to  have  the  government  issue 
bonds.  This  was  the  purpose  they  had  in  mind  when  they  got  the 
administration  to  convene  Congress  in  special  session  and  administer 
the  death  blow  to  silver.  They  understood  their  business  perfectly. 
They  knew  that  the  administration  would  now  be  obliged  to  issue 
bonds,  and  during  the  four  years  constituting  the  last  administration 
Mr.  Cleveland  issued  two  hundred  and  seventy  millions  of  bonds,  and 
according  to  the  statement  he  sent  to  Congress  this  was  not  to  meet 
the  expense  of  the  government,  but  simply  to  maintain  the  gold  stand- 
ard. Reflect  a  moment:  In  times  of  profound  peace,  when,  accord- 
ing to  his  statement,  there  was  ample  money  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  the  government,  the  burdens  of  the  American  people  were  increased 
two  hundred  and  seventy  millions,  simply  to  satisfy  the  moneyed 
power  and  maintain  a  system  which  is  paralyzing  our  nation.  Debts 
have  ultimately  to  be  paid  with  the  things  that  are  made  in  the  shop, 
or  raised  in  the  field,  they  have  to  be  paid  ultimately  with  human 
labor;  speculators  pay  none  of  them.  This  debt  means  that  the 
toilers  of  America  must  give  that  much  more  sweat,  that  much  more 
blood,  that  much  more  toil  for  which  neither  they  nor  their  children 
will  ever  receive  one  penny's  worth  of  benefit.  Altogether  the  bond 
speculators  are  said  to  have  made  between  thirty  and  forty  millions 
of  dollars,  clear  profit,  out  of  these  bond  transactions.  You  remem- 
ber the  bonds  were  sold  in  batches  at  different  times,  and  in  one  in- 
stance, when  a  batch  of  about  seventy  millions  were  to  be  sold,  they 
were  not  advertised,  they  were  not  offered  to  the  highest  bidder,  they 
were  not  put  upon  the  market,  but  Mr.  Cleveland  secretly  sent  for 
his  former  law  partner  and  this  man  made  a  secret  arrangement  with 
a  man  who  represented  a  syndicate  of  bankers.  By  this  arrange- 
ment this  batch  of  bonds  was  sold  to  this  syndicate  for  nearly  ten 
million  dollars  below  their  value.  Glance  at  this  transaction  a 
moment.  The  head  of  the  mighty  American  republic  sent  for  a  con- 
fidential friend  and  through  this  confidential  friend  secretly  sells  the 
United  States  bonds  to  another  man  with  whom  they  had  occupied 
confidential  relations,  and  sells  them  at  a  price  which  causes  the  gov- 


'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

crnment  to  lose  in  the  neighborhood  of  ten  millions  of  dollars.  I 
will  say  to  you  that  if  the  mayor  of  Chicago  were  guilty  of  such  a 
transaction,  he  would  be  indicted  by  the  grand  jury  and  sent  to  the 
penitentiary  of  Joliet  inside  of  a  fortnight. 

WANTED   GOLD    BONDS. 

On  another  occasion  when  he  was  about  to  sell  bonds,  he  sent  a 
message  to  Congress,  asking  permission  to  issue  gold  bonds,  stating 
that  he  could  sell  those  for  a  specific  sum  in  excess  of  what  they  would 
bring  if  issued  under  the  law  as  it  then  stood,  that  is  the  law  under 
which  practically  all  of  the  government  bonds  had  been  issued  and 
under  which  law  the  bonds  were  payable  at  the  option  of  the  govern- 
ment in  silver,  but  Congress  refused  to  allow  him  to  execute  a  gold 
contract.  Thereupon  he  issued  the  bonds  and  sold  them  in  the  mar- 
ket for  a  specific  sum  less  than  he  claimed  he  could  have  gotten  had 
they  been  payable  in  gold.  But  now  he  is  to  be  brought  to  the  West 
by  men  who  pay  not  a  dollar  of  the  national  debt,  to  tell  the  toilers  of 
the  land,  who  do  pay  these  debts,  that  if  they  do  not  pay  these  same 
bonds  in  gold  that  then  they  are  scoundrels. 

CLEVELAND   A    STOCK    SPECULATOR. 

While  all  these  transactions  were  going  on  the  country  heard, 
•with  a  blush  of  shame,  the  reports  that  some  of  the  Wall  street  stock 
speculators  were  carrying  the  President  of  the  United  States  on  their 
books,  apparently  as  a  silent  partner,  in  some  of  their  transactions, 
one  speculator  frequently  boasting  that  he  had  set  aside  certain  blocks 
of  stock  in  pending  schemes  for  his  friend,  Grover.  Time  passed,  and 
as  his  administration  began  to  draw  toward  a  close  and  its  real  char- 
acter began  to  be  understood  by  the  public,  and  the  disgust  and  con- 
demnation of  the  American  people  was  everywhere  heard,  the  coun- 
try was  startled  with  a  proclamation  issued  by  the  President,  threaten- 
ing war  with  England.  It  came  so  unexpectedly  that  people  could 
not  understand  it.  There  had  for  twenty-five  years  been  pending 
a  dispute  between  England  and  Venezuela  in  regard  to  the  boundary 
line  between  the  territory  of  the  two  countries.  There  was  nothing 
new  in  the  situation.  It  had  been,  and  was  still,  the  subject  of  cor- 
respondence between  those  two  governments,  but  the  President,  with- 
out ascertaining  the  facts  in  the  case,  issued  his  proclamation  promul- 
gating the  Monroe  doctrine.  Our  people  believed  in  the  Monroe 
doctrine  and  were  at  first  pleased  to  hear  it  referred  to,  but  when  the 
astonishment  subsided,  they  began  to  ask  what  it  was  all  about,  then 
the  absurdity  of  the  whole  performance,  the  French  opera-like  states- 


JEFFERSON  AND  CLEVELAND.  797 

manship  of  it  all  became  apparent,  the  President  not  knowing  what  the 
facts  were,  did  not  know  whether  the  Monroe  doctrine  was  involved. 
Congress  let  him  down  easy  by  providing  for  the  appointment  of  a 
commission,  to  find  out  whether  there  were  any  facts  in  the  entire 
case  which  were  of  interest  to  us.  That  commission  was  appointed, 
it  has  not  yet  reported  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  ever  will,  and 
the  entire  episode  is  almost  forgotten. 

LAST    ACT    OF    INFAMY. 

But  many  people  felt  that  the  situation  was  too  ridiculous  and 
that  there  must  have  been  some  other  and  ulterior  purpose  in  issuing 
the  proclamation.  These  people  studied  the  situation  and  ascertained 
that  the  proclamation  which  threatened  war  had  had  a  tremendous 
effect  upon  the  value  of  stocks  in  Wall  street,  and  that  about  $100,- 
000,000  changed  hands  in  consequence  of  that  proclamation.  That 
amount  of  money  being  lost  by  the  speculators  on  one  side  and  made 
by  the  speculators  on  the  other  side,  and  so  far  as  could  be  learned 
the  stock  brokers  who  had  been  the  President's  friends  were  not 
among  the  losers.  The  second  purpose  appeared  to  be  this:  The 
managers  of  the  administration,  seeing  that  the  country  was  condemn- 
ing its  policy  and  seeing  that  their  saturnalia  of  bond  jobbing  and 
money  making  by  the  aid  of  the  federal  administration  must  come 
to  an  end  unless  something  was  done,  and  knowing  that  the  American 
people  favored  the  Monroe  doctrine,  hit  upon  the  brilliant  idea  of 
having  the  President  issue  this  proclamation,  believing  that  it  would 
arouse  the  patriotism  of  the  country,  cause  a  movement  among  the 
people  in  his  favor,  so  as  to  enable  these  managers  to  re-nominate 
him  for  the  fourth  time,  and  re-elect  him  for  the  third  term.  But  the 
patience  of  the  American  people  had  run  its  limit  and  the  scheme 
failed.  The  term  drew  to  an  end  and  Mr.  Cleveland,  who  originally 
entered  the  White  House  poor,  now  retired  the  possessor  of  great 
wealth. 

DEMOCRATS   ROSE    IN    THEIR    MIGHT. 

He  had  thrice  been  nominated  and  twice  elected  President  by  the 
great  Democratic  party  of  this  country.  He  had  spit  upon  every  one 
of  its  tenets.  He  had  trampled  every  one  of  its  principles  into  the 
ground  and  he  had  succeeded  in  destroying  its  hopes.  A  year  be- 
fore his  last  term  ended,  when  the  Democrats  began  to  cast  about, 
they  found  that  everything  they  held  sacred  had  been  turned  over 
to  the  enemy,  the  country  was  weary  and  the  situation  was  hopeless. 
Many  stalwart  Democrats  doubted  whether  they  could  carry  a  single 


798  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

township  in  the  United  States.  Hamiltonism  had  been  put  on  horse- 
back by  the  so-called  Democratic  President,  and  we  were  being  cursed 
for  it.  In  their  despair  the  Democrats  of  America  rose  in  their  might 
and  overthrew  this  false  god  with  all  of  the  money  making  priests 
who  hung  about  his  altars.  Then  they  kindled  new  fires  upon  the 
altars  of  liberty,  they  raised  again  the  banners  of  Jefferson,  and  they 
went  forth  and  fought  the  greatest  battle  for  justice  and  humanity 
ever  fought  on  this  continent,  and  to-day  you  see  their  tents  all  over 
this  country.  They  are  in  the  field,  they  are  eager  and  anxious  for  the 
fray,  they  are  determined  to  redeem  this  land  and  in  this  great  fight 
we  behold  Grover  Cleveland  joining  hands  with  Mark  Hanna  for  the 
destruction  of  the  party  that  made  him.  We  see  him  joining  hands 
with  the  forces  of  corruption  and  debauchery  that  are  ruining  our 
country,  but  the  carousal  of  the  stall-fed  classes,  the  long  night  of  dis- 
sipation is  nearing  an  end.  Day  is  dawning  and  the  Democracy  will 
soon  enter  upon  the  morning  of  a  new  and  glorious  career. 

SUM    OF    THE    CONTRAST. 

Glancing  now  at  the  administrations  of  Mr.  Cleveland,  we  see  the 
palsied  hand  of  greed  shaping  the  policy  and  marring  the  destiny  of 
a  great  nation ;  we  see  golden  gods,  bonded  altars,  syndicate  priests  and 
interest  bearing  gospels;  we  see  the  dollar  made  the  master  and  man 
made  the  slave;  we  see  toil  disheartened  and  humanity  weary;  we  see 
hypocrisy  enthroned  and  false  pretenses  sanctified;  we  see  patriotism 
sold  and  find  honor  on  the  market;  we  see  the  people  betrayed  and 
Democracy  crippled,  and  finally  we  see  it  all  end  amid  the  contempt 
of  the  honest  and  the  curses  of  the  poor.  But  when  we  turn  to  Jeffer- 
son we  breathe  a  different  atmosphere,  we  stand  beneath  a  different 
sky  and  gaze  on  a  different  sun.  Here  are  the  altars  of  liberty — 
equality  and  justice — from  which  radiate  those  forces  that  encourage 
the  toiler,  that  cheer  the  patriot,  that  ennoble  a  people  and  that  build 
a  State. 

Here  we  see  a  man  who  courted  not  the  rich,  who  served  humanity, 
who  faced  obloquy,  who  stood  for  principle,  who  betrayed  no  con- 
stituency and  who  shirked  no  duty,  and  finally  we  see  him  loaded  with 
benediction,  his  memory  encircled  with  glory,  and  his  name  enshrined 
in  immortality.  Oh,  my  countrymen,  comparison  is  impossible,  but 
contrast  is  instructive.  Since  his  day  generations  of  public  men 
equally  learned,  equally  able  and  equally  industrious,  have  lived  and 
have  gone,  whose  names  are  forgotten  and  whose  ashes  are  lost. 
They  did  nothing  for  humanity;  they  traded  in  influence,  they  juggled 
in  politics  and  they  lost  a  career. 


THE  WAR  AND  EXPANSION.  799 

Now,  my  friends,  for  nearly  two  thousand  years  the  true  disciples 
of  Christ  have  gone  to  His  altar  to  get  a  new  inspiration — a  stronger 
faith — a  higher  purpose  and  a  loftier  ideal,  and  they  have  come  away 
with  a  firmer  resolve  to  maintain  His  standard  and  to  carry  His  gos- 
pel to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  So,  after  seeing  the  desolation  wrought 
in  our  country  by  the  precepts  of  Hamilton  and  the  acts  of  Cleveland, 
we  gather  again  at  the  altars  of  Jefferson  to  get  a  new  inspiration, 
a  stronger  faith,  a  loftier  purpose,  and  let  us  go  away  with  a  firmer 
reslove  to  maintain  his  standard  and  to  carry  the  principles  of  Demo- 
cracy, not  only  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  but  to  the  end  of  time. 


THE  WAR  AND  EXPANSION. 
(Published  in  the  Democratic  Magazine  for  July,  1898.) 

Actuated  by  the  higher  humanities  and  moved  by  the  spirit  of  the 
age,  the  Democratic  party — assisted  by  a  few  Republicans  who  had 
not  yet  lost  their  independence — compelled  the  administration  to 
interfere  in  behalf  of  the  struggling  Cubans  and  to  declare  war  against 
Spain. 

The  object  was,  first,  to  save  the  lives  of  over  half  a  million  of 
human  beings  whom  Spain  was  purposely  starving  to  death.  Second, 
to  put  an  end  to  conditions  which  had  been  a  disgrace  to  civilization 
for  more  than  a  century  and  a  constant  annoyance  to  us,  and  third, 
the  purpose  was  to  put  in  practice  and  thus  force  recognition  of  the 
principle  that  no  government  has  the  right  to  rob  and  murder  its 
citizens,  and  that  when  it  does  so,  it  is  the  duty  of  other  nations  to 
interfere.  The  men  who  had  made  the  present  administration,  and 
who  support  government  only  because  through  it  they  can  carry  on 
great  schemes  of  plunder"  were  violently  opposed  to  any  interference. 
But  the  conscience  of  the  nation  could  not  be  trifled  with.  In  sheer 
fright  and  with  trembling  knees  the  administration  began  to  obey 
the  will  of  the  people. 

The  minority  party,  true  to  its  great  principles  of  liberty  and  jus- 
tice, had  forced  a  forward  movement — a  movement  of  such  a  high 
character  that  it  will  add  luster  to  the  close  of  this  century. 

We  have  assumed  responsibilities  and  created  new  conditions;  and 
we  must  now  be  prepared  to  promptly  face  the  one  and  deal  with  the 
other. 

ist.  What  shall  be  the  policy  of  this  republic  when  the  war  is 
over ; 


LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

2d.  What  shall  be  done  with  any  territory  that  may  fall  into  out1 
hands;  and 

3d.     Shall  we  form  an  alliance  with  England? 

While  we  can  avoid  and  must  avoid  wild  schemes  of  conquest 
which  would  only  debauch  us  and  ultimately  destroy  our  career,  we 
must  move  forward  and  follow  the  lines  of  our  natural  development. 
We  must  recognize  the  fact  that  new  conditions  have  been  created 
and  pursue  a  policy  that  will  give  us  the  largest  growth  and  the  great- 
est power  and  usefulness. 

We  expect  soon  to  put  an  end  to  the  economic  follies  and  govern- 
mental rottenness  which  have  paralyzed  us ;  but  if  we  were  to  fail  and 
these  causes  were  ultimately  to  reduce  us  to  the  exhausted  condition 
of  European  nations,  still  the  energy  and  force  of  this  country  will 
find  a  vent;  and  it  is  important  that  they  move  along  the  line  of  a 
greater  natural  development,  and  not  along  the  line  of  wild  and  de- 
structive adventure.  Shall  we  direct  them,  or  let  the  enemy  do  it? 
The  energies  of  our  people  are  stirred,  and  owing  to  our  paralysis 
at  home,  they  are  running  in  irresistible  currents  toward  a  broader 
foreign  policy.  To  stand  in  the  way  of  these  currents  would  be  like 
standing  in  the  way  of  a  river — and  the  party  that  attempts  to  hold 
them  back  will  be  left  on  the  sands. 

Consequently,  it  is  simply  a  question  as  to  who  shall  hold  the 
rudder  while  on  the  voyage,  and  what  principle  shall  be  nailed  to  the 
masthead  when  we  reach  the  sea.  Shall  we  be  guided  on  the  way 
by  national  and  international  scoundrels  who  make  patriotism  an 
asset  and  national  honor  a  thief's  weapon — who  debauch  everything 
they  touch,  and  whose  slimy  hands  pull  down  the  whole  structure  of 
free  institutions? 

Shall  the  toiler  go  on  being  robbed  of  his  bread  and  despoiled 
of  his  liberty,  and  finally  shall  we  turn  pirates  and  sneer  at  the  world's 
cry  for  freedom?  Or  shall  we  be  guided  on  the  way  by  the  higher 
justice  of  Jeffersonian  principles,  and  make  the  broader  activities  of 
this  republic  a  blessing  to  all  mankind. 

These  are  the  basic  questions,  and,  properly  solved,  render  all 
others  simple. 

COMING  CHANGES  IN  OUR  DOMESTIC  POLICY  WILL  CHANGE 
OUR    FOREIGN    POLICY. 

Our  people  are  slowly  learning  that  a  rapidly  increasing  popula- 
tion for  the  world  and  a  slowly  increasing  volume  of  money  means 
a  steadily  appreciating  dollar  and  a  steady  lowering  of  the  price  of 
property  and  the  products  of  labor  when  taken  on  the  average — and 


THE  WAR  AND  EXPANSION.  801 

that  this  means  an  ever  increasing  paralysis.  They  are  beginning 
to  see  that  under  the  gold  standard  neither  our  country  nor  the  civil- 
ized world  can  be  prosperous,  and  that  until  this  is  overthrown  the 
toilers  of  the  earth  must  dwell  in  sorrow.  This  colossal  iniquity  will 
be  destroyed.  In  fact  it  required  all  the  corruption  funds  that  could 
be  raised  on  two  continents  and  the  commission  of  unparalleled 
frauds  and  crimes  at  the  polls  to  prevent  its  being  overthrown  two 
years  ago. 

With  the  overthrow  of  this  system  will  come  a  period  of  activity 
and  of  production  such  as  our  country  has  never  seen;  and  while  it 
is  true  that  our  home  consumption  will  at  the  same  time  increase,  still 
our  people  will  look  to  the  other  quarters  of  the  globe  for  opportuni- 
ties of  exchange,  and  we  will  want  access  to  the  harbors  of  the  earth. 

Again,  this  country  is  thoroughly  weary  of  a  high  protective  tariff, 
which  has  not  only  proved  to  be  a  delusion  but  a  fraud.  For  over 
thirty  years  we  have  had  an  ever  increasing  tariff,  and  it  simply  cre- 
ated millionaires  and  trusts  on  the  one  hand,  while  the  conditions  of 
labor  were  steadily  growing  worse  on  the  other.  The  very  pauper 
countries  of  Europe  against  which  we  legislated  had  high  protective 
tariffs,  and  had  had  for  centuries,  and  the  tariff  produced  here  the 
same  conditions  it  had  there.  For  while  we  stopped  the  importation 
of  goods,  the  manufacturer  was  able  to  fill  his  shop  or  mines' with  the 
pauper  labor  of  these  very  countries. 

Our  people  found  that  the  famous  McKinley  law  produced  a  deficit 
in  the  treasury  for  the  year  1894  of  $70,000,000,  because 
it  had  tended  to  stop  importations;  yet  within  a  few  weeks 
after  the  President  had  signed  the  bill,  over  three  hundred 
of  the  great  manufacturing  companies  of  this  country  re- 
duced the  wages  of  their  men,  and  others  filled  their  shops 
with  importations  of  pauper  labor  from  Europe,  until,  according  to 
Mr.  Powderly,  there  was  scarcely  an  American  laborer  left  in  Pennsyl- 
vania; at  the  same  time  the  price  of  goods  was  advanced.  The  people 
became  disgusted  with  the  McKinley  law  and  overthrew  it.  The  elec- 
tion of  1896  was  not  a  declaration  for  a  high  tariff.  The  hard  times 
had  caused  so  much  distress  that  many  people  demanded  a  change, 
a  change  of  any  kind — and  this  added  to  the  frauds  committed  at  the 
polls  through  Mark  Hanna's  boodle,  elected  the  Republican  ticket — 
but  only  by  a  majority  so  narrow  that  thirty  thousand  more  votes 
properly  distributed  would  have  changed  the  result.  As  soon  as  Mc- 
Kinley was  declared  elected,  the  great  trusts  that  had  helped  to  raise 
the  forty  odd  million  dollars  of  corruption  funds  to  elect  him  demanded 
a  new  chance  to  plunder  the  American  people.  Congress  was  at  once 
51 


802  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

convened  for  their  benefit.  The  so-called  Dingley  bill  was  passed  at 
their  dictation.  One  illustration  shows  the  general  character  of  this 
measure.  The  great  sugar  trust  was  allowed  to  dictate  the  sugar 
schedules — it  had  control  of  -the  sugar  trade  of  America.  The  price 
of  sugar  went  up  20  per  cent.,  and  the  public  had  to  pay  the  increase, 
and  during  the  first  year  the  sugar  trust  cleared  over  $20,000,000 
above  what  it  could  make  under  the  former  law.  Not  a  cent  of  this 
went  into  the  public  treasury.  Other  trusts  and  corrupt  combina- 
tions of  capital  fared  equally  well.  The  burdens  of  the  people  were 
increased,  while  the  deficit  in  the  treasury  promises  to  become  equal 
to  that  under  the  McKinley  law,  and  the  laborers  of  the  country  have 
not  been  benefited  to  the  extent  of  one  farthing  by  this  Dingley  law, 
although  the  cost  of  living  has  been  increased.  The  fate  of  this  Ding- 
ley  law  is  already  sealed.  It  will  be  wiped  off  of  the  statute  books. 
Our  country  will  settle  down  to  a  tariff  for  revenue,  and  when  it  does, 
our  commerce  will  become  the  greatest  on  earth.  Then  we  will  want 
access  to  all  of  the  world's  harbors. 

COMMERCIAL    ADVANTAGE. 

Commercial  advantage,  rather  than  political,  is  now  the  aim  of 
the  powerful  nations.  Africa  has  been  divided  up  by  the  nations  of 
Europe  in  order  to  monopolize  trade,  England  alone  pursuing  the 
policy  of  opening  her  harbors  to  the  world.  The  same  nations  are 
now  forcibly  dividing  up  China  for  the  purpose  of  monopolizing  trade. 

By  reason  of  our  position  and  ability,  we  should  get  the  benefit  of 
most  of  this  commerce;  but  in  order  to  do  so  we  must  be  able  to  offer 
reciprocal  advantages,  and  must  have  a  force  on  the  seas  that  will 
make  us  respected.  We  must  put  ourselves  in  a  position  to  demand 
the  privileges  that  are  enjoyed  by  "the  most  favored  nations,"  and  it 
will  always  be  easy  to  secure  justice  if  we  can  say,  "Here  is  our  navy 
to  argue  this  question."  Therefore,  while  we  do  not  need  an  army  at 
home,  and  the  maintenance  of  one  would  simply  be  a  menace  to  our 
own  people,  we  do  need  a  navy  on  the  foreign  waters  of  the  earth. 
Such  a  navy  will  assist  our  growth  and  firmly  establish  our  future. 

NICARAGUA     CANAL. 

The  war  has  forced  upon  our  attention  the  extreme  absurdity  of 
being  obliged  to  sail  clear  around  South  America  when  we  want  to 
take  our  vessels  from  one  part  of  our  own  country  to  another  part 
of  our  own  country — and  the  great  danger  it  leaves  us  in  if  we  should 
suddenly  be  attacked  by  a  powerful  enemy  on  the  sea.  It  is  mani- 
festly the  duty  of  the  American  government  to  absolutely  own  and  con- 


THE  WAR  AND  EXPANSION.  803 

trol  this  canal;  not  to  assist  a  private  company  to  dig  it,  but  to  dig  and 
own  the  canal  itself.  The  shipping  of  our  own  vessels  would  soon  pay 
for  it.  Further,  our  commerce  on  the  Pacific  will  soon  be  great,  and 
if  we  do  not  have  this  canal  it  will  be  necessary  to  maintain  almost 
twice  as  large  a  navy  as  would  be  needed  if  vessels  could  be  speedily 
taken  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco.  The  slimy  hands  of  the 
Pacific  railroads  should  not  be  permitted  to  longer  control  the  situa- 
tion. 

CUBA. 

The  war  has  again  brought  to  our  attention  the  fact  that  if  Cuba 
were  held  by  a  great  hostile  power  having  a  strong  navy,  we  would 
be  constantly  nervous  and  feel  a  sense  of  insecurity  which  we  now  do 
not  feel.  We  dare  not  allow  a  foreign  or  a  hostile  power  to  have  this 
island.  In  fact,  when  viewed  from  a  geographical,  a  political,  a  com- 
mercial or  a  military  standpoint,  Cuba  belongs  to  this  republic,  and 
is  necessary  to  properly  round  off  our  southeastern  boundary.  The 
people  of  Cuba  would  gladly  join  us  now,  but  if  it  is  not  ripe  for  an- 
nexation, or  if  the  assurances  we  gave  the  nations  in  declaring  war 
forbid  our  taking  it  now,  then  let  the  Cuban  republic  be  placed  under 
our  protection.  This  done,  the  island  will  soon  be  overrun  with 
American  people  and  American  enterprises,  and  in  a  short  time  it  will 
ripen  and  knock  at  our  door  to  become  a  member  of  the  Union.  This 
would  not  be  a  conquest  because  it  would  not  be  forcible;  and  it  would 
not  be  founding  a  colonial  system,  but  would  be  simply  following  the 
law  of  our  development  and  increasing  our  safety. 

HAYTI    AND    SAN    DOMINGO. 

While  the  time  may  be  very  remote  when  it  would  be  desirable 
to  annex  this  island,  yet  we  cannot  afford  to  let  it  pass  into  the  hands  of 
a  foreign  or  an  unfriendly  power.  It  is  to  our  interest  to  see  that  the 
present  republics  are  maintained. 

PUERTO    RICO. 

This  island  is  situated  almost  in  the  center  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
and  is  only  a  few  days'  sail  from  any  point  on  either  side  of  this  ocean. 
Consequently,  it  would  be  invaluable  as  a  naval  station;  especially 
would  this  be  so  if  we  build  the  Nicaraugua  canal.  Viewed  from  any 
standpoint,  we  should  have  Puerto  Rico  as  a  naval  station;  and  as  it 
is  small,  and  it  would  not  involve  the  establishment  of  a  colonial  policy. 
When  this  war  is  over,  our  government  will  probably  demand  a  war 
indemnity.  As  Spain  has  no  money  and  scarcely  any  other  assets, 


804  'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

she  will  probably  offer  us  Puerto  Rico;  and  if  she  does,  we  must  take 

it. 

HARBORS. 

With  our  prospective  increase  of  commerce  and  of  shipping,  and 
the  necessary  increase  in  the  navy,  it  is  manifest  that  we  need  harbors 
in  every  quarter  of  the  globe  as  coaling  stations,  and  as  a  conven- 
ience, yea,  a  necessity,  for  our  trade  and  for  our  navy;  not  harbors 
floating  the  flag  of  some  other  nation,  and  granting  us  some  privileges, 
but  harbors  owned  by  us  and  floating  our  flag,  where  our  vessels  can 
lie  as  long  as  they  choose.  We  must  have,  if  possible,  a  number  of 
the  best  harbors  of  the  Philippines  and  any  other  good  harbors  we  can 
get.  This  will  not  be  conquest,  nor  will  it  be  establishing  a  colonial 
policy;  it  will  simply  be  making  provisions  for  the  more  complete 
development  of  our  own  country. 

THE    PHILIPPINES    AND    A    COLONIAL    SYSTEM. 

To  establish  a  colonial  system  and  to  attempt  to  rule  great  coun- 
tries in  another  hemisphere,  countries  requiring  complicated  machin- 
ery of  government,  is  an  entirely  different  question.  There  are  many 
hundred  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  they  are  nearly  three  thousand 
miles  in  extent;  they  are  over  12,000  miles  from  Washington,  and  they 
have  a  population  of  about  10,000,000  people  who  belong  to  a  different 
race — a  lower  civilization — have  different  laws  and  different  traditions 
from  our  own.  They  form  a  country  and  have  a  population  large 
enough  for  an  empire.  To  attempt  to  govern  this  vast  area  and  this 
numerous  people  from  Washington  would  be  a  perilous  undertaking, 
and  be  almost  certain  to  beget  injustice  and  outrage.  Considering  the 
corruption  existing  in  our  government  even  at  home,  it  is  fearful  to 
contemplate  the  conditions  that  would  soon  exist  in  a  great  and 
powerful  machine  12,000  miles  away — a  machine  which  would  raise 
great  revenues  and  would  have  unlimited  opportunities  of  corruption 
and  oppression.  The  American  flag  would  simply  suffer  under  these 
conditions.  Besides,  we  would  soon  be  involved  in  all  manner  of  com- 
plications and  disputes  with  other  nations,  and  become  entangled  with 
the  Eastern  question.  But  even  if  successfully  governed,  it  is  difficult  to 
see  what  we  would  gain  by  pursuing  this  policy,  over  what  we  would 
get  by  simply  securing  permanent  access  to  all  of  these  harbors,  so  as 
to  be  able  to  compete  on  equal  terms  for  their  trade.  This  would 
involve  no  responsibility  of  government,  no  scandals  and  no  injustice. 
Besides,  the  acquisition  of  vast  territory  on  another  continent  would 
be  inconsistent  with  the  farther  maintenance  of  the  Monroe  doctrine. 
For  if  we  appropriate  vast  territory  on  a  foreign  continent,  we  cannot 


THE  WAR  AND  EXPANSION.  805 

consistently  object  to  foreign  nations  acquiring  territory  on  this  con- 
tinent; and  it  is  a  thousand  times  more  important  to  us  to  keep  for- 
eign powers  off  of  this  continent  than  it  is  for  us  to  have  a  lot  of  foreign 
territory  which  in  the  end  would  do  us  but  little  good  and  would  in- 
volve us  in  scandal. 

WHAT    SHALL    WE    DO    WITH    THE    PHILIPPINES    IF    THEY 
FALL  INTO  OUR  HANDS? 

Let  us  do  exactly  what  we  would  have  done  if  the  inhabitants  had 
achieved  their  independence  by  their  own  arms,  as  they  came  very 
near  doing  and  may  do  yet.  To  call  these  people  ignorant  barbarians 
simply  because  in  the  mountain  regions  of  a  few  of  these  islands  there 
are  yet  small  tribes  of  savages,  would  be  like  calling  the  people  of  the 
United  States  savages  because  in  the  mountains  of  the  West  we  have 
yet  a  few  tribes  of  Indians. 

The  inhabitants  of  these  islands,  estimated  at  about  ten  millions, 
appear  to  be  industrious  and  steady.  According  to  the  authorities, 
they  have  a  compulsory  system  of  education,  and  have  newspapers, 
daily  and  weekly,  in  every  important  point.  While  we  cannot  expect 
a  superior  educational  system  under  Spanish  government,  it  does 
seem  to  be  true  that  these  people  possess  more  than  average  intelli- 
gence. They  have  regularly  organized  industries,  and  have  for  over 
a  century  carried  on  a  great  commerce  with  foreign  nations.  They 
also  appear  to  have  had  some  experience  with  the  elective  system, 
being  allowed  under  the  Spanish  regime  to  elect  their  local  officers. 
Although  the  great  majority  of  their  population  is  of  Malay  origin, 
there  is  a  very  large  element  of  Europeans  who  are  permanent  resi- 
dents and  take  an  interest  in  everything  relating  to  the  islands,  and 
the  Malays  themselves  seem  to  be  bright  and  active. 

For  over  a  century  the  Spanish  officials  sent  to  these  islands  were 
like  those  sent  to  Cuba;  they  came  to  make  fortunes  in  a  few  years 
and  then  return  to  Spain.  The  inhabitants  were  robbed,  plundered 
and  murdered;  estates  were  confiscated;  blackmail  was  levied,  and 
private  business,  in  many  cases,  destroyed.  Every  method  that  devil- 
ish ingenuity  could  invent  for  extracting  money  from  an  unfortunate 
people  was  applied. 

In  addition  to  what  was  thus  extorted  from  them,  they  raised  a 
revenue  through  the  regular  channels  of  taxation  that  would  almost 
support  an  empire. 

When  they  began  this  last  effort  to  throw  off  the  Spanish  yoke,  they 
raised  and  maintained  larger  armies  than  were  commanded  by  George 
Washington,  having  at  one  time  fifty  thousand  men  in  the  field. 


806  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Although  they  had  to  smuggle  in  all  their  arms  and  munitions  of 
war,  and  labored  under  every  conceivable  disadvantage,  they  have 
carried  on  this  war,  with  a  very  brief  interruption,  for  two  years  and 
are  now  winning  victories. 

Unlike  the  Cubans,  they  do  not  confine  themselves  to  a  guerrilla 
warfare,  but  conduct  great  campaigns,  besiege  and  capture  fortified 
cities,  and  fight  stubborn  battles;  they  build  fortifications  and  conduct 
war  very  much  as  the  civilized  nations  do,  showing  that  they  have  a 
fair  degree  of  discipline  in  their  armies. 

Apparently  the  Philippine  Islanders  are  much  better  prepared 
to  establish  and  maintain  a  republic  than  are  the  Cubans,  and  if  they 
wish  to  take  this  step,  we  have  no  right  to  prevent  them. 

Even  a  poor  government  would  be  a  thousand  times  better  for  the 
islands,  and  for  the  nations  that  trade  with  them,  than  the  system  of 
plunder  and  assassination  which  Spain  has  maintained  there.  To 
be  sure  there  are  men  who,  with  an  air  of  superiority,  declare  this  or 
that  people  are  incapable  of  self-government.  But  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  every  republic  that  exists  on  earth  to-day,  including  the 
great  American  republic,  was  founded  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  these 
men. 

CANADA, 

It  is  probable  that  in  the  future  Canada  will  ask  for  admission  into 
our  republic,  and  when  she  does  we  must  admit  her.  We  will  then 
have  nearly  all  of  the  North  American  continent — will  be  bounded 
by  the  three  oceans  and  the  gulf — with  a  very  short  land  boundary 
to  our  southwest,  easily  protected.  With  Cuba  in  our  possession 
we  will  then  have  arctic,  temperate  and  tropical  climate,  and  will  have 
all  the  territory,  all  the  resources  and  all  the  fields  of  activity  that  the 
wildest  dreamers  of  empire  could  covet — and  it  would  all  be  on  one 
continent,  under  one  government  and  occupied  by  the  same  people. 

JOBBERY. 

It  is  objected  that  to  even  build  the  Nicarauguan  Canal  would  in- 
volve so  much  jobbery  and  rottenness  that  it  should  not  be  under- 
taken. Unquestionably  it  will  involve  great  jobbery,  but  so  has  every 
great  movement  in  this  country.  The  revolution  was  full  of  jobbery, 
the  war  of  1812  was  full  of  jobbery,  and  the  war  of  the  rebellion  stag- 
gered with  corruption,  yet  the  country  moved  forward  in  each  of 
these  wars,  and  the  world  was  made  better.  This  canal  will  be  filled 
with  jobbery,  yet  necessity  will  compel  us  to  dig  it.  Honest  and  pro- 
gressive humanity  cannot  fold  its  arms  or  stop  the  onward  march 


THE  WAR  AND  EXPANSION.  So; 

simply  because  there  are  vampires  that  suck  human  blood  by  night, 
and  vultures  that  devour  human  flesh  by  day. 

TRADITIONS    OF    DEMOCRACY,    LOUISIANA    PURCHASE. 

During  the  first  fifteen  years  of  our  existence,  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  was  under  foreign  control,  which  caused  us  much  annoy- 
ance. Although  the  great  Mississippi  valley  was  yet  a  wilderness, 
it  was  already  apparent  that  we  would  soon  have  a  mighty  commerce 
on  this  river.  In  1803  Jefferson  secured  by  purchase  not  only  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  but  secured  with  it  that  vast  territory  called  "The 
Louisiana  Purchase,"  stretching  from  New  Orleans  northwest  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean  and  to  the  British  possessions.  A  territory  which  has 
since  been  divided  into  seventeen  States.  The  acquisition  of  this  ter- 
ritory changed  the  character  of  the  republic  from  a  republic  on  the 
east  coast  of  North  America  to  the  great  American  republic.  This 
act  of  Jefferson's  was  fiercely  opposed  by  the  whole  Federalistic  party. 
He  was  charged  with  violating  the  Constitution.  Jefferson  did  not 
claim  that  the  power  to  take  this  territory  was  expressly  written  in  the 
Constitution;  but  he  claimed  that  it  was  written  in  the  law  of  our 
natural  development,  which  underlay  the  Constitution,  and  no  sane 
man  to-day  questions  the  wisdom  of  his  act. 

FLORIDA. 

Up  to  1819,  Florida  was  under  foreign  control  and  was  a  source  of 
constant  annoyance,  even  warfare.  In  that  year  President  Monroe, 
by  purchase,  secured  Florida  for  the  Union,  and  thus  gave  the  republic 
the  Gulf  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean  for  our  southeastern  boundary.  This 
act  was  again  denounced  by  the  Federal  party,  and  Monroe  made  the 
same  answer  that  Jefferson  had  made. 

TEXAS. 

After  winning  her  independence  from  Mexico,  Texas  applied  for 
admission  into  the  Union,  and  in  1845  was  admitted  under  President 
Pierce,  against  the  bitter  opposition  of  the  forces  that  opposed  the 
Democratic  party.  This  acquisition  gave  us  the  Gulf  and  the  Rio 
Grande  for  a  southwestern  boundary.  In  1848,  during  the  adminis- 
tration of  President  Pierce,  by  two  separate  treaties  we  secured  New 
Mexico,  Arizona  and  California.  This  gave  us  not  only  great  States, 
but  a  scientific  boundary  to  our  far  southwest.  It  made  the  republic 
symmetrical  and  gave  us  the  best  part  of  the  continent.  While  every 
one  of  these  steps  was  bitterly  denounced  at  the  time,  no  man  would 
favor  the  dismemberment  of  any  of  this  territory  to-day. 


8o8  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

It  was  during  Democratic  control  that  our  navy  was  respected 
by  all  the  nations,  and  it  was  during  Democratic  control  that  our  flag 
floated  on  all  the  seas,  and  although  our  country  was  young  our 
shipping  surpassed  that  of  all  countries  except  England,  and  under 
genuine  Democratic  control  these  conditions  will  come  again. 

During  all  these  years  the  Democratic  party  was  an  aggressive 
party;  it  recognized  new  needs  and  new  conditions  and  met  them. 
It  was  this  fact  that  kept  it  in  power  and  enabled  it  to  shape  the  early 
career  of  the  nation. 

If  the  Democratic  party  is  to  perform  its  mission,  it  must  assume 
the  aggressive;  it  must  recognize  new  conditions  and  must  sail  with 
the  new  currents  of  destiny,  and  see  to  it  that  the  great  principles 
of  justice  and  liberty  and  of  equal  rights  are  not  destroyed,  as  they  will 
be  if  the  Mark  Hannas  of  the  age  are  permitted  to  control. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  acquisition  of  vast  territory  at  home 
under  Jefferson,  under  Monroe  and  under  Pierce  did  not  weaken  the 
principles  of  the  republic  nor  change  the  doctrines  of  Democracy. 

Those  policies  which  have  destroyed  our  shipping,  paralyzed  our 
people,  loaded  them  down  with  burdens  and  created  an  oligarchy  in 
;  our  land  are  of  Republican  parentage. 

DIVERTING   ATTENTION. 

Some  good  people  fear  that  the  enlargement  of  foreign  policy  will 
divert  attention  from  home  affairs  and  enable  the  corruptionists  to 
continue  their  criminal  work.  But  if  the  Democrats,  while  fighting 
plutocracy  at  home,  take  the  lead  in  broadening  our  foreign  policy, 
they  can  get  the  benefit  of  any  diversion  and  get  control  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  in  that  way  carry  out  great  reforms  and  put  an  end  to 
the  corrupt  regime  that  is  now  destroying  us,  while  if  we  assume  a 
negative  position,  the  great  criminals  may  be  kept  in  power,  solely 
because  of  this  irresistible  movement. 

SHALL    WE    FORM    AN    ALLIANCE    WITH    ENGLAND? 

This  nation  is  too  great,  its  past  is  too  glorious  and  its  future  too 
promising  to  go  into  partnership  with  any  nation  on  this  globe.  We 
must  go  on  growing  in  power  and  in  grandeur  and  must  exert  an  in- 
fluence wherever  the  sun  shines,  as  we  have  done  for  a  century;  but 
we  must  have  no  entangling  alliances  anywhere.  So  long  as  we  rely 
absolutely  on  ourselves  and  follow  justice,  so  long  will  the  heavens 
be  bright;  but  the  moment  we  go  into  partnership  with  any  other 
nation,  that  moment  will  our  constellation  be  eclipsed.  Besides,  such 
an  alliance  would  increase  the  opportunities  of  the  international  vul- 


SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH,  JULY  12,  1898.  809 

tures  that  now  prey  upon  us.  It  is  our  destiny  to  be  the  supreme 
mistress  of  the  Western  hemisphere,  commanding  the  respect  of  all 
the  nations.  It  is  our  business  to  protect  the  interests  of  our  people 
everywhere — to  secure  equal  opportunities  for  them,  but  to  keep  out 
of  those  miserable  European  disputes  that  are  unworthy  the  notice  of 
free  men. 

If  we  are  true  to  the  great  principles  of  Democracy,  then  we  will 
move  forward  and  meet  new  conditions,  and  our  career  will  gladden 
the  children  of  men ;  but  if  we  hold  back  and  thus  surrender  control  to 
this  modern  order  of  statesmen  who  sell  their  country  and  betray  their 
race  for  pelf  or  political  preferment,  then  will  our  downfall  come  soon 
and  the  last  days  of  the  republic  will  be  as  dark  as  its  first  were  glori- 
ous. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH,  JULY  12,  i 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  DEMOCRATIC  STATE  CONVEN- 
TION.—HOW  THE  STATE  IS  BEING  PLUNDERED  BY  RE- 
PUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION. 

NATIONAL  ISSUES. 

WHY   DEMOCRACY    LIVES. 

Why  have  we  gathered  here?  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  large 
assembly?  Is  it  merely  a  gathering  for  spoils,  or  is  there  a  lofty  pur- 
pose behind  it?  You  tell  me  that  this  is  a  convention  of  the  Demo- 
cracy of  Illinois — that  you  are  delegates  representing  half  a  million 
free  men — that  you  have  left  your  affairs  and  traveled  to  this  city  to 
attend  to  the  business  of  that  great  party.  But  what  does  that  party 
stand  for?  What  has  it  done  that  entitles  it  to  be  called  great?  What 
is  its  mission?  Has  it  any  purpose  now  that  is  worthy  of  an  honor- 
able ambition?  Has  it  undertaken  to  do  any  great  thing  for  humanity 
and  for  this  republic?  If  so,  what  qualifications  does  it  possess  for 

that  work? 

MOVING  FORWARD. 

Government  is  a  serious  business  which  directly  affects  the  happi- 
ness or  misery  of  a  people.  All  forward  movements  require  a  strug- 
gle. Every  forward  step  by  the  human  race  has  been  made  red  with 
human  blood.  Two  centuries  ago  the  world  made  its  great  struggle 
for  freedom  of  religion  and  freedom  of  thought;  a  century  ago  it  made 
its  struggle  for  political  freedom  and  for  freedom  of  speech,  and  pro- 


8io  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

claimed  the  great  principle  that  all  men  are  created  equal  and  that 
governments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed 
as  expressed  by  the  majority. 

RIPE    FOR    A    GREAT    STRIDE. 

We  have  moved  a  century  forward  and  the  world  is  again  ripe  for 
a  mighty  onward  stride.  It  is  now  demanding  financial  and  industrial 
freedom  with  all  of  those  social  changes  which  these  conditions  must 
bring.  A  crisis  is  again  nearing;  and  in  a  crisis  neutral  men,  policy 
men,  trimmers,  traders  and  tricksters  become  contemptible.  Only  those 
men  who  are  willing  to  make  sacrifices,  only  those  men  who  have  the 
courage  to  stand  erect  and  defy  the  hosts  of  oppression  can  command 
respect.  I  ask,  what  qualification  has  the  Democratic  party  to  lead  this 
mighty  contest?  Has  its  past  been  of  such  a  character  as  to  give 
assurance  for  the  future?  Let  us  glance  back  for  a  moment  and  see. 

DEMOCRATIC     PARTY     FIRST    TO     ANNEX     TERRITORY. 

It  was  the  mighty  Jefferson  who  wrote  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, who  organized  the  Democratic  spirit  of  that  time,  and  who 
founded  the  Democratic  party.  In  1800  this  party  prevented  the  es- 
tablishment of  an  oligarchy  or  ruling  class  in  this  country  and  deep- 
ened the  foundations  of  Republicanism. 

In  1803  this  party  secured  for  us  not  only  the  mouth  of  the  Missis- 
sippi river,  but  all  that  territory  stretching  from  New  Orleans  north- 
west to  the  British  possessions  and  the  Pacific  ocean,  out  of  which 
seventeen  states  have  been  formed,  thus  extending  our  republic  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  And  it  did  this  against  the  protest  of  Fed- 
eralism. 

THE    PARTY    IN    1812. 

In  1812  the  party  humiliated  England  both  on  the  land  and  on  the 
seas,  and  forever  destroyed  her  pretensions  to  the  right  of  searching 
American  vessels  and  impressing  American  seamen. 

In  1819  this  party  secured  for  the  republic  the  State  of  Florida, 
and  at  the  same  time  declared  that  no  foreign  power  should  get 
another  foot  of  this  continent,  and  in  1833,  when  corrupt  wealth  had 
made  itself  master  of  the  country,  and  was  seeking  to  reduce  the 
American  people  to  a  state  of  vassalage,  when  it  controlled  Congress 
and  the  federal  courts,  just  as  it  does  now,  there  was  a  Democrat  in 
the  White  House  who  rose  up  and  said:  "By  the  Eternal,  the  money 
power  shall  not  rule  this  land."  And  by  that  one  act  he  saved  a  whole 
generation  of  Americans  from  the  destructive  policies  that  are  to-day 
ruining  our  country. 


SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH,  JULY  12,  1898.  811 

THE  PARTY   IN   1845. 

In  1845  tne  Democrats  secured  for  the  republic  the  State  of  Texas, 
and  gave  us  the  gulf  and  the  Rio  Grande  for  a  southwest  boundary, 
and  later  they  carried  the  American  eagles  up  the  heights  of  Chapulte- 
pec,  and  planted  the  stars  and  stripes  over  the  palaces  of  the  Monte- 
zumas. 

In  1848  they  secured  for  this  republic  New  Mexico,  Arizona  and 
California.  It  was  Democracy  that  founded  this  republic,  and  it  was 
the  Democratic  party  that  secured  for  it  the  North  American  conti- 
nent. While  the  Democracy  was  guiding  the  nation  we  had  a  navy 
that  commanded  the  respect  of  the  naval  powers.  And  although  we 
were  young  our  shipping  surpassed  that  of  all  other  nations  except 
England.  Our  flag  was  seen  on  all  the  seas,  floating  over  American 
ships  that  were  carrying  American  cargoes.  All  this  shipping  has  been 
destroyed  by  the  policies  of  the  Republican  party.  Turn  to  the  history 
of  the  first  half  century  of  our  republic,  and  every  brilliant  page  of  it 
was  written  with  the  finger  of  Democracy. 

THE    PARTY    IN    1863. 

Then  came  the  Civil  War,  and  from  the  nature  of  the  situation  the 
Democratic  party  had  to  divide;  but  it  was  the  spirit  of  Democracy 
•  that  saved  the  Union  and  wiped  out  slavery.  The  one  million  men 
who  marched  to  the  front  to  save  the  flag  were  Democrats  in  the 
highest  sense  of  the  term,  and  over  one-half  of  them  actually  belonged 
to  the  Democratic  party.  The  records  at  Washington  show  that. 
Even  the  Democratic  slave  State  of  Missouri  sent  over  two  hundred 
thousand  men  to  the  Union  army.  Illinois,  which  had  before  been  a 
Democratic  State,  supplied  more  men  in  proportion  to  its  population 
than  almost  any  other  State,  and  the  same  was  true  of  all  the  great 
Democratic  States.  Those  interests  which  have  profited  so  much  by 
that  war  and  kept  themselves  in  power  on  the  memory  of  it,  were  at 
the  beginning  opposed  to  it.  They  cared  nothing  about  human  sla- 
very, but  took  advantage  of  the  patriotic  sentiment  which  the  war  had 
aroused,  and  they  inaugurated  policies  which  are  destroying  us — 
policies  which  plunder  the  many  and  fatten  the  few. 

REPUBLICAN    MISRULE. 

The  American  people  have  been  paying  at  the  national  debt  which 
the  war  created,  for  thirty-three  years,  and  yet,  such  have  been  the 
industrial  and  financial  policies  of  the  Republican  party  that  to-day 
it  will  take  nearly  twice  as  much  of  American  products,  nearly  twice 


812  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

as  much  of  American  labor,  to  pay  what  is  left  of  that  debt  as  would 
have  been  necessary  to  pay  it  all  at  the  conclusion  of  the  war.  This  is 
only  a  sample  of  all  of  the  acts  of  that  party.  Although  we  were  a 
mighty  producing  as  well  as  debtor  nation,  and  were  therefore  in- 
terested in  keeping  up  the  price  of  property,  and  in  keeping  steady 
the  exchange  value  of  money,  this  Republican  party  controlled  by 
foreign  influence  legislated  in  the  interests  of  the  few  and  struck  down 
the  value  of  American  property  and  American  products  by  nearly  one- 
half,  thus  practically  doubling  the  amount  of  labor  and  sweat  that  was 
required  to  pay  a  dollar  of  debt.  It  is  the  great  mortgaging  party  of 
the  century.  It  mortgages  the  property  made  by  the  toil  of  others; 
it  mortgages  the  inheritance  of  the  American  people;  and  not  content 
with  this  it  has  reached  out  and  mortgaged  the  generations  yet  to 
come — generations  whose  fathers  are  yet  unborn,  generations  whose 
bread  will  be  shortened  to  pay  mortgages  created  by  this  political 
party.  And  the  vast  sums  of  money  thus  raised  at  the  expense  of  the 
coming  toilers  of  the  earth  have  been  spent  in  riotous  living  and  in 
the  enrichment  of  manipulators  and  corruptionists. 

PARTY'S    EVIL    PERIOD. 

The  Civil  War  brought  not  only  an  eclipse  for  the  Democratic 
party,  but  it  brought  a  change  of  character.  From  being  the  powerful 
champion  of  the  human  race  it  was  reduced  to  the  humiliating  condi- 
tion of  being  a  convenience  for  men  who  knew  not  Jefferson,  who 
cared  not  for  humanity,  and  who  used  government  for  personal  en- 
richment. Owing  to  invention,  there  took  place  after  the  war  great 
concentration  of  capital,  and  there  were  first  formed  great  corpora- 
tions, but  subsequently  these  combined  and  formed  trusts,  and  wiped 
out  competition.  These  corporations  soon  discovered  that  by  con- 
trolling the  government  and  its  policies  vast  fortunes  could  be  rapidly 
drawn  from  the  pockets  of  the  American  people.  And  there  came 
forth  in  the  East  shrewd  manipulators  who  controlled  both  of  the  great 
political  parties  and  prostituted  both  to  their  base  purposes.  These 
men  got  control  of  the  Democratic  party  and  made  it  a  spoilsman's 
convenience.  Our  party  was  robbed  of  its  mission;  it  was  robbed  of 
a  voice  in  human  affairs;  it  straddled  everything  and  concentrated 
on  nothing.  Although  the  spirit  of  Democracy  had  founded  this  re- 
public and  the  Democratic  party  had  shaped  its  destiny  for  more  than 
half  a  century,  there  followed  a  period  of  about  thirty  years  upon 
which  no  Democrat  can  look  with  pride.  Having  no  definite  purpose 
to  serve,  our  people  devoted  themselves  to  compromising  and  trading, 


'SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH,  JULY  12,  1898.  813 

and  instead  of  carrying-  out  a  great  mission,  we  spent  our  energies  in 
the  lowlands  and  played  tricks  in  the  underbrush. 

GOD'S    INSTRUMENT   TO-DAY. 

But  a  new  time  was  dawning;  a  new  century  was  approaching; 
and  the  Almighty  decided  to  make  preparation  for  its  advent.  The 
human  family  was  again  to  move  forward.  An  aggressive  army  was 
needed.  He  looked  upon  the  party  of  Lincoln  and  found  that  it 
stood  for  exactly  the  opposite  of  all  the  principles  for  which  that  great 
man  had  stood.  He  found  that  the  men  who  now  control  the  conven- 
tions and  the  councils  of  that  party  had  won  their  position  by  brib- 
ing legislatures,  by  polluting  the  stream  of  justice,  by  undermining 
free  institutions  and  by  debauching  everything  which  they  touched 
with  their  soiled  fingers.  They  formed  an  association  of  banditti,  op- 
erating in  the  name  of  law,  and  giving  to  the  children  of  toil  a  stone 
whenever  they  called  for  bread. 

GOD    WITH    DEMOCRACY. 

Then  the  Almighty  turned  to  the  Democratic  party.  He  was  fa- 
miliar with  its  great  achievements,  familiar  with  the  great  purpose 
for  which  it  had  been  organized.  He  found  that  a  majority  of  this 
party  were  earnest,  patriotic  men,  and  as  ready  as  ever  to  make  sacri- 
fices. He  found  that  it  had  for  years  been  ridden  and  weakened  by 
parasites.  He  found  that  the  poison  of  corruption  had  also  to  some 
extent  entered  its  veins,  but  He  also  saw  that  if  the  parasites  were 
drawn  off,  and  if  the  trimmers  and  deadheads  were  cast  aside,  the 
poison  could  be  cast  out,  and  that  the  party  would  then  be  capable 
of  moving  forward  and  fighting  greater  battles  than  had  before  been 
witnessed.  Then  there  spread  over  the  land  a  demand  for  reorganiza- 
tion, and  although  the  party  had  been  betrayed  and  its  future  looked 
hopeless,  there  was  a  demand  by  the  masses  that  it  should  be  taken 
up  out  of  the  swamps  in  which  it  had  wandered  and  come  up  again 
on  to  the  high  lands. 

CASTING    OFF    THE    PARASITES. 

In  1896  there  was  a  new  battle  cry,  and  the  scattered  and  dis- 
couraged Democracy  rallied  and  held  the  greatest  assembly  of  freemen 
that  ever  met  on  this  continent.  The  party  cast  off  the  parasites.  It 
cast  off  the  deadheads,  which  had  long  ridden  it  and  fed  it  only  on 
false  pretenses.  It  flung  new  banners  to  the  breeze.  Then  it  went 
forth  and  fought  the  most  gigantic  battle  ever  waged.  Its  great  leader 
lifted  the  issue  on  to  high  intellectual  and  moral  planes,  and  made 


8i4  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

a  campaign  that  was  without  a  parallel  in  all  history,  and  the  party 
which  only  a  few  months  before  was  considered  dead  polled  one  mil- 
lion more  votes  for  President  than  ever-  before  cast  for  a  Democratic 
candidate.  When  that  convention  adjourned  we  suddenly  discovered 
that  all  of  the  corporations  of  this  country  had  combined  against 
the  people,  and  what  was  remarkable,  all  of  those  men  who  had  estab- 
lished reputations  as  corruptionists  and  debauchers  of  public  morals 
suddenly  appeared  as  great  high  priests  of  national  honor.  Wherever 
twenty  scoundrels  were  gathered  nineteen  shouted  for  McKinley 
and  the  twentieth  declared  he  could  not  stand  16  to  i.  All  of  the 
money  that  could  be  raised  on  two  continents  was  used  for  the  pur- 
pose of  debauching  the  American  people.  Yet  as  the  campaign  pro- 
gressed so  great  was  the  enthusiasm,  so  powerful  the  demonstration 
of  the  intelligent  American  in  our  favor,  that  it  was  apparent  that  a 
majority  of  them  were  with  us.  Especially  was  this  the  case  in  the 
strictly  American  communities.  It  was  in  communities  having  a  large 
purchasable  vote  and  a  large  ignorant  foreign  vote  that  the  Republi- 
cans made  their  gains. 

REPULSE    OF    1896. 

When  the  election  returns  came,  they  were  against  us.  The  re- 
ports from  the  polls  show  that  the  Republican  party  had  been  sup- 
ported first,  by  the  negroes;  second,  by  the  very  ignorant  foreign 
vote,  which  could  be  controlled  by  bosses;  third,  that  all  of  the  pur- 
chased votes  were  given  to  that  ticket,  for  there  was  no  fund  on  the 
other  side;  fourth,  that  all  the  fraudulent  voting  had  been  done  in 
favor  of  that  party;  fifth,  that  every  laboring  man  that  could  possibly 
be  coerced  or  frightened  by  his  employer  had  voted  that  ticket;  sixth, 
that  the  entire  hanging-on  class,  which  has  forever  clung  to  the  skirts 
of  wealth,  had  voted  for  that  party.  But  even  then  it  appeared  that 
thirty  thousand  more  votes  properly  distributed  would  have  changed 
the  result.  When  the  facts  came  more  completely  to  light,  then  it 
appeared  that  gigantic  frauds  and  crimes  against  the  ballot  had  been 
committed. 

PROOF    OF    FRAUD. 

For  example,  Mr.  Cleveland  had  carried  Kentucky  in  1892  by 
40,000  majority.  In  1896  our  candidate  for  the  Presidency  received 
nearly  50,000  more  votes  than  Mr.  Cleveland  received,  yet  the  State 
counted  for  McKinley.  Mr.  Cleveland  carried  Indiana  by  7,000.  Our 
candidate  in  1896  received  43,000  more  votes  than  did  Cleveland,  yet 
the  State  was  counted  for  McKinley. 


SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH,  JULY  12,  1898.  815 

In  Ohio  there  were  apparently  90,000  more  votes  returned  than 
they  had  male  inhabitants  over  21  years  of  age.    A  year  later,  in  1897, 
in  the  senatorial  contest  in  that  State  the  campaign  was  one  of  the 
most  intense  ever  held  and  there  had  been  one  year's  increase  of  popu- 
lation, yet  there  were  150,000  less  votes  polled  than  had  been  returned 
in  1896  in  that  State.    And  the  same  conditions  were  found  to  exist 
in  some  of  the  other  States,  which  made  it  conclusive  that  had  there 
been  honest  counting  the  results  would  have  been  different.     In  this 
city  of  Springfield,  prior  to  the  election,  there  was  such  a  heavy  regis- 
tration as  to  lead  to  the  conviction  that  fraud  was  contemplated,  yet 
in  the  second  precinct  of  the  First  ward  there  were  on  election'  day 
182  men  sworn  in  whose  names  had  not  ever  been  registered.    These 
men  'were  nearly  all  negroes.     Nobody  knew  anything  about  them 
Their  votes  were  challenged  but  the  Republican  election  officials  sim- 
ply laughed  at  the  challenges  and  accepted  the  votes  of  these  strangers, 
how  many  other  precincts  they  voted  in  the  city  I  do  not  know 
When  the  election  was  over  they  disappeared.    Six  months  after  the 
election  there  was  a  census  made  of  the  population  of  this  city  and  it 
was  found  that  they  lacked  1,800  of  having  as  many  legal  voters  as 
there  had  been  votes  returned  at  the  previous  election.    From  nearly 
all  sections  of  the  State  came  reports  showing  that  every  conceivable 
method  of  fraud  had  been  practiced  at  the  polls.     In  Chicago  alone 
there  were  upwards  of  70,000  votes  returned  that  were  never  legally 
cast.    No  honest  man  can  examine  the  reports  of  that  election  without 
being  convinced  that  our  candidate  for  the  Presidency  was  elected  and 
that  by  a  large  majority. 

HARD     TO     PUNISH. 

A  practice  has  grown  up  in  Chicago  and  in  counties  where  Re- 
publicans control  the  selection  of  grand  juries  and  the  prosecuting 
machinery,  of  bribing  election  officials  in  certain  precincts  and  promis- 
ing protection  against  prosecution,  and  thus  getting  false  counts  by 
which  certain  candidates  are  given  from  twenty  to  one  hundred  vote's 
that  were  not  legally  cast.  There  are  three  thousand  precincts  in  the 
State,  and  when  this  method  is  added  to  the  other  methods  of  fraud, 
it  is  in  the  power  of  criminals  who  are  supplied  with  sufficient  money 
to  defeat  the  people  in  every  case.  After  the  election  of  1896  con- 
clusive evidence  of  crime  at  the  polls  was  presented  to  certain  grand 
juries,  but  the  grand  juries  were  Republican  and  had  been  selected  by 
Republican  boards  and  they  simply  laughed  at  the  evidence. 


816  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 


WHERE   DANGER   LIES. 

I  am  making  no  complaint.  We  have  accepted  the  result,  and  I 
have  referred  to  these  things  only  for  the  purpose  of  showing  you 
where  the  danger  lies  in  the  future.  I  am  satisfied  Mark  Hanna  can 
never  again  raise  the  amount  of  corruption  funds  that  he  did  two  years 
ago.  I  am  satisfied  they  can  never  again  so  extensively  and  so  thor- 
oughly debauch  the  people  and  secure  false  reports  as  they  did  then. 
But  the  great  trusts  which  are  fattening  off  of  the  country  by  govern- 
mental aid  will  try  to  carry  elections  in  the  future  by  the  same  methods 
by  which  they  carried  the  election  in  1896,  and  we  must  be  prepared 
to  meet  them,  or  the  election  will  be  a  farce. 

In  1892  I  had  the  honor  of  conducting  a  campaign  in  this  State, 
and  I  told  our  people  not  to  try  to  make  a  single  convert,  but  to 
devote  every  energy  to  getting  the  existing  sentiment  crystallized  into 
the  box  where  it  could  be  counted.  And  I  want  to  say  to  you  do 
not  waste  any  time  in  efforts  to  make  converts  to  our  side.  More 
than  85  per  cent,  of  the  people  are  opposed  to  the  gold  standard  now. 
Direct  all  your  energies  and  all  your  efforts  to  get  that  sentiment  which 
now  exists  crystallized  into  the  ballot  box;  direct  all  your  energies 
toward  securing  a  fair  election  and  an  honest  count.  If  you  can  ac- 
complish this,  if  you  can  prevent  frauds  and  secure  for  every  man  an 
opportunity  to  vote  his  convictions,  we  will  carry  this  State  by  a  large 
majority.  •»« 

DUTY    OF  THE   INDIVIDUAL   DEMOCRAT. 

But  my  friends  this  is  no  small  task.  Money  can  be  used  in  so 
many  ways  to  defeat  the  right.  You  must  not  rely  solely  upon  your 
committees.  It  is  too  large  a  task  for  them  to  do  alone.  Besides  they 
are  frequently  tampered  with.  Every  Democrat  must  feel  that  it  is 
his  duty  to  find  out  who  the  legal  voters  are  in  his  neighborhood  and 
make  the  necessary  preparations  to  arrest  every  scoundrel  who  at- 
tempts to  commit  crime  at  the  polls  whether  he  be  an  election  official, 
or  whether  he  be  a  wretch  who  casts  his  vote  for  a  sum  of  money. 
A  manila  rope  long  enough  to  stretch  from  Cairo  to  Chicago  with 
firm  hands  enough  on  it  to  hang  every  dishonest  election  official  and 
every  fraudulent  voter  will  carry  this  State. 

WEARY  OF   HYPOCRISY. 

The  country  is  becoming  weary  of  the  hypocrisy  which  surrounds 
the  McKinley  administration,  weary  of  the  cant  which  has  made  the 
term  "Christian  gentleman"  a  by-word  and  a  reproach  among  honor- 


SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH,  JULY  12,  1898.  817 

able  men.  The  country  is  getting  weary  of  that  pretense  which  would 
have  us  believe  that  the  Almighty  was  a  partner  with  Mark  Hanna 
in  debauching  the  Legislature  of  Ohio.  Those  men  who  were  coerced 
into  voting  the  Republican  ticket  in  1896  on  the  promise  of  prosperity 
have  discovered  that  they  were  betrayed.  Only  those  men  who  de- 
vour the  substance  of  others  are  prospering.  The  great  toiling  masses 
of  the  country  are  in  distress.  To  be  sure,  newspapers  insist  that  you 
are  prospering;  they  insist  that  the  Republican  party  has  made  good, 
its  promises. 

Well,  now,  my  friends,  we  will  have  no  argument  over  that  ques- 
tion. We  will  take  them  at  their  word;  let  us  assume  that  they  de- 
livered all  that  they  expected  to  deliver,  and  all  that  they  can  deliver. 
Then  the  question  is  simply,  Are  you  satisfied  with  the  goods?  And  I 
will  say  to  all  who  are  satisfied  with  the  existing  conditions,  "Go,  vote 
the  Republican  ticket." 

PROSPERITY    NOT    HERE. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  duty  of  all  those  who  feel  that  the 
prosperity  which  was  promised  to  the  great  laboring  and  producing 
people  of  this  country  has  not  come,  to  vote  the  Democratic  ticket, 
because  we  have  seen  all  that  the  Republicans  can  deliver;  we  have 
seen  all  that  can  be  expected  from  that  party.  In  fact,  it  has  had  the 
benefit  of  accidents.  The  failure  of  crops  upon  three  continents,  which 
raised  the  price  of  wheat,  the  loss  of  over  sixty  million  head  of  sheep 
in  Australia  and  other  countries,  which  raised  the  price  of  wool,  are 
not  signs  of  returning  prosperity  to  the  farmers  and  wool  raisers. 
They  have  no  connection  with  the  Republican  platforms  or  policies 
in  any  way. 

DEMOCRACY    AND    THE    WAR    WITH    SPAIN. 

Now,  my  fellow  citizens,  we  are  engaged  in  a  war,  a  war  almost  as 
holy  as  that  which  we  fought  for  our  own  independence.  This  is  a 
war  for  humanity.  The  Democratic  party,  true  to  its  mission  of  es- 
pousing the  cause  of  the  oppressed,  forced  the  present  administration 
to  take  this  step.  It  is  our  war,  a  Democratic  war,  and  it  will  add  not 
only  to  the  glory  of  our  country,  but  to  the  mighty  achievements  of 
the  Democratic  party.  By  taking  this  step,  the  party  will  add  luster  to 
the  close  of  this  century,  as  it  did  to  the  beginning.  The  fact  that  it 
may  be  prostituted  by  the  present  administration  for  selfish  and  cor- 
rupt purposes  cannot  be  helped.  Even  if  it  should  succeed,  by  means 
of  this  war,  in  escaping  the  immediate  and  angry  condemnation  of  our 
people,  it  does  not  matter.  To  serve  mankind  is  the  highest  mission 

53 


818  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

known.  Our  army  and  our  navy  have  shown  a  heroism  that  makes 
every  loyal  heart  swell  with  pride,  and  we  send  them  our  congratu- 
lations. 

BUILD    NICARAGUAN    CANAL. 

But  this  war  is  creating  new  conditions.  It  is  starting  new 
currents  which  we  cannot  stop,  and  upon  which  we  must  launch 
our  boat  if  we  would  not  be  left  behind.  The  man  who  launches  his 
boat  upon  the  river  will  be  carried  to  the  sea;  the  man  who  refuses  to 
do  so  will  remain  behind.  This  mighty  nation  is  stirred,  and  is  going 
to  move  along  the  line  of  its  natural  development  toward  the  goal  of 
the  greatest  usefulness  and  the  greatest  power.  Providence  designed 
this  nation  to  be  the  supreme  mistress  of  the  western  hemisphere,  and 
we  must  steer  our  vessel  toward  this  haven.  While  the  Democracy 
shaped  the  policy  of  this  country  we  had  close  commercial  relations 
with  all  people,  and  the  -time  is  near  at  hand  when  this  will  again  be 
the  case.  We  must  dig  and  absolutely  own  the  Nicaragua  canal.  It 
is  essential  to  our  progress,  to  our  safety,  and  to  our  convenience. 
For  our  own  safety  and  advantage  we  must,  in  the  course  of  time, 
as  they  become  ripe  for  such  a  step,  acquire  the  West  Indian  islands, 
to  round  out  our  southeastern  boundary  and  perfect  our  republic. 
We  must  have  harbors  all  over  the  earth  for  the  accommodation  of  our 
fleets,  of  our  navy,  and  of  our  shipping. 

MAKE    THE    REPUBLIC    SUPREME. 

These  things  are  in  the  line  of  our  natural  development  and  pro- 
gress. They  do  not  involve  the  establishment  of  a  corrupt  colonial 
system.  They  will  be  in  line  with  the  policy  pursued  by  all  of  the 
great  Democrats  who  gave  this  republic  the  American  continent.  On 
the  other  hand,  we  must  prevent  those  wild  schemes  of  conquest  and 
plunder  which  contemplate  the  establishment  of  a  colonial  empire  on 
another  continent  and  under  conditions  which  must  result  in  injustice 
and  in  gigantic  scandals,  schemes  which,  instead  of  adding  honor  to 
our  flag,  would  pollute  it  in  the  estimation  of  mankind,  schemes  which 
would  involve  us  in  endless  difficulties  arid  wars,  and  which  in  the 
end  could  not  give  us  any  advantage  over  and  above  that  which  we 
would  get  by  simply  securing  intimate  commercial  relations  with  these 
countries.  Our  motto  must  be  "the  natural  development  and  suprem- 
acy of  this  continent,  but  opposition  to  spoliation  and  conquest."  "A 
mighty  Anglo-Saxon  republic,  not  a  mongrel  conglomeration." 


SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH,  JULY  12,  1898.  819 

STATE  ISSUES. 

ONE    RESULT    OF    WALL    STREET'S     OBJECT    LESSON. 

Let  me  say  a  word  about  local  matters.  The  hard  times  following 
the  panic  destroyed  many  securities  that  had  once  been  valuable,  and 
as  a  result  many  men  in  business,  and  especially  in  the  banking  busi- 
ness, who  had  acted  on  mistaken  judgment,  suddenly  found  themselves 
ruined,  found  themselves  with  a  mass  of  paper  that  was  no  longer  of 
value.  They  had  shown  poor  judgment,  and  without  intending  to 
wrong  anybody,  they  entailed  loss  upon  others,  and  it  happened  dur- 
ing the  last  State  administration  that  two  custodians  of  public  money 
belonged  to  this  class,  and  entailed  for  the  time  a  loss  upon  the  State. 
Both  of  these  men  have  been  prosecuted  and  convicted,  and  both  are 
in  prison.  The  Democratic  party  made  no  effort  to  prevent  their  pros- 
ecution. It  believes  in  a  rigid  enforcement  of  the  law,  no  matter  whom 
it  hits,  and  especially  so  when  it  comes  to  matters  affecting  the  public. 
The  probabilities  are  that  the  State  will  lose  nothing  in  either  case. 
It  has  already  been  once  decided  that  the  park  funds  now  claimed  by 
certain  banks  must  be  returned  in  toto,  so  that  there  will  probably  be 
no  loss  there.  In  the  other  case,  securities  to  the  amount  of  several 
times  the  sum  claimed  by  the  State  have  been  turned  over.  This, 
added  to  the  liability  of  the  bondsmen,  makes  it  seem  reasonably  cer- 
tain that  the  State  will  get  every  cent  of  its  money.  Contrast  this 
speedy  and  even  technical  punishment  with  the  utter  failure  to  enforce 
justice  against  the  brigands  of  the  Republican  party.  The  men  who 
betray  their  constituents  and  who  have  helped  to  rob  the  people  of 
this  State  of  unnumbered  millions  of  dollars,  who  have  literally  sold 
the  mighty  city  of  Chicago  to  the  wolves  and  birds  of  prey  that  fatten 
on  public  plunder. 

STATE    INSTITUTIONS. 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  last  State  administration  the  Republi- 
cans made  a  thorough  examination  of  all  the  institutions  of  the  State, 
and  they  found  them  in  such  an  excellent  condition  that  hostile  papers 
were  compelled  to  praise  them.  After  the  beginning  of  the  present 
administration,  a  crowd  of  men  with  fierce  appetites  and  sharpened 
teeth  who  were  planning  the  most  gigantic  schemes  of  spoliation,  and 
were  determined  to  suck  blood  from  all  the  pores  of  the  public,  and 
who  felt  it  necessary  to  divert  attention  from  their  criminal  schemes, 
raised  a  furious  cry  against  the  conditions  of  the  State  institutions. 
It  was  the  old  cry  of  "Stop,  thief!"  It  has  died  away,  being  without 
any  foundation.  Nothing  came  of  it,  but  the  crowd  that  raised  it  car- 


820  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ried  out  its  purpose,  and  besides  selling  to  the  trusts  everything  there 
was  in  sight  except  the  dome  of  the  capitol,  they  proceeded  to  loot  the 
treasury,  and  when  there  is  again  an  examination  into  public  affairs 
in  this  State,  the  public  will  be  astounded,  and  those  Republicans  who 
can  speak  both  the  German  and  the  English  language  will  be  fortu- 
nate, for  they  will  need  all  of  the  expletives  that  there  are  in  both 
languages  to  do  justice  to  their  feelings.  From  all  over  the  State  come 
reports  from  the  lips  of  Republicans  of  the  selling  of  offices  and  of 
different  appointees  having  to  divide  salaries  with  outside  politicians. 
In  the  end  the  people  must  pay  for  all  this.  Let  me  give  you  just  one 
illustration.  In  1892  the  Democrats  declared  against  the  contract  sys- 
tem in  our  penitentiaries,  and  in  favor  of  having  enough  industries 
in  the  institution  so  that  not  more  than  one  hundred  prisoners  should 
work  at  any  one  trade,  instead  of  three  or  four  hundred,  as  was  for- 
merly the  case,  and  that  the  State  should  work  the  prisoners.  This 
system  was  carried  out,  and  notwithstanding  the  hard  times,  the  peni- 
tentiary at  Joliet  was  made  self-sustaining,  and  in  January,  1897,  the 
commissioners  reported  to  the  State  government  and  to  the  Legisla- 
ture that  they  did  not  require  any  appropriation  whatever,  that  they 
did  not  need  one  dollar  from  the  State,  that  they  had  on  hand  good 
accounts,  manufactured  goods  and  material  amounting  to  several  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  over  and  above  unpaid  bills.  Yet,  notwith- 
standing that  report,  the  Republican  Legislature  made  an  appropria- 
tion of  two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars  to  that  institution. 
Every  dollar  of  this  is  disappearing.  In  addition  thereto,  the  commis- 
sioners have  practically  gone  back  to  the  contract  system,  where  they 
have  practically  nothing  to  do  with  the  prisoners,  and  as  nearly  as  can 
be  .ascertained,  they  have  collected  the  accounts  and  sold  the  goods 
and  material  on  hand  and  have  spent  that  money  also. 

STEALING    HALF    A    MILLION. 

Nearly  half  a  million  of  dollars  will  have  disappeared  before  the 
end  of  the  two  years,  and  there  will  be  absolutely  nothing  to  show 
for  it.  Similar  conditions  are  reported  from  nearly  all  of  the  institu- 
tions. Some  of  these  people  have  had  the  assurance  to  talk  about 
there  being  a  deficit  in  the  State  treasury  at  the  end  of  the  last  admin- 
istration. Now,  my  fellow  citizens,  you  remember  that  in  the  spring  of 
1895  the  Republican  Legislature  made  a  great  many  large  appropria- 
tions, and  then  was  mean  enough  and  small  enough  to  refuse  to  au- 
thorize the  Governor  and  the  State  officers  to  make  a  tax  levy  suf- 
ficiently large  to  meet  these  appropriations  which  the  Legislature  had 
itself  made.  It  left  a  shortage,  as  was  subsequently  developed,  of  near- 


SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH,  JULY  12,  1898.  821 

ly  two  million  dollars.  I,  as  Governor,  was  obliged  to  reconvene  the 
Legislature  in  special  session  for  the  purpose  of  authorizing  a  tax  levy 
that  should  be  large  enough  to  meet  the  bills  which  they  had  them- 
selves created,  and  even  then  they  authorized  an  additional  levy  of 
only  one  million  dollars,  leaving  still  a  shortage  that  ran  up  nearly  to 
a  million.  This  was  Republican  statesmanship.  They  thought  it  a 
smart  trick  to  provide  insufficient  money  to  pay  the  State's  bills  and 
now  when  they  came  into  power  and  were  confronted  with  the  deficit 
which  they  had  themselves  created,  they  were  mean  enough  to  try  to 
charge  it  to  a  Democratic  administration. 

STATE   ISSUES  THIS   YEAR. 

Again,  my  friends,  in  1892  there  was  a  local  issue  in  this  State 
which  helped  us  to  overthrow  Republican  supremacy.  This  year  we 
have  again  a  local  issue  which  is  broader  and  deeper  than  that  of  1892, 
which  is  influencing  far  more  people  than  were  influenced  in  1892,  and 
which  will  enable  us  to  sweep  this  State  with  a  far  greater  majority 
than  we  did  in  1892,  if  we  will  only  avail  ourselves  of  it,  and  that  issue 
is  boodleism.  The  infamous  legislation  of  every  kind  and  character 
of  the  last  Legislature  is  .being  resented  by  the  people  of  this  State. 
They  see  that  unless  this  corruption  can  be  stopped,  the  foundations 
of  liberty  will  be  undermined,  and  law-making,  law-construing  and 
law-enforcing  will  be  on  sale,  and  this  republic  must  go  down  in  utter 
rottenness  while  the  men  who  toil,  who  do  the  world's  work  in  the 
field,  in  the  shop,  in  the  schoolhouse  and  in  the  counting-room,  the 
men  who  make  our  civilization  possible,  will  be  devoured.  All  of  those 
Republicans  who  honor  the  memory  of  Lincoln  are  anxious  to  register 
a  protest  against  these  conditions.  They  see  that  they  cannot  do  it 
effectively  in  their  own  party,  that  their  party  is  headed,  is  officered,  is 
marshaled  and  is  absolutely  controlled  by  men-  who  seek  to  make  for- 
tunes out  of  these  very  conditions.  If  the  Democratic  party  will  give 
these  Republicans  a  chance,  they  will  strike  a  blow  that  will  send 
boodleism  reeling  off  the  stage.  But  in  order  to  do  this,  we  must 
demonstrate  that  our  party  is  not  controlled  by  these  fatal  influences. 
We  must  purge  ourselves  of  the  element  that  would  load  us  down. 
The  nomination  of  a  single  man  who  has  a  reputation  as  a  boodler 
will  cost  the  party  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  thousand  votes,  because 
it  will  create  the  impression  in  the  minds  of  honest  Republicans  that 
they  can  expect  no  more  <pf  our  party  than  they  can  of  theirs. 


822  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

NO    BOODLERS    NEED   APPLY. 

Now,  my  friends,  the  Democratic  party  owes  these  men  nothing. 
It  gave  them  an  opportunity.  It  honored  some  of  them  with  its  con- 
fidence, and  when  they  saw  fit  to  betray  that  confidence  and  to  put 
their  party  on  the  defensive,  they  forfeited  all  claim  which  they  other- 
wise might  have  had  to  further  consideration,  and  to  take  up  any  of 
them  now  and  run  the  risk  of  losing  the  State  would  be  a  crime.  It  is 
a  sad  sight  to  see.  young  men  with  kind  hearts  and  good  intentions, 
men  of  education  and  of  good  family,  men  gifted  with  abilities  of  the 
highest  order,  men  who,  if  they  had  moved  along  a  different  line, 
could  have  become  among  the  greatest  of  this  nation,  could  have  made 
their  names  lustrous  in  this  republic,  and  have  been  a  blessing  to  man- 
kind, but  who,  in  an  evil  day,  met  the  so-called  "good  fellow"  (and  the 
briber  and  the  go-between  always  plays  the  role  of  a  good  fellow)  and 
they  got  into  bad  associations,  they  fell  into  dissipation,  they  contracted 
extravagant  habits,  they  began  to  weaken  in  character,  and  they  began 
by  degrees  to  accept  money  which  could  only  soil  their  fingers,  and 
the  poison  having  once  entered  their  blood,  the  fever  set  in,  and  by- 
degrees  they  reached  the  point  where  they  did  not  wait  at  the  capital 
to  be  seduced,  but  went  out  into  the  highways  of  the  State,  like  hungry 
wolves,  in  search  of  interests  upon  which  they  could  levy  blackmail. 
I  feel  that  our  age  and  the  sentiment  of  the  time  is  partially  responsible 
for  these  conditions.  We  have  been  passing  through  a  period  of  cor- 
rupt money-making.  The  only  god  we  have  had  for  a  number  of  years 
has  been  the  dollar.  There  was  a  glamour  and  a  glitter  about  this  which 
caught  the  young. 

PALSYING   HAND   OF  CORRUPTION. 

Our  people  are  just  beginning  to  realize  that  fortunes  corruptly 
made  not  only  rot  down  and  disappear,  but  that  they  rot  down  the 
men  and  the  families  that  have  them,  that  God's  moral  law  is  immu- 
table and  as  directly  effective  as  are  his  physical  laws,  that  fortunes 
tainted  with  injustice  in  the  end  will  destroy  the  men  who  have  them, 
and  not  only  this,  but  will  destroy  their  families.  A  moral  leprosy  will 
rot  them  down.  Our  people  are  beginning  to  more  clearly  realize  that 
tainted  dollars  soil  the  fingers  and  give  a  poison  to  the  blood  which 
first  intoxicates  and  makes  a  demonstration  in  the  way  of  extrava- 
gance and  high  living,  but  which  soon  produces  a  relapse,  and  then 
shoves  the  victim  into  a  premature  and  dishonorable  grave.  But  while 
we  may  have  the  deepest  sympathy  for  young  men  who  may  thus 
destroy  their  usefulness,  we  must  not  jeopardize  or  sully  the  honor  of 


SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH,  JULY  12,  1898.  823 

the  mighty  Democratic  party  in  order  to  do  a  personal  favor  to  one 
of  these  gentlemen.  I  am  told  that  there  are  a  few  districts  in  the 
State  in  which  these  gentlemen,  with  the  aid  of  a  few  local  bosses, 
local  machines,  and  local  traders,  can  force  themselves  upon  the  ticket, 
in  minority  districts,  and  thus  defy  the  great  party  of  the  State  and 
secure  an  election,  as  they  imagine,  because  there  will  be  no  opposition. 

BOLT    DISHONEST    CANDIDATES. 

Gentlemen,  the  interests  of  the  half  million  Democrats  of  this  State 
are  greater  than  those  of  any  individual,  and  while  it  is  necessary 
that  the  majority  shall  govern,  that  Democrats  shall  support  their 
ticket,  when  it  is  put  up  according  to  Democratic  methods,  it  is  also  a 
fundamental  principle  of  Democracy  that  the  voters  shall  have  a  voice 
in  selecting  candidates,  and  wherever  they  are  deprived  of  a  fair  op- 
portunity to  express  that  choice,  there  the  nomination  is  not  a  Demo- 
cratic nomination.  And  it  is  another  fundamental  principle  of  Demo- 
cracy that  no  party  can  compel  a  man  to  support  a  criminal  for  office. 
I  do  not  for  one  moment  dispute  the  fact  that  if  the  Democrats  of  any 
legislative  district  want  to  elect  a  boodler  to  the  Legislature  it  is  their 
privilege  to  do  it,  but  they  must  not  be  compelled  by  any  trickery  to 
submit  to  having  a  representative  who  is  not  their  ch'oice.  The  law 
has  provided,  in  every  case,  that  where  the  voters  of  a  party  are  not 
satisfied  with  the  nomination  that  has  been  made,  they  can  put  up 
another  candidate  by  petition,  and  I  want  every  Democrat  in  this 
State  to  hear  me,  when  I  say  that  in  every  case  in  which  a  man  who  is 
regarded  by  the  public  as  a  boodler  forces  himself  upon  the  ticket, 
through  machinery  or  trickery,  there  the  Democrats  must  be  given  an 
opportunity  to  say  at  the  polls  whether  they  want  him  or  whether  they 
do  not  want  him.  And  in  every  such  district  it  is  the  duty  of  men 
who  want  to  perpetuate  free  institutions,  who  want  to  save  the  founda- 
tions of  liberty,  who  want  government  to  be  something  more  than  a 
mere  machine  to  rob  the  people,  it  is  the  duty,  I  say,  of  all  such  men 
to  see  to  it  that  this  boodleism  is  brought  to  an  end.  Two  years  ago  in 
forming  our  lines  we  threw  off  the  parasites  and  the  deadheads,  and 
the  more  we  threw  off  of  this  element  the  more  vigorous  and  powerful 
we  became.  We  have  a  little  poison  in  our  blood  yet. 

POISON   OF   BOODLEISM. 

The  poison  of  boodleism,  which  will  give  us  rheumatic  knees  and 
neuralgic  elbows  if  we  do  not  cast  it  out.  This  poison,  when  you 
examine  it,  is  a  gold  standard  poison.  The  whole  horde  of  boodlers 
either  openly  advocate  the  gold  standard  or  secretly  favor  it,  for  that 


824  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

is  the  source  from  which  the  spoils  come.  The  men  fighting  for  the 
cause  of  silver  get  stronger  every  time  a  drop  of  this  gold  standard 
poison  is  cast  out.  Men  have  come  to  me  and  said,  "Governor,  you 
would  better  not  say  so  much  against  these  boodlers,  lest  you  injure 
your  chances  of  going  to  the  United  States  Senate."  Well,  now,  in 
the  first  place,  it  is  hard  to  injure  chances  that  do  not  exist.  In  the 
second  place,  do  not  be  uneasy  about  the  senatorship.  There  will  be 
plenty  of  men  to  choose  from  when  the  time  comes.  We  have  Demo- 
crats in  Chicago,  we  have  Democrats  all  over  this  State,  from  Cairo 
to  Wisconsin,  any  one  of  whom  would  honor  the  party  and  honor  the 
State  in  the  United  States  Senate.  But  I  do  hope  that  we  have 
not  a  Democrat  in  this  great  State  who  would  be  willing  to  go  to 
Washington  with  a  certificate  in  his  pocket  that  should  send  him  to 
the  penitentiary.  Give  the  Republicans  a  monopoly  of  that  business. 
Boodleism  is  a  crime,  conniving  at  it  and  thus  making  its  success 
possible  is  conniving  at  crime,  and  morally  makes  a  man  a  party  to 
that  crime,  and  fits  him  for  a  prison  rather  than  for  a  toga.  But  I  want 
to  say  more:  I  would  rather  have  it  chiseled  upon  my  tombstone, 
"He  helped  to  break  up  boodleism  in  Illinois,"  than  to  have  it  said, 
"He  served  fifty  years  in  the  United  States  Senate."  Let  me  add 
another  word  here:  Office-hunting  has  for  many  years  been  a  mania, 
like  money-getting,  and  it  has  lowered  character.  It  has  weakened 
manhood,  it  has  created  an  army  of  neutral  men,  of  wire-pullers,  of 
straddlers,  and  of  tricksters,  an  army  of  men  who  are  incapable  of 
doing  anything  great  for  their  country  and  who  have  become  a  curse 
to  this  republic.  Nothing  in  the  end  makes  a  man  look  more  contempt- 
ible or  will  more  certainly  win  him  the  scorn  of  mankind  than  to  hold 
high  office  and  be  too  weak  or  too  corrupt  to  meet  the  highest  de- 
mands of  his  country.  You  need  not  go  far  to  look  for  examples. 
You  will  admit  that  while  there  are  some  men  of  honor  and  ability  in 
the  Senate,  it  is  not  an  especial  honor  to  sit  in  a  body  in  which  Mark 
Hanna  can  buy  a  seat,  and  it  is  not  an  especial  honor  to  sit  in  a  body 
that  has  a  host  of  members  who  require  a  stepladder  to  get  into  any 
chair  that  was  made  for  either  an  honest  man  or  for  a  statesman.  It 
is  personal  achievement,  not  office  holding,  that  the  world  admires.  Be 
a  great  preacher,  and  men  will  come  to  hear  you;  Be  a  great  lawyer 
and  your  fame  will  go  over  the  land.  Be  a  great  farmer,  and  you  will 
wield' influence  and  power  in  the  community.  Be  a  great  manufac- 
turer, be  a  great  merchant,  and  you  will  be  respected.  Be  a  great 
orator,  and  the  world  will  be  at  your  feet. 


SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH,  JULY  12,  1898.  825 

TO   THE   YOUNG   MEN. 

Let  me  now  say  to  the  young  men,  Never  before  was  there  a  time 
that  offered  such  grand  opportunities  as  the  time  upon  which  we  are 
entering.  Never  before  did  the  world  call  so  loudly  and  so  earnestly 
for  men,  who  will  make  honor  the  pole  star  of  conduct.  Never  before 
did  this  republic  call  so  loudly  for  men  who  love  free  institutions  and 
are  willing  to  die  for  them.  Never  before  did  the  country  call  so  loudly 
for  leaders  as  it  does  to-day.  We  have  some  very  able  men  devoting 
their  lives  to  a  principle  and  doing  heroic  service,  but  we  need  a 
multitude  more;  we  need  more  orators,  we  need  more  writers,  we 
need  more  men  of  judgment,  we  need  more  men  of  unselfish  devotion. 
Never  before  did  Fame's  bright  temple  beckon  from  afar  to  the  am- 
bitious young  men  as  it  does  to-day.  We  are  entering  upon  a  new 
era,  we  are  entering  upon  not  only  a  new  century,  but  upon  a  new 
time;  the  human  race  is  about  to  make  another  march  forward,  it  is 
about  to  camp  on  a  higher  plane.  The  great  principles  we  fought  for 
two  years  ago  are  growing  in  strength.  There  will  be  a  mighty  strug- 
gle, but  do  not  forget  that  the  cause  of  humanity  has  always  triumphed 
in  the  end.  But  we  must  be  in  earnest.  When  a  century  ago  men 
faced  the  gallows  by  declaring  for  liberty  they  were  in  earnest.  When 
the  Continental  troops  traversed  the  ice-covered  hills  with  bare  feet 
and  wrote  their  cause  in  letters  of  blood,  they  were  in  earnest.  At 
every  step  in  the  great  career  of  the  Democratic  party  through  the 
first  half  of  this  century,  it  was  in  earnest,  it  had  a  grand,  definite  pur- 
pose, and  I  want  to  tell  you  now  that  the  men  who  are  to  lead  the 
great  hosts  of  Democracy  for  the  next  decade  must  be  in  earnest. 
They  must  have  the  souls  of  heroes  and  the  spirit  of  martyrs.  And 
that  army  which  the  Almighty  has  chosen  to  fight  his  battles  and  to 
conduct  the  great  Jefferson  of  to-day  from  the  Platte  River  to  the 
White  House  must  be  in  earnest,  and  it  must  have  no  rheumatic  joints, 
it  must  have  no  boodle  poison  in  its  blood. 

A   STRONG   APPEAL. 

I  appeal  to  you,  young  men,  prepare  yourselves  for  the  great  work 
before  you,  for  upon  you  it  must  devolve.  Most  of  us  who  have  been 
laboring  in  the  vineyard,  doing  the  little  we  could,  now  find  that  we 
have  passed  the  zenith.  We  find  that  our  shadows  are  growing  longer, 
we  find  that  our  endurance  and  our  activities  are  growing  shorter.  We 
can  still  work  at  clearing  away  the  rubbish,  we  can  still  chop  down  the 
underbrush,  we  can  still  help  to  make  the  road  over  which  the  army 
shall  pass,  we  can  still  stand  guard  at  strategic  points,  but  advancing 


826  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

armies,  conquering  armies,  must  be  led  by  young  men,  men  who  have 
their  careers  before  them.  Rise  to  the  occasion.  Meet  the  demands 
of  the  time.  Respond  to  the  call  of  the  age.  Respond  to  the  cry  of 
humanity,  and  you  can  write  your  names  against  the  skies  in  letters  of 
glory,  and  win  the  blessing  of  all  the  generations  to  come. 


CRIMES  AGAINST  THE  STATE  AND  NATION  EXPOSED. 
(Auditorium  Speech,  September  24,  1898.) 

SELLING  LEGISLATION  TO  CORPORATIONS  AT  SPRING- 
FIELD.—REPUBLICAN  STATE  ADMINISTRATION  AND 
THE  ELEVATOR  TRUST— THE  GAS  AND  STREET  RAIL- 
WAY TRUSTS.— REPUBLICAN  MACHINE  POLITICIANS  SUD- 
DENLY BECOME  WEALTHY.— ABUSES  IN  ARMY  AND 
NAVY  THE  RESULT  OF  GREED  AND  APPETITE  FOR 
SPOILS.— WILL  THE  PEOPLE  INDORSE  IT? 

TWO  ADMINISTRATIONS. 

ABOUT    ENDORSING    THEM. 

We  are  approaching  an  off-year  election,  in  which  only  congress- 
men and  local  officers  are  to  be  chosen.  Neither  the  State  nor  the 
federal  administration  can  be  changed  for  two  years.  But  both  admin- 
istrations have,  during  the  last  two  years,  done  things  of  a  most  ex- 
traordinary and  dangerous  character,  and  both  are  asking  for  an  in- 
dorsement. While  the  election  is  for  local  officers  only,  its  result  will 
be  accepted  by  both  administrations  as  either  an  approval  or  a  con- 
demnation of  their  acts.  This  presents  at  once  the  question:  "Do  you 
approve  of  the  course  of  both  of  these  administrations?"  Let  us  con- 
sider the  State  administration  first,  and  let  us  examine  only  one  ques- 
tion which  overshadows  all  others.  That  is  corruption — the  selling  of 
legislation,  the  selling  of  privileges  for  the  spoliation  of  the  citizens 
of  this  mighty  State. 

DEFICIT    IN    STATE  TREASURY. 

But  first  let  me  say  a  word  about  a  deficit  in  the  State  treasury. 
In  1895  the  Legislature  of  Illinois  was  overwhelmingly  Republican  in 
both  houses.  Senator  Dunlap,  a  Republican,  was  chairman  of  the 
revenue  committee  in  the  Senate,  and  the  Honorable  Thomas  Needles, 
a  Republican,  was  chairman  of  the  same  committee  in  the  House. 
That  Legislature  made  appropriations  amounting  to  about  $10.400,- 
ooo,  and  then  it  refused  to  authorize  a  tax  levy  sufficient,  when  added 
to  other  State  revenues,  to  pay  this  sum.  It  left  a  shortage  of  about 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE  AND  NATION.       827 

$2,400,000.  I  reconvened  the  Legislature  in  special  session,  and  asked 
that  it  authorize  a  tax  levy,  which,  when  taken  in  connection  with  all 
revenues  of  the  State,  would  be  sufficiently  large  to  meet  the  bills 
which  the  Legislature  had  itself  created.  It  then  increased  the  tax 
levy  $1,000,000,  still  leaving  a  shortage  of  about  $1,400,000,  and  ad- 
journed. When,  in  1897,  the  new  Republican  administration  had  taken 
hold  and  had  found  that  the  deficit  which  the  Republicans  had  them- 
selves created  was  coming  home  to  roost,  Senator  David  T.  Littler, 
the  leader  of  the  Republicans,  arose  in  the  Senate  on  Feb.  4,  1897,  an(^ 
among  other  things  said: 

REPUBLICAN   CONFESSION   OF   GUILT. 

"The  present  depleted  condition  of  the  State  treasury  is  due  to  the 
stubbornness  and  lack  of  qualifications  of  the  appropriations  com- 
mittee of  the  last  Senate  (meaning  the  Republican  Senate  of  1895). 
The  consequence  is  we  have  a  bankrupt  treasury,  and  we  are  to-day 
asked  to  authorize  the  Governor  to  borrow  $250,000  to  supply  the 
deficiency  in  the  treasury,  and  I  am  authorized  by  the  Governor  him- 
self to  state  from  my  seat  in  the  Senate  that  the  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  appropriations,  Senator  Dunlap,  is  more  responsible  for 
the  depleted  financial  condition  of  the  State  than  all  others  put  to- 
gether, and  I  charge  that  his  willful  disposition  against  correcting 
the  tax  levy  is  the  reason  for  our  financial  condition  to-day." 

A  few  days  after  this  speech  Governor  Tanner  submitted  to  an 
interview  upon  this  question,  in  which  he  used  the  following  lan- 
guage: 

"During  the  legislative  session  in  1895  I  went  to  Senator  Dunlap, 
Speaker  John  Meyer  and  Representatives  Cochran  and  Needles,  and 
begged  them  not  to  disgrace  the  old  commonwealth.  I  pointed  out 
to  them  that  they  had  appropriated  $10,400,000,  and  by  their  levy  had 
only  provided  for  $8,000,000  to  pay  it.  I  told  them  when  they  cut 
down  the  tax  levy  that  Governor  Altgeld  would  be  obliged  to  call 
a  special  session  of  the  Legislature  to  correct  their  mistake.  I  knew 
this  would  have  to  be  done,  and  on  the  gentlemen  I  have  named  was 
the  responsibility  for  the  extra  session.  The  tax  levy  as  passed  in  1895 
was  $2,400,000  short  of  the  appropriations.  The  extra  session  called 
by  Governor  Altgeld  in  1895  raised  $1,000,000  more,  but  it  has  still 
left  a  deficit  of  $1,400,000.  This  I  then  considered  and  now  consider 
an  inexcusable  blunder." 

Gentlemen,  what  do  you  think  of  statesmanship  which  was  willing 
to  trifle  with  the  credit  of  this  great  State,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  em- 
barrassing the  State  administration?  And  what  do  you  think  of  states- 


828 

men  who,  having  done  this  and  having  seen  the  disastrous  conse- 
quences, now  try  to  shirk  the  responsibility  of  it?  There  are  men  who 
need  longer  memories. 

SELLING  LEGISLATION. 

HOW    REPUBLICANS   DO    IT. 

For  lack  of  time  I  cannot  on  this  occasion  deal  with  the  criminal 
extravagance,  stuffing  of  pay-rolls  and  the  consequent  demoralization 
of  service  now  prevailing  in  this  State,  nor  can  I  discuss  the  fact  that  a 
corruption  fund  of  nearly  $100,000  is  now  being  raised  by  assessing  the 
employes  of  the  State  to  carry  the  election,  nor  the  fact  that  the  great 
Joliet  prison  has  been  practically  put  back  under  the  old  contract  sys- 
tem. All  of  these  things  call  for  severe  condemnation,  though  they  do 
not  so  directly  strike  at  the  foundation  of  free  institutions  as  does  the 
question  of  buying  and  selling  legislation.  For  want  of  time  I  will  be 
able  to  consider  only  three  measures  under  this  head,  out  of  the  large 
number  that  should  be  examined. 

THE   ELEVATOR  TRUST. 

Chicago  is  one  of  the  greatest  grain  centers  of  the  world,  and  con- 
ditions here  frequently  affect  prices  everywhere.  We  have  here  a 
large  number  of  grain  elevators,  with  a  storage  capacity  of  about 
90,000,000  bushels  of  wheat.  They  are  chartered  by  law  and  the  own- 
ers act  as  trustees  or  custodians  of  other  people's  grain.  The  grain 
is  inspected  by  an  officer  of  the  State,  and  is  graded  No.  i,  No.  2,  No. 
3,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  generally  is  sold  by  this  grading,  and  all 
grain  of  the  second  grade  is  then  poured  together,  the  warehouse  man 
giving  a  receipt  for  so  many  bushels  of  that  particular  grade.  And 
when  this  receipt  is  again  presented,  he  does  not  give  back  the  same 
grain,  but  simply  so  many  bushels  of  that  grade.  It  was  soon  found 
that  all  grain  of  the  same  grade  is  not  equally  good — there  will  be  No. 
2  wheat  almost  equal  to  No.  i,  and  there  will  be  No.  2  wheat  falling 
close  to  No.  3.  And  in  all  those  cases  where  wheat  is  sold,  not  by  the 
grading,  but  rather  by  sample — as  for  milling  purposes — the  best 
quality  sometimes  brings  several  cents  a  bushel  more  than  the  poorer 
quality,  though  of  the  same  grade.  The  warehouse  men  saw  that 
they  could  sell  by  sample  the  best  quality  of  a  particular  grade  and 
supply  its  place  by  a  lower  quality  of  the  same  grade  and  pocket  the 
difference.  This  would  reduce  the  average  quality  of  the  whole  pile, 
and  in  case  the  owners  of  any  of  the  pile  should  wish  to  sell  by  sample 
they  would  suffer  in  consequence.  The  elevator  owners  went  into  the 
business  of  buying  and  selling  grain  and  mixing  it  with  that  of  their 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE  'AND  NATION.       829 

customers'.  A  suit  was  brought  to  enjoin  them  from  doing  this.  Much 
evidence  was  taken,  and  after  a  full  hearing  Judge  Tuley,  the  Nestor 
of  the  bench  of  Chicago,  granted  the  injunction  on  the  grounds,  among 
others,  that  the  elevator  owners  were  trustees  or  custodians  of  other 
people's  property,  that  the  interests  of  the  public  demanded  that  these 
custodians  should  be  disinterested,  and  that  it  would  be  contrary  to 
public  morals  to  permit  them  to  stand  in  a  position  where  there  would 
be  a  constant  temptation  for  them  to  change  the  character  of  the  prop- 
erty they  thus  held  in  trust;  and,  second,  that  if  the  elevator  men  were 
permitted  to  act  in  the  dual  capacity  of  trustees  and  dealers  in  grain 
they  would  possess  such  advantages  as  would  enable  them  to  soon 
drive  all  other  buyers  out  of  the  market  and  thus  give  to  themselves  a 
monopoly  of  the  grain  trade  of  Chicago,  and  enable  them,  to  a  certain 
extent,  to  fix  the  price  of  grain  in  the  Chicago  market ;  for  they  could 
then,  by  combination,  agree  on  the  price,  and  by  reason  of  their  enor- 
mous storage  capacity  they  could  withhold  or  throw  on  to  the  market 
at  any  time  vast  quantities  of  wheat,  and  thus  depress  or  raise  the 
market  at  pleasure,  which  would  not  be  so  if  there  were  many  own- 
ers. The  case  was  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court,  and  that  court 
sustained  Judge  Tuley,  and,  in  a  long  and  able  opinion,  expressly  held 
that  it  would  be  against  public  morals  and  against  public  policy  to  per- 
mit'the  public  warehouse  men  of  this  State  to  carry  on  a  grain  business 
in  the  same  warehouse  in  which  they  keep  their  customers'  grain. 

BEATING    THE    FARMERS. 

But  in  the  meantime  the  warehouse  men  got  the  State  administra- 
tion to  come  to  their  aid,  and  with  the  Governor's  assistance  they  se- 
cured the  passage  of  a  law  which  permits  them  to  do  the  very  things 
which  the  courts  had  held  to  be  against  public  morals  and  against 
public  policy.  The  elevator  people  stand  together.  They  have  an 
agreernent  not  to  interfere  with  each  other's  business.  The  moment 
a  bushel  of  wheat  goes  into  their  warehouses  they  are  entitled  to  two 
cents  storage.  When  an  outside  buyer  offers  70  cents  a  bushel  it  will 
cost  him  72  cents.  The  warehouse  men,  by  giving  up  a  little  of  their 
storage  charge,  can  offer  71  cents,  and  thus  drive  the  outside  buyers 
out  of  the  market.  This  done,  the  market  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  ware- 
house men.  The  effect  of  this  legislation,  therefore,  is  to  create  a  mo- 
nopoly and  place  all  that  section  of  country  which  in  grain  matters  is 
tributary  to  this  city  at  the  mercy  of  a  combination  of  elevator  owners 
in  Chicago.  This  combination  can  easily  combine  with  others  else- 
where, so  that  this  legislation  lays  the  foundation  for  a  grain  trust 


830  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

that  will  draw  blood  from  every  farmer  in  America.    The  question  now 
is,  "Does  it  meet  your  approval?    Will  you  vote  to  sustain  it?" 

THE    GAS    TRUST. 

Formerly  we  had  eight  gas- companies  in  Chicago  and  its  suburbs 
that  were  competing  for  business.  Then  some  manipulators  succeeded 
in  forming  a  trust  out  of  these  eight  companies,  so  as  to  stop  competi- 
tion and  get  arbitrary  control  of  the  business  of  supplying  the  city 
of  Chicago  with  gas.  Under  the  laws  of  Illinois  these  companies  could 
not  legally  consolidate  so  as  to  form  one,  it  being  against  public  policy 
to  permit  combinations  of  competing  interests,  and  they  wanted  legis- 
lation that  would  enable  them  to  do  this;  having  Chicago  in  their  grip, 
they  wanted  legislation  that  would  practically  make  it  impossible  for 
any  new  gas  plant  to  be  established,  so  that  they  would  never  be 
threatened  with  competition. 

REPUBLICAN    LEGISLATURE  AIDS  GAS  COMPANIES  TO 
RAISE    RATES. 

At  the  last  session  of  the  Legislature  they  secured  the  passage  of 
one  bill  which  authorized  them  to  consolidate,  and  they  secured  the 
passage  of  another  bill  which  provided  that  hereafter  no  gas  pipe 
should  be  laid  in  a  street  without  the  consent  of  the  owners  of  a  ma- 
jority of  the  frontage  in  each  block  on  that  street.  Inasmuch  as  the 
gas  trust  had  its  pipes  already  in  the  streets,  and  as  it  could  easily  pre- 
vent any  new  company  from  getting  the  consent  of  the  owners  of  a 
majority  of  the  frontage  in  each  block,  this  act  has  placed  the  city  of 
Chicago  for  all  time  at  the  mercy  of  the  gas  trust  company. 

HOW    GAS    USERS    ARE    MADE    TO    PAY. 

Although  it  costs  less  than  half  what  it  formerly  did  to  manufac- 
ture gas,  Chicago  must  pay  any  price  demanded.  No  matter  how  poor 
the  gas,  no  matter  how  high  the  price,  Chicago  is  helpless.  Th$  State 
government  by  this  act  gave  these  men  the  power  to  rob  the  people  of 
this  city  of  millions  of  dollars  every  year  for  all  time,  and  the  question 
now  arises:  "Do  you  approve  of  this?"  And  are  you  willing  to  say  to 
the  State  government  that  it  should  go  on,  and  at  the  next  opportunity 
authorize  other  schemers  and  bribers  to  exploit  our  people  in  some 

other  direction? 

THE    ALLEN    BILL. 

The  next  act  that  I  will  refer  to  relates  to  our  laws  concerning 
street  railways.  Many  years  ago,  when  our  law  authorizing  the  forma- 
tion of  street  railway  companies  was  enacted,  it  was  seen  that  the  older 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE  AND  NATION.       83! 

a  community  became  the  more  valuable  the  privilege  of  operating  a 
street  railway  would  become  and  the  less  the  risk  of  operation;    that 
while  the  first  builders  of  a  road  could  not  tell  whether  a  town  would 
ever  become  large  or  not,  and,  therefore,  took  some  risk  in  that  re- 
gard, this  would  not  be  the  case  when  a  city  was  already  built;   that 
therefore,  there  ought,  at  short  intervals,  to  be  a  new  adjustment  be- 
tween the  public  which  owns  the  streets,  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  street 
railway  company  on  the  other.    The  law,  therefore,  provided  that  no 
city  council  should  grant  an  ordinance  or  a  charter  to  such  a  railway 
company  for  a  longer  term  than  twenty  years.    Under  this  law  all  of 
our  street  railway  systems  have  been  built,  and  they  have  been  found 
to  be  extremely  profitable,  so  that  in  addition  to  large  annual  returns 
on  the  capital  invested,  especially  in  Chicago,  shares  that  had  origi- 
nally cost  less  than  $100  were  sold  in  the  market  for  $600.     During 
recent  years  there  have  been  great  changes  in  the  method  of  operat- 
ing these  roads,  by  the  substitution  of  electricity,  etc.,  by  which  the 
expense  of  operation  has  been  greatly  cheapened.    The  tendency,  by 
reason  of  this  cheapening  of  operation  everywhere,  has  been  toward  a 
reduction  in  fare.     In  many  cases  it  has  been  reduced  to  four  cents, 
and,  in  a  few  instances,  to  a  little  over  three  cents  in  America,  while  in 
some  of  the  cities  of  England,  where  the  municipalities  have  taken  the 
street  railways  and  are  operating  them,  the  fare  is  reduced  to  about  two 
cents  on  the  average,  and  it  is  found  that  the  railways  are  still  profit- 
able, because,  with  the  reduction  of  fare,  there  has  come  an  increase  of 
business.     Chicago  is  one  of  the  greatest  street  railway  cities  iri  the 
world.     The  business  is  no  longer  an  experiment  here,  but  an  over- 
whelming success.     And  if  the  inhabitants  of  any  city  in  the  world 
were  entitled  to  a  reduction  in  the  rate  of  fares,  Chicago  is  that  city. 
Fifteen  years  ago  the  roads  of  Chicago  sold  six  tickets  for  a  quarter, 
thus  making  almost  a  four  cent  fare,  and  although  the  business  has 
greatly  increased  and  the  expense  proportionately  lowered,  they  now 
demand  five  cents.     The  ordinances  or  franchises  under  which  most 
of  the  roads  in  this  city  were  built  will  expire  in  a  few  years.     They 
constitute  the  contract  between  the  companies  and  the  city,  and  under 
that  contract,  when  the  franchise  expires,  the  companies  have  no  more 
rights  on  the  street,  but  it  is  their  business  to  get  off.     Consequently, 
the  time  was  near  when  the  people  of  this  city  could  have  a  new  ad- 
justment, could  get  reasonable  fares  and  could  force  the  companies 
to  bear  their  share  of  the  burdens  of  government,  which  they  have 
not  done  so  far.     The  process  of  invention  and  of  cheapened  operating 
expenses  is  still  going  on,  everything  points  to  much  development 
vet  in  that  line. 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 


THE  ALLEN    BILL   A   GREAT   CRIME. 

It  is  clear  that  if  the  ordinances  or  franchises  were  to  be  extended 
under  existing  conditions  they  should  have  provided  for  a  great  re- 
duction in  fare,  and  the  extension  should  have  been  for  a  short  time. 
This  generation  has  no  right  to  sell  the  inheritance  of  coming  genera- 
tions. The  term  should  be  shorter  than  formerly,  as  the  roads  are 
already  built  and  in  existence,  and  do  not  involve  new  expenditure 
of  capital,  it  being  now  simply  a  question  for  the  owners  of  taking 
them  up  and  getting  off  the  streets  with  them,  or  of  continuing  their 
operation  under  a  new  arrangement.  Yet  notwithstanding  these  con- 
ditions, the  managers  of  the  street  railway  companies  got  the  present 
State  government  to  pass  what  has  been  called  "The  Allen  Bill,"  under 
which  bill  the  city  councils  are  authorized  to  extend  existing  fran- 
chises or  grant  new  ones  for  the  term  of  fifty  years,  and  under  which 
act  it  is  provided  that  the  rate  of  fare  shall  continue  to  be  five  cents 
for  each  passenger  for  the  first  twenty  years;  but  it  provides  no 
method  for  securing  a  reduction  of  fare  at  the  end  of  twenty  years. 
The  street  car  companies  will  thus  be  absolutely  independent.  You 
cannot  put  them  off  the  streets  and  grant  franchises  to  new  com- 
panies, for  their  charters  will  still  have  thirty  years  to  run.  They  will 
go  right  on  charging  five  cents,  and  you  will  be  perfectly  helpless. 
This  twenty-year  clause  was  manifestly  put  in  as  a  blind  for  the  pur- 
pose of  deception,  and  simply  adds  insult  to  injury.  For  practical 
purposes  this  bill  puts  a  rope  around  the  neck  of  this  city  for  all  time. 
But,  my  friends,  the  granting  of  a  franchise  for  even  twenty  years 
authorizing  a  five  cent  fare,  under  existing  conditions,  would  be  a 
crime.  It  would  simply  authorize  robbery  by  law  —  and,  robbery  is 
crime.  There  is  no  moral  difference  between  the  club  of  a  thug  and 
the  bribe  of  a  Pharisee,  except  the  latter  is  the  more  deadly. 

BOLD   AND    HIGH-HANDED    BRIBERY. 

It.  is  true  the  city  council  must  yet  act  in  order  to  complete  the 
crime  of  the  Allen  law,  but  the  owners  of  the  street  railways  have  so 
often  shown  themselves  to  be  willing  and  able  to  bribe  that  body  that 
the  case  of  the  people  seems  hopeless. 

While  this  measure,  as  well  as  the  gas  measure,  was  pending  in  the 
General  Assembly,  the  city  of  Chicago,  through  the  press  and  by  its 
citizens,  protested  against  the  passage  of  either  of  these  laws  and 
pointed  out  their  iniquity,  that  they  were  simply  measures  intended 
to  rob  the  city,  to  tie  the  hands  of  the  people  and  make  them  helpless 
for  all  time.  But  their  protests  were  in  vain.  By  means  of  the  most 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE  AND  NATION.       833 

bold,  high-handed,  brazen  and  gigantic  bribery  they  were  enacted 
into  laws.  The  methods  through  which  these  bills  were  passed  were 
of  such  a  character  that  no  honorable  man  would  be  willing  to  see 
even  the  Ten  Commandments  placed  on  the  statute  book  by  similar 

means. 

GEORGE    WASHINGTON. 

We  sometimes  hear  the  question  insolently  asked  by  men  with 
soiled  fingers,  "If  these  measures  were  corruptly  passed,  why  don't 
you  go  before  the  grand  jury  with  your  talk?"  This  question  betrays 
a  consciousness  of  guilt.  But  let  us  examine  it.  There  is  not  a  man 
here  that  ever  saw  George  Washington,  or  that  can  go  before  a  grand 
jury  and,  of  his  own  knowledge,  swear  that  he  lived,  yet  every  man 
and  woman  knows  that  George  Washington  did  live,  and  that  he  was 
a  great  character.  How  do  they  know  it?  They  know  it  through  a  mul- 
titude of  circumstances,  of  evidences  which  force  conviction.  So,  while 
there  are  perhaps  not  many  outside  men  who  saw  the  owners  of  the 
'street  railway  companies  give  out  vast  sums  of  money  for  the  purpose 
of  bribery,  or  who  saw  money  deposited  for  this  purpose  at  various 
places  in  Chicago,  or  who  were  present  and  saw  the  go-betweens 
actually  hand  the  money  to  public  officers,  or  who  saw  blocks  of  stocks 
nominally  transferred  and  put  up  with  the  understanding  that  after 
the  passage  of  a  certain  bill  such  stocks  were  to  be  purchased  back 
at  a  certain  advanced  price,  and  that  the  advance  in  such  stock  should 
go  to  certain  public  officials — while,  I  say,  there  are  probably  not 
many  outsiders  who  can  go  before  a  grand  jury  and  swear  to  definite 
acts,  yet  there  is  such  a  multitude  of  facts,  there  are  so  many  and  such 
conclusive  circumstances,  there  are  so  many  things  all  pointing  in 
the  same  way,  that  to-day  there  is  hardly  an  intelligent  man  in  the 
State  of  Illinois  but  what  feels  just  as  certain  that  the  passage  of 
these  acts  was  secured  by  wholesale  bribery,  and  is  a  stain  upon  our 
government,  and  a  stab  at  the  life  of  republican  institutions,  as  he  is 
that  George  Washington  lived. 

MACHINE    REPUBLICANS    SUDDENLY    BECOME    RICH. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  copy  of  the  Times-Herald  of  January  23, 
1898,  containing  pictures  of  a  large  and  expensive  residence  which 
the  Hon.  William  R.  Lorimer  was  building  in  one  of  the  finest  locali- 
ties on  the  West  Side,  and  also  of  a  whole  row  of  buildings  which  the 
Hon.  Thomas  N.  Jamicson  was  building  on  the  South  Side.  Both  of 
these  men  were  members  of  the  Republican  machine,  and  the  Times- 
Herald  points  out  that  each  had  until  recently  been  a  poor  man,  but 
that  in  the  summer  of  1897  each  had  suddenly  come  into  the  posses- 
53 


834  LIE   QUESTIONS. 

sion  of  a  large  fortune,  rated,  from  what  was  visible,  as  follows: 
Jamieson,  $200,000;  Lorimer,  $100,000.  Both  men  having  claimed  that 
they  had  made  it  by  gambling  in  wheat,  the  Times-Herald  shows  that 
this  was  not  so,  but  that  the  money  must  have  come  to  them  out  of 
transactions  at  Springfield,  during  the  'time  when  the  street  railways, 
the  gas  trust  and  the  elevator  people  were  running  the  State  govern- 
ment. This  was  the  time,  let  me  say,  when  many  members  of  the 
legislature  from  different  parts  of  the  State  suddenly  went  to  buying 
property,  and  otherwise  showed  that  they  had  all  at  once  become  pos- 
sessed of  large  sums  of  money. 

ARE   YOU    WILLING   TO    INDORSE   THIS? 

Lorimer  and  Jamieson  were  not  members  of  the  State  govern- 
ment; they  were  simply  members  of  the  machine  which  had  made  the 
State  government  and  worked  with  it.  There  were  other  members 
of  the  machine,  who,  no  doubt,  insisted  on  their  share.  Mr.  Hertz 
was  a  member,  and  if  anything  got  away  from  him  it  was  very  nimble. 
You  will  say  if  such  large  sums  could  be  made  by  outsiders  for  help- 
ing to  get  these  bills  through,  what  amounts  were  pocketed  by  the 
men  who  were  in  a  position  to  grant  or  stop  these  bills?  I  do  not 
know,  I  do  not  wish  to  know  the  details  of  a  transaction  that  depraves 
my  fellow-man  and  destroys  the  institutions  of  my  country.  I  am 
simply  calling  attention  to  general  conditions.  The  State  administra- 
tion is  seeking  an  indorsement.  Are  you  prepared  to  give  it?  Do 
you  want  the  State  administration  and  the  Republican  machine  to 
repeat  at  Springfield  in  1899  the  performances  of  1897?  For  the 
purpose  of  diverting  attention  from  the  crimes  of  his  administration 
the  governor  recently  went  to  Golconda  and  attacked  the  economy 
of  the  last  administration.  There  was  not  a  word  of  truth  in  his  whole 
harangue.  But  suppose  there  had  been,  would  that  change  the  char- 
acter of  his  acts? 

SOME    DEMOCRATS. 

The  question  is  asked,  "Did  not  some  Democrats  support  that 
legislation?"  Yes,  they  did;  but  outside  of  Chicago  nearly  every  otic 
of  them  has  been  repudiated  by  his  constituents,  and  the  Democratic 
party,  as  a  party,  has  taken  a  firm  stand  against  this  legislation,  while 
the  Republican  State  administration  stands  by  these  acts. 

CORRUPTIONISTS    CONTROL    REPUBLICAN    PARTY. 

The  difference  in  the  general  situation  being  this:  That  in  the 
Republican  party  the  corporations,  the  trusts  and  the  corrupt  men 
who  are  ready  to  sell  their  country  and  to  betray  the  people  are  at 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE  AND  NATION.       835 

the  top,  they  direct,  shape  and  guide  its  policy;  while  in  the  Demo- 
cratic party  just  the  opposite  is  true.  That  party  two  years  ago  made 
a  new  departure.  It  cut  loose  from  the  corporations  and  trusts  and 
the  corrupting  influences;  it  embarked  on  a  new  career,  and  while 
it  may  not  have  been  able  in  the  short  intervening  time  to  drive  out 
of  its  ranks  all  men  who  may  have  established  reputation  as  boodlers, 
still  they  are  not  controlling  it,  as  they  are  the  Republican  party. 

THE    LOCAL   TICKET. 

But,  says  some  one,  if  we  vote  to  disapprove,  it  means  the  election 
of  the  local  Democratic  ticket,  and  that  ticket  is  not  any  better  than 
the  Republican  ticket,  or  not  even  so  good.  I  will  only  say,  in  answer 
to  this,  that  I  know  the  Democratic  ticket  has  some  excellent  men 
on  it,  and  it  would  be  strange  if  a  ticket  containing  forty  or  fifty 
names  did  not  have  the  names  of  some  weak  men  on  it;  but  the  Demo- 
cratic ticket  would  have  to  rise  above  the  plane  of  genius  in  its  capacity 
for  wickedness  if  it  were  to  even  equal,  in  that  regard,  the  Republican 
ticket,  especially  when  you  consider  the  character  of  the  machine 
that  put  up  this  Republican  ticket,  and  which  will  control  it,  it  being 
the  same  machine  that  has  guided  Republican  affairs  in  this  State 
for  a  number  of  years. 

SCRATCH    THE    BOODLERS. 

Let  me  say,  however,  that  if  there  is  a  man  on  the  Democratic 
ticket  that  you  believe  to  be  a  boodler,  then  vote  against  that  man. 
The  Democratic  party  is  struggling  to  get  away  from  those  influences, 
and  to  get  onto  higher  ground,  and  it  will  not  thank  you  for  support- 
ing a  boodler,  even  if  he  has  wormed  himself  onto  our  ticket.  But 
be  sure  you  are  right  before  thus  branding  a  man. 

DESTROYING    OUR    INSTITUTIONS. 

But  the  question  as  to  who  is  elected  to  the  local  offices  is  one 
of  small  importance,  when  compared  with  the  principle  involved  here. 
It  matters  little  whether  the  local  officer  is  a  Republican  or  a  Demo- 
crat, when  compared  with  the  selling  of  legislation  and  the  destruction 
of  republican  government,  for  I  need  not  tell  you  that  a  condition 
in  which  the  passage  of  good  laws  is  prevented  by  bribery  and  the 
passage  of  bad  laws  is  secured  by  bribery  means  the  death  of  free 
institutions.  No  republic  can  last  under  these  conditions.  Let  me 
say  to  the  Republicans,  we  are  all  proud  of  Chicago;  every  man  feels 
his  heart  swell  when  he  goes  away  from  home  and  is  able  to  tell  the 
world  that  he  lives  in  Chicago.  Here  is  where  you  are  spending  your 


836  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

active  days;  here  is  where  you  are  rearing  your  families;  here  is  where 
your  children  will  probably  live,  and  by  reason  of  this  corrupt  legis- 
lation you,  during  your  lifetime,  your  children  during  their  lives,  will 
be  the  victims  of  extortion  by  both  the  gas  company  and  the  street 
railway  companies. 

A    LIVING    PICTURE. 

Board  one  of  our  street  cars  in  the  evening  when  nearly  one  hun- 
dred thousand  women  and  girls  come  from  the  shops  and  stores  and 
start  home — most  of  them  get  from  $2  to  $4.50  a  week,  work  long 
hours,  board  themselves,  have  a  constant  struggle  with  poverty,  every 
penny  costing  them  blood — and  when  you  see  them  hold  onto  the 
straps  of  the  car,  see  their  thin  hands  and  their  worn  faces,  and  reflect 
that  a  corrupt  State  government  has  sold  to  the  criminal  owners  of 
the  street  railways  of  the  city  the  privilege  of  practicing  extortion 
upon  these  unfortunate  beings  as  long  as  they  live,  then  tell  me,  can 
you  go  into  the  booth  and  stamp  this  infamy  with  your  approval? 

GOVERNOR    COULD    HAVE    STOPPED   THESE   BILLS. 

Do  not  forget  that  while  these  iniquitous  laws  were  passed  by  the 
Legislature,  they  were  advocated,  were  favored  and  finally  approved 
by  the  governor.  A  governor  who  could  have  protected  this  city 
against  this  criminal  outrage  if  he  had  been  so  disposed.  All  of  these 
bills  were  passed  by  a  Republican  legislature  in  1895  and  were  vetoed. 
A  determined  effort  was  made  to  pass  them  over  the  veto,  but  it  failed. 
It  is  in  the  power  of  the  governor  to  prevent  legislation  that  will  en- 
able respectable  scoundrels  to  plunder  the  people,  if  he  will  only  ex- 
ercise it. 

CORRUPTION  IS  DEATH. 

"But,"  says  some  one,  "does  not  corruption  in  the  end  destroy 
all  who  are  parties  to  it,  and  will  it  not  bring  its  own  punishment?" 
There  is  no  doubt  about  this.  Not  only  do  both  bribe-givers  and 
bribe-takers  rot  down,  but  their  innocent  families  are  destroyed  by  the 
leprosy  that  comes  from  tainted  dollars.  The  same  law  which  rots_ 
down  the  weak  sneak  thief  sooner  or  later  overtakes  his  brainier 
brother.  But  this  does  not  right  wrong,  nor  does  it  restore  stolen 

goods. 

FEDERAL  ADMINISTRATION. 

THE    DINGLEY    BILL. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  the  federal  administration.  In  the  campaign 
of  '96  the  trusts  and  the  great  concentration  of  capital  in  this  country 
raised  an  enormous  fund  for  the  purpose  of  debauching  American 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE  AND  NATION.       837 

citizens  and  carrying  the  election  by  improper  methods.  As  soon 
as  President  McKinley  was  inaugurated  the  different  interests  which 
had  contributed  this  fund  demanded  that  they  be  given  an  opportunity 
to  collect  it  back,  together  with  an  enormous  profit.  Congress  was 
at  once  convened,  and,  although  in  session  many  months,  it  did  no 
business  except  to  enact  the  Dingley  law.  Ostensibly  it  was  for  the 
protection  of  the  laborer  and  to  furnish  money  for  the  treasury,  but 
it  did  neither  of  these  things,  and  in  reality  it  was  for  the  benefit  of 
monopolies  only.  The  famous  McKinley  law,  then  barely  dead,  had 
during  its  life  not  raised  the  wages  of  any  laborer  in  this  country, 
and  had  for  the  year  ending  July,  1894,  produced  a  deficit  in  the  treas- 
ury of  $70,000,000.  This  was  caused  by  placing  duties  so  high  as 
to  stop  importations  of  certain  articles.  The  treasury  naturally  got 
nothing,  while  the  advanced  price  of  goods,  which  the  people  had  to 
pay,  went  into  the  chests  of  the  monopolies.  The  Dingley  law  was 
constructed  on  the  same  principles,  and  the  deficit  in  the  national 
treasury  under  this  law  promises  to  be  fully  equal  to  that  under  the 
McKinley  law,  nor  has  it  raised  the  wages  of  any  laborers:  but  it  has 
created  conditions  by  which  the  American  people  are  being  compelled 
to  pay  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars,  not  into  the  federal  treasury, 
but  into  the  coffers  of  private  corporations. 

THE    SUGAR    TRUST. 

One  illustration  answers  for  all.  The  great  sugar  trust  had,  and 
has,  control  of  the  sugar  business  and  market  of  this  country.  It  is 
reputed  to  have  given  over  $1,000,000  campaign  funds  in  1896,  so 
in  framing  the  Dingley  law  the  sugar  trust  was  given  such  a  tariff 
as  it  wanted.  The  result  of  this  was  that  the  price  of  sugar  went  up 
25  per  cent.;  sugar,  that  the  laboring  man  formerly  got  for  4  cents 
a  pound,  was  at  once  marked  up  to  5  cents;  instead  of  getting  25 
pounds  for  $i,  he  got  20;  and  during  the  first  year  after  this  Dingley 
law  went  into  effect  the  sugar  trust  cleared  over  $20,000,000,  over  and 
above  what  it  could  have  made  under  the  former  tax.  Not  a  cent  of 
this  went  into  the  federal  treasury,  but  it  all  came  out  of  the  pockets 
of  the  people.  The  trust  not  only  got  back  the  million  it  had  given, 
but  it  got  nearly  $20,000,000  besides.  Almost  the  same  state  of  facts 
exists  witli  relation  to  the  leather  trust  and  a  great  number  of  other 
trusts  and  combinations.  Nothing  done  for  the  laborer,  but  every- 
thing for  the  manipulator.  Home  labor  is  driven  out  by  pauper  labor 
brought  over  in  shiploads,  but  the  trust  is  protected.  Gentlemen,  do 
you  believe  in  using  the  powers  of  government  to  enable  a  few  men 
in  that  manner  to  make  fortunes  off  of  the  masses  of  our  people? 


838  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

COMMERCE    AND    MERCHANT    MARINE. 

We  should  have  a  mighty  commerce  with  every  nation  in  the 
world,  but  this  Republican  tariff,  which  practically  closes  our  ports  to 
these  nations,  makes  this  impossible.  Earlier  in  our  history,  under 
Democratic  policies,  we  were  a  nation  of  ship  builders  and  ship  owners. 
American  ships  covered  the  seas,  and  our  commerce  was  next  to  that 
of  Great  Britain.  But  the  Republican  shipping  and  navigation  laws, 
passed  in  the  interest  of  a  few  home  corporations,  destroyed  this 
commerce  and  this  shipping  and  made  ship  building  and  ship  owning 
in  this  country  almost  an  impossibility.  But  for  these  destructive 
tariff  and  shipping  laws  our  commerce  and  shipping  would  be  ten 
times  that  of  England.  Shall  we  not  restore  these  interests? 

GOLD  STANDARD, 

THE   WORST    CURSE   OF    ALL 

Again,  two  years  ago  the  Republicans  declared,  in  their  conven- 
tion, that  they  would  sustain  the  gold  standard  only  until  they  could 
get  an  international  agreement  restoring  bimetallism,  and  they 
pledged  themselves  to  do  everything  in  their  power  to  secure  such  an 
agreement.  During  the  campaign  we  charged  that  this  pledge  was 
not  made  in  good  faith,  that  they  were  really  under  control  of  foreign 
and  Eastern  manipulators,  and  that  that  pledge  was  simply  intended 
to  deceive,  and  in  that  way  secure  the  votes  of  conscientious  Repub- 
licans who  felt  that  the  gold  standard  was  a  curse  to  this  country. 
We  pointed  out  that  the  demonetization  of  silver  had  resulted  in  lower- 
ing the  general  level  of  the  price  of  property  nearly  50  per  cent.;  that 
the  total  amount  of  money  in  circulation  in  the  world  determined  the 
demand  for  property  and  thus  fixed  the  general  level  of  all  prices, 
while  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  would  again  raise  or  lower  the 
price  of  any  particular  article  above  or  below  this  general  level;  that 
the  lowering  of  this  general  level  had  destroyed  the  purchasing 
power  of  our  farmers  and  of  the  great  producing  classes,  and  had  thus 
paralyzed  our  industries,  destroyed  our  trade  and  caused  widespread 
bankruptcy,  suffering  and  distress  throughout  the  civilized  world, 
and  that,  until  the  general  level  of  prices  was  again  raised  to  what  it 
was  during  the  existence  of  the  bimetallic  stan4ard,  we  could  not 
again  have  prosperity ;  that  a  low  standard  of  values  always  falls  hard 
on  the  poor  and  always  gives  the  manipulator  an  advantage ;  it  breaks 
manhood  and  cheapens  character,  and  inasmuch  as  the  debts,  interest 
and  taxes  and  the  great  burdens  that  were  weighing  our  people  down 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE  AND  NATION.       839 

were  not  reduced  in  size,  but  required  just  as  many  dollars  to  liqui- 
date them  as  was  formerly  necessary,  that  it  was  a  crime  to  maintain 
a  system  which  made  each  dollar  twice  as  hard  to  get  as  it  formerly 
was,  and  we  claimed  that  if  silver  were  restored  to  the  place  that  it 
had  occupied  for  hundreds  of  years,  it  would  again  raise  the  general 
leve.l  of  prices  of  property  and  enable  our  people  to  discharge  their 
burdens  and  to  buy  freely  and  again  inaugurate  an  era  of  prosperity, 
industry  and  happiness. 

LUCKY    ACCIDENTS. 

A  whole  chapter  of  accidents  followed  the  election  of  '96,  all 
favorable  to  the  Republicans.  First,  the  great  drought  and  conse- 
quent failure  of  crops  on  three  continents,  resulting  in  a  terrible 
famine,  temporarily  raised  the  price  of  wheat  far  above  the  general 
level,  and  thus  helped  those  farmers  that  had  not  yet  sold  their  crops; 
and  second,  the  same  drought  caused  the  loss  of  about  60,000,000  head 
of  sheep  in  Australia  and  the  surrounding  islands,  which  fact  raised 
the  price  of  sheep  and  the  price  of  wool  throughout  the  world;  and 
third,  came  war,  which  usually  creates  more  or  less  activity  in  com- 
mercial circles.  Astonishing  as  it  may  seem,  the  Republicans  attri- 
buted all  these  things  to  their  tariff  law.  But  these  accidents  have 
spent  their  force;  wheat  is  again  approaching  the  5o-cent  line,  the 
general  level  of  prices  is  about  where  it  was  two  years  ago,  and  is 
showing  a  constant  tendency  to  sink  still  lower,  because,  while  the 
population  of  the  earth  is  increasing  and  demands  more  and  more 
money,  the  annual  addition  to  the  world's  stock  of  money  is  not 
increasing  in  proportion.  In  consequence  of  the  general  downward 
tendency  of  prices  no  man  feels  safe  to  embark  in  new  enterprises,  and 
the  money  that  we  have  in  the  country  is  collecting  at  the  centers, 
like  blood  congesting  the  heart,  and  is  not  circulating  in  the  extrem- 
ities. 

NO    PROSPERITY— PLENTY    OF    STRIKES. 

Instead  of  the  restoration  of  prosperity,  as  we  were  promised,  we 
find  that  only  those  classes  who  in  one  manner  or  another  devour 
the  substance  of  other  men's  toil  are  prospering,  while  the  great 
masses  of  our  people  find  themselves  in  as  much  distress  as  ever. 
While  the  brokers  and  speculators,  the  manipulators  who  have  abso- 
lute control  of  certain  markets  and  can  force  the  people  to  pay  any 
price  they  may  ask,  are  talking  about  prosperity,  we  find  that  there 
have  recently  been,  and  so  far  as  I  am  advised  are  yet  in  progress, 
seventeen  great  strikes  in  industrial  centers  of  this  country  all  on 
account  of  wages,  in  nearly  all  cases  reductions  having  been  made, 


840  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

a  reduction,  too,  from  what  were  already  starvation  wages.  In  the 
great  wood  working  town  of  Oshkosh,  in  Wisconsin,  where  a  strike 
lasted  so  long  and  was  of  so  fierce  a  character  that  the  military  had 
to  be  sent  there  to  maintain  order,  an  inquiry  developed  the  fact  that 
skilled  workmen  that  used  to  get  $2.50  a  day  were  getting  only  $1.25 
a  day,  working  ten  hours,  and  day  laborers  were  getting  only  80  cents 
a  day ;  men  30  and  40  years  of  age,  in  the  prime  of  life,  with  families  to 
support,  were  working  ten  hours  and  getting  80  cents.  At  Pana,  in 
Illinois,  we  have  for  months  had  a  strike  among  the  coal  miners,  be- 
cause the  mine  operators  insisted  on  reducing  wages  below  a  starvation 
point,  declaring  that  they  could  not  otherwise  run  their  mines.  And 
they  are  now  driving  the  white  men  off  and  filling  their  places  with 
negroes  brought  from  Alabama. 

This  is  Republican  prosperity. 

In  almost  every  industrial  center  in  this  country  we  find  a  similar 
condition,  and  only  recently  Mark  Hanna's  manager,  speaking  of 
the  condition  of  the  coal  miners  in  Ohio  and  West  Virginia,  stated 
that  their  companies  were  going  to  reduce  wages  and  that  he  antici- 
pated a  long  and  serious  strike  in  consequence. 

BANK   CLEARINGS. 

We  are  told  that  the  large  bank  clearances  show  prosperity.  Yet 
the  total  bank  clearances  of  all  the  banks  of  New  York  for  the  year 
1897  were  only  $31,337,760,948.  They  lacked  $6,069,268,039  of  being 
as  large  as  they  were  in  the  year  1869,  when  they  amounted  to  $37,- 
407,028,987.  And  the  average  total  daily  clearances  of  all  the  banks 
of  New  York  lacked  $18,016,444  of  being  as  large  during  the  year 
1897  as  they  were  during  1869.  During  these  twenty-nine  years  the 
population  has  fully  doubled.  The  business  of  1897  should  have  been 
twice  as  large  as  that  of  1869,  but  instead  it  was  much  smaller.  In 
fact,  a  large  portion  of  the  clearances  for  1897  represented  simply 
stock  gambling  and  not  legitimate  business.  In  1869  operations  of 
this  kind  were  not  large.  If  you  deduct  these  gambling  operations 
for  the  year  1897,  it  shows  that  the  legitimate  business  done  that  year 
was  not  one-third  as  large  as  it  should  have  been. 

REPUBLICAN    BAD    FAITH. 

While  all  these  conditions  exist,  and  while  everything  points  to 
the  fact  that  they  must  continue  to  exi_st  so  long  as  we  maintain  the 
low  prices  that  result  from  the  gold  standard,  the  federal  administra- 
tion has  been  doing  everything  in  its  power  to  more  firmly  establish 
this  gold  standard.  It  has  thrown  off  the  mask  which  the  St.  Louis 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE  AND  NATION.       841 

convention  had  put  on,  and  bent  all  of  its  efforts  toward  making  the 
gold  standard,  with  its  low  prices,  its  paralysis  and  suffering,  a  per- 
manent thing.  Even  while  the  commission  which  Mr.  McKinley  had 
appointed  to  go  abroad  and  ostensibly  labor  in  behalf  of  an  inter- 
national agreement  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  the  president 
of  the  commission  found  that  the  administration  at  home  was  under- 
mining his  efforts  and  doing  all  it  could  to  prevent  the  accomplishment 
of  anything  looking  toward  an  international  agreement.  So  com- 
pletely is  this  administration  guided  and  directed  by  the  moneyed  in- 
fluences that  are  profiting  by  the  maintenance  of  this  gold  standard 
and  this  condition  of  paralysis  and  suffering  among  our  people  that 
many  of  the  leaders  of  that  party  now  openly  declare  that  the  talk 
about  securing  international  agreement  in  the  St.  Louis  platform  was 
a  mere  blind  and  that  inasmuch  as  it  has  served  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  intended — that  is,  fooling  the  people — they  will  give  it  no 
further  attention.  On  this  point,  gentlemen,  the  question  arises, 
"Do  you  approve  of  the  want  of  good  faith  shown  in  this  matter? 
Do  you  approve  of  the  determined  effort  to  fasten  this  blight  upon  us?" 

THE    BOND    ISSUE. 

Again,  when  war  against  'Spain  had  been  declared,  it  became  nec- 
essary to  raise  revenues  for  that  purpose,  and  although  it  was  un- 
necessary to  issue  bonds,  the  administration  would  listen  to  nothing 
else,  because  those  men  and  those  interests  which  had  supported  it, 
and  were  supporting  it  in  the  East,  clamored  for  more  bonds.  They 
wanted  opportunities  to  make  money  by  handling  the  bonds  of  the 
government,  and  $200,000,000  of  bonds  have  been  sold,  although  it 
now  turns  out  that  the  total  expense  of  the  war  is  only  about  $150,- 
000,000,  and  more  than  'this  sum  has  been  raised  out  of  the  other 
methods  which  Congress  provided  for  raising  revenue. 

EXEMPTING    CORPORATIONS    FROM    WAR    TAXES. 

Further,  the  bill  which  provided  for  direct  taxation  for  the  pur- 
pose of  raising  more  revenue  was  so  constructed  that  most  of  the 
great  corporations  escaped  their  share  of  the  burden.  You  send  a 
telegram,  and  you  have  to  pay  the  revenue  tax  on  it — not  the  corpora- 
tions; you  send  a  package  by  express  and  you  find  that  the  corpora- 
tion refuses  to  pay  the  revenue.  If  you  want  that  package  to  go, 
you  have  to  pay  it.  Here  again,  gentlemen,  do  you  approve,  do  you 
think  it  good  governmental  policy  to  be  constantly  issuing  bonds  for 
the  accommodation  and  enrichment  of  brokers  and  speculators  at 
the  expense  of  our  people,  and  do  you  believe  that  it  is  right  that 


842  'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

capital  should  be   exempt  from  taxes  and  should  not  contribute  its 
share  to  the  maintenance  of  the  government? 

HISTORY    OF   ALGER. 

Now,  let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at  a  bit  of  history.  During  the 
civil  war  formal  charges  were  filed  against  Lieut.  Russell  A.  Alger, 
alleging  that  he  had  absented  himself  without  leave  during  a  battle 
and  praying  that  he  be  court  martialed  and  dismissed  from  the  army. 
These  charges  were  signed,  among  others,  by  Gen.  Wesley  E.  Merritt. 
But  Mr.  Alger  had  political  influence  and  he  managed  to  get  per- 
mission to  resign  from  the  army  instead  of  being  dismissed  in  dis- 
grace. Mr.  Alger  went  back  to  Michigan  and  amassed  a  great  for- 
tune, by  means  which  we  will  not  inquire  into,  although  it  is  said  that 
the  stumps  on  the  government  lands  could  tell  strange  tales  if  sum- 
moned before  a  grand  jury. 

SHERMAN'S  CHARGES. 

Several  years  ago  Senator  John  Sherman,  a  great  Republican 
authority,  wrote  a  book,  in  which  book  he  charges  this  Mr.  Alger 
with  being  a  corruptionist,  charges  him  with  the  crime  of  corrupting 
Republican  delegates  who  had  been  chosen  to  go  to  a  national  con- 
vention. He  thus  charges  him  with  being  a  man  who  by  corrupt 
means  interfered  with  the  natural  and  proper  workings  of  republican 
government,  and  doing  things  which  tend  to  destroy  republican  in- 
stitutions. 

HELPED    HANNA. 

Well,  in  the  spring  of  1896  this  Mr.  Alger  joined  hands  with 
Marcus  Aurelius  Hanna  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  who  has  impressed  him- 
self upon  the  American  people  as  being  the  greatest  debaucher  of 
American  manhood  and  citizenship,  and  as  having  done  more  to 
undermine  and  destroy  free  institutions  in  this  country  than  any  other 
man.  Mr.  Alger  thus  assisted  in  bringing  about  the  nomination  of 
William  McKinley.  How  much  money  he  spent  in  doing  this,  and 
whom  he  debauched  I  do  not  know.  Mr.  Sherman  is  silent 
upon  that  subject.  But  after  Mr.  McKinley  was  inaugurated, 
then,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  American  people,  he,  as 
a  matter  of  gratitude  and  favoritism  to  the  man  who  had  helped 
him,  appointed  this  Mr.  Alger  to  the  head  of  the  war  department — 
that  department  in  which  were  supposed  to  be  on  file  charges  signed 
by  some  of  the  most  prominent  officers  in  the  army,  to  the  effect  that 
this  Mr.  Alger,  although  the  favorite  of  the  President,  was  not  the 
man  to  handle  military  affairs.  Let  us  halt  a  moment  here.  With 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE  AND  NATION.       843 

your  permission  we  will  digress  and  talk  of  a  pleasanter  subject  for  a 

moment. 

REGENERATED    DEMOCRACY. 

Two  years  ago  our  great  party  adopted  a  new  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence. It  cut  loose  from  the  forces  that  were  degrading  it — 
that  were  robbing  it  of  its  mission.  It  devoted  itself  anew  to  the 
service  of  mankind,  to  the  elevation  of  humanity.  Since  then  it  has 
demonstrated  that  a  resolute,  compact  minority  party  with  high  aim 
and  lofty  purposes  can  frequently  accomplish  more  for  the  welfare 
of  the  human  race  than  a  majority  party;  that  while  a  majority  party 
has  to  busy  itself  with  patronage,  favoritism  and  compromises  to  keep 
its  supporters  together,  the  minority  party  can  keep  its  face  to  the 
sun,  constantly  holding  its  hand  on  the  sword  of  justice. 

GLORIES    ACHIEVED. 

I  want  here  to  congratulate  the  Democracy  of  America  upon  the 
fact  that  since  its  release  two  years  ago  from  the  paralyzing  influences 
that  had  controlled  it,  it  has  already  made  an  achievement  that  will 
forever  gild  the  close  of  this  century  with  glory.  It  has  driven  that 
tyranny,  that  robbery,  that  assassination,  which  for  centuries  has 
darkened  our  skies  near  our  borders,  forever  off  the  Western  hemis- 
phere. It  has  rescued  suffering  millions;  it  has  lifted  the  standards 
of  justice.  It  has  opened  a  career  for  countries  which  have  tasted 
nothing  but  the  curse  of  oppression  for  centuries.  It  has  done  more; 
it  has  put  in  practice,  and  thus  enforced  recognition  of  a  new  principle 
of  international  law,  and  that  is,  that  no  government  has  the  right  to 
rob  and  murder  its  citizens,  and  that  wherever  it  does  so,  it  is  the 
duty  of  other  governments  to  interfere  and  protect  the  people.  This 
principle  marks  a  new  advent  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  has  a 
meaning  for  the  coming  millions  of  the  earth  that  only  the  eye  of  the 
Omniscient  can  measure.  Should  the  regenerated  Democracy  never 
accomplish  anything  more,  this  one  achievement  will  cover  its  memory 
with  glory. 

BLIGHT    OF    CLEVELANDISM. 

For  had  the  forces  which  formerly  controlled  our.  party  not 
been  overthrown,  had  Cleveland  and  his  corrupt  Pharisees  not  been 
repudiated,  the  hand  of  the  assassin  would  still  be  striking  down 
women  and  children,  and  vultures  would  still  be  devouring  the  flesh 
of  murdered  patriots  in  Cuba.  You  ask  why  the  Democracy  is  en- 
titled to  this  glory.  I  answer,  look  back  one  year,  read  only  your 
Republican  newspapers,  and  you  will  see  that  the  new  Democracy, 


844  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

assisted  by  a  few  Republicans  who  yet  had  courage  enough  left  to 
say  that  they  possessed  convictions  and  dared  to  assert  them,  com- 
pelled the  present  administration  to  declare  war  against  Spain. 

OUR    PARTY    SAVED    CUBA. 

Those  men  who  controlled  the  present  administration  were 
unitedly  opposed  to  having  the  government  do  anything.  They 
stoutly  insisted  that  the  interests  of  some  bondholders  were  of 
far  more  importance  than  the  lives  of  several  million  men,  or  the 
suffering  of  whole  generations.  As  it  was  the  Jeffersonian  De- 
mocracy that  illuminated  the  beginning  of  this  century,  so  it  is  this 
same  Jeffersonian  Democracy  that  has  immortalized  the  close  of  this 

century. 

EFFECT    OF    WAR. 

This  war  will  increase  our  influence  and  broaden  our  activities. 
We  will  connect  the  two  oceans  with  a  canal,  we  will  gradually  acquire 
harbors  and  coaling  stations  all  over  the  earth,  and  the  new  Demo- 
cracy will  cover  the  seas  with  our  merchant  marine.  Our  country 
will  in  time  extend  from  the  Pole  to  the  Gulf,  and  will  include  the 
West  India  islands,  not  through  force,  but  through  natural  growth 
and  development.  Ours  will  be  the  great  republic  of  the  earth,  the 
supreme  mistress  of  the  Western  hemisphere.  We  will  mold  the  des- 
tiny of  nations  by  our  moral  and  commercial  influences.  This  will 
involve  no  increased  army  nor  a  colonial  system.  Further,  the  Philip- 
pine islands  will  acquire  their  independence  and  occupy  close  rela- 
tions with  us.  But  we  must  steer  clear  of  a  corrupt  colonial  system, 
such  as  would  grow  up  in  an  attempt  to  govern  eight  or  ten  millions 
of  people  on  another  hemisphere.  Just  imagine  the  spectacle  of  turn- 
ing loose  on  the  innocent  Filipinos  the  crowd  that  looted  Illinois 
a  year  and  a  half  ago. 

THE  CHICAGO  PLATFORM. 

THE    CORRECT   POSITION. 

I  further  congratulate  the  Democracy  upon  the  fact  that  every  day 
since  1896  has  demonstrated  the  justice  and  the  wisdom  of  the  high 
position  then  taken,  not  simply  on  the  money  question,  but  upon  all 
the  other  great  questions.  The  money  question  lies  at  the  base  of 
our  distress,  and  must  be  righted  before  we  can  again  prosper.  We 
must  and  will  restore  the  dollar  of  the  fathers.  The  gold  standard  :s 
a  disastrous  failure  in  every  country  that  has  recently  tried  to  estab- 
lish it.  It  has  utterly  ruined  India,  and  recently  the  bankers  and 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE  AND  NATION.       845 

brokers  and  gold  standard  writers  of  London  have  united  in  a  protest 
against  any  further  attempt  to  establish  the  gold  standard  in  India, 
declaring  that  it  has  not  only  ruined  India,  but  that  it  would  produce 
a  panic  in  London,  because  there  is  not  enough  gold  for  the  purpose. 
In  England  and  in  the  German  empire  the  agricultural  interests  are 
paralyzed,  and  a  parliamentary  inquiry  as  to  England  has  shown  that 
this  condition  is  due  to  the  gold  standard,  and  in  both  of  these  great 
countries  there  is  now  a  powerful  movement  for  the  re-establishment 
of  bimetallism.  This  question  is  arousing  the  world,  and  will  continue 
to  do  so  until  it  is  settled  right. 

MISSION    OF    DEMOCRACY. 

So  with  the  question  of  corruption,  of  corporation  rule,  of  usur- 
pation by  federal  courts,  etc.  The  intelligence,  the  patriotism  and 
the  manhood  of  the  country  are  with  us.  The  scribbling  by  handy 
hired  men  is  still  against  us,  but  is  losing  its  influence.  The  regener- 
ated Democracy  will  take  no  backward  step.  It  has  a  great  mission, 
and  under  the  peerless  Bryan  will  perform  it.  It  stands  for  higher 
ideals,  stands  for  a  higher  justice,  stands  for  a  new  era,  stands  for  a 
new  republic. 

ARMY  AND  NAVY  SCANDALS. 

SAMPSON  AND   PRIZE   MONEY. 

Let  us  now  resume  our  narrative,  and  go  over  to  the  navy  depart- 
ment. There  are  some  antiquated  laws  still  on  our  statute  books 
which  once  had  a  reason  for  their  existence,  but  have  not  now,  al- 
though they  are  yet  in  force,  and  which  provide  that  the  different 
naval  commanders  shall  get  a  share  of  the  prize  money  which  arises 
from  'the  capture  and  condemnation  of  vessels  or  cargoes  of  the  enemy. 
The  amount  which  each  gets  depends  on  the  position  he  holds  and  the 
part  played  by  his  vessel  or  fleet  in  the  capture — the  commander  get- 
ting one-twentieth,  whether  present  or  not;  whereas  if  actually  present 
and  participating  in  the  capture  he  gets  a  greater  per  cent.  Now, 
there  was  a  captain  in  the  navy  named  Sampson,  who  seemed  to  be  a 
special  favorite  of  President  McKinley.  He  had  never  fought  a  battle; 
he  had  done  nothing  to  especially  distinguish  himself,  and  he  did 
not  stand  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  captains,  yet  the  President  took 
this  man  and  jumped  him — that  is,  advanced  him — not  only  over  a 
number  of  captains  who  were  his  seniors,  but  jumped  him  over  a 
commodore  and  appointed  him  acting  rear  admiral,  for  no  other  ap- 
parent reason  than  that  as  a  matter  of  favoritism  he  wanted  to  give 
this  man  a  chance  to  make  a  fortune  out  of  the  prizes  which  the  fleets 


846  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

might  capture,  and  it  is  estimated  that  this  man  Sampson  will  get 
over  one-fourth  of  a  million  of  dollars  of  prize  money,  by  reason  of 
the  advancement  which  the  President  gave  him.  There  were  in  the 
navy  at  that  time  not  only  a  number  of  captains  who  had  shown 
great  ability  and  gallant  service,  but  there  was  Commodore  Schley, 
who  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  civil  war,  who  had  distinguished 
himself  in  the  Arctic  seas,  who  is  regarded  by  the  world  as  one  of  the 
ablest  living  commanders,  and  yet  the  President,  as  an  act  of  favor- 
itism, was  willing  to  endanger  the  fortunes  of  the  navy,  willing  to 
put  a  slight  upon  its  experienced  and  able  commanders,  by  advancing 
this  favorite  of  his  over  them  all.  And,  unfortunately,  when  the  first 
opportunity  arose  for  Captain  Sampson  to  show  the  American  people 
what  kind  of  clay  he  was  made  X)f,  he  made  a  bad  impression,  he  put 
himself  in  the  light  of  wanting  to  claim  for  himself  the  glory  of  destroy- 
ing Cervera's  fleet,  which  was  solely  due  to  Commodore  Schley.  His 
conduct  on  this  occasion  has  forced  the  conviction  upon  the  American 
people  that  he  is  not  a  great  enough  man  to  command  the  American 

navy. 

APPOINTING   FAVORITES. 

Now,  we  will  sfo  back  to  the  war  department.  As  soon  as  the  war 
was  declared,  that  class  of  people  who  had  opposed  it  to  their  utter- 
most rushed  to  the  front  with  fierce  determination  to  get  all  the  money 
and  all  the  advantage,  and  all  the  offices  that  were  to  be  had.  In 
every  war  the  matter  of  furnishing  supplies  to  an  army  is  of  the  great- 
est importance,  for  upon  it  depends  not  only  the  comfort,  the  health 
and  the  fighting  qualities,  but  the  lives  of  the  men,  and  instead  of 
appointing  to  the  places  in  the  quartermaster's  department  and  in  the 
commissary  department  and  in  the  medical  department  ex- 
perienced and  capable  men,  the  President  filled  these  de- 
partments with  dudes  and  incompetent  sons  of  rich  or  influen- 
tial fathers.  It  was  a  pure  question  of  favoritism  from  beginning  to 
end.  The  appointment  of  the  Secretary  of  War  had  been  a  question  of 
favoritism,  using  the  great  department  of  the  government  to  favor 
a  man  to  whom  he  was  under  obligation,  and  now  the  welfare  of  the 
army  and  the  interests  of  the  American  republic  were  again  lowered  to 
the  plane  of  favoritism.  The  great  Republican  journals  at  that  time 
published  the  official  acts  of  the  government  from  day  to  day.  Go 
and  re-read  them.  They  are  full  of  meaning  now. 

PATRIOTISM   OF   OUR    PEOPLE. 

The  American  people  rose  to  the  heights  of  lofty  patriotism. 
Party  lines  were  obliterated;  sectional  differences  were  overlooked. 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE  AND  NATION.       847 

Divisions  of  sentiment  that  had  existed  for  one  hundred  years  all  dis- 
appeared. In  one  grand  offering  the  nation  arose  and  gave  its 
noblest  sons  to  the  service  of  the  country.  They  went  forth  in  vigor, 
with  high  hopes,  and  noble  resolve.  They  showed  the  world  how  the 
children  of  a  republic  will  rally  around  the  altars  of  their  country.  In 
all  over  two  hundred  thousand  men  entered  the  service  as  volunteers; 
only  a  few  of  them  ever  reached  foreign  soil;  the  great  majority  of 
them  never  left  the  United  States;  they  were  in  camp  in  various  sec- 
tions of  the  Union,  right  in  their  own  country,  surrounded  by  friends, 
where  there  was  no  enemy,  where  there  were  railroads,  and  where 
everything  that  is  necessary  for  the  health  or  the  comfort  of  man, 
when  he  is  well,  or  when  he  is  sick,  could  easily  and  quickly  be  fur- 
nished, and  yet  in  every  one  of  these  camps  they  found  themselves 
the  victims  of  neglect  and  incompetency. 

SUFFERING    SOLDIERS. 

There  is  not  time  to  give  the  experience  of  those  who  were  well 
and  were  forced  to  go  hungry,  and  I  can  only  glance  at  the  treatment 
of  the  sick.  Recently  the  Chicago  Tribune  published  an  abstract 
of  a  report  made  to  the  surgeon  general  of  the  army  by  one  of  the 
most  prominent  surgeons  in  this  country,  relating  to  the  hospital  at 
Camp  Thomas,  Chickamauga.  First,  "in  a  hospital  having  more  than 
500  patients  there  was  for  weeks  only  one  drug  clerk  on  duty  at  a 
time.  Oftentimes  prescriptions  written  at  eight  in  the  morning  were 
not  filled  till  late  in  the  evening,  and  the  men  lay  there  all  that  time, 
neglected  and  suffering."  Second,  "there  was  an  utter  absence  of 
everything  necessary  for  the  care  of  the  sick."  Third,  "at  no  time  was 
there  sufficient  tent  room  to  make  the  sick  at  all  comfortable,  for 
they  had  to  be  crowded  together,  like  sardines  in  a  box,  with  their 
heads  against  the  tents."  Fourth,  "the  cots  were  so  crowded  that 
there  was  no  room  to  stand  between  them,  and  the  physicians  and 
nurses  were  obliged  to  reach  the  men  from  the  foot  of  the  cot."  Fifth, 
"at  no  time  were  there  sufficient  cots  to  furnish  each  man  with  a  com- 
fortable bed.  Every  hour  of  the  day,  and  every  day,  men  were  obliged 
to  lie  either  on  the  ground  or  on  the  litter  on  which  they  were  brought 
to  the  hospital.  Men  were  often  obliged  to  remain  in  the  dirty  camp 
clothing  for  hours,  and  in  some  instances  longer  than  days,  for  the 
want  of  anything  to  cover  them  with,  except  their  blankets."  This 
surgeon  adds,  "that  the  conditions  were  a  blight  on  the  fair  name  of 
our  rich  and  glorious  government." 


LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

A  STAFF    OFFICER    OUSTED. 

A  staff  officer  on  the  ground  supplements  the  above  with  still  fur- 
ther details.  First,  "a  man  of  the  Fifth  Missouri,  sick  with  the 
measles,  was  permitted  to  lie  on  the  ground  without  proper  attention 
till  he  died."  Second,  "one  man  had  died  and  his  body  was  permitted 
to  remain  for  nearly  thirty-six  hours  in  close  proximity  to  the  sick." 
Third,  "another  man  had  been  neglected  and  had  lain  in  filth  so 
long  that  he  became  fly-blown  and  his  body  was  covered  with  maggots 
for  hours  before  death  came  to  his  relief."  Fourth,  "that  during  the 
rainy  season  there  were  no  floors  in  the  hospital  tents,  and  that  sick 
soldiers  were  compelled  to  stand  with  bare  feet  upon  the  damp  ground  - 
while  their  beds  were  being  changed."  Fifth,  "that  disinfectants  were, 
for  many  weeks,  not  to  be  had  at  all,  or  in  such  limited  quantities  as 
to  be  almost  useless."  Sixth,  "that  owing  to  the  frightful  condition 
of  the  hospitals  hundreds  of  sick  soldiers  remained  on  duty  in  the 
ranks  until  they  fell  by  the  wayside  unconscious."  Seventh,  "that 
nearly  all  the  proper  remedies  and  delicacies  for  the  sick  were  fur- 
nished for  many  weeks  by  the  Red  Cross  Society  and  by  private  sub- 
scriptions." Eighth,  "that  frequently  the  physicians  in  charge  sent 
their  prescriptions  to  the  drugstores  at  Lytle  and  Chattanooga  be- 
cause the  most  ordinary  and  useful  drugs  could  not  be  had  at  the 
division  hospitals."  This  staff  officer  then  closes  by  saying  that  just 
as  soon  as  the  military  embargo  is  removed  from  the  lips  of  the  officers 
and  soldiers,  facts  more  terrible  than  any  yet  mentioned  will  be 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  world. 

This,  my  friends,  all  relates  to  the  question  of  one  camp,  not  in 
the  enemy's  country,  but  in  the  heart  of  our  own  country  and  within 
reach  of  everything  that  the  markets  of  America  could  supply.  Let 
me  add  that  from  every  other  camp  comes  the  same  chapter  of  neg- 
lect, starvation  and  consequent  sickness,  suffering  and  death.  Thou- 
sands have  been  unnecessarily  forced  into  premature  graves,  and  tens 
of  thousands  have  their  health  permanently  broken  and  are  mere 
wrecks  of  a  former  manhood,  \vhilc  the  brave  men  who  are  returning 
from  Cuba  after  winning  a  glorious  victory,  tell  a  story  of  neglect, 
starvation  and  suffering  that  chills  one's  blood. 

FOUR    SCENES. 

j 
Reflect  for  a  moment,  my  friends,  upon  these  conditions.     First, 

there  is  the  scene  of  a  great  people  patriotically  bringing  to  the  altars 
of  their  country  their  best  blood,  men  and  treasure  in  profusion,  all 
for  the  glory  of  the  republic.  Then  comes  the  scene  of  a  chief  execu- 


CRIMES  AGAINST  STATE   AND  NATION.       849 

tive  placing  the  lives  of  several  hundred  thousand  soldiers,  and  even 
the  glory  of  our  country,  in  the  hands  of  inexperienced  and  utterly 
incompetent  young  men  who  were  appointed  to  positions  of  trust 
as  a  matter  of  favoritism  to  please  wealthy  or  influential  friends. 
Third,  comes  the  scene  of  suffering  and  death  growing  out  of  this 
incompetence  and  consequent  neglect. 

HANNA    BOBS    UP    AGAIN. 

Fourth,  and  now  comes  Mark  Hanna  from  his  cowardly  hiding 
place  and  charges  that  bananas  and  soda  water  ruined  our  soldiers. 
This  man,  who  is  largely  responsible  for  the  suffering  of  our  armies, 
now  comes  forward  and  insults  our  patriots  by  telling  them  they  had 
not  sense  enough  to  take  care  of  themselves.  There  is  something 
humiliating  in  all  these  things.  Gladly  would  our  people  have  con- 
cealed them  from  the  world.  But  the  Republican  machine  and  the 
people  who  are  responsible  for  these  horrors  have  the  insolence  to 
demand  an  indorsement.  This  being  so,  let  me  ask  you  now,  citizens 
of  Chicago,  do  you  approve  of  these  things? 

DO    YOU    APPROVE? 

A  vote  for  the  Republican  ticket  means  approval.  We  know  that 
that  whole  class  of  men  who  have  received  favors  of  either  administra- 
tion will  shut  their  eyes  to  any  facts  and  blindly  give  support.  We 
know,  too,  that  a  few  men  who  may  call  themselves  Democrats,  but 
who  are  never  happy  except  when  servilely  basking  in  the  smiles  of 
rich  Republicans,  or  who  either  have  received  or  are  expecting  to 
receive  favors  at  the  hands  of  the  administration,  will  support  it.  We 
know  that  the  whole  horde  of  men  who  are  making  fortunes  out  of  the 
government  will  support  it,  and  that  that  whole  class  of  our  citizens 
who  make  such  pretension  to  patriotism,  but  who  are  always  ready  to 
sell  their  country  or  betray  their  race  for  pelf  or  for  political  prefer- 
ment, will  support  it. 

MEMORY    OF    LINCOLN. 

But  there  is  yet  in  this  land  a  host  of  men  who  reverence  the  mem- 
ory of  Lincoln,  and  who  believe  in  his  precepts,  and  who  believe  that 
government  should  be  conducted  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  and  not 
for  the  benefit  of  favorites,  and  to  these  men  I  appeal.  I  ask,  are  you 
ready  to  go  into  the  booth  on  election  day  and  send  word  to  the  gov- 
ernment at  Springfield  that  you  approve  its  course  in  selling  legisla- 
tion? Are  you  prepared  to  say  to  the  federal  administration  that  you 
approve  of  the  policy  of  legislating  solely  in  the  interests  of  capital 


850  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

and  of  the  schemers  and  speculators  of  this  country — that  you  ap- 
prove of  the  policy  of  making  the  paralysis  and  the  suffering  and  the 
distress  which  result  from  the  gold  standard  permanent  in  our  coun- 
try— that  you  approve  of  the  policy  of  making  the  common  people 
bear  the  burdens  of  this  war  and  relieve  the  great  corporations  of 
their  share  of  the  burdens?  Are  you  prepared  to  say  that  you  ap- 
prove of  using  the  navy  of  this  nation  for  the  purpose  of  either  en- 
riching or  helping  favorites?  You,  my  Republican  friends,  whose 
sons  went  proudly  into  this  war,  and  either  have  not  returned,  or,  if 
they  have  returned,  have  the  seeds  of  permanent  disease  in  their  sys- 
tems, are  you  prepared  to  go  into  the  booths,  Mid  there,  with  no  one 
present  except  God  and  the  specter  of  your  dead  or  injured  boys,  send 
word  though  your  ballots  to  the  federal  administration  that  you  ap- 
prove of  the  acts  of  trifling  with  the  welfare  and  the  lives  of  American 
patriots,  for  the  purpose  of  doing  a  favor  to  incompetent  men  who 
happen  to  have  political  influence?  I  do  not  ask  you  to  join  the 
Democratic  party.  I  do  not  ask  you  to  join  the  silver-Republican, 
or  the  People's  party.  I  do  not  even  ask  you  to  leave  your  own  party. 
It  is  hard  to  sever  the  associations  of  a  lifetime  and  face  the  sneers  of 
thoughtless  or  shallow  acquaintances — but  I  do  ask  you  to  be  men, 
and  to  act  the  part  of  men.  And  when  you  are  convinced  that  a  cer- 
tain policy  or  course  of  conduct  is  wrong,  I  do  ask  you  to  show  suffi- 
cient moral  courage  to  vote  against  that  wrong. 

CAUTION   TO    DEMOCRATS. 

A  word  to  the  Democrats:  Do  not  waste  a  moment  trying  to 
make  converts.  The  patriotism  and  the  intelligence  of  the  country 
are  with  you.  The  great  majority  of  our  people  are  disgusted  with 
existing  conditions.  The  Republican  machine  managers  know  this, 
and  their  hope  of  success  lies  in  a  repetition  of  the  frauds  and  crimes 
at  the  polls  that  were  committed  two  years  ago.  They  know  that 
there  are  between  three  and  four  thousand  voting  precincts  in  the 
State,  there  being  over  twelve  hundred  in  Cook  county.  They  know 
that  in  a  large  per  cent,  of  these  it  is  possible  to  get  false  registration 
and  false  returns  by  paying  for  them;  that  with  money  enough  they 
can  by  these  methods  overcome  any  majority  which  the  people  may 
cast  against  them.  They  know  that  here  in  Chicago  many  of  the 
judges  and  clerks  of  election  seek  these  positions  for  the  purpose 
of  making  some  money  by  selling  out,  and  these  machine  men  hope 
that  with  the  aid  of  the  corruption  fund  they  are  collecting  in  this 
State,  added  to  what  they  will  get  from  the  trusts,  they  can  defy  and 
defeat  the  majority  of  the  people.  The  corporations  will  give  them 


REPLY.  TO  PROF.  LAUGH  UN.  851 

all  the  money  they  want,  for  they  expect  more  favors,  and  if  too  much 
of  it  does  not  stick  to  the  pockets  of  the  managers,  they  can  buy  the 
State.  Out  over  the  State  you  hear  labored  efforts  to  talk  patriotism, 
but  they  are  only  for  the  purpose  of  diverting  attention.  Here  in 
Cook  county  a  member  of  this  machine,  who  is  a  candidate  for  Con- 
gress, has  been  giving  some  Punch  and  Judy  shows,  prostituting  the 
flag,  and  lowering  the  dignity  of  the  high  office  for  which  he  is  a  can- 
didate, not  to  make  votes,  but  to  divert  attention.  Let  me  say  to 
you,  head  off  frauds  at  the  polls  and  you  are  already  elected,  and  unless 
you  do  this,  a  campaign  is  useless.  The  election  criminals  are  neither 
Republicans  nor  Democrats — they  are  neither  men  nor  women — like 
grave  robbers,  they  are  ghouls,  and  a  penitentiary  cell  is  their  fit 
habitation.  Let  them  understand  that  the  least  trifling  will  send 
them  there,  and  victory  is  yours. 


REPLY  TO  PROF.  LAUGHLIN  ON  THE  BANKING  BILL. 

Prof.  Laughlin's  article  in  The  Record  replying  to  my  article  on 
the  McCleary  bank  bill  is  remarkable  for  some  things  it  says — more 
remarkable  for  things  it  omits  and  thus  concedes,  and  is  astonishing 
for  its  perversions. 

He  says  the  McCleary  bill  "follows  the  recommendations  of  the 
monetary  commission  appointed  by  the  non-partisan  business  men 
of  the  country."  By  this  he  evidently  means  the  Indianapolis  con- 
vention, composed  of  self-appointed  and  for  the  most  part  unknown 
delegates,  who  represented  nobody  but  themselves  and  posed  as  be- 
ing "non-partisan."  This  term  has  been  greatly  abused.  In  recent 
years,  when  some  schemers  without  any  following  wanted  to  get  office 
or  to  foist  something  on  the  public  they  started  a  non-partisan  move- 
ment. This  disarmed  criticism  and  prevented  scrutiny,  and  in  nearly 
every  case  these  movements  have  been  so  disappointing  that  the  term 
"non-partisan"  has  become  almost  synonymous  with  hypocrisy  and 
fraud. 

But  that  Indianapolis  convention  was  not  even  honestly  non-par- 
tisan. There  was  not  a  man  in  it  that  belongs  to  the  great  Demo- 
cratic party.  Nine-tenths  of  the  men  in  that  convention  supported 
McKinley,  and  the  other  one-tenth  allowed  themselves  to  be  used 
as  decoy  ducks — used  as  mere  wooden  blocks  set  in  the  water  to  de- 
ceive such  Democrats  as  might  be  floating  in  the  air  and  were  unwill- 
ing to  fly  over  to  the  McKinley  blind. 


852  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

If  the  professor  is  right  in  regard  to  the  parentage  of  this  bill,  then 
the  bill  can  have  no  pride  of  ancestry. 

2.  There  is  a  class  of  $5  lawyers  and  advocates  who,  when  they 
find  that  the  facts  are  all  against  them,  resort  to  a  loud  and  coarse 
abuse  of  the  opposing  counsel.     Some  of  the  professor's  friends  must 
have  been  surprised  to  see  him  place  himself  in  this  class,  because 
the  clients  for  whom  he  so  incessantly  talks,  in  season  and  out  of 
season,  are  rich  and  can  afford  to  pay  more.     The  insolence  and  coarse 
charge  of  ignorance,  etc.,  contained  in  the  article  must  satisfy  any  fair 
man  that  the  professor  had  just  had  an  altercation  with  his  conscience. 

3.  The  professor  says:     "While  being  just  to  the  banks  the  Mc- 
Cleary  bill  is  framed  in  the  interest  of  the  borrowers  among  the  people 
and  of  the  innocent  holders  of  notes,  and  not  in  the  interest  of  the 
banks,  large  or  small.     *     *     *     In  short,  the  McCleary  bill  favors 
the  borrower  as  against  the  banks,  the  small  banker  against  the  large 
banker  of  the  cities."     Hear  this,  O  Israel !     A  new  era  is  upon  us. 
The  morning  stars  are  getting  up  a  new  song.     We  have  Prof.  Laugh- 
lin's  word  for  it.     In  all  the  past  the  moneyed  interests  have  con- 
trolled government  to  their  own  advantage.     In  all  the  past  the  strong 
have   devoured  the   weak.     In   our   country   the  great   banks   have 
shaped  the  policy  of  our  government  entirely  in  their  own  interest. 
But  now  all  is  to  be  changed.     For  years  they  have  wanted  a  new 
law.     They  have  toiled,  they  have  spent  vast  sums  of  money,  they 
have  practiced  corruption  right  and  left,  and  all  this  for  the  beneficent 
purpose  of  getting  a  law  that  shall  favor  the  borrower  as  against  the 
banks,  and  the  small  banks  as  against  the  big  ones.     The  present 
Congress  is  a  corporation  Congress — it  is  absolutely  controlled  by 
the  great  banks  and  trusts — and   through   this  Congress   the  great 
banks  are  going  to  revolutionize  all  the  past — going  to  reverse  the 
present — going  to  give  up  all  the  advantage  they  now  have  and  hand 
the  borrower  their  purse. 

Reader,  do  you  ask  why,  if  this  is  such  a  good  measure,  the  Re- 
publicans did  not  pass  it  and  thus  make  themselves  so  popular  with 
the  people  that  they  could  have  remained  in  power  for  a  century? 
Candidly,  I  do  not  know.  Speaker  Reed  could  have  passed  it  through 
the  house  in  an  hour.  But  they  were  afraid.  They  feared  that  the 
American  people  might  rise  up  and  destroy  them  for  placing  upon  the 
statute  books  such  a  beneficent  measure.  So  they  simply  put  it  on  the 
calendar  ready  for  passage  and  then  adjourned  without  saying  a  word 
about  it. 

Do  you  ask  why  the  Republican  leaders  are  not  now  explaining  to 
the  country  what  a  great  blessing  they  are  about  to  confer  upon  it 


REPLY   TO   PROF.   LAUGH  LIN.  853 

and  thus  insure  success  at  the  election?  Candidly,  I  do  not  know. 
The  fact  is  they  have  maintained  an  organized  silence  about  it.  Not 
one  has  mentioned  it.  Mr.  McCleary,  the  reputed  father  of  this  bill, 
went  to  the  Omaha  monetary  discussion  on  purpose  to  discuss  the 
general  subject  of  paper  money,  but  he  never  referred  to  this  bill.  He 
was  asked  twenty-six  specific  questions  about  it  and  he  declined  to 
answer  every  one  of  them.  Nothing  is  to  be  said  before  election,  and 
then  it  is  to  be  rushed  through.  Do  you  say  this  determined  silence 
looks  suspicious?  Yes,  it  shows  there  is  something  they  wish  to  con- 
ceal from  the  American  people  and  this  alone  should  defeat  the  bill. 
The  fact  is  the  idea  that  this  bill  is  got  up  for  the  special  interest  of  the 
small  banks,  the  borrowers  and  the  common  people  generally  is  too 
absurd  to  be  discussed.  There  is  not  a  line  in  the  bill  that  supports 
this  talk. 

Let  us  give  a  few  of  the  provisions  of  the  bill,  in  order  to  make  the 
subsequent  discussion  plainer: 

1 .  It  creates  a  bureau  in  the  national  treasury  to  be  known  as  the 
division  of  issue  and  redemption,  and  it  places  a  board  of  three  comp- 
trollers in  charge  of  it.     Each  member  is  to  hold  office  for  twelve 
years,  and  to  be  removable  only  on  specific  charges,  tried  by  the 
Senate.    As  the  comptrollers  in  the  past  have  always  been  mere  con- 
veniences for  the  great  banks,  the  evident  purpose  now  is  to  get  them- 
selves so  established  in  the  treasury  department  that  no  change  of 
administration  can  affect  their  power  or  control.    This  division  is  to 
have  absolute  control  of  the  issuing  and  redemption  of  money  by  the 
treasury  department,  and  is  to  redeem  silver  dollars  in  gold. 

2.  The  bill  provides  for  issuing  three  kinds  of  notes  by  the  gov- 
ernment to  banks — "national  reserve  notes,"  "national  bank  notes" 
and  "national  currency  notes."    A  bank  can  present  to  this  division 
an  amount  of  United  States  notes  or  greenbacks  equal  to  its  paid-up 
capital  and  receive  in  return  an  equal  amount  of  national  reserve  notes. 
These  national  reserve  notes  are  to  circulate  as  money,  and  are  a 
legal  tender  for  most  purposes,  and  by  accepting  them  the  banks  agree 
to  redeem  them  or  pay  them  in  gold  whenever  presented,  but  the  bill 
provides  that  they  are  ultimately  to  be  paid  by  the  government.    The 
United  States  notes  or  greenbacks  given  to  the  treasury  in  lieu  of 
these  reserve  notes  are  to  be  canceled,  and  thus  wiped  out. 

Having  gone  thus  far,  the  bank  can  deposit  with  this  division  of 
the  treasury  an  amount  of  United  States  bonds  equal  to  its  paid-up 
capital  and  the  national  reserve  notes  it  has  taken,  and  shall  receive 
from  the  treasury  an  amount  of  national  bank  notes  to  the  full  par 
value  of  the  bonds,  instead  of  90  per  cent,  as  at  present.  These  na- 


854  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

tional  bank  notes  are  substantially  of  the  character  of  the  national  bank 
notes  now  in  circulation,  and  their  redemption  is  secured  by  the  United 
States  bonds  deposited. 

After  having  taken  these  two  steps,  then  the  bank  may  issue  notes 
against  its  capital.  The  bill  says:  "That  any  national  banking  asso- 
ciation having  deposited  in  the  treasury  of  the  United  States  United 
States  notes  and  received  in  exchange  therefor  national  reserve  notes 
shall  be  entitled  to  receive  and  issue  in  addition  thereto  an  amount  of 
national  currency  notes  equal  to  the  amount  of  national  reserve  notes 
received,  as  aforesaid,  provided,  however,  that  the  amount  of  national 
currency  notes  shall  not  exceed  the  amount  of  its  national  bank  notes 
outstanding,  and  provided  further  that  the  notes  thus  issued  shall  not 
exceed  40  per  cent,  of  the  paid-up  and  unimpaired  capital  of  the  bank, 
but  an  additional  amount  of  national  currency  notes  may  be  issued, 
subject  to  the  tax  on  circulation  provided  in  Section  29,''  etc. 

It  will  be  seen  that  one  clause  authorizes  the  issuing  of  national 
bank  notes  to  the  full  amount  of  the  paid-up  capital  and  the  par 
value  of  the  bonds  deposited,  and  under  another  clause  the  bank  can 
issue  currency  notes  to  the  full  amount  of  the  national  reserve  notes 
it  has  taken  out — that  is,  to  the  full  amount  of  its  capital;  but  still 
another  clause  in  the  same  section  provides  that  in  no  case  shall  the 
sum  of  the  bank  notes  and  currency  notes  exceed  the  amount  of  the 
paid-up  and  unimpaired  capital.  This  seems  to  conflict  with  the  other 
two  provisions  relating  to  the  amount  of  notes  that  can  be  issued. 
The  two  other  clauses  named  are  specific  and  clear;  this  clause  is  not. 

The  currency  notes  are  made  a  paramount  lien  upon  all  the  assets 
of  the  bank  issuing  them.  In  addition  to  this,  each  bank  issuing 
currency  notes  is  to  deposit  an  amount  in  gold  in  the  treasury  equal 
to  5  per  cent,  of  the  currency  notes  issued  by  it,  to  constitute  a  guar- 
anty fund  for  the  ultimate  payment  of  all  such  currency  notes;  and 
when  any  bank  fails  to  redeem  its  currency  notes  they  are  paid  out  of 
this  guaranty  fund.  Thus  to  a  certain  extent  the  banks  guarantee 
the  payment  of  each  other's  currency  notes,  and  the  amount  taken 
out  of  this  fund  for  the  payment  of  such  notes  shall  be  made  good 
out  of  the  assets  of  any  defaulting  bank,  in  preference  to  any  and  all 
other  claims  whatsoever,  excepting  the' costs  of  administration.  In  oth- 
er words,  the  deposits  or  other  assets  of  a  bank  shall  be  first  used 
toward  paying  off  or  making  good  the  currency  notes,  so  that  even 
if  the  depositors  do  not  get  a  cent  in  return  for  their  deposits,  the  cur- 
rency notes  issued  by  the  bank  will  still  be  good.  While  the  govern- 
ment does  not  specifically  guarantee  their  payment,  it  makes  such  pro- 
visions as  will  insure  their  payment. 


REPLY   TO   PROF.   LAUGH  LIN.  855 

The  bill  next  provides  that  the  country  shall  be  divided  into  clear- 
ing-house districts,  and  every  bank  issuing  notes  shall  have  an  agent — 
that  is,  some  other  bank — in  each  clearing-house  district,  which  shall 
redeem  or  pay  such  notes  and  take  them  up  on  presentation. 

I  stated  in  my  article  that  while  each  country  bank  was  expected 
to  be  prepared  and  must  be  prepared  to  take  up  its  notes  as  they 
are  presented  in  the  ordinary  course  of  business,  yet  that  no  bank 
would  be  safe  for  a  day  if  there  were  a  number  of  banks  especially 
appointed  to  take  up  its  notes,  which  could  present  a  large  amount 
of  notes  at  any  moment  and  demand  payment,  and  which  would  be  al- 
most certain  to  make  such  presentation  in  times  of  depression  or  when 
there  was  a  demand  for  gold,  and  therefore  it  would  be  impossible  for 
country  banks  long  to  do  a  legitimate  business  under  this  bill.  Prof. 
Laughlin  takes  exception  to  this  and  says  that  I  am  arguing  in  favor 
of  the  banker  as  against  the  innocent  holder  of  the  bank  notes,  and 
then  he  lifts  his  hands  and  weeps  over  the  condition  of  the  innocent 
holder  of  the  bank  notes,  and  he  says':  "No  poor  man  should  ever 
be  unable  to  fill  his  dinner  pail  because  a  bank  was  permitted  to  put 
out  notes  which  might  depreciate  in  the  laborer's  hands  before  he 
could  get  to  the  grocery."  Why  the  professor  indulges  in  this  lamen1 
tation,  unless  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  diversion  and  deception,  it  is 
difficult  to  comprehend.  As  already  shown  under  the  provisions  of 
the  bill  the  government  makes  the  notes  which  the  bank  issues  ab- 
solutely good.  First,  the  government  itself  agrees  to  pay  in  gold 
the  reserve  notes  of  the  bank.  The  United  States  bonds  deposited 
make  the  national  bank  notes  good;  to  make  the  currency  notes  good 
the  guaranty  fund  kept  in  the  United  States  treasury  is  to  be  used, 
and  in  addition  the  entire  assets  of  the  bank,  to  the  exclusion  of  even 
the  depositor,  are  to  be  used,  so  far  as  necessary,  for  this  purpose. 
The  noteholder  is  absolutely  protected  against  any  possible  loss,  but 
the  depositor  has  no  protection  whatever.  Now,  if  the  professor 
ever  read  the  bill  he  knew  this  was  so,  and  he  knew  that  all  his  talk 
about  the  poor  laborer  losing  because  he  held  one  of  the  bank  notes 
was  a  cheap  effort  at  deception — was  a  trick  which,  while  in  perfect 
harmony  with  everything  which  the  gold  standard  people  say  and 
do  relating  to  this  money  question,  was  unworthy  of  a  man  holding 
a  high  position  in  one  of  the  great  universities  of  the  land.  If  he 
never  had  read  the  bill,  then  he  should  not  have  been  quite  so  glib 
in  charging  other  people  with  ignorance. 

It  is  amazing  to  note  what  a  great  convenience  "the  poor  laborer" 
and  "the  widows  and  orphans"  have  been  in  recent  years  to  those 


856  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

interests  which  use  the  government  to  enable  them  to  devour  the  fruits 
of  other  men's  toil. 

I  stated  in  my  article  that  under  this  bill  all  the  greenbacks  or 
United  States  notes  and  treasury  notes  would  be  canceled,  and  ulti- 
mately the  government  would  have  to  issue  bonds  or  interest-bear- 
ing paper  that  would  not  circulate  as  money  in  their  stead,  thus  in- 
creasing the  annual  burden  of  the  American  people  without  getting 
anything  in  return.  Prof.  Laughlin  says  that  this  shows  inexcusable 
ignorance,  and  is  the  opposite  of  the  truth;  that  under  the  McCleary 
bill  the  greenbacks  will  be  retired  without  reducing  the  volume  of 
money  and  without  issuing  any  bonds  whatever;  that  the  govern- 
ment will  take  in  the  greenbacks  by  issuing  an  equivalent  sum  of 
national-reserve  notes,  which  it  pledges  the  national  banks,  who  re- 
ceive them,  to  be  ready  to  redeem  in  gold.  Here  the  professor  stops. 
There  is  another  line  and  a  half  in  the  paragraph  from  which  he  quotes, 
and  in  that  line  and  a  half  it  is  provided  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States  shall  ultimately  pay  these  national-reserve  notes  in  gold. 
That  is,  in  the  first  instance  the  holder  of  a  note  will  present  it  to 
the  bank  and  get  gold,  but  ultimately  the  note  will  be  presented  to 
•the  United  States,  and  the  United  States  must  pay  it  in  gold.  Why 
did  the  professor  omit  this  line  and  a  half?  Has  his  work  for  the 
gold  standard  people  so  trained  his  mind  that  he  unconsciously  tries 
to  make  a  false  impression,  or  did  he  do  this  deliberately? 

At  present  the  treasury  issues  bonds,  gets  gold  and  redeems  green- 
backs. Under  the  new  bill  the  treasury  issues  reserve  notes  to  banks 
in  exchange  for  greenbacks,  which  it  cancels  and  thus  wipes  out,  and 
then  the  reserve  notes  are  ultimately  to  be  paid  by  the  government  in 
gold.  Where  is  the  government  to  get  this  gold? 

Section  4  of  the  bill  provides:  "That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  maintain  the  gold  reserve  in  the  division 
of  issue  and  redemption  at  such  sum  as  shall  secure  the  certain  and 
immediate  payment  of  all  notes  and  exchange  of  all  silver  dollars  pre- 
sented, as  herein  provided  for,  and  for  this  purpose  he  may  from  time 
to  time  transfer  to  the  division  of  issue  and  redemption  any  funds 
in  the  treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated  in  excess  of  an  actual  cash 
balance  of  $50,000,000,  and  in  addition  thereto  he  is  hereby  authorized 
to  issue  and  sell  for  gold,  whenever  it  is  in  his  judgment  necessary 
to  the  ends  aforesaid  and  for  no  other  purpose,  certificates  of  indebt- 
edness of  the  United  States,  bearing  interest  at  a  rate  not  exceeding 
3  per  centum  per  annum,  payable  in  gold  coin  at  the  end  of  five 
years,  but  redeemable  in  gold  coin  at  the  option  of  the  United  States 


REPLY  TO  PROF.  LAUGH  LIN.  857 

after  one  year,  and  the  proceeds  of  all  such  sales  shall  be  paid  into 
the  division  of  issue  and  redemption  for  the  purpose  aforesaid." 

Will  the  professor  explain  what  is  the  ultimate  difference  between 
issuing  bonds  to  get  gold  with  which  to  redeem  United  States  notes 
and  having  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  issue  certificates  payable 
in  gold  and  bearing  3  per  cent,  interest  for  the  purpose  of  getting  gold 
with  which  to  pay  reserve  notes  that  have  been  issued  in  exchange  for 
greenbacks?  The  former  method  has  the  merit  at  least  of  being  direct. 
The  latter  is  circuitous  and  has  about  it  an  element  of  hoodwinking. 

Further,  under  the  law  as  it  now  stands,  the  treasury  need  not 
redeem  United  States  notes  in  gold,  but  can  exercise  its  option  to  re- 
deem them  in  silver,  and  this  option  was  exercised  by  the  treasury  de- 
partment until  the  year  1891,  when,  under  the  administration  of  Presi- 
dent Harrison,  while  Mr.  Foster  was  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the 
government  for  the  first  time  decided  to  waive  its  rights  in  the  matter 
and  pay  the  greenbacks  in  gold.  The  bankers  understood  that  under 
the  law  greenbacks  could  be  redeemed  in  silver,  and  from  the  year  1879 
to  Jan.  i,  1891,  only  about  $34,000,000  of  greenbacks  were  presented 
for  payment,  an  average  of  a  little  over  $2,500,000  per  year.  But  after 
the  bankers  got  the  government  to  redeem  greenbacks  in  gold  $351,- 
000,000  were  presented  for  payment  in  four  years.  This  McCleary  bill 
destroys  the  option  which  the  law  gives  the  government  in  the  prem- 
ises and  makes  everything  redeemable  in  gold,  even  silver  dollars,  and 
it  provides  for  getting  gold  into  the  treasury  by  practically  the  same 
methods  that  have  been  employed  in  the  past — that  is,  by  issuing  in- 
terest-bearing paper  payable  in  gold,  thus  increasing  the  debt  of  the 
country  and  the  annual  burden  of  the  people. 

I  stated  in  my  article  to  which  Prof.  Laughlin  made  a  reply  that 
under  the  McCleary  bill  the  banks  could  issue  their  notes  and  then 
could  call  in  their  notes,  at  pleasure;  that  in  this  way  they  could  in- 
crease the  volume  of  money  in  the  country,  and  reduce  the  volume  of 
money  in  the  country,  and  could  thus  raise  prices  and  lower  prices; 
could,  whenever  it  suited  their  purpose,  in  fact,  produce  a  panic.  Prof. 
Laughlin  says  that  this  is  not  so,  and  that  such  talk  proves  entire  ig- 
norance of  the  nature  and  operation  of  a  bank.  Why  he  claims  that 
they  could  not  do  this  passes  all  comprehension,  for  the  bill  expressly 
gives  them  power  to  call  in  their  notes  or  to  issue  them.  This  certainly 
must  affect  the  volume  of  currency  in  circulation.  Whether  you  call 
them  money  or  call  them  merely  bank  credits  is  immaterial.  He  now 
says  that  this  "could  not  affect  prices,  for  prices  are  fixed  by  com- 
paring goods  with  a  standard,  like  gold.  If  the  standard  is  low- 
ered, of  course  prices  will  be  lowered.''  Then  he  says:  "But  increas- 


858  LIVE  'QUESTIONS. 

ing  the  media  of  exchange  will  not  raise  prices;  increasing  bank  notes 
will  not  raise  prices,  any  more  than  increasing  bank  checks."  These 
are  remarkable  statements  when  we  consider  their  source. 

The  professor  has  talked  on  this  subject  before.  Not  being  willing 
to  keep  his  knowledge  under  a  bushel  he  gave  to  the  world  a  book, 
over  ten  years  ago,  in  which  he  enlightened  mankind  on  this  subject, 
and  on  page  153  of  that  book,  in  discussing  credits,  he  says: 

"To  any  one  who  can  get  credit,  it  is  purchasing  power.  The 
amount  of  goods  a  man  can  purchase  is  represented  not  only  by  the 
sum  of  money  he  has,  but  by  his  money  together  with  his  credit.  An 
increased  demand  increases  prices,  and  as  an  increased  use  of  credit 
increases  demand,  an  increased  use  of  credit  raises  prices.  Credit, 
therefore,  can  influence  prices  as  much  as  the  offer  of  money.  *  *  * 
In  short,  an  increase  of  credit  affects  prices  in  the  same  way  as  an 
increase  of  money." 

Now,  in  this  instance,  the  bank  notes  stand  on  a  higher  plane  than 
mere  bank  credits,  and  if  the  increase  or  extension  of  credits  to  indi- 
viduals on  a  bank's  books  has  the  same  effect  on  prices  that  money 
has,  it  follows  that  an  increase  of  the  number  of  the  bank's  notes  in  the 
pockets  of  the  people  must  also  have  this  effect;  because,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  notes  are  so  protected  by  the  government  as  to  make  them 
absolutely  good,  while  the  bank  credits  might  not  continue  to  be  good. 
Has  the  professor  changed  his  mind  during  the  last  ten  years,  or 
does  his  last  article  simply  show  nimbleness  in  shifting  position  when 
exigency  requires  it? 

Again,  on  Dec.  6,  1894,  the  professor  delivered  an  address  before 
the  Sunset  club  in  which  he  said:  "The  government  should  not  issue 
notes  because  it  puts  it  in  the  dangerous  position  of  influencing  and 
controlling  prices  and  the  money  market."  If  government  notes  in- 
fluence and  control  prices  and  the  money  market,  will  not  bank  notes 
which  are  protected  by  the  government  do  the  same  ? 

The  idea  that  the  great  or  speculative  banks  of  the  country  might 
abuse  the  power,  if  they  had  it,  of  increasing  their  issues  or  credits  and 
raising  prices,  then  contracting  their  issues  or  credits  and  lowering 
prices,  thus  producing  depression  and  occasionally  a  panic,  he  scouts 
as  the  height  of  absurdity.  He  says  "as  well  might  sailors  at  sea  burn 
the  ship  that  carries  them."  This  sounds  plausible,  but  we  are  not 
left  to  theory.  The  world  has  had  experience  in  this  matter  and  that 
experience  has  cost  it  very  dearly.  The  banking  power  has,  during 
our  whole  history,  tried  to  control  legislation,  and  for  its  purposes  has 
repeatedly  given  the  country  what  it  called  an  object  lesson,  to  show 
its  power,  and  for  the  purpose  of  frightening  and  coercing  Congress 


REPLY  TO  PROF.  LAUGH  LIN.  859 

has  repeatedly  contracted  its  notes  and  its  credits  and  produced  not 
only  a  depression  but  an  actual  panic.  Of  the  large  number  of  in- 
stances that  should  be  cited  I  have  space  for  only  a  few. 

Prof.  Sumner,  in  his  "History  of  American  Currency,"  says: 

"In  1832  the  national  bank  petitioned  for  a  renewal  of  its  charter. 
The  bill  passed  both  houses  and  was  vetoed  by  the  President.  It  being 
now  evident  that  the  bank  must  expire  unless  some  influence  could  be 
brought  to  bear  to  change  the  President  or  win  two-thirds  of  Con- 
gress, a  violent  warfare  was  begun  by  the  bank.  It  is  certain  that 
the  bank  paid  no  more  heed  to  the  laws  of  the  State  than  it  did  to  the 
laws  of  prudence  or  of  banking  science,  and  that  they  paid  very  little 
heed  to  either.  The  motion  to  sell  out  the  public  shares  in  the  bank 
was  lost,  through  the  influence  of  the  bank,  which,  as  they  afterward 
discovered,  had  a  large  number  of  debtors,  attorneys  and  stockholders 
in  the  House.  In  August,  1833,  the  bank  altered  its  policy.  It  rapidly 
contracted  its  loans,  giving  as  a  reason  the  necessity  for  providing  for 
the  transfer  of  the  deposits,  a  reason  which  the  facts  did  not  warrant. 
On  the  assembling  of  Congress  December,  1833,  the  message  of  the 
President  charged  the  bank  with  creating  an  artificial  stringency  in 
order  to  make  itself  appear  necessary  to  the  community." 

The  evidence  at  that  time  showed  conclusively  that  the  bank  had 
thrown  the  country  into  distress  for  the  sole  purpose  of  forcing  Con- 
gress to  recharter  it. 

General  Jackson,  in  his  message,  said: 

"Events  have  satisfied  my  mind,  and  I  think  the  minds  of  the 
American  people,  that  the  mischief  and  dangers  which  flow  from  the 
National  bank  far  overbalance  all  its  advantages.  The  bold  effort 
the  present  bank  has  made  to  control  the  government,  the  distress  it 
has  wantonly  produced,  the  violence  of  which  it  has  been  the  cause  in 
one  of  our  cities  famed  for  its  observance  of  law  and  order,  are  but 
premonitions  of  the  fate  that  awaits  the  American  people  should  they 
be  deluded  into  the  perpetuation  of  this  institution  or  the  establishment 
of  another  like  it.  It  is  fervently  hoped  that,  thus  admonished,  those 
who  heretofore  favored  the  establishment  of  a  substitute  for  the  pres- 
ent bank  will  be  induced  to  abandon  it,  as  it  is  evidently  better  to  incur 
any  inconvenience  that  may  reasonably  be  expected  than  to  concen- 
trate the  whole  money  power  of  the  republic  in  any  form  whatsoever, 
under  any  restrictions." 

In  the  fall  of  1877  the  House  of  Representatives  at  Washington,  by 
a  two-thirds  majority,  suspended  the  rules  and  passed  a  bill  which  the 
banks  did  not  favor.  They  combined  against  it,  produced  a  money 
stringency,  and  defeated  it  in  the  Senate.  On  Jan.  n,  1878,  the  New 


86o  'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

York  Tribune,  commenting  on  this  action  of  the  banks,  said:  "The 
machinery  is  now  furnished  by  which  in  any  emergency  the  financial 
corporations  of  the  East  can  act  together  at  a  single  day's  notice,  and 
with  such  power  that  no  act  of  Congress  can  overcome  or  resist  their 
decision." 

In  1881  Congress  passed  a  bill  which  the  banks  opposed,  and  for 
the  purpose  of  frightening  Congress  they  contracted  their  credits  and 
withdrew  $18,000,000  from  circulation  and  deposited  it  with  the  treas- 
ury, and  in  order  to  avoid  a  panic  the  treasury  called  in  and  paid  for  a 
large  amount  of  bonds,  so  as  to  keep  money  in  circulation.  Comment- 
ing on  this  fact,  Secretary  Windom  in  his  annual  report  recommended 
that  the  national  banks  be  prohibited  from  withdrawing  their  circula- 
tion, except  after  giving  timely  notice,  and  President  Arthur  in  his  an- 
nual message  concurred  in  the  recommendation,  saying:  "Such  legis- 
lation would  seem  to  be  justified  by  the  recent  action  of  certain  banks." 
In  giving  an  account  of  this  proceeding,  Appleton's  Annual  for  1881 
says : 

"The  national  banks  of  New  York  City,  acting  in  concert,  brought 
Wall  street  to  the  extreme  verge  of  a  panic.  The  tone  of  the  money 
market  was  only  partially  restored  by  an  order  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  for  the  redemption  of  $25,000,000  of  bonds  on  presentation." 

In  1884  the  banks  again  acted  in  concert  and  produced  a  panic  in 
the  money  market  for  the  purpose  of  influencing  Congress,  and  they 
succeeded  in  defeating  certain  legislation  that  was  then  contemplated. 

Immediately  after  the  last  election  of  Mr.  Cleveland  the  banks  of 
New  York  determined  to  force  Congress  to  repeal  the  Sherman  law 
under  which  about  $50,000,000  of  treasury  notes  were  issued  yearly 
against  silver  bullion,  and  which  were  added  to  the  currency  in  circula- 
tion. In  March,  1893,  the  Bankers'  Magazine  of  New  York  published 
an  article  giving  the  opinion  of  leading  financiers  and  bankers  of  that 
city,  to  the  effect  that  "The  quickest,  if  not  the  only  way  to  repeal  the 
silver-purchasing  law  is  to  precipitate  a  panic  upon  the  country,  as 
nothing  short  of  this  will  convince  the  silver  men  of  their  error  and 
arouse  public  opinion  to  a  point  which  will  compel  the  next  Congress 
to  repeal  the  Sherman  law,  whether  it  wants  to  or  not." 

When  President  Cleveland,  in  February,  1895,  sent  his  message 
to  Congress  asking  for  the  retirement  of  the  greenbacks,  the  big  specu- 
lative bankers  of  New  York  co-operated  with  him  and  made  a  run  on 
the  gold  reserve  and  deliberately  produced  such  a  depression  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  editor  of  Bradstreet's  Review,  on  the  day  that  the  mes- 
sage was  read  "the  treasury  was  confronted  by  an  actual  crisis  and  the 
country  by  another  and  worse  panic  than  that  which  had  just  sub- 


REPLY  TO  PROF.  LAUGH  LIN.        86 1 

sided."  All  this  for  the  sole  purpose  of  frightening  and  coercing  Con- 
gress into  giving  the  bankers  such  legislation  as  they  wanted.  This 
open  assault  failed,  so  they  are  now  trying  to  sneak  a  worse  measure 
through.  Mr.  Cornwall,  president  of  the  New  York  State  Bankers' 
Association,  in  a  speech  before  the  Bankers'  Club  of  Chicago  on  April 
27,  1895,  in  which  he  strongly  urged  concert  of  action  in  order  to  con- 
trol politics  and  thus  secure  legislation,  said,  among  other  things: 

"What  ought  bankers  to  do  about  legislation?  This  is  the  most 
important  thing  for  any  body  of  bankers  in  this  country  to  consider  at 
once.  It  is  time  to  tear  of?  disguise.  International  bimetal- 

lism is  a  traitor  in  the  camp.     It  is  a  false  fraud.     The  fight  is  on. 
All  disguise  should  be  thrown  off.    It  is  time  for  aggressive 
action.    The  banker  has  a  large  influence.     He  is  a  confidential  ad- 
viser of  thousands  of  business  men." 

He  then  pointed  out  how  powerful  the  bankers  could  make  them- 
selves in  politics,  and  in  order  to  show  what  they  had  already  done  he 
said:  "The  politician,  high  or  low,  who  to-day  turns  from  *  *  * 
the  gold  standard  stabs  dead  once  for  all  his  every  chance  for  political 
success,  especially  if  he  wants  to  be  President." 

Acting  on  Mr.  Cornwell's  advice,  the  bankers  started  out  in  1896 
to  control  both  of  the  great  political  parties,  and  they  sent  out  the  fol- 
lowing letter: 

"The  American  Bankers'  Association,  2  Wall  Street  and  90  and  94 
Broadway,  New  York,  March  23,  1896.  To  the  bankers  of  the  United 
States:  At  a  meeting  of  the  executive  council  of  the  American  Bank- 
ers' Association,  held  in  this  city  on  March  II,  1896,  the  following 
declaration  was  made  by  unanimous  vote: 

"The  executive  council  of  the  American  Bankers'  Association  de- 
clares unequivocally  in  favor  of  the  maintenance  of  the  existing  gold 
standard  of  value  (prices)  and  recommend  to  all  bankers  and  to  the 
customers  of  all  banks  the  exercise  of  all  of  their  influence  as  citizens 
in  their  various  States  to  select  delegates  to  the  political  conventions 
of  both  the  great  parties  who  will  declare  unequivocally  in  favor  of  the 
maintenance  of  the  existing  gold  standard  of  value  (prices). 

"Your  influence  is  earnestly  requested  to  give  practical  effect  to  this 
action. 

"EUGENE   H.    PULLEN,  President. 

"JAMES  R.  BRANCH,  Secretary. 
"JOSEPH  C.  HENDRIX, 

"Chairman  Executive  Council." 


862  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

While  there  are  banks  which  do  a  legitimate  banking  business  and 
do  not  profit  by  panics  or  arbitrary  contraction  of  credit,  but  on  the 
contrary  are  injured  by  panics,  there  have  in  our  history  been  enough 
of  the  speculative  banks  and  political  banks,  which  apparently  do  profit 
by  panics,  to  control  the  situation.  The  fact  is  when  a  few  great  banks 
pursue  a  particular  course,  with  respect  to  reducing  circulation  and 
also  reducing  credits,  other  banks  are  almost  obliged  to  pursue  the 
same  course. 

The  trouble  with  Prof.  Laughlin  is  that  the  great  schemers  of  the 
world  never  take  their  handy  hired  men  into  their  confidence.  They 
give  each  his  work  and  expect  him  to  do  it  quickly  and  thoroughly, 
and  under  no  circumstances  to  hesitate  on  account  of  any  question 
of  ethics  or  morals  that  may  be  involved.  Prof.  Laughlin  has  never 
been  taken  into  full  confidence.  He  does  his  work  without  hesitation, 
and  he  writes  about  banks  from  his  rear  room  as  he  finds  them  in  the 
books;  but  the  American  people  have  to  deal  with  them  as  they  are, 
and  in  many  cases  they  find  them  in  the  control  of  thoroughly  un- 
scrupulous men.  In  fact,  our  institutions  are  now  in  a  life  and  death 
struggle  with  a  corrupt  moneyed  power. 

Prof.  Laughlin  says:  "Under  our  present  system  the  maximum 
of  free  competition  exists  in  banking,  and  combination  is  rendered  im- 
possible." In  view  of  the  fact  that  banks  are  being  consolidated  every- 
where, that  only  recently  we  read  the  report  that  in  Boston  nine  dif- 
ferent banks  are  going  to  consolidate  and  form  one,  the  professor 
should  have  explained  what  he  meant  by  saying  that  combination  was 
impossible. 

I  stated  that  every  time  the  government  guaranteed  the  circulating 
notes  of  a  private  corporation  it  became  interested  in  the  business 
with  that  corporation,  even  though  it  got  none  of  the  profits,  and  fur- 
ther that  it  is  the  action  of  the  government  which  makes  the  notes  of 
private  corporations  circulate  extensively;  that  if  it  were  not  for  its 
action  these  notes  would  stand  on  the  same  basis  on  which  the  old  "wild 
cat"  bank  notes  stood — some  would  be  good  and  some  utterly  worth- 
less. In  short,  our  whole  national  bank  system  depends  on  the  assist- 
ance of  the  government,  and  this  being  so,  it  is  inaccurate  to  say  that 
the  issuing  of  circulating  notes  by  private  corporations  is  purely  a  pri- 
vate business. 

The  fact,  therefore,  is  that  instead  of  the  McCleary  bill  taking  the 
government  out  of  the  banking  business  it  will  place  the  government 
in  a  position  where  it  becomes  more  and  more  deeply  interested  in 
the  success  of  the  banks,  because  it  practically  has  to  stand  behind 
them  so  far  as  their  circulating  notes  are  concerned,  and  the  fact  that 


REPLY  TO  PROF.  LAUGH  LIN.  863 

it  may  be  reasonably  well  secured  against  any  loss  does  not  change 
the  principle  that  is  involved. 

Under  a  correct  policy  the  government  itself  would  issue  every- 
thing that  should  circulate  as  money,  and  confine  the  banks  to  a  loan 
and  discount  business.  Then  the  banks  would  not  be  so  directly  in- 
terested in  running  the  government,  or  doing  a  governing  business. 

I  stated  that  the  bill  authorized  the  establishment  of  a  limitless 
number  of  branch  banks,  there  being  no  limitation  as  to  the  number 
nor  as  to  the  place  where  they  could  be  established,  and  that  this  must 
ultimately  result  in  driving  out  the  small  banks  that  are  now  doing 
business  over  the  country  and  in  establishing  a  great  banking  trust, 
consisting  either  of  one  or  of  a  small  number  of  great  banks  and  their 
branches,  and  that  the  whole  country  would  be  at  its  mercy.  The 
professor  says  on  this  point  that  if  a  branch  bank  did  drive  out  the  little 
banks  it  would  be  because  it  would  give  better  accommodations.  I 
answer  that  is  certainly  the  way  in  which  it  would  drive  them  out,  but, 
having  driven  them  out  and  having  the  business  community  at  its 
mercy,  what  would  be  its  course  then?  What  is  the  attitude  of  the 
great  trusts  toward  the  public?  Would  the  business  men  be  better  off 
by  having  only  one  bank  to  go  to  than  they  were  when  they  had  sev- 
eral? But  the  professor  turns  and  loftily  says  that  this  talk  of  a  finan- 
cial octopus  "is  the  venerable  and  familiar  old  stalking  horse  of  1896. 
It  may  do  to  catch  mossbacks,  but  not  an  alert  and  modern  nation." 
Inasmuch  as  he  accuses  me  of  being  densely  and  elaborately  ignorant, 
and  intimates  with  a  sly  wink  that  a  professor's  den  in  some  rear  room 
is  the  place  to  acquire  practical  business  knowledge,  I  will  not  argue 
the  point  as  to  what  effect  branch  banks  will  have,  but  I  will  quote 
from  the  utterances  of  a  man  who  is  entitled  to  a  hearing,  Mr.  Walker 
of  Massachusetts,  who  is  chairman  of  the  committee  on  banking  and 
currency  from  which  the  McCleary  bill  was  reported,  Mr  McCleary 
having  been  chairman  of  a  sub-committee  which  drafted  the  bill.  Mr. 
Walker  was  appointed  to  this  position  by  Speaker  Reed,  and  he  is  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  ablest  men  that  the  Republican  party  has  in  Con- 
gress, especially  with  respect  to  the  subjects  of  banking  and  currency. 

Mr.  Walker  does  not  approve  of  this  McCleary  bill,  and  he  made 
a  minority  report  against  it,  the  whole  of  which  report  makes  inter- 
esting reading.  For  want  of  space  I  will  quote  only  a  few  lines.  He 
says: 

"A  bill  authorizing  branch  banks  is  very  bad  economics  as  coin- 
pared  with  encouraging  the  local  independent  bank,  and  is  still  worse 
statesmanship.  It  finds  no  justification  in  the  policy  of  our  free  bank- 
ing system,  or  in  any  amendment  of  it  proposed  in  this  bill.  It  is 


864  'LIVE,   QUESTIONS. 

unwise  to  permit  powerful  city  banks  to  establish  branches.  *  *  * 
Putting  a  local  agent  in  a  place  with  no  interest  in  it  other  than  the 
money  he  can  make  out  of  it  for  his  non-resident  employer  means 
that  no  independent  local  bank,  managed  by  its  citizens,  can  be  estab- 
lished in  the  town,  and  if  one  is  already  there  it  must  go  out  of  busi- 
ness. In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  local  banks  in  towns  are  formed  by 
public-spirited  citizens  to  get  a  fair  return  on  the  capital  they  put  in 
the  bank,  but  still  more  to  build  up  the  town  by  assisting  other  citizens 
to  capital  with  which  to  do  other  business.  The  agent  of  the  city  bank 
may  for  a  time  loan  money,  in  good  times,  at  rates  to  drive  out  the 
country  bank,  and  in  times  of  stringency  the  funds  with  this  country 
agent  will  be  sure  to  be  immediately  returned  to  support  the  city  bank. 
The  customers  of  the  country  agency  will  be  sacrificed  to  the  neces- 
sities of  the  parent  bank.  Generally  there  are  two  stores  in  a  town. 
In  times  of  excitement  each  is  the  headquarters  of  one  political  party. 
The  agent  of  the  parent  bank  knows  the  politics  of  its  city  employer, 
and  again  the  bestowal  of  his  favors  is  likely  to  be  influenced  by  his 
own  politics.  Our  choice  must  be  made  between  one  great  United 
States  bank  with  10,000  branches,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  10,000  in- 
dependent local  banks,  united  together,  that  all  may  support  each, 
and  thus  all  together  may  give  each  security  in  times  of  stringency  or 
in  threatened  or  actual  panic." 

Prof.  Laughlin  may  denominate  Mr.  Walker  as  a  "mossback,"  and 
charge  him  with  unparalleled  ignorance — this  is  always  convenient 
when  there  is  nothing  else  to  say — but  Mr.  Walker  stands  before  the 
American  people  as  a  leader  of  his  party,  and  even  if  he  has  not 
written  on  both  sides  of  the  money  question  he  is  by  that  party  re- 
garded as  a  statesman.  They  look  upon  him  as  a  learned  and  able  man, 
of  practical  experience,  who  is  dealing  with  facts  and  endeavoring  to 
solve  a  great  problem.  Possibly  the  schoolmaster  of  the  deserted  vil- 
lage could  have  beaten  him  arguing — for  e'en  though  vanquished  he 
could  argue  still — and  of  course  if  he  could  have  done  this  then  Prof. 
Laughlin  can  do  it,  for  the  professor  has  never  yet  admitted  that  he 
was  inferior  to  Goldsmith's  famous  schoolmaster. 

Speaking  of  the  formation  of  a  monetary  or  banking  trust,  Prof. 
Laughlin  says:  "How  would  it  be  possible  to  corner  all  capital? 
Money  is  not  all  of  the  country's  capital.  To  monopolize  capital  one 
must  monopolize  all  wealth  engaged  in  production.  To  corner  capital 
implies  cornering  all  the  instruments  of  production.  It  is  the  wild 
vagary  of  a  doctrinaire.  It  is  unthinkable." 

Look  at  this  for  a  moment.  The  Standard  Oil  Trust  is  one  of  the 
most  iron-handed  trusts  or  monopolies  on  earth,  crushing  out  every 


REPLY  TO  PROF.  LAUGH  LIN.  865 

competitor.  Did  it  corner  all  the  country's  capital?  Did  it  monopolize 
all  wealth  engaged  in  production?  Certainly  not.  It  simply  got  abso- 
lute control  of  all  the  facilities  necessary  to  carry  on  the  oil  business. 
It  did  not  attempt  to  corner  all  the  instruments  of  production.  It  con- 
fined itself  to  one  line,  and  so  with  all  of  the  other  great  trusts  that 
crush  out  their  competitors  and  force  them  either  to  become  clerks 
or  go  out  on  the  highway  and  look  for  a  job.  Now,  to  have  a  banking 
trust  means  to  get  the  absolute  control  of  banking  facilities  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  be  able  to  crush  out  the  smaller  and  weaker  institutions. 
In  order  to  do  this  it  is  not  necessary  to  monopolize  all  wealth  en- 
gaged in  production.  It  is  not  necessary  to  corner  all  the  instruments 
of  production.  I  will  not  retort  in  the  professor's  own  language  by 
saying,  "Was  there  ever  greater  ignorance  of  the  facts  of  our  own  his- 
tory," for  I  do  not  believe  the  professor  was  ignorant  when  he  wrote 
his  article.  I  believe  this  was  simply  one  of  those  reckless  statements, 
intended  to  mislead  and  deceive,  which  he  has  been  making  so  long 
in  this  community  that  he  does  not  expect  any  of  them  to  be  chal- 
lenged. If  he  made  this  statement  through  ignorance,  then  his  em- 
ployer should  raise  his  salary  a  little,  in  order  that  he  may  brush  up. 
Again,  the  professor  says  that  branch  banks  can  be  formed  only  by 
and  with  the  consent  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  And  he  is  again 
astonished  at  my  ignorance  in  having  made  the  statement  that  there 
was  no  limitation  upon  the  number  that  could  be  established.  This 
whole  question  is  covered  by  Section  35  of  the  McCleary  bill,  and  it 
reads  as  follows: 

"Section  35.  That  it  shall  be  lawful  for  any  national  banking  as- 
sociation to  establish  branches,  under  such  rules  and  regulations  as  may 
be  prescribed  by  the  comptrollers  of  the  currency." 

It  will  be  seen  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  get  anybody's  consent. 
The  law  gives  the  power  to  establish  the  branch  bank.  The  comptrol- 
lers of  the  currency — not  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury — are  to  make 
some  rules  and  regulations  on  the  subject.  These  rules  and  regulations 
can  only  prescribe  the  manner  of  establishing.  They  cannot  take  away 
the  unlimited  power  to  establish,  and  when  these  rules  and  regulations 
have  once  been  made  and  published,  then  it  is  not  necessary  to  get  any- 
body's consent.  It  is  only  necessary  to  comply  with  these  rules  as  to 
the  manner  of  procedure.  But  even  if  the  consent  of  the  comptrollers 
of  the  currency  were  required,  that  would  signify  nothing.  The  comp- 
trollers of  the  currency  have  been  mere  Washington  conveniences  for 
the  national  bankers,  and  have  done  in  the  main  what  the  banks 
wanted  done.  They  are  a  species  of  clerk  for  the  banks,  but  the  gov- 
ernment pays  their  salary.  Their  chief  duty  seems  to  be  to  attend 
55 


866  LIFE  QUESTIONS, 

.bankers'  dinners;  so  that  if  a  comptroller's  consent  were  necessary  it 
could  easily  be  had.  But  it  is  not  necessary. 

When  Mr.  Walker  says  that  a  branch  bank  would  try  to  control  the 
politics  of  the  town  in  which  it  was  situated  according  to  the  wishes 
of  its  parent,  and  that  every  merchant  and  manufacturer  needing  bank- 
ing accommodations  would  have  to  submit  or  be  ruined — and  when 
he  further  says  that  in  times  of  stringency  the  big  banks  would  draw 
their  funds  back  to  the  city,  in  order  to  take  care  of  their  important 
customers,  and  would  thus  leave  their  little  country  customers  to  their 
fate — he  states  two  vital  truths  either  one  of  which  should  defeat  the 
bill. 

I  stated  in  my  article  that  this  bill  furnished  no  protection  what- 
ever to  depositors;  that  it  created  a  bubble  which  after  deceiving  the 
public  would  burst  and  spread  ruin;  that  at  present,  when  a  bank 
broke,  whatever  assets  it  had  went  to  depositors  and  other  creditors, 
but  under  the  proposed  bill  all  the  assets  must  first  be  applied  to  the 
payment  of  the  circulating  currency  notes  the  concern  had  in  cir- 
culation. The  professor  does  not  deny  this.  He  weeps  over  the  fate 
of  the  poor  laborer  who  might  hold  a  $5  bank  note  that  would  not  be 
redeemed  (a  fact  which,  as  we  have  seen,  could  not  happen),  but  if 
the  same  laborer  had  $100  on  deposit  in  the  same  bank  and  loses  it  all, 
the  professor  leaves  him  coldly  to  his  fate.  Why  this  difference  of 
attitude?  The  reason  is  apparent.  The  bill  is  framed  in  the  interest 
of  a  small  class.  For  a  private  corporation  to  be  able  to  issue  circu- 
lating notes  against  nearly  the  whole  of  its  assets  will  be  a  great  advan- 
tage to  scheming  men.  They  would  prefer  issuing  notes  without  secur- 
ing them  at  all,  but  as  these  would  not  circulate,  and  as  something  must 
be  set  apart  to  secure  them  in  order  to  make  them  circulate,  these  men 
are  willing  to  have  their  depositors'  money  thus  used.  It  is  a  scheme 
to  help  a  class  make  money  at  the  risk  of  the  business  men  and  the 
common  people.  Being  the  champion  of  favored-class  interests,  the 
professor  was  obliged  to  defend  this  bill.  The  sight  of  thousands  of 
poor  and  despairing  people  shivering  around  a  broken  bank  through 
which  they  have  lost  all  their  savings  does  not  interest  the  professor. 
Let  them  shiver,  is  his  motto  then. 

Several  years  ago  the  humane  people  of  Chicago  tried  to  end  the 
inhuman  and  debasing  conditions  existing  in  what  were  called  the 
sweatshops  of  the  city — so  named  because  children,  poor  women  and 
even  men  were  "sweated" — that  is,  slowly  crushed  with  slavish  labor 
amid  conditions  so  filthy  as  to  spread  disease,  and  were  paid  what  were 
even  less  than  starvation  wages.  The  class  which  the  professor  serves 
was  profiting  by  these  inhuman  conditions,  and  opposed  any  change; 


REPLY  TO  PROF.  LAUGH  LIN.  867 

so  instead  of  helping  this  movement  he  was  reported  to  have  said  with 
a  disdainful  air:    "Let  them  sweat." 

The  class  in  whose  favor  this  bill  is  being  pushed  is  the  class  which 
has  helped  to  create  the  conditions  which  have  ruined  the  poor  la- 
borer and  the  small  farmers  and  producers  of  the  South  and  West,  and 
when  this  class  sheds  tears  over  the  poor  laborer  and  small  farmer 
one  is  reminded  of  these  lines: 

"On  the  banks  of  the  Nile  lay  the  crocodile; 
Tears  streamed  from  his  eyes  and  sad  were  his  cries. 
'I  am  weeping,'  he  said,  'o'er  the  terrible  fate 
Of  that  dear  little  fish  I  just  now  ate.'  " 

Again,  in  speaking  of  what  the  professor  calls  "sound  money" — 
that  is,  gold — he  says:  "Indeed,  the  best  is  none  too  good  for  the  hard- 
working people,  who  have  no  time  to  watch  the  political  money-makers 
in  all  their  tricks." 

Here  the  professor  is  sublimely  unconscious  of  the  fact  that  the 
present  status  of  the  gold  dollar  was  created  by  the  political  money- 
makers, and  that  this  McCleary  bill  is  another  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
political  money-makers  to  tinker  the  monetary  system  of  this  country. 
But  he  does  not  state  the  dear-dollar  argument  as  well  as  I  have  fre- 
quently heard  it  stated.  Generally  the  would-be  deceivers  of  the  poor 
man  state  it  this  way:  "When  the  laboring  man  has  toiled  all  day  and 
returns  at  night,  weary  and  worn,  he  should  be  paid  in  the  dearest 
dollar  known,  the  dollar  of  the  greatest  purchasing  power,  that  will 
get  him  as  much  for  his  day's  work  as  possible."  This  is  a  plausible 
argument,  and  as  the  professor  has  introduced  this  subject  we  will 
notice  it  for  just  a  moment.  Why  is  a  dollar  said  to  be  dear,  and  to 
possess  great  purchasing  power?  It  is  because  it  takes  a  great  deal 
of  property  to  get  one.  This  makes  the  dear  dollar.  Now,  what  does 
labor  create,  whether  it  works  in  the  field,  in  the  mine  or  in  the  shop? 
Why,  it  creates  property,  and  if  this  property  has  to  be  sold  cheap,  in 
proportion  to  cost  of  production,  if  it  takes  a  great  deal  to  get  one  of 
these  dear  dollars,  then  it  follows  that  the  laborer  has  to  accept  cheap 
wages.  No  farmer  or  manufacturer  or  mine-owner  can  pay  high 
wages  to  have  property  created,  and  sell  that  property  very  cheap, 
without  going  into  bankruptcy.  Therefore  the  dear  dollar  first  means 
low  wages ;  but  it  does  not  stop  there.  One-half  of  the  American  peo- 
ple are  farmers,  and  when  the  dollar  is  so  dear,  as  is  now  the  case,  that 
it  takes  twice  as  much  of  the  products  of  the  farm  to  get  one  of  these 
dollars  as  it  formerly  did,  then  the  farmer's  purchasing  power  is  de- 
stroyed. He  can  get  together  barely  money  enough  to  pay  the  taxes, 
the  interest  on  the  mortgages  and  such  other  charges  as  must  be 


868     .  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

paid  in  money.  Indeed,  in  thousands  of  cases  he  cannot  do  that.  He 
can  no  longer  buy  for  his  family  the  hundred  things  that  he  formerly 
did,  and  when  his  purchasing  power  is  thus  reduced  or  destroyed  the 
small  merchant  sells  less  goods,  and  if  the  consumption  of  the  coun- 
try is  thus  reduced,  the  factory  soon  finds  that  there  is  no  market  for 
what  it  produces ;  so  it  first  cuts  wages  in  order  to  reduce  expenses,  and 
it  gradually  reduces  its  working  force,  and  in  many  cases  has  to  shut 
down  entirely.  Why?  Because  the  purchasing  power  of  one-half  of 
the  American  people  has  been  reduced  or  partially  destroyed,  and  when 
it  for  this  reason  discharges  men  or  shuts  down  the  mill  the  laborer 
is  thrown  out  of  a  job  and  his  family  out  of  bread. 

It  produces  that  dead  circle  that  we  have  seen  in  our  country  for  a 
number  of  years — farmers  helpless,  business  paralyzed,  factories  par- 
tially idle,  the  laborer  seeking  work  and  his  children  begging  bread. 
So  that  the  dear  dollar  means  not  simply  low  wages,  but  it  means  loss 
of  work  and  starvation,  and  the  fact  that  there  is  to-day  not  an  intelli- 
gent workman  or  laborer  in  the  United  States  but  that  denounces  this 
clear  dollar  as  his  worst  enemy  speaks  volumes  for  the  intelligence  of 
the  American  laborer.  The  deception  of  the  dear  dollar  misleads  them 
no  more.  Some  new  tricks  must  be  invented.  The  old  ones  will  no 
longer  answer. 

I  stated  that  all  the  banks  of  America  held  scarcely  $200,000,000  of 
gold,  and  that  even  the  balance  of  trade  brought  us  little  or  no  gold. 
To  this  the  professor  replies:  "Is  it  possible  he  knows  nothing  of  the 
recent  imports  of  gold,  and  that  the  gold  due  us  for  our  enormous 
excess  of  exports  is  owned  by  the  holders  of  foreign  exchange,  and 
that  the  treasury  now  holds  more  gold  than  ever  before?"  Now,  I 
did  not  speak  of  gold  in  the  treasury.  I  spoke  of  gold  in  the  banks, 
and  if  my  statement  was  not  correct,  why  not  give  the  figures?  Why 
quibble  away  from  the  banks  over  to  the  treasury  and  talk  about  the 
gold  there?  And  how  did  this  gold  get  into  the  treasury?  Why,  it 
came  from  the  sale  of  $200,000,000  of  bonds,  which  it  was  first  alleged 
had  been  sold  to  the  great  common  people  of  this  country,  but  which, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  were  monopolized  by  the  bankers,  who  used  their 
clerks  and  customers  as  conveniences  through  which  to  get  them, 
and  a  very  large  portion  of  these  bonds  ultimately  went  to  Europeans, 
so  that  the  gold  we  recently  got  came  chiefly  from  selling  bonds. 

In  answer  to  his  statement  that  the  gold  due  us  for  our  enormous 
excess  of  exports  is  owned  by  the  holders  of  foreign  exchange,  I  will 
say  that  if  by  "the  holders  of  foreign  exchange"  he  means  the  holders 
of  our  securities,  the  holders  of  the  billions  and  billions  of  debt  that 
we  owe,  then  the  answer  is  correct,  because  for  quite  a  number  of  years 


REPLY  TO  PROF.   LAUGH  LIN.  869 

it  has  taken  practically  the  whole  of  the  excess  of  our  exports  over 
imports  to  pay  the  interest  on  American  securities  held  abroad.  So 
that  gold  does  not  flow  naturally  to  our  country.  We  have  to  make 
a  desperate  effort  to  get  it,  and  a  still  greater  effort  to  keep  it  any 
length  of  time. 

The  professor  says:  "Instead  of  costing  the  country  anything,  the 
McCleary  bill  will  save  the  country  the  exp'ense  of  maintaining  the 
troublesome  gold  reserve,  and  will  put  the  cost  of  it  on  the  banks." 
Let  us  see  about  this.  While  the  silver  certificates  are  to  be  grad- 
ually reduced  to  the  denominations  of  $5  and  less  under  this  bill,  they 
are  all  to  remain  in  circulation.  The  amount  of  silver  certificates  and 
silver  dollars  is  between  $500,000,000  and  $600,000,000.  The  silver 
dollars  are  expressly  to  be  redeemed  in  gold.  A  bank  can  at  any 
time  gather  up  $1,000,000  of  silver  certificates,  go  to  the  treasury  and 
get  $1,000,000  of  silver,  take  these  silver  dollars  to  the  next  window 
and  get  $1,000,000  of  gold.  The  silver  certificates  are  to  be  paid  out 
again  by  the  treasury.  The  bank  can  gather  up  not  only  one,  but  a 
number  of  millions,  at  any  time,  go  over  to  the  treasury,  get  silver  dol- 
lars, take  the  silver  dollars  around  to  the  next  window  and  get  gold 
dollars  for  them,  and  keep  this  up  as  long  as  it  wishes  to.  At  present 
the  bankers  can  only  do  this  with  United  States  notes  and  treasury 
notes,  amounting  to  in  the  neighborhood  of  $400,000,000.  Under  the 
proposed  new  bill  the  facilities  for  working  the  endless  chain  will  be 
increased  by  over  $100,000,000. 

In  addition  to  the  silver  which  is  to  be  redeemed  in  gold,  the  "na- 
tional reserve  notes"  issued  to  the  banks  are  also  to  be  redeemed  in 
gold  by  the  government,  as  we  have  already  seen.  Thus  the  govern- 
ment will  soon  be  in  a  position  where  the  endless  chain  will  be  work- 
ing with  twice  the  power  that  it  is  working  now.  Upon  this  subject 
let  me  again  quote  from  the  minority  report  of  Mr.  Walker,  the  chair- 
man of  the  committee : 

"To  provide  that  our  500,000,000  of  legal-tender  silver  dollars  shall 
be  redeemable  in  gold  dollars  by  the  government  and  for  keeping  an 
additional  gold  reserve  for  that  purpose  is  one  of  the  most  unneces- 
sary, inconsistent  and  remarkable,  not  to  say  ridiculous,  provisions  that 
could  well  be  incorporated  in  a  banking  bill.  The  reason  given  for  pro- 
posing the  destruction  of  $346,000,000  of  greenbacks  is  that  they  men- 
ace our  whole  financial  system  in  their  power  to  extract  gold  from 
the  treasury.  But  this  bill,  which  would  destroy  the  greenbacks,  pro- 
ceeds to  add  500,000,000  of  silver  dollars  to  the  national  reserve  bank 
notes  and  other  bank  notes  as  abstractors  of  gold  from  the  treasury, 
and  would  have  us  believe  that  this  is  a  cure  for  all  our  financial  and 


870  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

banking  ills.  Having  experienced  the  delights  of  the  vision  of  seeing 
the  United  States  notes  destroyed  and  of  resurrecting  a  bank  note  from 
their  ashes  in  the  proposed  national  reserve  note,  and  having  exercised 
the  supreme  power  of  making  this  national  reserve  note  the  equal  of 
gold  as  a  legal  tender,  the  power  grows  on  what  it  feeds  upon.  Then 
they  proceed  to  destroy  the  500,000,000  of  silver  dollars  as  such  and 
to  resurrect  them  as  abstractors  of  gold  from  the  treasury.  *  *  * 
Where  are  the  country  branch  banks  to  get  their  gold?  Out  of  the 
United  States  treasury?  How  is  the  treasury  to  get  this  gold?  Of 
course  the  city  banks  will  kindly  hand  it  over  to  the  government  in 
pleasant  times  when  everything  is  balmy.  How  when  it  storms?  How 
about  1893?  How  about  another  Cleveland-Carlisle  administration? 
It  is  as  sure  to  come  as  history  is  to  repeat  itself.  Sell  bonds,  of 
course.  *  *  *  This  bill  leaves  the  United  States  treasury  absolute- 
ly unprotected,  the  sport  of  the  most  unscrupulous  money  changers 
and  gold  brokers  that  can  be  found  anywhere  in  the  world.  A  cable- 
gram costs  but  little.  The  door  of  the  United  States  treasury  opens 
for  the  delivery  of  gold  into  every  European  broker's  office,  Israelite 
or  Christian." 

In  view  of  these  facts,  why  did  the  professor  state  that  it  would 
relieve  the  United  States  treasury  of  maintaining  the  troublesome  gold 
reserve,  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  gold  reserve  under  this  bill  will 
have  to  be  larger  than  ever  before,  and  the  facilities  for  brokers  to 
draw  gold  out  of  the  treasury  will  be  greater  than  ever  before?  The 
professor  claims  to  have  read  the  bill.  If  so,  his  mind  must  have 
been  a  little  weary  when  he  passed  over  these  sections,  and,  while  it 
may  be  a  little  impertinent,  I  would  again  suggest  a  raise  of  salary  for 
the  professor  in  order  to  stimulate  and  brighten  him  up. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


OMAHA  SPEECH.— THE  SITUATION. 

(Delivered  before  the  Jackson  Club,  January  7,  1899.) 

THE   REPUBLIC  THREATENED. 

This  club  has  won  fame  through  its  struggle  for  higher  politics — • 
for  higher  standards  of  justice,  and  for  more  honest  economic  and 
financial  policies.  But  great  as  are  your  achievements,  much  as  you 
have  accomplished,  your  work  has  barely  begun.  This  republic  has 
been  the  beacon  light  of  the  world  for  more  than  a  century.  It  has  not 
only  lifted  the  hopes  of  all  men,  but  by  its  example  it  has  turned  the 
face  of  nearly  all  nations  toward  liberty.  Since  the  first  reading  of 


OMAHA  SPEECH.  871 

the  Declaration  of  Independence  over  two  hundred  and  fifty  constitu- 
tions that  were  Republican  in  form  have  been  adopted.  Most  of  them 
perished,  but  they  will  rise  again.  Now  the  foundations  are  being 
pulled  from  under  our  own  institutions.  The  very  altars  of  liberty  are 
being  betrayed  by  the  men  set  to  guard  them.  Two  years  ago,  when 
we  turned  the  face  of  our  party  toward  the  sun,  we  protested  against 
economic  policies  that  robbed,  against  financial  policies  that  paralyzed, 
and  against  judicial  usurpation  that  enslaved.  Every  day's  develop- 
ment since  that  time  has  shown  not  only  that  we  were  right,  but  that 
the  situation  was  far  more  serious  than  we  supposed. 

LOOK   ABOUT   YOU,    AMERICAN    CITIZENS. 

Look  about  you!  Nearly  all  of  the  wealth  of  this  land  is  passing 
into  a  few  hands,  and  not  one  of  these  hands  favorable  to  the  freedom 
of  the  citizen.  Every  great  industrial,  commercial,  mining  or  trans- 
portation enterprise  is  passing  into  the  hands  first  of  corporations,  and 
then  by  further  consolidation  into  the  hands  of  trusts  which  thus  have 
an  absolute  monopoly — a  monopoly  which  can,  arbitrarily,  fix  prices, 
fix  wages  and  regulate  output — a  monopoly  which  has  no  soul  and 
whose  chief  purpose  is  to  plunder  the  public.  The  monopolist  and  the 
speculator  prosper,  but  the  masses  wither.  Men  of  moderate  fortunes 
and  of  fair  incomes,  who  were  the  bulwark  of  the  republic,  are  slowly 
but  surely  being  wiped  out.  We  are  being  reduced  to  two  classes; 
in  the  first  stage  these  will  be  known  as  the  very  rich  and  the  moder- 
ately poor,  and  in  the  second  stage  as  the  masters  and  the  slaves.  We 
have  established  a  monied  aristocracy  and  are  now  fastening  a  yoke 
on  posterity.  A  standing  army  is  to  be  enthroned  and  bayonet  argu- 
ment is  to  govern. 

WEALTH    THE    ENEMY    OF    LIBERTY. 

Republican  institutions  cannot  live  amid  these  conditions.  Wealth 
has  never  been  the  friend  of  liberty.  Concurrently  with  the  progress 
of  these  changes  we  hear  the  snarling  voices  of  men  who  deride  the 
doctrines  of  Jefferson  and  Lincoln  that  made  our  country  great  and 
mighty.  Already  we  see  magazine  articles  urging  the  establishment 
by  law  of  a  permanent  aristocracy  in  our  system  of  government,  and 
from  high  quarters  we  hear  a  demand  for  Hamiltonism.  Hamilton 
believed  in  monarchy  and  aristocracy  bottomed  on  corruption.  He 
was  in  love  with  the  English  system  as  it  existed  in  the  last  century, 
thoroughly  rotten  from  top  to  bottom,  and  he  labored  to  transplant 
whatever  he  could  of  that  system.  He  once  said  to  John  Adams: 
"Purge  the  British  Constitution  of  its  corruption  and  give  to  its  popu- 


872  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

lar  branch  equality  of  representation  and  it  would  become  an  imprac- 
ticable government.  But  as  it  stands  at  present,  it  is  the  most  perfect 
government  that  ever  existed."  He  did  not  advance  a  single  new 
thought,  did  not  promulgate  a  single  new  principle;  and  he  sneered 
at  the  idea  that  the  people  were  capable  of  self-government. 

HAMILTON    WAS    AGAINST    OUR    CONSTITUTION. 

England  herself  has  since  that  time  repudiated  corruption  and  es- 
tablished equality  of  representation.  Hamilton  favored  the  adoption 
of  the  new  Constitution,  but  was  not  satisfied  with  it,  and  openly 
expressed  the  hope  that  some  future  war  would  centralize  the  powers 
of  the  government.  When  he  was  made  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
the  new  Constitution  had  been  adopted,  Congress  had  been  given 
power  to  raise  money,  everybody  could  see  that  the  republic  could 
now  easily  pay  its  debts,  and  that  it  was  not  necessary  to  introduce  cor- 
ruption of  any  sort.  But  true  to  his  theory,  he  at  once  secured  the 
establishment  of  a  national  bank  and  introduced  the  British  funding 
and  bond-issuing  system,  coupled  with  its  limitless  opportunities  for 
plunder.  A  short  period  of  unparalleled  speculation  and  peculation 
followed.  The  sharks  and  financial  birds  of  prey  made  fortunes  and 
Hamilton  became  the  hero  of  the  hour.  The  whole  system  collapsed 
in  a  few  years  and  scattered  ruin  and  misery  over  the  country.  Yet 
for  a  whole  century  the  men  who  use  the  government  to  plunder  the 
country  have  shouted  for  Hamilton.  Whether  Hamilton  himself 
shared  in  the  plunder  is  immaterial.  He  expressed  his  belief  in  the 
system,  and  deliberately  furnished  the  opportunity  to  others.  During 
the  administration  of  Mr.  Adams  Hamiltonism  ran  wild.  Almost  every 
principle  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  trampled  under  foot, 
and  those  provisions  of  the  new  Constitution  that  were  intended  to 
protect  the  individual  were  ruthlessly  brushed  aside.  No  man  dared 
to  criticise  the  administration.  Scores  of  good  men  were  denied  trial 
by  jury  and  languished  in  prison  for  exercising  the  right  of  free  speech. 
A  tyranny  was  established  that  surpassed  anything  existing  in  Eng- 
land. Four  years  of  this  regime  was  all  the  American  people  could 
then  stand;  they  declared  that  they  had  not  cast  off  a  foreign  yoke  to 
take  up  a  more  galling  home  yoke,  and  in  1800  they  arose  and  over- 
threw it  so  completely  that  it  has  taken  nearly  a  century  for  a  resur- 
rection. 

DEATH    OF    HAMILTONISM. 

Had  Hamiltonism  prevailed  at  that  time  the  whole  history  of  the 
republic  would  have  been  different;  the  brains,  the  industry,  the  skill 
and  the  enterprise  of  the  earth  would  not  have  flocked  to  our  shores. 


OMAHA  SPEECH.  873 

The  genius  of  man  being  cowed  would  have  withered  here  as  it  had  in 
Europe,  and  the  American  republic  would  to-day  be  simply  an  oli- 
garchy, stretching  in  small  settlements  from  the  Mississippi  to  the 
Atlantic.  Hamilton  was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  convention, 
and  succeeded  in  establishing  that  aristocratic  branch  of  our  govern- 
ment known  as  the  federal  judiciary,  unrepublican  and  undemocratic; 
it  is  not  chosen  by  the  people  and  is  not  accountable  to  them.  In  fact, 
for  practical  purposes  is  not  accountable  to  anybody.  Jefferson  op- 
posed this  manner  of  creating  a  judiciary  with  all  his  might,  and  he 
pointed  out  that  here  would  ultimately  be  found  the  tomb  of  American 
liberty.  How  prophetic  was  that  vision?  During  its  whole  career 
this  branch  of  the  government  has  never  been  on  the  side  of  the 
weak,  but  always  on  the  side  of  power.  First  it  stood  for  federalism 
and  usurpation. 

RELICS   OF   HAMILTON. 

When  General  Jackson  tried  to  protect  the  American  people  from 
the  clutches  of  the  great  rotten  bank  the  federal  judiciary  used  all  its 
power  to  help  that  institution.  After  the  bank  went  down  this  same 
judiciary  did  the  bidding  of  the  mighty  slave  power,  and  after  this 
went  down  these  courts  took  the  corporations  under  their  wings  and 
many  of  them  seemed  to  become  mere  side-door  conveniences  for  con- 
centrated and  even  corrupt  capital.  For  the  last  thirty  years  the  cor- 
porations have  fled  to  the  federal  courts  like  the  ancient  murderers 
fled  to  cities  of  refuge — there  they  felt  safe.  Recognizing  that  the  con- 
struction of  the  laws  is  more  important  than  making  laws,  these  pow- 
erful influences  have  allowed  no  man  to  be  appointed  judge  whom  they 
did  not  believe  friendly  to  them.  They  do  not  buy  federal  judges 
because  it  is  not  necessary.  In  their  eagerness  to  serve  the  corpora- 
tions, these  judges  have  in  recent  years  established  government  by  in- 
junctions in  this  country,  under  which  a  judge  becomes  legislator, 
court  and  executioner.  They  brush  free  speech — the  liberty  of  the 
citizen — and  trial  by  jury  away  with  a  contemptuous  sneer. 

A    TRUTHFUL    JUDGE. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  race  has  shed  its  blood  to  maintain  these  bul- 
warks of  liberty,  and  our  Constitution  guarantees  them  to  every  citizen. 
But  they  have  already  been  stabbed  to  the  vitals.  For  several  years 
we  have  beheld  the  spectacle  of  some  Supreme  Court  and  other  federal 
judges  dragging  their  ermine  around  over  the  land  to  act  the  part  of 
advocates  for  those  interests  which  are  destroying  republicanism  in 
this  country.  What  are  the  liberties  of  America  worth  when  com- 


874  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

mitted  to  the  guardianship  of  such  men?  During  the  recent  campaign 
Mr.  Depew  came  to  Chicago  under  the  auspices  of  the  Hamilton  club 
to  deliver  a  partisan  address  at  the  Auditorium.  Federal  Judge  Peter 
S.  Groscup  mounted  the  rostrum  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  the 
orator,  and  told  the  audience,  among  other  things,  that  the  light  of 
Jefferson  was  waning — that  on  the  dial  plate  of  our  nation's  history 
this  hour  was  Hamilton's,  that  Hamilton's  great  name  exactly  fitted 
these  times,  etc. 

HANNA,   QUAY    &   CO.    ARE    HAMILTONIANS. 

My  friends,  must  we  admit  that  Judge  Groscup  was  right?  Let  us 
look  around  again.  The  Senate  of  the  great  State  of  Ohio  has  just 
indicted  a  Hamiltonian  senator  for  bribery  and  debauchery  in  securing 
a  high  office.  A  grand  jury  in  Pennsylvania  has  just  indicted  another 
Hamiltonian  senator  for  robbing  the  treasury  of  the  State.  Almost 
every  great  trust  appears  to  have  one  or  more  Hamiltonian  senators 
as  standing  conveniences.  In  the  House  of  Representatives,  where 
the  voice  of  the  people  was  supposed  to  be  heard,  we  find  a  pensioned 
ring-master  of  monopoly  stifling  the  voice  of  the  people's  representa- 
tives and  reducing  Republican  congressmen  to  a  condition  of  pity  and 
contempt.  Two  years  ago  a  horde  of  Hamiltonian  statesmen  went  to 
the  capital  of  Illinois  and  not  only  sold  out  the  people  but  robbed  the 
State  of  everything  in  sight.  Wherever  you  find  dirty  finger  marks  in 
the  temple  of  justice  or  a  foul  odor  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  there 
you  will  find  Hamiltonism.  Verily,  the  spirit  of  Hamilton  fits  these 
times,  but  what  shall  we  say  of  a  judiciary  that  openly  rejoices  over 
the  fact  that  an  era  of  corruption  has  enveloped  the  land,  that  the  be- 
trayal of  the  people  has  become  a  science,  and  that  the  robbing  of  the 
people  has  become  a  fine  art?  And  now  we  are  to  widen  the  sphere 
of  this  class  of  statesmen  by  giving  them  a  chance  to  rob  the  Fili- 
pinos! Heaven  pity  those  poor  people.  The  Spaniard  took  what  was 
in  sight,  but  the  Hamiltonite,  with  his  bond  jobbery,  enters  the  womb 
of  the  future  and  plasters  his  mortgage  on  remote  generations. 

THE    TONGUE    OF    TREASON    IS    WILDLY    WAGGING. 

During  the  political  and  partisan  Peace  Jubilee,  recently  held  in 
Chicago,  the  President  of  the  United  States  went  to  the  Chicago  Uni- 
versity for  the  purpose  of  being  dubbed  Doctor  of  Laws.  In  handing 
him  the  parchment,  Prof.  A.  K.  Parker,  who  made  the  presentation 
speech,  said  among  other  things:  ''The  doctrine  of  sovereignty  of  the 
people  leads  a  precarious  existence  in  the  mouths  of  men  who  love 
long  sounding  words  and  have  not  stopped  to  consider  that  it  is 


OMAHA   SPEECH.  875 

only  a  specious  form  of  the  ancient  blasphemy  that  might  makes  right." 
Stop  here  a  moment  and  reflect.  The  President  of  the  United  States, 
standing  under  the  wing  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  accepts  a 
proffered  honor  which  is  coupled  with  the  declaration  that  the  doctrine 
of  popular  sovereignty  is  a  specious  form  of  blasphemy,  and  he  utters 
not  one  word  of  protest,  but  by  his  silence  and  by  his  acceptance 
nods  his  approval. 

GLORIES  IN   THE   SPECTACLE   OF  LINCOLN  AT  GETTYSBURG. 

Come  now  to  another  scene.  On  November  19,  1863,  Abraham 
Lincoln  stood  on  the  battlefield  of  Gettysburg,  and  with  tears  in  his 
eyes  asked  the  American  people  to  dedicate  themselves  anew  to  that 
cause  for  which  the  heroes  living  and  dead  had  fought  on  that  field, 
so  "that  government  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the  people 
should  not  perish  from  this  earth."  Consider  these  words;  they  em- 
body the  most  complete  form  of  popular  sovereignty,  yet,  only  thirty- 
five  years  later,  we  behold  a  Republican  successor  of  Lincoln  nodding 
assent  to  a  doctrine  which  characterizes  the  above  utterance  of  the 
great  martyr  President  as  a  specious  form  of  blasphemy.  Yea,  Ham- 
iltonism  fits  these  times.  Jefferson  and  Lincoln  stood  on  the  platform 
of  the  common  people  and  as  the  light  of  Jefferson  wanes  the  work 
of  the  great  liberator  passes  into  the  shadow. 

QUEEN   AND    PRESIDENT. 

About  two  months  ago  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce  gave 
a  banquet,  and  the  president  of  that  body  asked  the  assembled  guests 
to  drink  to  the  health  of  the  British  Queen  before  drinking  the  health 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  it  was  done.  He  said  the 
President  would  consent  to  this  if  he  was  there.  To  be  sure,  this 
will  not  shake  our  republic;  but  it  does  show  the  tendency  of  thought 
among  certain  classes.  It  shows  that  the  stock  jobbers,  the  specula- 
tors and  the  financial  wolves  have  no  more  love  for  our  institutions 
to-day  than  they  had  in  1776,  when  they  sided  with  England,  or  1861, 
when  they  sided  with  the  Confederacy. 

MAUDLIN    TALK    OF    ANGLO-AMERICAN    ALLIANCE. 

From  the  same  source  comes  the  maudlin  talk  of  an  alliance  with 
England.  We  are  to  repeat  the  experience  of  the  Iamb  and  lie  clown 
with  the  lion,  and  we  have  toadies  and  flunkeys  in  America  who  would 
consider  it  a  privilege  to  lie  down  inside  of  the  lion. 


876  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 


HOW   TO    CALL    A    HALT. 

But,  say  you,  these  things  are  not  new  to  us;  tell  us  what  to  do. 
My  friends,  no  mortal  can  tell  you  in  advance.  In  all  great  conflicts 
the  first  thing  is  to  ascertain  the  principle  involved  and  the  ultimate 
object  aimed  at.  The  campaign  will  then  be  shaped  by  conditions  and 
events.  We  wish  to  prevent  the  enslavement  of  our  people  and  the 
establishment  of  an  aristocracy.  We  see  that  no  aristocracy,  either  of 
birth  or  wealth,  can  be  established  or  maintained  where  the  great 
masses  are  prosperous  and  independent.  It  can  exist  only  amid  cheap 
property,  cheap  labor  and  cheap  men.  A  cowed  and  a  poor  people 
are  the  soil  in  which  it  grows.  When  they  gave  us  a  financial  system 
which  paralyzed  our  country,  which  cheapened  property,  which  crushed 
labor  and  which  cheapened  manhood  and  destroyed  independence, 
they  laid  the  first  stone  for  an  American  aristocracy.  If  these  condi- 
tions are  to  continue,  then  the  star  of  the  republic  has  set.  But  if  we 
can  overthrow  this  system,  if  we  can  re-establish  bimetallism,  if  we 
can  found  a  scientific  monetary  system  and  restore  the  price  of  pro- 
ducts and  of  property,  if  we  can  raise  the  spirit  of  labor  and  renew 
the  independence  of  the  masses,  then  the  beginning  of  the  next  cen- 
tury will  crush  this  aristocracy  to  atoms  and  cast  it  to  the  four  winds, 
and  a  liberated  people,  bowing  only  to  the  God  who  made  them,  will 
leap  forward  with  a  joy  that  shall  gladden  the  earth.  You  see  the 
money  question  confronts  us  at  the  door.  It  is  not  of  our  choosing. 
We  cannot  make  issues.  Issues  grow  out  of  wrong — grow  out  of 
injustice,  grow  out  of  human  suffering.  Cowards  and  weaklings  evade 
them,  but  men  must  meet  them. 

THE    FINANCIAL    QUESTION. 

Other  great  questions  vital  to  our  existence  have  been  evolved  by 
the  age  and  must  be  met.  But  the  financial  question  is  basic  and 
central.  It  is  the  mother  of  a  whole  brood  of  evils.  The  financial  spec- 
ulators of  the  East  and  of  Europe  want  the  absolute  power  to  control 
average  prices.  Therefore  they  want  silver  and  greenbacks  wiped  out, 
so  as  to  make  everything  rest  on  gold — this  they  can  easily  corner — 
then  with  a  monopoly  of  issuing  paper  money  they  can  concentrate 
everything  into  a  few  hands.  A  few  gigantic  banks  can  then  control. 
When  it  suits  their  speculative  purposes  they  can  expand  and  raise 
prices,  and  then  contract  and  lower  prices,  and  thus  catch  the  country 
coming  and  going.  These  great  and  unscrupulous  interests  always 
move  secretly  and  in  the  dark.  They  bridge  every  chasm  with  a  bribe 
and  catch  the  political  highwayman  with  an  official  uniform.  The  gold 


OMAHA  SPEECH.  877 

standard  has  never  drawn  an  honest  breath  nor  taken  an  honest  step 
in  this  country,  and  its  success  so  far  shows  the  venality  and  the 
apostasy  of  American  politicians. 

RATIO    OF    METALS. 

What  about  16  to  i?  Well,  my  friends,  it  is  not  in  our  power  to 
change  this;  it  is  impossible  to  get  anything  along  any  other  line. 
Change  the  ratio  and  the  whole  case  dissolves.  To  be  sure,  theoreti- 
cally this  is  not  so,  but  we  have  to  deal  with  fearfully  sad  facts.  For 
twenty  years  both  of  the  great  parties  denounced  the  gold  standard 
and  demanded  the  free  coinage  of  silver  at  the  old  ratio.  It  looked 
as  if  the  question  would  be  settled  in  a  week,  but  instead  the  gold 
standard  got  more  firmly  seated  in  the  saddle.  How?  By  corruptly 
controlling  the  government  and  manipulating  Congress.  Open  the 
question  of  ratio  and  you  will  get  no  action  in  a  century.  To  drop 
the  ratio  is  to  betray  the  cause.  We  are  for  the  old  ratio  because  it  is 
right,  because  it  will  undo  a  great  crime,  because  it  will  make  prosper- 
ity possible,  because  we  cannot  succeed  in  any  other  way,  and  because 
the  suggestions  for  a  change  come  only  from  the  enemy. 

PRIVATE  MONOPOLIES. 

Now,  gentlemen,  time  never  stands  still  and  evolution  is  eternal. 
Now  questions  affecting  our  very  existence  have  arisen ;  while  they 
are  old  elsewhere  they  are  new  here.  This  is  an  age  of  concentration 
in  all  things,  and  the  formation  of  private  monopolies  in  particular. 
Competition  has  been  wiped  out.  In  harmony  with  the  law  as  it  has 
stood  for  centuries  we  have  denounced  this,  but  to  no  purpose;  we 
have  legislated  against  it,  but  in  vain.  When  they  could  not  defeat 
legislation  by  bribery  they  went  before  some  subservient  federal  judge 
and  had  it  declared  unconstitutional.  Our  remedy  has  failed.  Private 
monopoly  is  as  injurious  and  as  much  of  a  crime  as  ever,  and  we  can- 
not stop  its  birth;  we  must  change  our  tactics  and  convert  private 
monopolies  into  public  monopolies.  Give  the  whole  public  the  benefits 
of  the  monopoly  instead  of  a  few  individuals.  Let  the  government 
take  them.  This  is  not  State  socialism,  it  is  simply  protecting  the 
people,  and  therefore  is  democracy  in  its  broadest  sense.  The  Euro- 
pean people  fight  socialism,  but  get  the  greatest  benefits  from  collec- 
tive ownership. 

GOVERNMENT    OWNERSHIP    WOULD    KILL    MONOPOLY. 

There  seems  to  be  no  other  way  to  protect  the  public,  and  it  in- 
volves our  very  existence  as  a  party.  The  Democratic  party  must  al- 


878  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

ways  stand  for  the  great  masses  or  else  have  no  mission.  The  Re- 
publican party  stands  for  private  monopoly  and  rottenness,  and  the 
monopolies  will  always  support  it  and  try  to  crush  us.  It  is  a  fight 
not  only  for  humanity  but  for  our  very  existence. 

MUNICIPAL   OWNERSHIP. 

There  are  hundreds  of  things  that  the  public  cannot  do.  But  there 
are  a  great  many  that  it  can,  should,  and  must  do.  It  has  been  demon- 
strated that  municipalities  can  successfully  and  very  profitably  own 
and  operate  water,  gas  and  electric  light  plants,  street  railway  sys- 
tems and  a  number  of  other  things,  and  the  American  people  are  pre- 
pared to  move  forward  along  this  line  and  every  such  step  by  helping 
the  people  will  help  the  Democracy. 

TELEGRAPH   AND   TELEPHONE   MONOPOLIES. 

The  American  people  are  also  prepared  to  take  the  telegraph  and 
telephone  monopoly  and  make  them  part  of  the  postoffice,  and  thus 
not  only  cheapen  the  service  by  one-half  but  make  the  telegraph  neu- 
tral in  politics.  Ours  is  almost  the  only  great  government  in  the  world 
that  does  not  own  the  telegraph  lines. 

POSTAL    SAVINGS    BANKS. 

I  believe  that  our  people  are  also  prepared  for  postal  savings  banks 
and  widening  the  functions  of  the  postal  department.  It  is  safe  and 
very  cheap  to  the  public.  The  English  postoffice  runs  savings  banks, 
issues  fire  insurance,  life  insurance,  sells  annuities,  and  does  many 
other  things  at  greatly  reduced  rates,  and  it  does  what  is  almost  a  gen- 
eral carrying  or  express  trade  of  small  articles  at  greatly  reduced  rates. 
A  man  once  said:  "You  can  send  a  saw-mill  through  mails  there." 

CONTROL    OF   RAILWAYS. 

But  the  greatest  question  is  the  control  of  our  railroads.  Nearly 
all  the  governments  of  the  earth  own  the  railroads,  and  railroad  ser- 
vice, both  passenger  and  freight,  costs  their  people  on  the  average 
about  one-half  what  our  people  must  pay.  However,  it  is  not  the 
economic  feature  that  I  wish  to  discuss  at  present.  The  railroads  and 
corporations  now  run  our  government.  They  control  the  appoint- 
ment of  federal  judges,  they  meddle  with  the  election  of  congressmen, 
senators,  State  legislators,  governors  and  aldermen.  They  dictate  the 
policy  of  government,  and  they  do  it  by  corruption.  Years  ago  I  wrote 
some  articles  favoring  governmental  control  or  regulation  of  railroads, 
but  not  ownership.  Observation  has  satisfied  me  this  is  all  futile. 


OMAHA  SPEECH.  £79 

Instead  of  a  board  regulating  the  corporations  the  corporations  regu- 
late the  board.  And  if  they  run  against  an  honest  board  some  friendly 
judge  flies  to  their  rescue  and  kicks  the  board  clear  off  the  highway. 

INTERSTATE-COMMERCE   FARCE. 

It  was  lately  suggested  that  the  law  should  require  the  interstate 
commerce  commissioners  to  shut  their  eyes  when  drawing  their  salary, 
so  as  to  lessen  the  moral  shock  of  getting  something  for  nothing. 
At  present  there  seems  to  be  no  way  of  protecting  the  public  and  re- 
storing to  the  people  their  government,  except  by  having  the  govern- 
ment own  the  railroads.  As  between  having  the  corporation  own  the 
government  or  having  the  government  own  the  corporation,  the 
American  people  will  prefer  the  latter. 

DUTY    OF   THE    PARTY. 

To  the  Democratic  party  it  is  a  question  of  vital  interest.  It  can 
never  become  a  corporation  party  without  abandoning  its  mission  and 
becoming  contemptible  in  the  eyes  of  men.  Therefore  the  corpora- 
tions will  always  furnish  the  boodle  to  Mark  Hanna  with  which  to 
debauch  the  American  voter  and  defeat  that  party.  If  the  govern- 
ment owned  the  roads  it  would  be  different.  True,  it  would  create 
a  large  patronage.  This,  however,  might  be  regulated  by  civil  ser- 
vice, but  even  if  it  were  not  the  government  could  not  possibly  coerce 
its  men  more  than  the  corporations  do  now,  and  it  could  not  pay  the 
large  sums  for  corruption  purposes  which  the  corporations  now  ad- 
vance and  then  indirectly  get  back  from  the  government.  If  the  gov- 
ernment owned  the  railroads  many  trusts  now  made  powerful  by  rail- 
road discrimination  would  dissolve. 

HOW    LITTLE   CORPORATION   BANTAMS   ARE    INCUBATED. 

The  great  and  criminal  corporations  are  the  incubators  which  have 
been  hatching  the  little  bantams  that  talk  aristocracy.  Destroy  the  in- 
cubators and  the  brood  will  die  out.  These,  my  friends,  are  the  issues, 
this  our  high  purpose. 

We  are  not  interested  in  cheap  politics.  We  are  trying  to  establish 
a  higher  justice  and  bring  mankind  a  day's  march  nearer  to  the  great 
high  plane  of  human  brotherhood.  Two  centuries  ago  the  world 
struggled  for  religious  liberty,  a  century  ago  for  political  liberty;  to- 
day it  is  in  the  birth  throes  of  industrial  liberty.  Religious  liberty 
could  not  live  amid  superstition,  but  demanded  liberal  institutions. 
Political  liberty  could  not  live  amid  kings  and  aristocracies,  but  de- 
manded republican  institutions.  Industrial  liberty  cannot  live  amid 


88o  'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

monopoly  and  injustice,  and  it  is  calling  for  higher  standards.  Demo- 
cracy established  religious  and  political  freedom  and  it  must  now  es- 
tablish industrial  freedom  by  giving  the  public  the  benefit  of  all  mo- 
nopolies. 

ROAD    TO    INDUSTRIAL    FREEDOM. 

How  is  this  to  be  done?  By  the  same  means  by  which  every  great 
reform  and  moral  advance  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  been  car- 
ried forward.  The  soul  of  the  hero  and  the  spirit  of  the  martyr  are 
the  twin  guides  of  human  progress.  James  Russell  Lowell  summed 
up  the  whole  history  of  civilization  when  he  penned  the  lines: 

"Truth  forever  on  the  scaffold, 

Wrong  forever  on  the  throne, 
But  that  scaffold  sways  the  future, 

And  behind  the  dim  unknown 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow, 

Keeping  watch  upon  His  own." 

To-day  truth  is  on  the  scaffold  and  wrong  is  on  the  throne.  The 
forces  that  support  crime  in  high  places  are  masters,  and  as  they  live 
by  the  breath  of  falsehood,  we  must  expect  every  possible  indignity, 
and  we  must  expect  temporary  reverses. 

RIGHT    IS    ETERNAL. 

Howard  Taylor  said:  "Over  a  century  ago  the  British  drove  the 
Pine  Tree  flag  off  of  Bunker  Hill,  but  God  retreated  with  it  till  he 
brought  it  back  to  Bunker  Hill."  My  friends,  justice  is  not  abdicat- 
ing; have  no  fear  about  our  cause.  Its  ultimate  success  is  written  on 
the  programme  of  destiny. 

"Yes,"  says  someone,  "but  the  wilderness  is  dreary;  when  shall 
we  reach  the  promised  land?"  I  do  not  know.  On  the  dial  of  pro- 
gress time  is  not  indicated  by  months,  or  even  years,  but  by  epochs. 
Some  long,  some  short.  In  our  country  they  have  been  short,  and 
the  change  has  always  come  like  a  sunrise  when  things  look  most 
gloomy. 

"But,"  says  another,  "are  not  most  of  the  powerful  forces  arrayed 
against  us?"  Yes,  the  same  forces  that  have  fought  every  reform 
ever  made  are  also  against  us;  but  when  the  time  is  ripe  they  disap- 
pear from  the  earth. 

A  century  ago  Hamiltonism  seemed  to  be  permanently  entrenched, 
and  supported  by  all  the  strong  forces  of  society,  but  in  a  few  years 
it  went  down. 


OMAHA   SPEECH.  88 1 


POWER    OF   THE    MONEY    POWER. 

When  the  powerful  national  bank  controlled  nearly  all  of  America 
and  tried  to  coerce  President  Jackson  it  had  its  slimy  finger  in  every 
neighborhood,  dominated  the  drawing-room,  the  counting-room,  the 
school  house,  the  press,  the  church,  the  politicians  and  the  govern- 
ment. Yet  a  couple  of  years  were  sufficient  to  overthrow  it  and  ex- 
pose its  awful  rottenness.  Hear  what  George  W.  Curtis  said  of  the 
slave  power  in  even  the  Northern  States  in  his  day:  "Slavery  sat 
supreme  in  the  White  House  and  made  laws  at  the  capital.  Courts  of 
justice  were  its  ministers  and  legislatures  its  lackeys.  It  silenced  the 
preacher  in  the  pulpit,  it  muzzled  the  editor  at  his  desk,  and  the  pro- 
fessor in  his  lecture  room.  It  set  a  price  upon  the  head  of  peaceful 
citizens,  it  robbed  the  mails  and  denounced  the  vital  principles  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  as  treason.  In  States  where  laws  did 
not  tolerate  slavery  it  yet  ruled  the  club  and  the  drawing-room,  the 
factory  and  the  office.  It  swaggered  at  the  dinner  table  and  scourged 
with  scorn  a  cowardly  society.  It  tore  the  golden  rule  from  school 
books  and  from  the  prayer-book  the  pictured  benignity  of  Christ." 

AN    AWFUL    PICTURE    TO    BEHOLD. 

My  friends,  this  is  an  awful  picture  of  supreme  power.  The  men 
and  the  women  who  opposed  this  institution  did  not  expect  a  change 
for  centuries,  but  the  great  clock  in  the  chamber  of  the  Omnipotent 
never  stands  still;  it  ticked  away  the  years  as  it  had  formerly  ticked 
away  the  centuries,  until  finally  it  struck  the  hour.  The  world  heard 
the  tread  of  a  million  armed  men,  and  slavery  perished  from  America 
forever.  Mr.  Curtis'  description  exactly  fits  these  times.  The  money 
power  sits  supreme  in  the  White  House  and  makes  laws  at  the  capi- 
tal. Courts  of  justice  are  its  ministers  and  legislatures  are  its  lackeys. 
It  silences  the  preacher  in  his  pulpit,  the  editor  at  his  desk  and  the 
professor  in  his  lecture  room. 

INTELLIGENCE   OF    THE    COUNTRY    WITH    DEMOCRACY. 

But  the  infallible  finger  of  its  growing  insolence  shows  that  the 
hour  of  its  destruction  is  near.  Remember  that  thirty  thousand  votes 
properly  distributed  in  '96  would  have  elected  Mr.  Bryan.  The  pa- 
triotic intelligence  of  the  land  is  already  with  us.  Deduct  from  Mr. 
McKinley  the  negro  vote  and  he  is  lost;  deduct  the  ignorant  city  slum 
votes  which  he  got  and  he  is  lost.  Deduct  the  vote  purchased  with 
Hanna's  boodle  and  he  is  lost.  Deduct  the  false  returns  made  by  cor- 
rupt election  judges  and  he  is  lost.  He  was  elected  by  tainted  dollars, 
56 


882  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

and  his  future  must  rest  on  them.  The  elements  of  corruption  are  his 
mainstay  and  nothing  can  stand  long  on  a  rotten  foundation.  Re- 
member, too,  that  not  a  single  devotee  of  '96  has  deserted.  Fleshpot 
patriots  may  weary,  but  our  mighty  army  still  has  its  face  to  the  sun 
and  our  only  course  is  forward. 

THIS    IS    GOD'S    FIGHT. 

Ah,  say  you,  this  is  a  fight  against  money,  and  we  have  none. 
That  is  true.  But  no  great  moral  and  political  reform  ever  yet  rested 
on  money.  The  Almighty  has  never  yet  tried  to  sprout  the  seeds  of 
justice  in  the  garden  of  lucre,  Only  poisonous  vines  will  grow  there. 
Noble  manhood  perishes  there.  It  is  moral  force  that,  in  the  end, 
moves  the  world.  Had  Christ  been  furnished  a  million  of  dollars  by 
a  syndicate  to  introduce  his  religion,  it  would  have  been  a  failure. 
True,  we  must  have  money  for  hall  rent,  printing,  etc.,  but  we  must 
get  it  from  those  who  give  with  a  blessing  and  not  from  the  men  who 
demand  the  selling  of  souls  and  the  surrender  of  manhood. 

MONEY    CANNOT    WIN    IT. 

If  the  Sugar  Trust  or  the  Standard  Oil  Trust  would  give  us  ten 
millions  of  dollars  to  make  a  campaign  with  our  cause  would  be  lost. 
It  would  be  Clevelandism  over  again.  Even  if  we  won  the  election 
our  moral  force  would  be  gone,  and  we  would  accomplish  nothing. 
It  is  the  ardor  of  devotees  that  shakes  empires,  and  we  must  win  this 
fight  by  a  self-sacrificing  manhood.  Men  with  fleshpots  cannot  help 
us.  I  hear  the  derisive  laughter  of  Mark  Hanna  at  the  mention  of 
manhood.  But,  my  friends,  American  manhood  will  yet  survive  to 
throw  the  deodorizing  lime  of  oblivion  upon  his  polluted  grave. 

NO    TIME,    NO    PEACE    FOR    TRIMMERS. 

We  are  in  a  crisis.  The  liberties  of  a  mighty  people  are  at  stake. 
There  is  no  neutral  ground;  trimming  and  trading  can  no  longer  be 
tolerated.  The  world  demands  earnestness  and  candor.  I  do  not 
believe  in  the  black  flag;  give  every  honorable  enemy  quarters.  But 
we  have  a  sacred  black  motto  which  we  must  keep  to  the  front,  and 
that  is:  "Woe  unto  him  who  trifles  with  the  confidence  of  the  Ameri- 
can Democracy."  Grover  Cleveland  is  dead,  and  he  left  no  friends  to 
whom  to  send  the  obituary  notices.  Scores  of  wabbling  statesmen 
are  to-day  looking  through  the  fence  into  the  graveyard  for  a  burial 
place,  because  they  were  hit  by  the  wrath  of  a  deceived  people.  Each 
age  furnishes  a  weapon  for  the  people.  The  weapon  for  this  age  is 
Initiative  and  Referendum.  Through  it  we  can  restore  Democracy. 


OMAHA  SPEECH.  883 

Then  fill  our  people  with  the  spirit  of  Andrew  Jackson,  and  the 
corruption  of  Hamiltonism,  as  well  as  the  hypocrisy  of  McKinleyism, 
will  no  longer  threaten  or  disgrace  our  land. 

WHY  WE   HONOR  JACKSON. 

Why  do  we  honor  the  memory  of  Jackson?  He  was  not  a  great 
scholar,  not  a  great  orator,  not  a  great  publicist,  not  a  great  military 
man,  and  yet  he  stands  like  a  mighty  rock  in  the  ocean  towering  high 
in  air,  while  thousands  of  scholars,  orators,  publicists,  generals  and 
statesmen  who  have  come  since  his  time  are  lost  in  oblivion.  It  is 
because  of  his  character.  Amid  temptation  and  threats  of  destruction 
he  fixed  his  eye  on  the  star  of  justice,  shook  his  fist  in  the  face  of  power 
and  delivered  the  American  people.  This  country  needs  more  Andrew 
Jacksons — and  the  people  believe  that  they  have  found  one  in  William 
Bryan. 


Upward  of  twenty  large  public  buildings  were  erected  by  the 
State  of  Illinois  during  Governor  Altgeld's  administration.  The 
following  pictures  show  the  character  of  eight  of  them.  Owing 
to  the  rapid  growth  of  population,  the  demand  for  floor  space 
and  the  small  appropriations  but  little  attention  had  been  paid 
to  the  exterior  architecture  of  the  public  buildings.  But  during 
the  last  three  years  of  his  administration  he  required  the  architects 
to  devote  more  attention  to  this  subject,  although  the  appropria- 
tions were  so  ridiculously  small  that  no  elaborate  style  of  orna- 
mentation could  be  adopted. 


LIBRARY   HALL,   UNIVERSITY   OF  ILLINOIS,  AT  CHAMPAIGN 

ERECTED  1896. 


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APPENDIX. 


EMBRACING  GENERAL  AND  SPECIAL  MESSAGES  TO  LEGISLATURE, 
VETO  MESSAGE   ON   ENLARGEMENT   OF    ASYLUMS,  VETO    OF 
MONOPOLY  BILLS,  OF  BILL  TO  CONSTRUCT  WATERWAYS, 
OF   BILL  FOR    CONSOLIDATION   OF   CERTAIN    COR- 
PORATIONS,   PROCLAMATIONS,    RECOMMEND- 
ATIONS AND   OTHER  OFFICIAL   PAPERS. 


USELESS  OFFICES. 

State  of  Illinois,  Executive  Department,  Springfield,  March  23,  1893. 
To  the  Honorable,  the  House  of  Representatives: 

I  respectfully  call  the  attention  of  the  General  Assembly  to  the  fact  that 
we  have  a  number  of  boards  and  officers  in  this  State  which  have  in  the  past 
drawn  large  sums  from  the  public  treasury,  and  which  now  cost  considerable 
every  year  to  maintain,  and  which,  so  far  as  I  can  observe,  are  of  but  little 
use  to  the  public.  Among  others,  I  especially  invite  your  attention  to  the 
following: 

First,  the  Fish  Commission.  This  board  was  created  in  1878  and  has  up 
to  date  drawn  $85,496.34  from  the  State  Treasury,  and  however  able  the  mem- 
bers may  be,  and  whatever  the  theory  may  have  been  which  led  to  its  creation, 
it  is  apparent  now  that  the  people  of  the  State  have  at  present  very  little  to 
show  for  this  large  expenditure  of  money.  The  experiment  has  been  tried 
sufficiently  to  demonstrate  that  it  does  not  pay,  and  as  it  costs  the  State  on  an 
average  about  seven  thousand  dollars  per  annum  to  maintain  the  commission, 
I  recommend  that  it  be  abolished  and  that  the  different  county  and  township 
peace  officers  of  the  State  be  required  to  execute  the  law  against  the  use  of 
nets  in  the  waters  of  the  State. 

I  also  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  now  costs  twice  as  much  to  maintain 
the  Commission  of  Claims  every  year  as  the  total  amount  of  claims  that  arc 
annually  proven  against  the  State.  In  my  opinion  there  is  no  necessity  for 
longer  continuing  this  commission. 

Further,  we  have  here  in  the  capitol  several  large  collections  of  valuable 


894  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

geological,  horticultural,  ornithological  and  other  specimens  which  are  of  little 
or  no  use  to  anybody  here,  and  which  cost  the  State  considerable  money  every 
year  to  care  for.  The  Secretary  of  State,  who  has  charge  of  the  capitol 
building,  informs  me  that  the  room  now  occupied  by  these  specimens  is  needed 
for  other  purposes.  I  recommend  that  all  of  the  above  specimens  be  placed  in 
charge  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  at  Champaign,  where  they  will  be  of  ser- 
vice to  the  students  and  others  pursuing  studies  or  investigations  in  these 
fields,  and  if  any  of  such  specimens  are  not  needed  by  the  University,  that  they 
be  given  to  the  other  educational  institutions  of  the  State.  In  this  connec- 
tion I  wish  to  say  that  the  State  Geological  Department  has  now  cost  the  State, 
including  the  printing  of  the  annual  reports,  about  $175,000,  and  it  now  costs 
from  $7,000  to  $8,000  per  year.  Many  of  our  people  feel  that  it  does  not  pay 
to  longer  maintain  it.  Should  it  be  wise,  however,  to  continue  it,  then  I  recom- 
mend that  it  be  placed  in  charge  of  the  University,  where  it  can  be  maintained 
at  much  less  expense  to  the  State  than  here  at  the  capitol,  and  where  the 
students  will  get  the  benefit  of  such  investigations  as  are  made  from  time  to 
time.  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD,  Governor. 


THE  COURTS  OF  CHICAGO. 

State  of  Illinois,  Executive  Department,  Springfield,  May  31,  1893. 
To  the  Honorable,  the  House  of  Representatives: 

I  feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to  direct  your  attention  to  the  condition  of  business 
in  the  courts  of  justice  in  Chicago.  Owing  to  the  marvelously  rapid  accumu- 
lation of  cases  and  to  the  fact  that  our  "General  Practice  Act"  seems  to  be 
radically  defective  in  many  particulars,  and  unsuited  to  govern  the  procedure 
of  the  courts  where  there  is  such  a  great  volume  of  miscellaneous  work,  affairs 
have  come  to  a  point  where  there  is  almost  a  practical  denial  of  justice  in  that 
great  city,  because  litigants  find  it  nearly  impossible  to  get  their  cases  tried. 
The  problem  presents  so  many  difficulties  that  it  is  hard  to  determine  in  what 
manner  relief  can  best  be  given.  Several  times  within  recent  years  the  num- 
ber of  judges  has  been  greatly  increased,  but  now  with  twenty  judges  the 
situation  is  worse  than  it  has  ever  been.  One  difficulty  about  the  increase  of 
judges  is  that  the  bar  almost  unanimously  demands,  and  the  courts  have  been 
obliged  to  adopt  a  rule  to  the  effect  that  if  when  a  case  is  called  for  trial,  the 
lawyer  on  either  side  should  be  engaged  in  any  other  court  of  record  in  the 
county,  then  the  case  must  be  passed  until  the  engagement  ceases,  consequently 
litigants  find  that  they  must  prepare  for  trial,  must  get  their  witnesses  together 
and  attend  court  sometimes  for  days  before  their  cases  are  actually  reached, 
and  then  they  discover  that  they  must  be  passed  because  of  the  engagement 
of  one  of  the  lawyers.  When  this  engagement  is  over,  they  again  get  their 
witnesses  together  and  attend  court  one  or  more  days  until  their  cases  are 
called  the  second  time,  when  they  discover  that  the  lawyer  on  the  other  side 
is  engaged,  and  the  case  has  to  be  passed  again;  and  in  this  way  cases  go, 
as  it  were,  bounding  along,  and  litigants  are  worn  out  before  they  can  get  a 
hearing.  This  added  to  the  fact  that  the  courts  are  nearly  three  years  behind 
makes  it  impossible  for  people  of  limited  means  to  get  redress  in  the  courts. 
It  is  true  the  rule  above  referred  to  could  be  changed,  but  so  long  as  all  of  the 
lawyers  of  Chicago  are  compelled  to  practice  in  what  is  practically  one  court, 


'APPENDIX.  895 

the  courts  would  probably  find  themselves  forced  to  leave  the  rule  broad  enough 
to  enable  a  lawyer  to  have  his  case  passed,  if  he  was,  at  the  time  it  was  called, 
actually  engaged  before  some  other  judge  of  the  same  court. 

If  we  increase  the  number  of  judges  to  thirty,  then,  although  there  may 
some  of  them  be  holding  the  appellate  court  and  some  of  them  the  criminal 
court,  there  will  still  be  upward  of  twenty  presiding  in  courts  of  the  same 
jurisdiction,  and  all  lawyers  practicing  in  Chicago  will  of  necessity  have  to 
practice  in  these  courts,  and  it  will  be  a  matter  of  daily  occurrence  with  very 
many  lawyers  that  a  number  of  their  cases  will  be  called  on  the  same  day  and 
before  different  judges,  and  the  difficulties  and  delays  resulting  from  this  will 
be  even  greater  than  they  are  now. 

At  present  the  short  cases  which  can  be  heard  in  half  a  day  are  wedged 
in  between  cases  that  require  a  week,  all  of  which  tends  to  increase  the 
difficulties  of  the  smaller  litigants.  From  my  experience,  while  on  the  bench 
there,  and  from  a  thorough  consideration  of  the  subject,  I  feel  convinced  that 
it  would  be  better  if  another  court  could  be  established  to  which  a  certain 
class  of  cases  could  go,  so  as  to  keep  them  off  the  calendar  of  the  circuit  and 
superior  courts  and  still  insure  them  a  speedy,  trial,  and  at  the  same  time 
enable  some  lawyers  to  confine  their  practice  to  that  court,  in  that  way  obvi- 
ating to  a  certain  extent,  at  least,  the  difficulty  of  judges  having  to  pass  cases 
because  of  the  other  engagement  of  the  lawyers;  at  the  same  time  there  should 
be  revision  of  the  general  practice  act  in  such  a  way  as  to  meet  the  objections 
that  have  been  discovered  in  the  law  as  it  now  stands.  The  effect  of  this  would 
be  to  weed  out  a  great  deal  of  litigation  that  ought  never  to  get  into  the  courts, 
and  also  to  provide  that  cases  of  a  certain  class  should  go  not  only  to  a  certain 
court,  but  on  dockets  by  themselves,  so  that  people  with  short  cases  should 
not  be  subjected  to  the  great  uncertainty  to  which  they  are  now  subjected  by 
having  their  cases  wedged  in  between  cases  that  require  a  great  deal  of  time 
for  trial. 

Both  the  Constitution  and  the  statute  provide  for  a  city  court  which  shall 
have  jurisdiction  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  superior  and  circuit  courts.  If 
this  court  were  created  and  the  law  so  amended  as  to  require  appeals  from 
justices  of  the  peace  in  the  city  to  go  there,  it  would  greatly  relieve  the  other 
courts.  I  would  therefore  respectfully  suggest  for  your  consideration,  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  commission  to  revise  our  practice  act  during  the  vacation,  and 
report  to  the  next  General  Assembly;  and  upon  this  subject  I  venture  to 
further  suggest  that  the  commission  should  not  be  large,  for  as  a  rule,  a  small 
body  can  do  the  work  intrusted  to  it  while  a  large  one  is  getting  itself  together; 
and  further,  I  believe  we  will  get  the  best  efforts  and  the  highest  grade  of 
service  if  the  commission  work  without  compensation.  I  am  convinced  we 
have  many  able  and  public  spirited  lawyers  in  this  State  who  feel  so  deeply 
interested  in  this  question  that  they  will  gladly  do  this  work  for  the  sake  of 
rendering  their  country  a  service.  On  the  subject  of  increasing  the  number  of 
judges  I  submit  for  your  consideration — first,  that  it  appears  that  only  a  few 
can  be  provided  for,  the  county  commissioners  claiming  that  they  have  neither 
the  court  room  nor  the  money  with  which  to  immediately  provide  for  many 
more  judges.  Second,  that  if  the  additional  court  shall  in  time  be  created,  it 
will  not  be  necessary,  even  with  future  increase  of  business,  to  have  many  more 
judges  in  the  circuit  and  superior  courts;  and,  third,  if  the  practice  act  is  re- 
vised, it  will  probably  change  the  method  of  procedure  in  such  a  way  that  not 


896  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

many  more  judges  will  be  required  for  a  considerable  time  to  come,  conse- 
quently I  doubt  the  wisdom  of  adding  very  many  more  judges  just  at  this 
time,  but  inasmuch  as  some  immediate  relief  is  needed  and  as  extra  judges  are 
required  in  the  criminal  court,  it  may  possibly  be  necessary,  in  order  to  satisfy 
the  bar  and  the  public  there,  to  add  five  more  at  once.  I  would  further  suggest 
that  the  law  should  provide  that  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  chief  justice  of  each 
court  to  distribute  the  business  of  the  court,  and  assign  cases  to  each  judge  so 
that  all  will  have  to  do  their  fair  share  of  work. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD,  Governor. 


VETO  OF  BILL  TO  ENLARGE  ASYLUMS. 

To  the  Honorable,  the  Senate: 

This  bill  appropriates  $120,000  to  enlarge  the  Southern  Hospital  for  the 
Insane  and  $120,000  to  enlarge  the  Northern  Hospital  for  the  Insane. 

We  have  now  in  this  State  four  great  insane  asylums.  There  are  in  the 
Southern  Hospital  for  Insafie  about  900  patients;  in  the  Northern  Hospital 
about  i, 100;  in  the  Central  Hospital  upwards  of  1,200,  and  in  the  Eastern  Hos- 
pital at  Kankakee  upwards  of  2,100.  In  addition  to  these  there  is  a  large 
hospital  for  insane  in  Cook  county,  and  yet  all  of  these  hospitals  provide  for 
only  about  two-thirds  of  the  insane  of  the  State.  Nearly  one-third  of  the 
insane  of  the  State  are  either  in  the  county  poor-houses,  or  are  being  other- 
wise cared  for.  There  is  urgent  need  of  more  hospitals.  Frequent  efforts  have 
been  made  to  found  an  asylum  in  the  western  part  of  the  State,  but  these 
efforts  have  always  been  defeated  by  the  representatives  from  the  localities 
where  the  existing  institutions  are  situated,  who  are  always  laboring  to  secure 
an  enlargement  of  their  institutions. 

The  question  arises  whether  it  will  be  good  policy  for  the  State  to  enlarge 
these  hospitals.  If  these  institutions  were  intended  simply  to  confine  the  hope- 
lessly insane,  then  there  would  not  be  such  serious  objections  to  herding  so 
many  together,  but  this  is  not  their  purpose.  The  law  contemplates  that  they 
shall  be  hospitals  where  those  who  are  not  yet  hopelessly  insane  may  be 
treated,  with  a  view  to  their  recovery.  To  carry  out  this  purpose  it  is  necessary 
that  all  of  the  surrounding  conditions  should  be  favorable.  This  cannot  be 
where  too  great  a  number  are  confined  in  one  institution.  It  is  of  the  greatest 
importance,  in  order  to  facilitate  recovery,  that  all  who  are  not  dangerous 
should  be  in  the  open  air  as  much  as  possible  and  receive  individual  attention 
from  their  keepers,  not  only  in  medical  treatment,  but  in  the  matter  of  diet, 
exercise,  work,  social  intercourse  and  all  matters  interesting  to  them.  Instead 
of  this,  they  are  now,  from  necessity,  grouped  into  wards  and  are  managed  in 
large  squads  and  owing  to  the  great  number  they  cannot  individually  exercise 
as  they  choose  on  the  grounds,  but  generally  have  to  go  out  in  groups  and 
then  only  for  a  limited  time.  They  soon  become  institutionized  and  the  con- 
ditions, instead  of  being  favorable,  are  nearly  all  unfavorable  for  recovery,  and 
as  a  result,  the  percentage  of  recovery  in  our  institutions  is  very  small. 

The  ablest  authorities  on  this  subject,  men  who  have  studied  it  carefully, 
are  almost  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  five  hundred  is  as  great  a  number  of 
patients  as  should  be  permitted  to  be  collected  at  one  place.  As  we  have 
already  from  two  to  four  times  that  many  in  each  of  our  asylums,  I  feel  that 


'APPENDIX.  897 

it  would  be  a  serious  mistake  to  enlarge  them.  The  fact  that  the  cottage,  or 
separate  ward  plan,  is  adopted  does  not  meet  the  objection.  While  this  is  the 
modern  plan  and  is  a  very  great  improvement  on  the  old  method,  still  the 
separate  wards  must  all  be  in  the  same  enclosure. 

It  is  argued  in  favor  of  adding  wards  to  the  existing  asylums,  rather  than 
founding  new  ones,  that  it  saves  the  expense  of  an  additional  superintendent 
and  is  otherwise  more  economical.  Even  if  this  were  true,  it  is  a  sufficient 
answer  that  we  do  not  want  to  practice*  a  kind  of  economy  which  will  defeat  the 
very  purpose  for  which  the  institutions  were  originally  created.  Besides,  the 
saving  of  expense  by  enlarging  an  institution  has  its  limitations.  There  is  a 
point  beyond  which  any  further  enlargement  simply  begets  waste.  Whenever 
an  institution  becomes  a  great,  cumbersome  and  unwieldy  machine  there 
grows  up  a  waste  that  much  more  than  eats  up  the  little  that  is  saved  on 
some  things  by  reason  of  its  size.  Whenever  an  institution  becomes  so  large 
that  one  man  can  no  longer  oversee  it  and  keep  in  touch  with  every  part  of  it, 
as  well  as  know  all  about  what  is  going  on,  then  its  management  not  only 
ceases  to  be  economical,  but  the  institution  ceases  to  perform  the  functions  for 
which  it  was  created,  and  instead  of  being  a  blessing,  instead  of  being  a  helper 
to  others,  it  becomes  itself  the  central  object  of  existence  and  patients  are  to 
it  simply  a  convenience  to  enable  it  to  draw  money  from  the  State  Treasury. 

The  reason  why  some  of  our  asylums  have  been  constantly  enlarged  was 
not  because  this  was  the  best  way  to  care  for  the  insane,  but  because  the 
institutions  and  the  towns  in  which  they  are  situated  are  greedy  and  want  to 
draw  everything  possible  to  themselves,  and  to  accomplish  this  their  represen- 
tatives in  the  Legislature  combine  and  defeat  any  move  to  found  new  ones, 
while  they  secure  appropriations  to  enlarge  the  old  ones. 

The  whole  problem  of  State  institutions  is  not  only  unsettled,  but  unsolved. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  there  is  an  institution  on  earth  that  is  fully  serving  the 
purpose  for  which  it  was  created.  It  is  certain  that  very  many  produce  almost 
the  opposite  results  from  those  that  were  expected.  Great  improvements  have 
been  made  in  the  last  twenty  years  and  a  process  of  evolution,  springing  from 
inquiry  and  intelligence,  is  now  at  work,  which  may  in  time  develop  the  best 
institution  possible  among  men.  In  the  meantime  we  must  be  guided  by  such 
light  as  we  may  have  and  endeavor  to  avoid  those  conditions  which  we  know 
to  be  unfavorable. 

It  is  high  time  that  we  set  our  face  against  the  policy  of  enlarging  these 
institutions,  for  it  has  already  injured  us. 

I  therefore  return  this  bill  without  my  approval. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


GENERAL  MESSAGE  ON  ASSEMBLY  OF  LEGISLATURE. 

Executive  Department,  Springfield,  111.,  January  9,  1895. 
Gentlemen  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives: 

In  compliance  with  the  requirements  of  the  Constitution,  I  respectfully 
submit  the  following  information  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  the  State,  and 
also  such  recommendations  as  seem  to  me  to  be  expedient. 

As  the  affairs  of  the  State  had  been  continuously  controlled  by  one  political 
party  for  thirty-six  years,  both  the  reasonable  expectations  of  the  public  and 
the  existing  political  conditions  called  for  great  changes  in  the  personnel  of 
57 


898  'LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

the  administration.  In  consequence  of  this,  so  large  a  number  of  new  men 
became  connected  with  the  management  of  public  affairs  that  it  was  deemed 
wise  to  lay  down  the  general  principles  which  this  administration  aimed  to 
carry  out,  and  also  such  definite  rules  as  would  facilitate  the  carrying  out  of 
these  principles. 

As  there  was  great  pressure  for  place  all  along  the  line  of  the  public  service, 
the  following  specific  instructions  were  given  to  all  the  trustees  and  superin- 
tendents of  public  institutions: 

First — Do  not  put  a  man  upon  the  pay-roll  who  is  not  absolutely  needed. 

Second — Do  not  pay  higher  salaries  in  an  institution  than  the  service  or 
ability  which  you  get  would  command  outside. 

Third — Do  not  keep  a  man  an  hour  after  it  is  discovered  that  he  is  not 
just  the  right  man  for  the  place,  no  matter  who  recommended  him,  or  what 
political  influence  he  may  possess. 

Fourth — Require  vigilance  and  careful  attention  of  every  employe,  and 
promptly  discharge  any  appointee  who  is  guilty  of  brutality  toward  patients,  or 
who  is  guilty  of  any  serious  neglect  of  duty. 

These  instructions  have  been  reiterated  at  various  times  with  emphasis,  and, 
I  believe,  have,  in  general,  been  observed. 

CARE  OF  PATIENTS. 

The  trustees  and  superintendents  were  instructed  that  our  great  institu- 
tions were  not  founded  to  make  comfortable  homes  for  officials,  but  to  take 
care  of  the  unfortunate,  and  that  the  energies  of  the  management  must  be 
directed  toward  giving  the  inmates  the  very  highest  degree  of  care  and  comfort 
that  is  possible.  Further,  that  the  people  of  this  State  are  liberal  and  want  all 
who  are  thrown  upon  public  charity  to  be  properly  fed  and  clothed,  and  that 
therefore  the  standard  of  diet  and  of  clothing  must  in  no  case  fall  below 
that  of  the  average  self-supporting  citizen  of  this  State,  and  I  will  say  here  that 
I  believe  the  standard  in  most  of  our  institutions  is  higher  than  this. 

PURCHASE  OF  SUPPLIES. 

The  system  prevailed  in  this  State,  which  is  still  found  in  most  other 
States,  of  having  in  each  institution  an  officer  who  was  known  to  the  public 
as  the  purchasing  agent.  This  man  went  into  the  market  and  bought  where 
and  of  whom  he  pleased,  and  no  matter  how  honest  he  may  have  been,  he 
was  still  under  suspicion.  It  was  observed  a  number  of  years  ago  that  the 
great  corporations  which  have  to  buy  large  quantities  of  supplies  had  entirely 
abolished  this  system,  and  had  introduced  in  its  stead  a  system  of  buying  on 
bids  of  the  lowest  bidder.  Good  economy  and  the  highest  moral  consideration. 
as  well  as  public  policy,  required  that  the  State  should  purchase  its  supplies 
in  the  same  way,  and  thus  reduce  the  possibility  of  favoritism,  corruption  and 
scandal  jto  the  minimum.  Therefore  the  following  instructions  to  govern  all 
institutions  in  this  State  were  given: 

First — Make  out  a  list  of  articles  that  will  be  needed  for  a  given  time, 
describing  each  article  fully,  and  have  the  typewritist  make  ten  or  twelve 
copies  of  this. 

Second — Send  these  copies  to  as  many  different  business  houses  dealing  in 
the  line  of  goods  required  for  bids,  to  be  accompanied  by  samples  where 


APPENDIX.  899 

necessary.  Then  accept  the  lowest  and  best  bid,  reserving  in  each  case  the 
right  to  reject  any  goods  that  may  be  deemed  unsatisfactory. 

Third — File  these  bids,  together  with  the  list  upon  which  they  were  based, 
for  a  reasonable  time,  so  that  they  can  be  inspected  by  any  State  officer,  if 
desired. 

In  a  number  of  institutions  the  old  superintendents  remained  in  charge 
until  the  expiration  of  the  quarter  ending  July  I,  1893,  and,  as  the  other  officers 
were  new,  no  general  effort  was  made  to  carry  out  these  rules  until  after  that 
time,  and  in  some  cases  the  new  officers  were  reluctant  to  introduce  them,  but 
they  were  told  that  this  was  the  policy  of  the  administration,  and  that  if  they 
were  not  in  harmony  with  it  a  new  set  of  men  would  have  to  be  appointed  who 
would  be  in  harmony.  By  degrees  the  new  methods  were  generally  adopted 
and  are  now  fully  grounded  and  established  in  every  public  institution  in  this 
State.  We  have  been  running  for  nearly  a  year  and  a  half  under  the  new 
system,  and  the  result  has  been  a  surprise  to  all,  and  a  gratification  to  every 
one  favoring  business  methods.  It  was  soon  found  that  the  bids  from  the  most 
responsible  houses  upon  articles  that  were  considered  staple  varied  from  10 
per  cent  to  25  per  cent.  This  difference  was,  in  nearly  all  cases,  a  net  gain  to 
the  institution,  and  I  have  to  report  the  following  general  results  of  the  new 
method: 

First — The  office  of  purchasing  agent  has  been  abolished  in  every  institu- 
tion in  the  State,  thus  effecting  a  saving  in  salaries  of  nearly  $25,000  a  year. 

Second — The  appropriations  made  by  the  last  Legislature  for  current 
expenses  of  all  of  the  State  charitable  institutions  was  only  $3,800  in  excess 
of  the  appropriation  made  for  the  same  purpose  two  years  before.  But  owing 
to  the  hard  times  or  to  other  causes  there  was  an  average  increase  of  1,114  'n 
the  population  of  all  these  institutions  over  the  average  of  the  prior  two  years, 
and  the  cost  of  maintaining  these  1,114  for  eighteen  months  was  $237,282. 
Yet,  notwithstanding  the  cost  of  maintaining  the  increased  number  of  persons, 
there  was  on  January  i,  1895,  a  surplus  in  the  treasuries  of  the  various  insti- 
tutions amounting  to  $243,000.  This  sum  added  to  the  cost  of  caring  for  the 
increased  number  makes  a  total  comparative  saving  of  $476,482.  Several  of  the 
treasurers  have  been  directed  to  retain  a  small  amount  of  the  surplus  for  pos- 
sible contingencies,  and  all  of  the  remainder,  amounting  to  $233,482,  has  been 
turned  back  into  the  State  Treasury.  The  physical  condition  of  the  various 
institutions  is  better  than  it  ever  was,  while  the  standard  of  living  is  not 
excelled  anywhere.  It  is  apparent  that  no  matter  what  the  State  may  desire 
to  buy  in  the  future,  whether  cheap  goods  or  expensive  goods,  the  new  system 
of  purchasing  if  adhered  to  is  going  to  make  an  annual  saving  to  the  State  for 
all  time  to  come  of  nearly  half  a  million  of  dollars,  and  I  respectfully  recom- 
mend that  this  money  be  expended  in  providing  for  our  people  the  means  of 
higher  education,  a  subject  to  be  referred  to  later. 

SCIENTIFIC  METHODS. 

After  the  new  business  methods  were  fully  established,  early  in  December, 
1893,  the  superintendent  of  each  institution  was  requested  to  make  a  thorough 
examination  of  the  methods,  the  most  advanced  theories,  and  the  results  of 
the  experiments  in  similar  institutions  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  and  to 
see  wherein  such  institutions  differed  from  ours,  and  if  anything  was  found 
elsewhere  that  was  thought  to  be  an  improvement  upon  the  methods  pursued. 


906  UVE  QUESTIONS. 

here,  to  at  once  adopt  it;  also  to  submit  a  full  report  of  such  investigation  on 
or  before  April  ist,  1894.  Accordingly,  last  spring  each  superintendent  sub- 
mitted his  report,  giving  the  result  of  his  investigations.  These  reports  have 
Been  printed  in  a  separate  volume,  and  I  herewith  submit  a  copy  of  them.  A 
number  of  them  are  very  able,  and  contain  valuable  suggestions  which  have 
been,  so  far  as  possible,  acted  upon.  It  is  confidently  believed  that  our  insti- 
tutions are  conducted  on  as  high  a  scientific  plane  as  any  in  the  world,  and 
that,  while  some  of  the  European  institutions  have  the  advantage  of  more 
elaborate  and  expensive  buildings  and  equipments,  yet  in  other  important  par- 
ticulars, relating  to  the  care  of  inmates,  ours  are  superior. 

There  was  also  established  at  Kankakee  a  laboratory,  and  a  pathologist 
was  employed,  who  gives  all  of  his  time  to  making  microscopical  and  other 
scientific  investigations,  and  who  devotes  at  least  one  hour  a  day  to  a  general 
discussion  with  the  physicians  of  that  institution.  The  result  has  been  to  arouse 
a  new  interest  and  create  the  highest  aspirations  throughout  that  great  institu- 
tion. There  is  every  reason  why  Illinois  should  lead  in  this  line  of  scientific 
work.  I  believe  this  pathological  work  to  be  of  such  importance  that  the 
trustees  of  each  of  the  other  insane  asylums  have  been  requested  to  establish  a 
laboratory  and  employ  a  pathologist  for  the  benefit  of  said  institutions. 

SOLDIERS  AND  SAILORS'  HOME. 

In  this  Home  there  has  been  friction  between  the  superintendent  and  the 
trustees,  due,  in  part,  to  the  discipline  which  the  superintendent  enforced  and 
which  the  trustees  regarded  as  being  too  severe.  In  consequence  of  these  dif- 
ferences, the  superintendent  resigned  early  in  November,  and  the  trustees  ap- 
pointed a  successor.  The  business  affairs  of  the  Home,  however,  as  well  as  the 
physical  condition  of  the  Home,  are  practically  perfect,  and  it  should  be  said, 
that  prior  to  taking  charge  of  the  institution  by  the  outgoing  superintendent, 
more  than  160  of  the  inmates  of  the  Home  had  been  expelled  for  insubordina- 
tion, for  persistent  violation  of  the  rules  of  the  institution  and  for  bad  conduct. 
After  being  thus  expelled,  they  found  themselves  penniless  by  the  wayside  and 
nearly  all  drifted  into  the  alms-houses  of  the  country.  Believing  that  this 
condition  of  affairs  ought  not  to  continue,  the  superintendent  re-admitted  all 
of  the  men  who  had  been  so  expelled  and  nearly  all  of  them  are  still  in  the 
Home.  Many  of  them  have  been  a  constant  source  of  annoyance  and  trouble 
and  made  discipline  a  necessity,  yet  I  believe  that  the  act  of  taking  them 
back  was  humane  and  right.  The  trustees  have  shown  the  greatest  vigilance 
and  care  in  watching  over  this  institution,  and  have  done  everything  in  their 
power  for  the  relief  and  comfort  of  the  old  soldiers.  I  recommend  a  liberal 
policy  toward  the  Home.  This  great  State  owes  these  unfortunate  veterans  a 
debt  of  gratitude  and  we  must  see  to  it  that  their  declining  years  are  not  only 
peaceful  but  comfortable. 

INDUSTRIAL  HOME  FOR  THE  BLIND. 

The  last  General  Assembly  made  an  appropriation  to  found  an  Industrial 
Home  for  the  Blind,  in  which  these  unfortunate  people  could  earn  a  living  and 
thus  cease  to  be  beggars  on  the  street  or  inmates  of  alms-houses.  In  pursu- 
ance of  this  object,  ground  was  secured  near  Douglas  Park  in  Chicago,  and 
a  four-story  shop  with  a  steam  plant  attached  has  been  erected,  and  near  it  a 
large  four-story  brick  building,  arranged  for  residence  purposes,  has  been  com- 


APPENDIX.  901 

pleted  and  opened.    This  will  enable  many  of  the  blind  of  the  State  to  become 

self-supporting. 

REFORMATORY   FOR   GIRLS. 

The  last  General  Assembly  also  made  appropriations  to  establish  a  Reform- 
atory for  girls.  To  carry  out  this  provision,  a  board  was  appointed,  a  build- 
ing was  rented,  and  a  reform  school,  in  harmony  with  the  act,  was  opened, 
and  steps  were  taken  to  erect  a  new  building.  A  charming  site  for  this  purpose 
was  secured  on  the  banks  of  Fox  river,  near  Geneva,  in  Kane  county,  and  the 
new  building  is  now  under  roof  and  will  be  ready  to  be  opened  in  the  spring. 

FIRE  AT  ANNA. 

On  the  night  of  January  3,  1895,  a  fire  destroyed  a  large  part  of  the  main 
building  of  the  Southern  Hospital  for  the  Insane.  No  lives  were  lost  and  all 
the  patients  have  been  properly  housed  and  cared  for.  I  have  not  the  exact 
data  on  hand,  but  recommend  that  the  necessary  appropriation  be  made  at 
once  to  rebuild  the  part  destroyed. 

REPORTS  OF  TRUSTEES,  ETC. 

It  would  make  this  message  entirely  too  long  for  me  to  refer  in  detail  to 
the  salient  features  of  each  State  institution,  and  I  am,  therefore,  obliged  to 
refer  you  to  the  reports  made  by  the  trustees,  and  also  to  the  report  of  the 
State  Board  of  Charities,  all  of  which  are  herewith  submitted.  I  must,  how- 
ever, direct  your  attention  to  the  fact  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  school  for 
the  education  of  the  deaf  and  dumb,  at  Jacksonville,  every  State  institution  is 
overcrowded.  I  am  informed  that  there  are  several  thousand  insane  persons 
in  the  alms-houses  of  the  State.  The  institution  for  the  feeble-minded  at  Lin- 
coln has  between  600  and  700  inmates,  and  there  are  now  that  many  applica- 
tions for  admission  by  people  for  whom  no  room  can  be  found. 

We  need,  at  once,  more  room  for  the  feeble-minded  and  a  new  asylum 
for  the  insane.  Those  who  have  given  the  matter  most  consideration  advise  an 
asylum  for  epileptics  and  the  hopelessly  insane,  to  which  this  class  of  patients 
from  the  other  four  institutions  shotild  be  removed,  their  places  being  filled 
by  those  for  whom  there  may  yet  be  hope — that  is,  make  the  new  institution 
an  asylum  and  have  existing  institutions  do  the  work  of  the  hospitals. 

In  the  fall  of  1893,  and  again  in  the  spring  of  1894,  all  of  the  superintendents 
and  trustees  were  convened  in  convention  at  Springfield,  for  the  purpose  of 
being  more  fully  advised  as  to  the  policy  of  the  administration,  but  more 
especially  for  the  purpose  of  discussion  and  interchange  of  ideas.  While  this 
was  a  new  departure,  it  was  a  pronounced  success,  the  discussion  in  particular 
being  of  great  benefit  and  assistance  to  all  present,  both  in  the  dissemination 
of  new  ideas  and  the  creation  of  higher  aspirations. 

STATE    BOARD    OF    CHARITIES. 

The  last  General  Assembly  passed  an  act  for  the  appointment  of  three 
local  visitors  in  each  county,  to  serve  without  fee,  but  having  power  to  inspect 
both  the  jails  and  the  alms-houses  in  the  county.  The  State  Board  of  Charities 
made  these  appointments  and  already  the  condition  of  many  of  these  places  has 
been  greatly  improved.  It  is  found  that  there  cannot  be  too  much  light  thrown 
into  the  alms-houses  and  jails;  while  many  of  them  are  kept  in  the  very  best 


902  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

•condition,  others  are  sickening  in  their  filth  and  wretchedness.  In  one  of 
the  alms-houses  a  member  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  found  a  number  of 
children  that  were  not  sent  to  school,  and  were  growing  up  in  utter  neglect. 
In  another  this  member  found  a  number  of  insane  men  and  women  practically 
living  in  one  apartment — and  that  filthy.  It  is  believed  that  with  the  added 
machinery  for  inspection,  those  conditions  will  soon  disappear  from  our  fair 

State. 

STATE   BOARD  OF  HEALTH. 

This  board  has  held  two  conventions  of  the  local  health  officers  of  the 
State  with  a  view  of  getting  in  touch  with  every  neighborhood,  so  as  to  be 
in  the  best  position  possible  to  arrest  the  spread  of  any  epidemic  or  contagious 
diseases.  These  conventions  have  been  very  instructive  and  beneficial.  The 
board  has  also  raised  the  standard  of  education  necessary  before  beginning 
the  study  of  medicine.  The  State  has,  for  a  number  of  years,  been  laboring 
to  raise  the  standard  of  the  medical  profession,  and  now  it  is  regarded  as  the 
highest  in  the  Union. 

PRINTER  EXPERT. 

The  State  Printer  Expert  has  revised  the  methods  of  estimating  the  amount 
to  be  paid  the  printing  contractor  so  as  to  make  them  conform  to  the  law, 
and  has  thereby  saved  to  the  State  about  $10,000.  I  call  your  attention  espe- 
cially to  his  recommendations  as  to  the  revisions  of  the  law  governing  State 
printing. 

INSURANCE  DEPARTMENT. 

The  Insurance  Superintendent  has  at  the  cost  of  a  great  deal  of  labor  pre- 
pared a  revision  of  the  laws  relating  to  both  fire  and  life  insurance,  and  I 
commend  this  for  your  consideration.  He  has  also  collected  as  fees,  since 
taking  charge  of  his  office,  about  $15,000  during  the  balance  of  the  year  1893. 
and  $135,000  for  1894,  making  $150,000 — which  has  just  been  turned  into  the 
State  Treasury. 

FACTORY  INSPECTION. 

As  our  population  increased  and  new  machinery  was  added,  a  great  many 
thousands  of  children  were  employed  in  certain  factories  of  large  cities  to  do 
the  work  formerly  done  by  adults.  They  received  only  a  pittance,  and  while 
the  work  in  some  cases  was  light,  they  all  worked  long  hours  and  it  was  soon 
found  that  they  became  dwarfed  in  both  body  and  mind,  often  being  already 
old  before  reaching  the  age  of  maturity.  In  some  factories  there  were  no  safe- 
guards against  accidents,  and  employes  were  being  crippled  and  sometimes 
killed.  In  others  the  sanitary  conditions  were  such  as  to  not  only  breed  disease 
but  to  foster  immorality,  boys  and  girls  being  often  obliged  to  use  the  same 
filthy  closets.  Again  it  was  found  that  the  working  of  long  hours  in  a  factory 
by  women,  in  the  end  unfitted  them  for  the  duties  of  home  and  of  motherhood, 
in  consequence  of  which  their  children  were  weak  and  often  deformed,  and 
there  was  growing  up  a  generation  of  young  men  and  women  who  were  in- 
ferior both  physically  and  mentally,  and  the  standard  of  American  womanhood 
and  manhood  was  being  lowered.  These  conditions  called  for  a  remedy.  The 
question  was  not  new.  All  civilized  countries  have  had  to  deal  with  it.  Eng- 
land found  all  these  conditions  seventy-five  years  ago  and  Parliament  passed 
acts  to  remedy  them.  Those  acts  were  based  on  the  ground  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  government  to  prevent  degeneration  of  its  people,  that  the  law  of  self  preser- 


APPENDIX.  903 

vation  alone  requires  this,  for  an  inferior  people  must  go  down  before  a 
superior,  both  on  the  field  and  in  civil  life.  These  acts  of  Parliament  were 
resisted  by  nearly  all  the  wealth  and  by  the  Church  of  England.  It  was  claimed 
they  would  ruin  the  British  Empire,  but  Parliament  made  new  investigations 
and  passed  still  more  stringent  measures,  until  after  a  struggle  of  fifty  years  it 
had  perfected  the  most  comprehensive  system  of  factory  legislation  in  the 
world.  Some  of  her  greatest  statesmen  now  consider  this  one  of  the  grandest 
achievements  of  the  empire.  All  the  civilized  countries  of  the  old  world,  and 
the  older  and  more  advanced  States  of  our  country  have  adopted  similar  legis^ 
lation. 

Following  these  examples,  the  last  General  Assembly  passed  an  act  to 
remedy  the  evils  complained  of.  It  has  now  been  in  operation  a  little  over  a 
year  and  a  half,  and  while  it  is  in  many  respects  crude  and  imperfect,  and  may, 
in  a  few  exceptional  cases,  have  done  an  injustice,  yet  it  has  accomplished 
much  for  humanity.  The  foul  sanitary  conditions  have  almost  been  wiped  out. 
More  protection  against  accidents  has  been  enforced,  and  the  scene  of 
thousands  of  little  children  stunting  their  lives  by  working  ten  hours  a  day  in 
a  factory,  doing  the  work  of  adults  for  a  mere  pittance,  no  longer  disgraces  the 

State. 

HISTORICAL    LIBRARY    BOARD. 

This  board  has  prepared  a  complete  list  or  catalogue  of  all  the  papers  and 
books  in  the  library,  and  realizing  that  on  account  of  the  romantic  history  and 
wonderful  achievements  of  this  State,  and  its  rapidly  increasing  greatness,  its 
history  must  soon  attract  general  interest,  the  board  has  made  zealous  efforts 
to  procure  all  the  papers,  books  and  documents  that  tend  to  throw  any  light 
on  the  early  development  of  our  State  and  the  Northwest  country,  and  it  now 
invites  correspondence  from  all  who  have  any  documents  of  this  character  in 
their  possession. 

BOARD  OF  LIVE  STOCK  COMMISSIONERS. 

This  board  has  been  exceedingly  vigilant,  and  has  been  able  to  prevent 
the  spread  of  any  contagious  diseases  among  the  horses  and  other  animals 
of  the  State.  But  it  was  found  that  the  State  inspection  which  we  were  main- 
taining at  Chicago  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  traffic  in  diseased  cattle  was 
a  farce.  The  inspection  was  largely  for  its  effect  on  foreign  markets,  the  city 
of  Chicago  having  its  own  inspectors,  who  were  supposed  to  look  after  the 
meat  used  by  the  city.  Owing  to  the  vast  extent  of  the  Union  Stock  Yards, 
and  the  hostility  of  many  of  the  merchants  there  to  any  interference  by  the 
State,  but  little  could  be  done  without  an  army  of  men.  In  company  with 
the  board,  I  attended  a  meeting  of  the  stock  yard  merchants,  and  they  were 
informed  that  as  this  inspection  was  largely  for  their  benefit,  they  must  either 
cooperate  with  the  State  or  the  inspection  would  be  withdrawn  entirely.  There- 
upon the  Stock  Yard  Exchange  adopted  new  regulations  and  proceeded  to 
cooperate  with  the  State  authorities,  and  it  is  believed  the  traffic  in  diseased 
cattle  has  been  substantially  broken  up.  Some  legislation,  however,  is  urgently 
needed  to  enable  the  board  to  deal  more  effectively  with  men  who  defy  the 
authorities;  also  to  enable  the  commissioners  to  inspect  all  places  wherein  any 
cattle  are  confined. 


904  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

WOMEN  IN  THE   PUBLIC  SERVICE. 

This  administration  has  taken  a  new  departure  by  appointing  a  number  of 
women  on  important  boards  and  to  other  positions.  While  this  was  not  good 
politics,  from  either  a  personal  or  party  standpoint,  it  was  believed  to  be  eter- 
nally right,  and  was  done  solely  on  the  ground  of  justice.  The  army  of  women 
who  are  obliged  to' earn  their  own  bread  is  constantly  increasing.  At  best  they 
have  a  hard  struggle  to  maintain  themselves.  Justice  required  that  the  same 
rewards  and  honors  that  encourage  and  incite  men  should  be  equally  in  reach 
of  women  in  every  field  of  activity.  And  I  am  glad  to  report  that  they  have 
met  every  reasonable  expectation.  .As  a  rule,  they  have  done  their  work  well. 

PENITENTIARIES. 

Owing  to  the  panic  and  the  consequent  paralysis  of  business,  every  State 
in  the  Union  has  met  with  very  great  difficulty  in  keeping  its  prisoners  em- 
ployed. In  a  number  of  States  in  which  the  contract  system  still  prevails, 
convicts  have  been  offered  at  forty  cents  a  day  without  meeting  with  any 
employer.  Some  of  the  officials  of  this  State  visited  a  number  of  the  large 
penitentiaries  in  the  States  east  of  us,  and  everywhere  found  hundreds  of  con- 
victs idle.  The  health  of  the  prisoners,  as  well  as  the  highest  moral  and 
economic  considerations,  require  that  they  should  work.  In  Illinois  every 
convict  has  been  kept  steadily  at  work  with  the  loss  of  scarcely  a  day.  The 
contract  system  has  been  prohibited  by  the  Constitution,  but  before  this  was 
done  a  number  of  contracts  had  been  made  which  did'not  expire  until  October, 
1894.  Formerly,  from  250  to  400  men  were  sometimes  employed  in  one  indus- 
try, thus  producing  an  amount  of  goods  which  seriously  affected  the  market, 
and  thus  competing  directly  with  outside  free  labor.  The  commissioners  and 
officers  appointed  in  the  spring  of  1893  were  instructed  that  they  must:  First, 
comply  with  the  Constitution  and  abolish  the  contract  system  entirely;  second, 
that  the  prisoners  must  be  worked  on  State  account,  and,  third,  that  enough 
new  industries  must  be  introduced  into  the  prisons  so  that  the  number  of 
convicts  working  at  any  one  industry  might  be  reduced  to  as  nearly  100  as  pos- 
sible, thus  making  the  competition  with  outside  free  labor  the  minimum. 
This  policy  has  been  carried  out.  Owing  to  the  severe  business  depres- 
sion, it  was  exceedingly  difficult  to  establish  new  industries;  the  great  majority 
of  manufacturing  establishments  outside  of  prisons  were  obliged  to  shut  down 
because  they  could  find  no  market  for  their  products;  but  in  spite  of  these 
obstacles,  the  prison  officials  were  obliged  to  go  ahead  and  they  have  met 
with  a  remarkable  degree  of  success. 

It  is  to  be  deprecated  that  convict  labor  should  in  any  way,  even  in  the 
slightest  degree,  be  brought  in  competition  with  free  labor.  To  reduce  this 
competition  to  the  minimum,  the  present  system  has  been  adopted.  Every 
consideration  of  humanity  emphasizes  that  the  convicts  should  not  be  allowed 
to  remain  in  idleness,  and  if  this  consideration  did  not  control  it  would  be 
unjust  to  the  tax-payers  to  make  no  effort  to  secure  some  revenue  from  the 
work  of  the  prisoners.  If  the  Legislature  can  suggest  a  plan  better  than  the 
one  now  in  force,  and  which  will  make  less  the  competition  with  free  labor,  we 
will  be  most  happy  to  cooperate  in  its  enforcement. 

The  present  commissioners  have  given  to  the  discharge  of  their  duties 
more  time  than  was  ever  before  done  in  the  history  of  the  State.  At  Joliet 


APPENDIX.  905 

one  of  them  has  given  all  of  his  time,  and  the  other  two  from  a  third  to  a 
half  of  their  time. 

CHESTER. 

The  prison  at  Chester  has  never  been  self-sustaining.  The  annual  deficit 
has  always  been  about  $100,000.  A  number  of  industries  are  carried  on  there, 
brick-making  being  one  of  them,  and  a  superior  quality  of  brick  is  manu- 
factured. New  ovens  have  been  put  in  for  this  purpose,  and  the  entire  prison 
has  been  remodeled  and  is  now  in  excellent  condition.  There  are  at  present 
694  convicts  confined  there,  and  the  commissioners  report  that  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  better  business  methods  they  have  so  far  reduced  the  expense  of  the 
management  that  they  will  need  only  $50,000  a  year  to  meet  the  deficit,  instead 
of  $100,000,  as  heretofore,  and  they  believe  that  in  the  near  future  the  prison 
can  be  made  self-sustaining. 

The  insane  asylum  connected  with  this  prison  has  been  entirely  remodeled. 
A  new  water  supply  has  been  put  in  and  it  is  now  lighted  by  electricity  and 
heated  by  steam.  Formerly  it  was  lighted  by  oil  lamps  and  heated  by  stoves, 
which  stood  in  the  rooms  occupied  by  insane  criminals. 

For  a  better  understanding  of  the  present  condition  of  this  penitentiary  and 
the  changes  made  there,  I  refer  you  to  the  report  of  the  commissioners,  here- 
with submitted. 

JOLIET. 

The  former  commissioners  of  this  prison  on  October  i,  1892,  reported  to 
the  Governor  as  follows:  "Balance  of  cash  now  on  hand  and  in  banks, 
$63,494.91.  This  institution  is  self-sustaining." 

They  then  continued  in  charge  of  the  prison  until  toward  the  end  of 
January,  1893,  and  before  retiring  they  spread  a  statement  upon  the  records 
of  the  prison.  Among  other  things  they  said: 

"There  was,  as  on  October  ist,  1892,  cash  on  hand  and  in  banks,  $63,494.91, 
and  on  January  24th,  1893,  cash  on  hand  and  in  banks,  $39,017.70,  a  falling  off 
of  $24,477.70."  And  the  January  bills  were  still  unpaid.  They  also  spread  on 
the  records  an  explanation  of  this  difference,  claiming  that  about  $1,850  was 
spent  in  repairs,  but  the  principal  reason  was  "the  expiration  of  high-priced 
contracts,"  meaning  contracts  for  convicts. 

In  other  words,  the  prison  was  running  behind.  Making  allowance  for 
the  sum  of  $1,850,  which  they  claimed  had  been  put  into  permanent  improve- 
ment, it  still  left  a  deficit  of  $22,627.70  between  the  earnings  and  expenses  of 
the  penitentiary,  which  had  accrued  during  the  months  of  October,  November 
and  December.  They  did  not  pay  the  bills  for  January,  but  the  same  conditions 
existed  during  that  month,  so  that  during  the  last  four  months  that  the  old 
commissioners  had  charge  of  the  prison  there  was  a  monthly  deficit  between 
the  earnings  and  expenses  of  the  prison  of  about  $7,542  per  month,  making  in 
the  neighborhood  of  $90.000  a  year  if  continued,  or  $180,000  for  two  years. 
It  is  true  that  the  prison  had  once  been  self-sustaining,  and  among  other  rea- 
sons given  by  the  old  commissioners  in  attempting  to  account  for  this  deficit, 
was  the  fact  that  since  the  prohibition  of  contract  labor,  contractors  felt  inse- 
cure, and  therefore  the  commissioners  could  not  get  as  high  wages  for  the  con- 
victs as  they  formerly  did.  The  present  administration  took  charge  of  the 
prison  toward  the  end  of  January,  1893,  and  found  nearly  all  the  prisoners  at 
work  at  prices  which  had  been  fixed  by  the  former  commissioners,  and  found 


906  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

that  under  this  arrangement  the  prison  must  continue  to  run  behind  more 
than  $7,000  per  month,  just  as  it  had  during  the  last  four  months  that  the  old 
commissioners  ran  it.  At  that  time  there  were  1,372  convicts  in  the  prison, 
and  at  present  there  are  1,566  convicts  there.  The  business  depression  already 
referred  to  was  felt  most  keenly  in  the  prison.  The  city  of  Joliet  itself  is  filled 
with  manufacturing  establishments,  all  of  which  were  idle;  yet,  in  spite  of 
this,  the  commissioners  have  introduced  five  new  industries  and  changed  five 
others  to  State  account,  so  that  there  are  now  ten  industries  carried  on  there 
on  State  account,  and  two  are  still  in  the  hands  of  contractors.  Under  con- 
tracts which  were  let  eight  years  ago,  539  convicts  were  bound  to  contractors 
until  some  time  in  October  last.  Owing  to  the  want  of  funds  with  which 
to  start  new  industries,  321  convicts  are  still  working  under  old  contracts. 
The  introduction  of  new  industries  involved  for  a  time  a  loss  to  the  insti- 
tution. It  took  time  to  install  them,  time  to  make  the  necessary  arrangements, 
to  get  the  right  kind  of  material,  and  time  for  the  convicts  to  learn  the  new 
work,  so  that  there  was  necessarily  a  falling  off  in  the  earnings  during  that 
period.  Again,  the  first  work  produced  by  the  convicts  working  at  a  new 
trade  was  not  of  the  highest  order,  and  in  consequence  had  to  be  sold  as 
inferior  goods.  This  also  seriously  affected  the  earning  capacity  of  the  prison, 
but  all  of  these  obstacles  have  been  overcome  in  connection  with  the  industries 
now  established.  It  appears  from  the  report  of  the  commissioners,  herewith 
submitted,  that  the  difference  between  the  earnings  and  the  expenses  of  the 
prison  from  October  i,  1892,  to  October  i,  1894,  is  $129,144.48.  Of  this  sum, 
$76,807.10  accrued  from  October  i,  1892,  to  October  i,  1893,  and  $52,337.38 
during  the  last  year.  Of  the  $76,807.10  of  shortage  which  accrued  during  the 
first  year,  about  $29,872.18  accrued  during  the  months  of  October,  November, 
December  and  January,  during  which  time  the  old  commissioners  had  charge. 
The  present  commissioners  believe  that  with  a  revival  of  business  the  prison 
will  be  made  entirely  self-sustaining  under  the  new  system.  In  their  report  they 
say  they  will  need  about  $100,000  for  this  purpose.  If  this  is  granted  them,  they 
will  put  the  last  convict  in  the  institution  at  work  on  State  account,  and  thus 
finally  put  an  end  to  the  old  convict  contract  system,  a  system  which  made 
reform  impossible  by  degrading  and  hardening  the  convict  into  a  brute,  while 
it  yielded  fortunes  to  the  contractor. 

The  penitentiary  having  been  long  in  charge  of  contractors  who  could 
not  be  expected  to  spend  any  money  in  improvements,  it  was  found  that  very 
expensive  repairs  in  the  way  of  making  new  floors,  roofs,  etc.,  were  necessary. 
Then  it  was  found  that  the  State  had  no  steam  plant  to  speak  of  and  no  power 
plant  whatever.  The  new  commissioners  have  put  in  a  shop,  have  built  a 
power  house,  and  have  built  a  complete  steam  and  electric  light  system.  The 
State  now  has  at  Joliet  one  of  the  very  best  power  plants  to  be  found  in  the 
country.  The  power  used  in  the  shops  is  electricity.  I  respectfully  suggest 
that  in  accordance  with  the  custom,  your  honorable  bodies  will  appoint  a 
commission  to  visit  this,  as  well  as  the  other  institutions,  and  make  a  special 
inspection  of  the  changes  and  improvements  which  have  been  made. 

PARDONS  AND   INEQUALITY  OF  SENTENCES. 

In  connection  with  what  is  said  about  our  penitentiaries.  I  feel  it  my  duty 
to  urgently  call  your  attention  to  the  subject  of  pardons,  and  of  the  inequality 
of  sentences  growing  out  of  the  present  method  of  administering  our  criminal 


APPENDIX.  907 

laws.  The  present  system  of  having  a  fixed,  ironclad  sentence  for  each  offense, 
without  regard  to  the  age  or  character  of  the  offender,  or  to  the  degree  of  his 
criminality,  is  a  relic  of  barbarism.  Under  this  system,  it  frequently  happens 
that  the  young  are  sentenced  for  a  long  term  of  imprisonment  because  they 
happen  to  be  poorly  defended,  or  there  is  a  vigorous  prosecution,  while  the 
hardened  criminal,  tried  in  another  county,  receives  a  short  term  of  impris- 
onment for  the  same  offense,  because  he  happens  to  be  well  defended  or  there 
is  a  weak  prosecution.  As  each  case  is  tried  by  a  different  jury  it  is  impossible 
to  have  system  or  regularity  about  it.  My  attention  has  been  repeatedly  called 
to  cases  where  boys  not  yet  twenty  years  old  were  sentenced  to  the  peniten- 
tiary for  fifteen  years,  while  scores  of  hardened  and  very  dangerous  criminals 
were  sentenced  for  two  or  three  years  for  the  same  offense,  and  were  then 
turned  loose  upon  society.  At  present  all  are  turned  out  of  the  prison  without 
reference  to  their  ability  to  maintain  themselves.  It  is  difficult  for  a  man 
who  has  not  been  in  prison  to  get  work,  and  it  is  infinitely  more  difficult  for 
him  who  is  weakened  by  the  degradations  and  humiliations  of  a  prison  experi- 
ence. If  he  tells  where  he  last  worked  he  is  jeered  at  and  ordered  away. 
He  is  obliged  to  lie  at  the  start.  If  he  gets  work  he  is  found  out  and  dis- 
charged. Sometimes  he  is  blackmailed,  very  frequently  he  is  literally  forced 
back  into  crime,  and  with  this  his  hope  of  an  honorable  life  dies  out.  At  this 
point  there  is  born  for  society  a  desperate  criminal,  whose  bloody  hand  will 
always  be  near  its  throat,  and  when  it  thereafter  shivers  at  the  sight  of  his 
awful  deeds,  can  it  then  truthfully  say  it  did  not  help  beget  him? 

The  entire  system  should  be  changed.  The  court  and  jury  should  do  noth- 
ing except  ascertain  the  guilt  of  the  defendant  and  simply  sentence  him  to 
prison,  and  the  release  of  the  prisoner  should  then  depend  upon  circumstances. 
The  young  and  those  who  are  not  yet  hardened,  who  sinned  in  a  moment  of 
temptation  or  excitement,  or  in  a  moment  of  weakness,  should  be  detained  the 
minimum  length  of  time  and  then  released,  but  not  until  after  employment 
and  a  home  has  been  found  for  them.  Experience  shows  that  prison  officials 
can  get  work  for  discharged  prisoners  when  the  latter  can  not.  The  hardened 
criminal  and  those  who  are  natural  enemies  of  society  should  be  detained  the 
maximum  length  of  time.  This  system  was  strongly  urged  by  my  immediate- 
predecessor  in  office,  in  language  more  eloquent  than  is  at  my  command,  but  I 
wish  to  urge  it  with  the  same  earnestness. 

NUMBER  OF  PARDONS. 

During  the  twenty  years  immediately  preceding  my  administration  there 
were,  altogether,  1,673  pardons  and  commutations  granted,  making  an  average 
of  84  2-3  pardons  and  commutations  for  each  year.  Governor  Cullom,  during 
the  six  years  of  his  incumbency,  granted  447  pardons,  or  an  average  of  72^/2 
per  year.  During  the  two  years  of  my  administration  I  have  granted  144  par- 
dons and  commutations,  being  an  average  of  72  per  year.  I  have  thus  fallen 
below  the  average  in  the  granting  of  pardons  and  commutations.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  number  of  prisoners  and  consequently  the  number  of  applica- 
tions for  pardons  have  greatly  increased.  We  frequently  receive  from  three  to 
five  applications  for  pardons  a  day,  and  the  work  this  entails  is  so  great  that 
it  cannot  be  properly  attended  to  by  one  man.  Besides,  in  many  cases,  this  is 
not  the  proper  method  of  getting  relief,  whereas,  if  prisoners  were  released 


908  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

under  a  system  of  parole  already  discussed,  every  prisoner  would  stand  on  his 
own  merits. 

CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT, 

During  the  past  two  years  there  have  been  seven  men  hanged  in  this 
State,  and  I  have  commuted  the  death  penalty  to  imprisonment  for  life  in 
two  other  cases.  I  respectfully  submit  for  your  consideration  the  question  as 
to  whether  the  death  penalty  does  any  substantial  good,  whether  we  are  any 
better  off  than  they  are  in  those  States  where  they  long  ago  abolished  it, 
whether  it  is  not  barbarous  and  degrading  in  its  effects,  and  whether  it  would 
not  be  better  to  have  a  more  rational  system  of  managing  our  prisons,  and 
then  abolish  capital  punishment  entirely. 

STATE  REFORMATORY  AT  PONTIAC. 

Formerly  this  was  a  reform  school  for  boys  who  did  not  exceed  sixteen 
years  of  age.  Four  years  ago,  the  General  Assembly  passed  an  act  making 
it  a  State  reformatory  for  all  offenders  under  twenty-one  years  of  age. 

Under  the  new  law,  prisoners  are  sent  there  under  an  indeterminate  sen- 
tence; that  is,  the  court  simply  determines  whether  they  are  or  are  not  guilty 
and  sentences  them  to  the  institution  where  they  have  to  remain  at  least  a 
year  or  may  be  held  for  a  number  of  years.  The  managers  are  in  possession 
of  all  the  information  that  can  be  had  touching  the  previous  character  and 
career  of  the  young  offender,  his  education,  habits  of  industry,  etc.  After  the 
expiration  of  one  year,  they  may  parole  a  prisoner  for  a  time,  provided  they 
first  find  him  a  home  and  suitable  employment.  If,  during  this  parole,  he 
does  well,  he  is  ultimately  released,  if  not,  they  have  the  power  to  take  him 
back.  If  the  prisoner  is  vicious  or  for  other  reasons  it  is  not  deemed  for  the  best 
interests  of  society  to  put  him  on  parole,  he  is  kept  in  the  institution  for  the 
maximum  number  of  years  the  law  fixes  as  the  penalty  for  the  offense  he  has 
committed. 

In  this  institution  the  aim  is  to  give  every  young  man  the  rudiments  of 
an  English  education,  such  higher  and  moral  instruction  as  may  be  practic- 
able, and  also,  as  far  as  possible,  to  teach  him  a  trade;  above  all,  to  inculcate 
habits  of  industry  and  morality. 

Owing  to  the  want  of  harmony  in  the  board  and  the  failure  of  some  con- 
tractors, practically  nothing  was  done  towards  changing  the  institution  until 
about  eighteen  months  ago.  Since  that  time  three  new  buildings  have  been 
erected  and  the  old  ones  have  been  considerably  changed  and  remodeled. 
There  are  now  nine  schools  and  nearly  twice  that  many  workshops  or  schools 
for  mechanical  training,  in  operation.  Every  inmate  is  compelled  to  devote 
certain  hours  to  study  and  recitation,  and  certain  other  fixed  hours  to  work 
in  a  shop  learning  the  use  of  tools.  In  addition  to  these  hours  of  study,  the 
older  prisoners  are  required  to  work  at  the  manufacture  of  articles  for  sale,  so 
that  the  institution  is  at  once  a  large  prison,  an  English  school,  a  collection 
of  workshops  in  which  instruction  is  given,  and  a  manufacturing  establishment. 
A  good  band  has  been  organized  among  them,  and  the  superintendent  and 
managers  have  been  requested  to  employ  a  competent  officer  to  drill  the  boys 
in  military  exercises  every  day,  first  as  a  means  of  physical  exercise,  but  more 
particularly  for  the  development  of  a  higher  spirit  and  a  better  tone  among 
them. 

There  are  now  812  boys  and  young  men  there.     During  the  last  year,  266 


'APPENDIX.  909 

prisoners  were  paroled  under  the  provisions  of  the 'law.  Homes  and  employ- 
ment were  found  for  all  of  them  before  leaving  the  institution  and  the  officers 
of  the  prison  continued  in  correspondence  both  with  the  prisoners  and  with 
their  employers,  and  the  results  have  been  gratifying  beyond  the  hopes  of  the 
friends  of  the  institution.  Out  of  the  266  paroled,  231  are  reported  as  doing 
well.  The  remaining  are  reported  as  follows:  Returned  to  prison,  10;  ran 
away  or  ceased  to  report,  24;  died,  I.  The  theory  upon  which  the  reformatory 
was  founded,  while  not  entirely  new,  had  had  no  trial  in  the  west,  and  only  a. 
limited  trial  anywhere  in  the  world.  Feeling  that  Illinois  should  have  a  re- 
formatory that  was  second  to  none,  the  aim  has  been  to  place  on  the  board 
of  this  institution  men  imbued  with  the  highest  motives,  who  are  familiar  with 
the  literature  relating  to  reformatories  and  the  experiments  which  have  been 
made,  and  who  felt  an  enthusiasm  on  this  subject.  And  the  aim  has  been  to 
keep  a  man  in  immediate  charge  who  should  not  only  be  familiar  with  all  the 
learning  relating  to  the  subject,  but  who  should  bring  to  the  institution  the 
experience  of  a  business  man,  a  prison  manager,  an  educator,  and  a  man 
thoroughly  familiar  with  the  practical  methods  most  successfully  employed  in 
modern  reformatories.  As  a  result  of  the  combined  efforts  of  these  men,  we 
now  have  a  State  reformatory  which  is  the  equal  of  any  in  this  country,  and  is 
moving  along  lines  which  will  soon  make  it  one  of  the  very  best  in  the  world. 
In  this  connection,  I  recommend  that  the  maximum  age  of  young  men  eligible 
to  this  institution  be  changed  from  twenty-one  to  thirty  years,  so  as  to  make 
it  in  this  respect  correspond  to  the  New  York  Reformatory,  at  Elmira. 

NORMAL    UNIVERSITIES. 

The  excellence  of  the  public  schools  of  the  State  has  for  years  been  a 
matter  of  congratulation  with  our  people,  and  some  years  ago  the  General 
Assembly  provided  for  establishing  in  this  State  two  normal  universities  in 
order  to  furnish  the  young  men  and  women  of  the  State,  who  desired  to  f611ow 
school  teaching  as  a  profession,  an  opportunity  to  prepare  themselves  for  this 
work.  One  was  located  at  Carbondale  and  the  other  at  Normal,  and  both  of 
them  have  been  maintained  at  State  expense,  and  have  been  in  fairly  pros- 
perous condition.  Some  complaint  was  made  that  too  many  children  were 
admitted,  merely  because  they  paid  tuition,  and  there  was  a  tendency  for  the 
institutions  to  become  neighborhood  high  schools  rather  than  normal  univer- 
sities. It  was  deemed  proper  to  impress  upon  the  officers  of  these  institutions 
the  importance  of  arresting  this  tendency,  and  of  admitting  only  such  children 
from  the  neighborhood  as  were  necessary  to  form  model  schools,  and  outside 
of  this,  to  invite  the  attendance  only  of  such  as  expected  to  follow  teaching. 
Both  of  these  institutions  are  now  in  a  more  prosperous  condition  than  they 
were  at  any  prior  period  in  their  history,  and  as  they  have  much  to  do  in 
determining  the  character  of  the  common  schools  of  the  State,  I  recommend 
a  most  liberal  policy  toward  them. 

HIGHER  EDUCATION. 

While  we  have  laid  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  of  our  educational 
system,  and  have  built  well  thereon,  we  have  thus  far  not  afforded  the  young 
men  and  women  of  the  State  the  means  of  a  higher  education  that  other  States 
offer,  and  as  a  consequence,  thousands  of  our  young  men  and  women  annually 
go  away  to  neighboring  States,  or  to  Eastern  States  to  get  these  advantages. 


910  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

We  have  a  large  number  of  private  colleges  which  are  doing  excellent  work, 
and  should  be  encouraged,  but  they  have  not  the  necessary  means  to  procure 
the  extensive  equipment  that  is  now  essential  to  a  higher  institution  of  learn- 
ing. This  can  only  be  supplied  by  institutions  which  have  been  richly  en- 
dowed by  private  munificence,  or  which  receive  support  from  the  State.  Most 
of  the  large  educational  institutions  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  are,  at  least 
partially,  maintained  by  the  State.  This  is  notably  so  in  Michigan,  Wisconsin, 
Missouri  and  Iowa. 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

For  many  years  there  has  been  maintained  at  Champaign,  in  this  State, 
partly  at  State  expense,  a  university,  now  know  as  the  University  of  Illinois. 
For  some  reason  our  people  do  not  seem  to  know  much  about  it.  By  many 
it  is  regarded  as  an  agricultural  school.  It  has,  however,  for  years,  had  some 
of  the  most  eminent  men  in  the  country  among  its  faculty,  and  has  been  doing 
a  high  grade  of  work.  There  is  an  agricultural  experiment  station  maintained 
there,  which  is  only  incidental  to  the  university  and  gives  the  students  that 
much  of  an  additional  advantage,  giving  them  the  facilities  for  acquiring  knowl- 
edge in  regard  to  tree  planting  and  in  regard  to  everything  pertaining  to  agri- 
culture, without  extra  expense.  A  United  States  military  officer  is  stationed 
there,  who  gives  instruction  in  military  science,  so  that  the  student  gets  the 
benefit  of  military  training  in  the  form  of  exercises,  without  additional  ex- 
penditure or  loss  of  time.  The  equipment  of  the  University  for  teaching  the 
modern  sciences  is  very  good,  and  the  number  of  students  in  the  engineering 
department  has  so  increased  that  the  last  General  Assembly  made  a  large 
appropriation  for  constructing  an  engineering  building.  This  building  has 
been  completed  and  is  now  in  use,  and  I  am  informed  by  men  who  have  exam- 
ined the  equipment  of  other  large  educational  institutions  of  this  country  that 
the  University  of  Illinois  has  now  the  best  arranged  and  the  best  equipped 
engineering  department,  especially  electrical  engineering  department,  that  there 
is  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  as  good  as  any  in  the  country.  The  University 
had  large  scientific  collections  and  obtained  a  very  large  addition  to  its  museum 
from  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  but  it  has  not  now  the  room  to  place 
these  specimens.  Large  quantities  have  to  be  kept  in  boxes,  and  there  is 
urgently  needed  a  library  and  museum  building.  The  number  of  students  at 
the  University  has  now  reached  nearly  800  and  is  rapidly  increasing.  Steps 
have  been  taken  to  bring  the  institution  more  fully  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
people  of  the  State,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  number  of  students  will  double  in 
a  very  short  time.  Inasmuch  as  Illinois  is  now  one  of  the  wealthiest  and  great- 
est States  on  the  globe,  as  its  people  lead  all  others  in  nearly  every  field  of 
human  activity,  and  as  we  have  not  only  invited  the  attention  but  won  the 
admiration  of  the  world  by  our  achievements,  I  submit  that  Illinois  should 
have  one  of  the  greatest  educational  institutions  on  earth.  We  have  the  wealth, 
the  people  and  the  enterprise  to  make  it.  We  should  have  a  university  that 
will  remain  free  from  the  dilettanteism  now  found  in  some  sections  of  the 
country,  that  will  continue  to  inculcate  those  principles  of  a  rugged,  sturdy 
manhood  and  honest  devotion  to  country,  those  principles  of  civil  liberty  and 
of  free  government  which  have  made  our  country  great  and  glorious  in  the 
sight  of  the  world,  and  I  most  earnestly  urge  a  liberal  policy  toward  this  insti- 
tution of  learning. 


'APPENDIX. 

NEW   BUILDINGS. 

During  the  last  two  years,  thirteen  new  buildings  have  been  erected  for  the 
State,  the  most  important  being  the  Engineering  Hall  at  the  University. 

A  BETTER  CIVIL  SERVICE. 

I  would  here  suggest  that  there  is  urgent  need  of  legislation  in  regard 
to  the  civil  service  that  will  relieve  executive  officers,  both  State  and  municipal, 
of  the  constant  and  overwhelming  importunity  for  place.  In  a  great  State 
like  ours,  and  in  a  great  city  like  Chicago,  this  importunity  is  so  constant  as 
to  test  the  powers  of  physical  endurance,  besides  taking  up  so  much  time 
as  to  seriously  interfere  with  public  business.  Owing  to  the  large  number  of 
men  who  were  out  of  employment,  the  last  two  years  have  been  especially 
trying  in  this  respect.  I  doubt  the  wisdom  of  a  system  that  forever  keeps 
the  same  men  on  the  pay-roll,  for  it  is  not  calculated  to  produce  the  highest 
degree  of  efficiency.  Every  executive  officer  or  head  of  department,  whether 
State  or  municipal,  being  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  his  office,  should,  sub- 
ject to  some  general  rules,  have  the  power  of  discharging  any  employe  when, 
in  his  judgment,  it  is  best  for  the  service;  but  when  he  does  so,  the  place 
should  be  filled  by  taking  the  first  from  a  list  of  names  selected  on  the  ground 
of  merit  by  an  examining  board.  This  would  take  away  the  temptation  to 
remove  in  order  to  make  room  for  favorites,  and,  at  the  same  time,  it  would 
relieve  the  officer  of  the  embarrassing  importunities  on  the  part  of  that  limit- 
less number  of  good  men  who  want  to  find  places  for  friends.  We  must  strike 
a  mean  between  the  retention  of  incompetents  and  the  distribution  of  spoils. 

PUBLISHING  OF  PAY-ROLLS. 

The  trustees  and  superintendents  have  all  been  instructed  to  include  in 
their  reports  the  complete  pay-rolls  of  their  institutions,  giving  the  name  of 
every  man  or  woman  to  whom  money  has  been  paid,  the  amount  paid  each, 
and  what  service  has  been  rendered.  These  reports  are  printed,  so  that  every 
tax-payer  in  the  State  can  see  who  is  drawing  money  from  the  State  Treasury. 
This  never  before  has  been  done,  but  it  is  believed  that  when  once  firmly 
established  it  will  be  a  great  protection  to  the  public. 

ILLINOIS  AND  MICHIGAN  CANAL. 

It  gives  me  pleasure  to  report  that  the  canal  commissioners  have  offered 
to  pay  $50,000  into  the  State  Treasury,  which  will  be  done  at  once.  Nothing 
of  the  kind  has  occurred  for  nearly  twenty  years.  The  canal  depends  largely 
on  the  carrying  of  building  stone  to  Chicago.  This  business  was  good  until 
about  two  years  ago,  but  almost  dead  for  more  than  a  year,  yet  the  commis- 
sioners have  effected  such  a  saving  in  the  operating  expenses  that  the  net  earn- 
ings of  the  canal  greatly  exceed  those  of  more  prosperous  years,  so  that  after 
turning  $50,000  into  the  State  Treasury  they  will  still  have  a  surplus  of  $38,000 
to  meet  possible  contingencies.  This  $50,000  added  to  $150,000  from  the  In- 
surance Department,  $233,484  by  the  charitable  institutions  and  $92,000  by  the 
Illinois  World's  Fair  board,  hereafter  mentioned,  makes  over  $525,000  that  has 
been  or  is  ready  to  be  turned  into  the  State  Treasury  since  January  i,  1895. 


912  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 


EXTENDING  LINCOLN  PARK. 

As  land  becomes  more  valuable  there  is  a  constant  effort  on  the  part  of 
speculators  to  make  new  land  in  the  lake  along  the  shore  on  the  north  side 
at  Chicago,  and  some  riparian  owners,  in  violation  of  law,  build  piers  into  the 
water  for  this  purpose.  This  shore  should  be  saved  for  the  public,  so  far  as 
possible.  As  Lincoln  Park  is  already  much  too  small  to  accommodate  the 
multitudes  of  people  who  seek  pure  air  and  recreation  there,  and  as  it  can 
only  be  extended  by  utilizing  the  shallow  waters  of  the  lake  for  that  purpose, 
I  recommend  such  legislation  as  will  enable  the  park  commissioners  to  acquire 
the  riparian  rights  and  to  extend  Lincoln  Park  and  the  drives  to  Evanston. 
This  would  protect  the  shore  and  make  the  grandest  park  in  the  world. 

ELECTION   LAWS. 

Our  election  machinery  has  been  greatly  improved  during  the  last  ten 
years,  but  there  are  yet  very  grave  defects  in  it.  Until  we  place  every  candi- 
date for  office  before  the  public  on  his  own  merits,  and  enable  every  citizen 
to  cast  his  ballot  without  any  hindrance  or  embarrassment  of  any  kind,  we 
will  not  have  done  our  duty.  This  State  should  have  the  most  perfect  system 
for  giving  expression  to  the  popular  will  that  can  be  devised,  and  I  recom- 
mend a  careful  revision  of  our  election  laws. 

ADMINISTRATION   OF  JUSTICE   IN   LARGE   CITIES. 

The  condition  of  business  in  the  courts  of  Chicago  almost  amounts  to  a 
denial  of  justice.  It  takes  years  to  get  a  case  finally  settled  by  the  courts, 
while  the  expense,  annoyance  and  lo^ss  of  time  involved  in  watching  it  are  so 
great  that  the  poor  cannot  stand  it  and  business  men  cannot  afford  it.  Liti- 
gants are  worn  out  and  the  subject  matter  of  dispute  often  becomes  useless 
before  the  courts  get  done  with  it.  This  is  not  the  fault  of  the  judges,  but 
of  the  system,  which  in  its  practical  workings  often  discourages  the  honest  man 
and  encourages  the  dishonest  one,  for  it  enables  him  to  wear  the  former  out. 

Urged  by  the  bar,  the  number  of  judges  was  greatly  increased  by  the 
last  General  Assembly,  but  the  conditions  are  almost  the  same.  We  now 
have  twenty-eight  judges  in  Cook  county  alone,  while  there  are  only  thirty- 
four  in  all  England,  Ireland  and  Wales.  In  England,  most  cases  are  disposed 
of  at  once.  The  dishonest  man  does  not  find  it  to  his  interest  to  go  into  the 
courts  there,  while  we,  with  our  system  of  distinctions  and  delays,  almost  offer 
him  a  premium  to  do  so. 

We  borrowed  our  system  of  jurisprudence  from  England  more  than  a 
century  ago,  when  it  was  loaded  down  with  absurd  distinctions  and  formalities. 
We  have  clung  tenaciously  to  its  faults  while  England  long  ago  brushed  them 
aside.  Three-quarters  of  a  century  ago  that  country  began  to  reform  its  judi- 
cial procedure  by  wiping  out  all  useless  distinctions  and  formalities  and  making 
all  procedure  simple  and  disposing  of  each  case  promptly  on  its  merits,  and 
their  appellate  courts  now  revise  cases  only  when  it  is  shown  that  an  actual 
injustice  has  been  done  and  not  simply  because  some  rule  or  useless  formality 
has  been  disregarded.  As  regards  the  administration  of  justice  we  are  to-day 
three-quarters  of  a  century  behind  that  country  from  which  we  borrowed 
our  system.  We  may  be  great  in  politics,  but  do  not  yet  lead  the  way  in 


APPENDIX.  913 

statesmanship.     The  whole  system  should  be  revised  and  simplified  so  that  it 
will  give  our  people  more  prompt  and  speedy  justice  and  less  fine  spun  law. 

JUSTICE  COURTS. 

I  must  again  call  attention  to  the  conditions  surrounding  the  police  and 
justice  courts  of  Chicago.  They  are  a  disgrace,  and  we  will  not  rise  to  the 
demands  of  the  occasion  if  we  do  not  devise  some  remedy  for  these  evils.  I 
also  again  call  attention  to  the  subject  of  permitting  any  officer  connected 
with  the  administration  of  justice  to  keep  fees.  This  is  the  very  foundation 
upon  which  the  whole  structure  of  fraud,  extortions  and  oppression  rests.  No 
man's  bread  should  depend  upon  the  amount  of  business  he  can  "drum  up" 
around  a  so-called  court  of  justice.  Both  of  these  subjects  are  discussed  at 
length  in  my  message  to  the  last  General  Assembly,  and  I  refer  to  it  for 
further  discussion. 

WORLD'S  COLUMBIAN  EXPOSITION. 

In  June,  1891,  the  General  Assembly  passed  an  act  to  enable  the  State  to 
participate  in  the  World's  -Columbian  Exposition,  at  Chicago,  and  it  author- 
ized the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  to  erect  a  building  and  make  such  exhibit 
as  would  illustrate  "the  natural  resources  of  the  State,  together  with  the 
methods  employed  and  results  accomplished  by  the  State  in  its  municipal 
capacity  throughout  its  various  departments,  boards,  commissions  and  other 
agencies  in  the  work  of  forming  the  moral,  educational  and  material  welfare 
of  its  inhabitants."  Under  this  law  the  board  was  authorized  only  to  make  an 
exhibit.  Subsequently,  when  it  was  more  fully  realized  that  we  were  in  a  sense 
the  host,  some  of  our  people  regretted  that  provisions  had  not  been  made 
for  the  social  and  hospitable  amenities.  A  very  complete  and  magnificent  ex- 
hibit was  made,  however,  of  the  resources  and  products  of  the  State,  and  of 
the  workings  of  our  civil  institutions,  and  the  whole  enterprise  was  conducted 
with  such  fidelity  on  the  part  of  the  board  that,  contrary  to  the  usual  experi- 
ence in  such  cases,  instead  of  ending  with  a  deficit,  the  board  has  on  hand 
nearly  $89,000  of  the  moneys  which  were  at  its  disposal,  and  this  is  now  ready 
to  be  turned  into  the  State  Treasury.  The  same  law  which  created  this  board 
also  provided  for  the  creation  of  an  Illinois  Woman's  Exposition  Board  for 
the  purpose  of  exhibiting  the  industries  of  the  women  of  the  State,  and  10  per 
cent  of  the  $800,000  which  was  appropriated  for  exposition  purposes,  that  is 
$80,000,  was  set  apart  for  their  use.  The  women  on  this  board  worked  hard 
for  several  years,  and  succeeded  in  making  a  collection  and  an  exhibition 
which  reflected  great  credit  upon  them  and  upon  the  women  of  the  State,  and 
they  managed  the  business  part  of  it  with  such  care  and  ability  that  they  have 
left  over  $3,000  to  be  turned  into  the  State  Treasury.  Special  boards  were 
created  to  exhibit  the  dairy,  clay,  fruit  and  apiary  products  of  the  State. 
Many  of  the  exhibits  made  by  the  State  of  Illinois  were  the  best  on  the 
ground.  Since  the  Columbian  Exposition  the  State  Board"  of  Agriculture 
has  permanently  located  the  State  Fair  at  Springfield.  It  has  already  erected 
one  very  large  building,  and  is  about  to  erect  others,  and  a  very  successful 
fair  was  held  by  it  this  last  fall.  This  State  Fair  has  become  a  State  institu- 
tion and  promises  to  be  one  of  great  importance.  It  may  be  a  satisfaction 
to  our  people  to  know  that,  owing  to  the  vast  extent  and  great  variety  of  our 
resources  and  of  the  high  order  of  our  exhibits,  the  State  Fair  of  Illinois  is 
58 


LIFE   QUESTIONS. 

now  regarded  as  the  best  in  this  country,  and  the  dates  for  holding  the  fairs 
of  other  States  of  the  Union  are  fixed  so  as  not  to  clash  with  the  State  Fair 
of  Illinois.  The  State  Board  of  Agriculture  has  also  recently  held  in  Chicago 
a  Horse,  Fat  Stock  and  Poultry  Show,  which  was  very  successful.  The  effect 
of  these  industrial  exhibitions,  displaying  not  only  our  products  and  the 
superior  character  of  our  domestic  animals,  but  to  a  certain  extent  the  skill 
and  the  genius  of  our  people,  can  scarcely  be  estimated  as  an  educative  force 
which  constantly  elevates  our  standard  and  creates  that  emulation  which  seeks 
still  greater  and  greater  excellence.  The  World's  Columbian  Exposition 
brought  us  to  the  attention  of  the  whole  civilized  world  and  won  for  us  the 
admiration  of  all  men.  In  consequence  of  this  we  now  occupy  a  position 
where  the  eyes  of  the  world  are  upon  us,  and  where  we  can  neither  retrograde 
nor  stand  still  without  experiencing  a  sense  of  deep  humiliation.  We  must 
move  on  in  order  to  hold  the  high  position  we  have  taken.  In  this  connec- 
tion I  would  suggest  that  we  need  in  Chicago  a  large  building  in  which  to  hold 
expositions,  conventions,  and  for  accommodating  other  great  gatherings  that 
are  of  a  semi-public  character  and  outside  the  line  of  mere  entertainments. 
The  State  now  pays  annually  a  large  sum  as  rental  for  the  use  of  armories  for 
the  First  Brigade  of  the  Illinois  National  Guard.  'If  the  city  of  Chicago  will 
give  enough  ground  on  the  lake  front  for  that  purpose,  and  if  the  public- 
spirited  citizens  will  contribute  enough  money  to  meet  any  deficit,  then  I  would 
recommend  an  appropriation  for  the  purpose  of  erecting  such  a  building  of  an 
amount  equal  to  that  upon  which  the  rental  we  now  pay  would  yield  five  per 
cent  interest.  This,  of  course,  with  the  understanding  that  the  National  Guard 
have  priority  in  the  right  to  use  such  building  for  armory  and  other  purposes, 
and  to  use  it  exclusively  in  times  of  trouble  or  public  disturbances. 

REVENUE    SYSTEM. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  theory  of  our  revenue  system  in  this  State, 
it  is,  in  its  practical  workings,  a  giant  of  injustice.  Under  it  the  great  con- 
centrations of  wealth  contribute  comparatively  little,  while  the  owners  of  small 
and  moderate  sized  properties  are  forced  to  bear  nearly  all  the  burdens  of 
the  government.  The  personal  property  of  the  very  rich  is  scarcely  taxed  at 
all.  There  are  thousands  of  men  in  this  State  who  have  great  fortunes  invested 
in  stocks,  bonds,  and  other  forms  of  personal  property,  upon  which  they  do 
not  pay  a  dollar,  yet  they  enjoy  all  of  the  educational  facilities,  all  of  the 
protection  and  other  advantages  of  the  government  just  as  much  as  their 
neighbors  do,  and,  curiously  enough,  these  are  very  often  the  men  who  have 
most  to  say  about  patriotism  and  the  duties  of  citizenship.  The  failure  to 
assess  personal  property  is  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  there  is  no  method  of 
compelling  every  man  to  honestly  state  what  he  has.  Again,  in  the  assessment 
of  real  estate  the  greatest  inequality  is  found  between  the  assessments  of  small 
and  the  assessments  on  valuable  pieces  of  property.  For  example,  in  Chicago 
the  store  of  the  small  merchant  and  the  home  of  the  mechanic  or  man  of 
moderate  means  is  assessed  at  from  25  to  40  per  cent  of  its  cash  market  value, 
while  large  business  blocks  held  by  very  wealthy  men  are  assessed  at  from 
15  to  20  per  cent,  and  the  large  and  magnificent  residences  are  assessed  at  from 
8  to  15  per  cent  of  their  cash  market  value,  while  their  luxurious  contents,  often 
worth  from  $50,000  to  $100,000,  are  scarcely  mentioned  upon  the  assessor's 
books  at  all.  Most  of  the  injustice  in  the  assessment  of  tangible  property,  such 


APPENDIX.  915 

as  real  estate,  is  directly  due  to  corruption.  It  is  found  that  large  holders  of 
real  estate  first  employ  agents  to  manage  it  and  to  keep  the  taxes  down. 
These  agents  have  a  go-between  who  arranges  with  some  assistant  assessor, 
whereby,  for  a  consideration,  the  assessment  on  certain  pieces  of  property  is 
lowered  so  that  the  property  owner  saves  from  five  to  ten  times  the  amount 
he  advances  to  the  assessor.  The  result  of  all  this  is  that  the  men  of  moder- 
ate means,  the  men  of  small  holdings,  pay  from  two  to  four  times  as  much  in 
proportion  to  their  ability  as  do  the  very  wealthy,  who  do  more  in  every  way 
to  increase  the  expense  of  the  government.  The  moderate  property-holder 
rarely  ever  calls  for  extra  police  protection,  and  never  for  military  protection. 
The  large  property-holders  use  both.  It  is  always  a  most  difficult  matter  to 
legislate  against  corruption,  but  it  is  believed  that  if  greater  publicity  could  be 
given  to  assessments  it  would  have  a  good  effect.  I  am  informed  that  in  some 
cities  assessments  are  published  in  the  newspapers  by  blocks,  giving  in  each 
case  the  name  of  the  owner  and  a  description  of  the  property,  together  with 
the  amount  of  the  assessment.  This  has  been  found  to  work  well. 

Another  source  of  great  injustice  is  the  fact  that  almost  every  great 
interest  has  managed  to  get  special  legislation  changing  the  method  of  listing 
its  property.  This  makes  uniformity  of  assessment  between  different  kinds  of 
property  impossible.  If  the  present  system  could  be  entirely  wiped  out,  and 
a  simple  statute  enacted  providing  that  everything  that  has  a  market  value 
shall  be  assessed,  either  at  that  market  value,  or  at  a  certain  fixed  per  cent  of 
its  market  value,  it  would,  at  least,  make  fair  assessment  a  possibility.  It  is 
the  wilderness  of  legislation  as  to  detail  that  has  produced  the  present  mon- 
strosity. A  prominent  citizen  of  Chicago  has  prepared  a  statement  which 
I  attach  as  an  exhibit  because  of  remarkable  facts  it  contains  and  because  it 
suggests  a  plan  for  uniform  assessments  that  may  be  of  value. 

ASSESSING  CORPORATIONS. 

Under  our  law  the  corporations  are  assessed  by  the  State  Board  of  Equali- 
zation. This  board  is  composed  of.  one  member  from  each  congressional  dis- 
trict of  the  State.  Theoretically  a  board  thus  composed  is  supposed  to  labor 
simply  for  a  fair  and  equal  assessment  throughout  the  State  and  then  to  levy 
an  assessment  upon  the  corporations  which  will  be  in  keeping  with  the 
assessment  levied  upon  other  property,  but  in  practice  the  board  has  been 
almost  the  opposite  of  this,  and  has  demonstrated  conclusively  that  a  fair 
equalization  between  the  different  counties  of  the  State  by  a  board  thus  com- 
posed cannot  be  had,  and  second,  that  a  fair  assessment  of  corporate  property, 
by  such  a  board,  seems  to  be  an  impossibility.  So  far  as  it  does  anything 
on  the  subject  of  equalization,  it  is  simply  an  effort  by  one  or  more  sections  of 
the  State  to  throw  the  burden  onto  some  other  portion  of  the  State.  Upon 
this  subject  I  respectfully  submit  that,  the  State  tax  being  now  only  31  cents 
on  $100,  while  the  local  taxes  in  the  various  counties  range  from  350  to  750 
cents  on  $100,  there  is  no  longer  any  need  of  the  Board  of  Equalization.  If 
the  assessment  of  property  in  some  counties  were  to  be  a  little  lower  than  in 
others,  the  difference  made  in  the  State  tax  would  be  scarcely  perceptible, 
and,  as  nearly  all  the  counties  in  the  State  are  obliged  to  keep  their  assessment 
up  to  a  reasonable  point  in  order  to  raise  the  needed  local  revenue,  if  the  State 
tax  were  levied  directly  upon  whatever  assessments  the  counties  made,  very 
little,  if  any,  injustice  would  be  done,  while  the  present  system  has  from  the 


916  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

beginning  been  a  source  of  wrong.  Again,  while  the  property  of  most  of  the 
corporations  of  the  State,  especially  of  the  smaller  ones,  may  be  assessed  its 
fair  proportion,  large  amounts  of  property  belonging  to  the  more  wealthy  and 
powerful  corporations  are  shielded  from  taxation  by  this  Board  of  Equalization. 
A  few  of  the  members  do  their  best  to  make  an  honest  assessment,  but  the 
majority  ignores  them.  There  are  in  Chicago  alone  a  few  corporations  which 
between  them  possess  more  than  $200,000,000  of  property,  over  and  above  what 
is  assessed,  that  escapes  all  taxation  of  every  kind  and  character — property,  the 
value  of  which  can  be  ascertained  just  as  readily  as  if  it  were  real  estate,  and 
there  is  not  a  farm  in  the  State  but  what  is  taxed.  One  corporation  alone, 
which  subjected  the  State  to  a  large  expense  last  summer  to  protect  its  prop- 
erty, has  in  the  neighborhood  of  $40,000,000  of  property  upon  which  it  pays  no 
taxes  whatever.  Indeed,  it  is  the  corporations  that  shirk  the  payment  of  their 
taxes  that  are  the  first  to  call  upon  the  State  or  the  local  authorities  for  pro- 
tection. When  an  officer  elected  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Equalization, 
and  sworn  to  do  his  duty,  comes  to  the  Capitol  and  labors  night  and  day, 
resorting  to  every  means  within  his  power  to  shield  some  particular  corpora- 
tion from  assessment,  and,  by  making  combinations  with  other  members,  is 
enabled  finally  to  save  a  corporation  anywhere  from  $100,000  to  $400,000  in 
taxes,  the  public  must  form  its  own  conclusions  as  to  the  character,  the  color 
and  the  size  of  the  argument  which  led  to  the  betrayal  of  an  official  trust. 
Most  of  the  business,  the  manufacturing  and  the  other  great  interests  of  the 
State  are  now  carried  on  in  the  name  of  corporations.  These  corporations 
should  be  treated  with  the  same  consideration  that  is  shown  private  individuals. 
They  should  not  be  excessively  taxed  because  they  are  corporations.  On  the 
other  hand,  they  should  not  be  permitted  to  escape  bearing  their  share  of 
the  public  burdens  simply  because  they  are  great  and  powerful.  Experience 
has  shown  that  a  division  of  responsibility  is  the  mother  of  corruption.  As 
long  as  a  dishonest  man  feels  that  the  public  gaze  is  on  him  individually,  he 
will  keep  up  at  least  a  semblance  of  honesty,  but  when  a  dozen  men  are  asso- 
ciated with  him  he  will  brazenly  pocket  the  wages  of  corruption.  So  far  as 
the  assessment  of  corporations  is  concerned,  some  State  officer  should  be 
designated  to  ascertain  and  place  upon  his  books  the  fair  market  value  of  the 
stock  of  corporations  and  upon  this  such  an  assessment  should  be  made  as 
would  harmonize  with  the  assessment  placed  upon  other  property  in  the  State. 
But  in  any  case  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  State  Board  of  Equalization 
is  not  only  a  failure,  but  an  obstruction,  and  it  should  be  abolished. 

FOREIGN   CORPORATIONS. 

At  present  there  is  no  adequate  provision  for  taxing  corporations  that  are 
organized  in  other  States.  There  are  a  number  of  such  corporations  that  do 
an  enormous  business  in  our  State  and  make  money  off  our  people,  but  con- 
tribute scarcely  anything  to  support  our  government.  Under  the  law  as  it  now 
stands,  we  can  only  assess  such  tangible  property  as  they  see  fit  to  keep  here.  I 
am  informed  that  there  are  several  corporations  that  were  once  organized  under 
our  laws  and  after  some  years  they  surrendered  their  charters  and  organized 
under  the  laws  of  another  State  in  order  to  escape  their  share  of  the  taxes  here, 
and  as  nearly  all  of  their  business  is  done  here  they  pay  but  little  tax  in  the 
State  where  they  are  now  organized,  thus  escaping  almost  entirely.  This 
should  be  stopped.  While  the  men  who  manage  these  corporations  are  all 


APPENDIX.  917 

honorable   men,   it   will   require  carefully    drawn   and  stringent   legislation  to 
make  good  citizens  of  them  in  this  regard. 

NEWSPAPER   PROPERTY,  ETC. 

While  most  corporations  are  assessed  by  the  State  Board  of  Equalization, 
there  is  upon  the  statute  books  an  act  which  provides  that  companies  formed 
for  certain  purposes,  one  of  these  being  the  publication  of  newspapers,  shall 
be  assessed  as  the  property  of  private  individuals  is  assessed.  This  at  first 
blush  looks  harmless,  but  when  more  carefully  examined  it  is  found  that  only 
the  tangible  property,  such  as  presses,  etc.,  can  ,be  assessed,  and  under  this 
clause  many  corporations  which  have  not  much  tangible  property,  but  do  have 
a  large  business  good  will  that  would  sell  for  cash  in  the  market,  and  \vhich 
make  enormous  profits,  practically  escape  taxation.  If  their  capital  stock  were 
assessed  its  market  value  would  have  to  be  considered,  and  that  would  be 
partially  determined  by  the  dividends.  For  example,  one  of  the  oldest  daily 
morning  papers  of  Chicago  has  for  very  many  years  annually  earned  net 
profits  amounting  to  upwards  of  $250,000,  which  would  be  large  dividends  on 
between  $3,000,000  and  $4,000,000.  During  last  summer  the  owners  of  this 
paper  refused  to  accept  a  cash  offer  of  $3,000,000  for  that  property,  thus  show- 
ing that  they  valued  it  at  a  still  higher  figure.  Yet  the  company  which  owns 
this  paper  pays  taxes  on  an  assessment  of  only  $18,000.  In  the  case  of  small 
papers  this  law  may  not  work  so  great  an  injustice,  for  the  tangible  property 
may  represent  nearly  all  there  is  of  value,  but  in  the  case  of  corporations 
having  an  established  business  which  has  a  market  value  and  could  be  sold  in 
the  open  market,  this  is  not  the  case.  The  publishers  of  this  great  paper 
assume  the  right,  almost,  to  dictate  to  the  community  upon  every  public 
question.  They  assume  the  right  to  denounce  whomsoever  they  please.  They 
are  in  a  sense  above  and  beyond  the  law,  for  a  poor  private  individual  has  no 
practical  remedy  against  an  unjust  attack  upon  its  part,  and  yet  they  manage 
to  throw  the  burden  of  supporting  our  government  upon  the  shoulders  of 
others. 

INHERITANCE   TAX. 

A  number  of  the  older  States  of  the  Union,  notably  Pennsylvania  and 
New  York,  recognizing  that  large  concentrations  of  capital,  especially  per- 
sonal property,  do  not  pay  their  share  of  taxes,  have  adopted  what  is  called 
an  inheritance  tax,  whereby  the  estate  of  a  deceased  person  has  to  pay  a 
certain  per  cent  into  the  State  Treasury  before  it  can  be  distributed,  this  per 
cent  being  generally  on  a  sliding  scale,  small  estates  being  entirely  exempt 
and  large  estates  paying  a  high  percentage.  Under  the  operation  of  this  law 
these  States  annually  collect  large  sums  of  money.  In  the  State  of  New  York 
nearly  a  million  of  dollars  was  collected  from  one  estate.  I  respectfully  urge 
the  adoption  of  similar  laws  here,  and  the  abolition  of  all  State  taxes. 

REPORTS   OF   STATE   OFFICERS. 

I  call  your  attention  to  the  reports  of  the  various  State  officers.  The 
Auditor  has  weeded  out  the  rotten  building  and  loan  associations,  and  the 
examination  of  State  banks  is  so  thorough  that  not  one  out  of  the  126  State 
banks  failed  during  the  late  panic,  while  many  private  and  National  banks  did. 
Under  new  legislation  the  Secretary  of  State  turned  about  $40,000  more  fees 


9i8  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

into  the  State  Treasury  last  year  than  ever  before.    Both  of  these  officers 
make  important  recommendations. 

THE   RAILROAD  AND  WAREHOUSE    COMMISSION. 

The  railroad  interest  is  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  State.  They 
represent  so  much  capital  and  employ  so  many  men  that  they  call  for  special 
consideration  at  the  hands  of  the  gover  i..ent.  The  last  two  years  have  been, 
in  a  general  way,  unprofitable  for  railroading,  and  the  State  administration  has 
aimed  to  pursue  a  liberal  policy  toward  them.  It  was  not  considered  a  good 
time  to  meddle  with  carrying  charges.  While  the  Railroad  and  Warehouse 
Commission  has  made  a  thorough  inspection  of  all  the  railroads,  and  has 
insisted  on  a  prompt  compliance  with  the  law,  it  has  endeavored  to  avoid 
everything  that  had  the  appearance  of  being  of  a  harassing  character.  But 
numerous  cases  of  unjust  discrimination  arose,  which  were  ruinous  to  some  of 
the  citizens  of  Illinois.  For  example,  the  rate  allowed  in  this  State  on  a  cer- 
tain class  of  goods  from  Chicago  to  Rock  Island  and  Mississippi  river  points 
is  28  cents  per  100  pounds.  But  some  of  the  eastern  roads  made  an  arrange- 
ment with  parties  in  Cleveland  to  carry  the  same  line  of  goods  from  Cleve- 
land via  Chicago  to  Rock  Island  and  Mississippi  river  points  for  20  cents  per 
100  pounds.  This  discrimination  must  in  time  drive  the  Illinois  man  out  of 
business.  Cases  of  this  character  arose  all  over  the  State,  the  railroads  giving 
such  an  advantage  to  certain  merchants  and  manufacturers  in  cities  east  of  us 
as  to  make  it  almost  impossible  for  our  merchants  to  do  business  in  our  own 
State.  The  railroads  were  appealed  to  to  stop  this  discrimination,  but  they 
replied  that  it  was  an  inter-state  matter  and  did  nothing  about  it.  The  Federal 
government  tried  long  ago  to  stop  discrimination  on  inter-state  roads,  but  a 
powerful  railroad  lobby  and  the  Federal  courts  have  thus  far  rendered  that 
government  almost  impotent  to  deal  with  the  problem  or  to  give  any  relief 
to  the  public.  Thousands  of  men  have  been  ruined  by  this  railroad  discrimina- 
tion, and  many  of  the  great  private  fortunes  of  the  country  have  been  made 
through  it.  The  Railroad  and  Warehouse  Commission  determined  to  protect 
our  people  against  this  wrong  if  possible.  The  fact  that  roads  running  through 
our  State  are  carrying  the  goods  for  the  eastern  roads  and  prorating  with  them 
on  reduced  rate  of  freight  and  have  been  doing  so  for  a  long  time  seemed  to 
warrant  the  conclusion  that  these  rates  must  be  profitable.  At  the  expense 
of  a  vast  amount  of  labor,  the  commission  is  now  revising  the  entire  schedule 
both  as  to  classification  and  as  to  rates.  They  are  endeavoring  to  fix  a  rate 
that  shall  be  just  between  shipper  and  carrier,  and  stop  the  discrimination 
against  our  people.  The  commission  expects  to  render  its  decision  in  a  few 
weeks,  and  it  is  hoped  that  this  will  put  an  end  to  the  wrong  complained  of. 
So  far  as  I  am  at  present  advised,  no  legislation  is  needed  to  regulate  the  rela- 
tions between  the  public  and  the  railroads  in  their  capacity  as  common  car- 
riers. The  laws  now  on  the  statute  book  are  believed  to  be  sufficient,  if 
enforced.  But  I  do  recommend  such  farther  reasonable  legislation  as  will 
tend  to  give  the  highest  possible  protection  to  the  lives  of  the  operatives  as 
well  as  of  passengers. 

SLEEPING  CAR   CHARGES. 

During  the  last  twenty  years  the  prices  of  all  commodities  as  well  as  the 
carrying  charges  of  railroads  have  been  reduced  from  30  to  60  per  cent,  but 


APPENDIX.  919 

our  people  still  have  to  pay  the  old  extortionate  rates  for  sleeping-car  service, 
which  has  become  a  necessity  of  modern  travel  just  as  much  as  railroads  are. 
The  travel  on  sleeping  cars  has  increased  so  enormously  that  this  fact  alone, 
aside  from  the  general  fall  in  prices  and  carrying  charges,  long  ago  called  for 
a  large  reduction  in  sleeping-car  rates.  The  people  of  this  great  State  should 
long  ago  have  been  protected  against  this  extortion,  and  I  recommend  legis- 
lation on  this  subject  and  the  establishing  of  rates  that  shall  be  just  to  both  the 
carrier  and  the  public. 

THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

Owing  to  the  division  of  labor,  the  building  of  railroads  and  the  great 
consolidations  that  have  taken  place  in  the  mercantile  and  industrial  fields, 
many  of  the  theories  of  government  applicable  fifty  years  ago  are  now  utterly 
inadequate.  In  the  great  division  of  industries  each  has  become  dependent  on 
the  other  and  none  can  shut  down  without  affecting  all.  The  whole  American 
people  have  adjusted  their  affairs  to  the  continued  operation  of  railroads. 
Any  interruption  affects  the  entire  public.  Again,  all  of  our  industries  depend 
on  the  regular  supply  of  coal,  and  if  this  is  interfered  with  it  injures  not  only 
those  connected  with  some  mine,  as  was  once  the  case,  but  the  whole  com- 
munity. Our  civilization  makes  us  all  inter-dependent.  Government  must 
keep  pace  with  the  progress  of  the  age  and  meet  the  changed  conditions,  for  it 
is  the  duty  of  government  to  protect  all.  Whenever  any  men  are  pursuing  a 
course  injurious  to  the  rest  of  the  community,  the  government  should  deal  with 
the  question  on  the  lines  of  justice  and  not  simply  join  hands  with  the  strong 
to  crush  the  weak.  In  recent  years  we  have  repeatedly  had  labor  disturb- 
ances in  the  form  of  strikes  and  lock-outs  that  almost  paralyzed  the  country. 
It  will  no  longer  do  to  say  that  this  is  the  business  of  employer  and  employe, 
for  while  these  are  fighting,  innocent  non-combatants  may  be  ruined.  The 
question  of  dealing  with  these  conditions  is  a  most  difficult  one,  and  no  com- 
plete remedy  has  yet  been  devised.  Many  advocate  compulsory  arbitration, 
but  no  practical  method  of  enforcing  a  decree  or  award  in  every  case  of  this 
character  has  yet  been  found.  There  is,  however,  no  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
making  a  compulsory  investigation  in  every  case,  and  this  alone  would  be  a 
great  preventive  as  well  as  corrective.  This  method  has  been  tried  elsewhere 
and  has  worked  well.  Promptly  ascertaining  and  making  public  the  actual  con- 
ditions in  each  case  arouses  a  moral  sentiment  that  often  forces  a  settlement, 
and  the  fear  of  such  an  investigation  will  sometimes  do  this.  I  strongly  urge 
legislation  on  this  subject,  and  I  would  suggest  that  the  law  would  provide 
for  a  new  board  in  each  case,  allowing  each  party  to  select  an  arbitrator  and 
the  two  thus  selected  to  name  the  third,  or,  if  they  disagree,  then  let  the  county 
judge  name  the  third.  If  a  permanent  board  was  created,  the  more  powerful 
interests  would  soon  seek  to  get  their  friends  appointed  on  it,  and  no  matter 
what  it  did  it  would  soon  lose  the  confidence  of  the  workers  and  of  the  public, 
and  with  this  its  usefulness  would  be  gone.  Again,  nearly  all  the  great  inter- 
ests of  this  country,  except  farming,  are  controlled  by  combinations.  Often 
one  of  these  combinations  collects  together  thousands  of  laborers  representing 
many  thousand  people,  at  a  point  where  it  is  almost  the  only  employer  and 
where  they  would  otherwise  not  have  settled.  These  are  absolutely  at  its 
mercy.  If  for  any  reason  it  turns  them  out;  they  become  a  charge  upon  the 
State,  that  is,  upon  the  public;  the  corporation  at  once  washing  its  hands  of 


920  'LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

all  responsibility.  The  public,  being  the  State,  has  the  same  right  to  protect 
itself  that  individuals  have,  and  these  evils  must,  in  some  way,  be  met,  for  a 
government  that  cannot  deal  with  new  problems  as  they  arise  is  unworthy  of  a 
free  people.  There  should  be  some  legislation  to  prevent  laborers  being 
brought  into  the  State  by  squads,  for  they  generally  have  to  displace  an  equal 
number,  who,  being  suddenly  thrown  out,  become  a  charge  upon  the  public. 
Some  years  ago  a  number  of  non-resident  capitalists  bought  large  tracts  of 
coal  lands  at  Spring  Valley,  in  this  State,  and  opened  a  number  of  mines. 
Several  thousand  miners  were  induced  to  move  there,  a  very  large  per  cent  of 
whom  were  Americans,  many  of  whom  were  induced  to  buy  lots  of  the 
company.  The  company  then  pursued  so  greedy  and  unconscionable  a  course 
towards  its  employes,  through  truck  stores  and  other  devices,  that  the  men 
became  restless.  Thereupon  it  displaced  almost  every  American  laborer  with 
foreigners,  who  had  been  brought  or  induced  to  come  there.  This  left  the 
former  employes  out  of  work  in  a  locality  where  none  was  to  be  had,  and 
naturally  led  to  disturbances.  By  degrees  the  new  men,  finding  themselves 
reduced  to  intense  poverty  by  the  exactions  and  greed  of  the  company,  became 
sullen  and  discontented,  and  last  summer  the  public  heard  much  about  the 
dangerous  foreigners  at  Spring  Valley.  Last  year  the  company  employed  a 
large  number  of  negroes,  who  are  displacing  that  many  of  the  former  em- 
ployes, who  now  find  themselves  without  work  and  without  bread,  for  no 
matter  how  hard  they  worked  they  could  barely  keep  their  families  alive,  and 
could  save  nothing.  This  company  has  been  a  curse  and  a  bill  of  expense  to 
the  State  from  the  time  it  commenced  operations.  Almost  every  administra- 
tion for  a  number  of  years  has  had  to  send  a  military  force  there  to  preserve 
order  and  protect  the  property  of  this  concern  that  was  really  causing  the 
trouble.  Although  it  has  nearly  40,000  acres  of  coal  lands  and  its  property  is 
estimated  at  over  $3,000,000,  it  is  assessed  at  only  $136,084,  and  pays  taxes  on 
this  sum.  While  we  welcome  every  honest  enterprise  and  industry,  we  cannot 
allow  our  State  to  become  merely  a  foraging  ground  for  wolfish  greed.  We 
want  no  more  enterprises  of  this  character. 

ILLINOIS  NATIONAL  GUARD. 

The  events  of  last  summer  have  again  demonstrated  what  was  brought  to 
the  attention  of  the  world  in  the  sixties,  that  is,  that  a  volunteer  soldiery, 
coming  from  the  walks  of  civil  life,  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  free  government 
and  of  free  institutions  and  having  an  appreciation  of  the  duties  of  citizenship, 
is  the  best  in  the  world,  because  made  up  as  a  rule  of  a  higher  grade  of  men 
than  can  be  found  under  any  other  circumstances.  They  are  steady;  they  are 
energetic;  they  are  brave;  they  have  a  high  sense  of  duty  and  they  obey  orders. 
In  times  of  peace,  even  more  than  in  times  of  war,  the  most  important  feature 
of  military  service  is  celerity  of  movement.  Our  State  is  nearly  four  hundred 
miles  long  and  two  hundred  miles  wide.  It  cannot  maintain  a  great  army,  and 
for  a  small  force  to  be  effective  it  must  move  quickly.  We  have  less  than 
six  thousand  men  on  the  rolls.  They  draw  no  pay  except  when  on  active 
duty.  They  are  all  engaged  in  private  business  pursuits  just  as  other  citizens. 
This  being  the  case,  there  was  impressed  upon  the  officers  the  importance  of 
making  their  arrangements  for  calling  their  men  together  so  perfect  that  they 
could  be  collected  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night  from  their  homes  and  places 
of  business,  without  the  loss  of  a  minute,  and  I  am  proud  to  say  that  the 


''APPENDIX.  92 1 

highest  requirements  in  this  regard  have  been  met.  During  the  coal  strike 
and  the  railroad  strike  we  s,ent  troops  to  more  than  fifteen  different  points  in 
the  State.  It  often  happened  that  the  situation  had  become  suddenly  threaten- 
ing, and  the  local  officers  called  for  immediate  assistance.  Orders  have  been 
issued  repeatedly  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night  for  certain  companies  to  report  to 
a  sheriff  at  a  point  100  miles  away,  and  they  never  failed  to  be  at  the  seat  of 
trouble  and  on  duty  the  next  morning.  In  several  instances  entire  regiments 
were  mobilized  and  carried  to  the  seat  of  trouble  from  two  hundred  to  two 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  away  in  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  hours  after  orders 
were  issued  at  Springfield,  and  the  bearing  of  both  officers  and  men  was  in 
the  highest  degree  commendable.  In  many  cases,  especially  in  Chicago,  the 
conditions  under  which  they  had  to  do  duty  for  many  weeks  were  very  severe, 
but  they  bore  all  hardships  like  veterans.  It  may  be  a  satisfaction  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Illinois  to  know  that  they  have  one  of  the  best  military  establishments 
in  America,  and  that  it  is  ^maintained  at  small  expense.  In  this  connection  I 
must  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  expenses  incurred  during,  first, 
the  coal  strike,  and  then  the  railroad  strike  were  far  in  excess  of  the  appro- 
priation which  had  been  made,  the  appropriation  not  covering  any  such  con- 
tingencies as  arose.  When  the  trouble  was  over  in  the  summer,  while  there 
was  money  in  the  treasury,  there  was  no  appropriation  under  which  these  ex- 
penses could  be  paid.  To  have  convened  the  legislature  in  special  session  to 
make  such  appropriation  would  have  entailed  an  expense  of  upwards  of 
$50,000  upon  the  State,  and,  as  the  regular  session  would  convene  in  a  little 
over  four  months,  I  was  naturally  anxious  to  avoid  this  extra  expense,  and  as 
many  of  the  men  to  whom  the  State  was  indebted  for  service,  were  dependent 
upon  their  wages  for  the  support  of  their  families,  and  needed  their  money, 
the  money  was  finally  advanced  by  private  individuals  for  the  payment  of  a 
large  part  of  these  bills.  This  was  done  with  the  understanding  that  there 
should  be  no  discount  to  the  men,  but  that  the  State  would  pay  interest.  Inas- 
much as  the  liberality  and  patriotism  of  these  men  has  saved  the  State  a  large 
amount  of  money,  I  respectfully  submit  that  the  honor  of  the  State  requires 
that  an  appropriation  be  made  immediately  to  pay  these  bills,  together  with 
six  per  cent  interest  from  the  time  they  accrued.  There  was  a  time  during 
the  strike  when  it  seemed  that  the  trouble  might  spread  and  be  protracted. 
Deeming  it  wise  for  the  State  to  be  prepared  for  any  emergency,  the  Adjutant 
General  was  directed  to  at  once  purchase  enough  arms  to  put  ten  or  twelve 
more  regiments  in  the  field  if  necessary.  Although  arms  could  not  be  found 
in  large  quantities  in  any  one  place,  in  less  than  forty-eight  hours  over  6,000 
stands  were  in  the  possession  of  the  State  in  Chicago,  and  we  have  these  in 
addition  to  those  the  troops  have.  In  my  judgment  the  State  is  now  prepared 

for  any  emergency. 

COAL   STRIKE. 

In  the  spring  of  1894,  the  now  famous  coal  strike  in  the  bituminous  coal 
fields  of  America  began,  started  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  living  prices 
for  the  mining  of  coal  and  more  uniform  rates  for  the  sale  of  it.  The  mining 
population  had  found  its  condition  getting  steadily  worse  for  a  number  of 
years,  until  those  who  had  worked  hard  all  their  lives  and  had  been  sober  men 
found  their  families  in  rags  and  often  without  bread.  They  vainly  hoped  to  be 
able,  by  means  of  a  universal  strike,  to  bring  about  a  change  whereby  they 
and  their  children  might  be  able,  by  honest  effort,  to  at  least  make  a  living. 


£22  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Work  was  suspended  in  most  of  the  mines  in  this  State,  as  well  as  in  other 
States.  Many  of  the  operators  were  anxious  to  make  an  adjustment  upon  a 
basis  where  both  operator  and  miner. could  live.  Other  operators  would  have 
been  glad  to  effect  such  an  adjustment,  but  found  insurmountable  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  doing  so,  while  still  other  operators  cared  nothing  about  the 
miner  and  his  family,  but  looked  upon  miners  as  tools  with  which  to  make 
money.  These  resolved  not  to  shut  their  mines,  but  to  defeat  the  strike  by 
importing  other  men.  The  strike  continued  until  the  country  was  almost  par- 
alyzed for  want  of  coal.  While  the  majority  of  the  miners  were  anxtous 
to  preserve  law  and  order,  a  very  small  per  cent,  of  them,  recruited  by  the  more 
vicious  elements  of  society,  created  disturbances.  In  some  States  these  lasted 
for  weeks  and  were  so  extensive  as  to  paralyze  the  operation  of  certain  rail- 
roads and  do  serious  damage.  Our  coal  field  is  the  largest  in  America,  being 
250  miles  long  and  over  100  miles  wide,  having  mines  all  over  it,  yet  during  the 
entire  strike  both  the  local  and  the  State  officers  were  so  vigilant  that  there 
was  no  interference  with  the  operation  of  a  railroad  but  what  was  at  once 
stopped,  and  there  were  only  two  serious  cases  of  destruction  of  property,  one 
at  Centralia  and  the  other  near  Pekin.  In  both  of  these  cases  the  mob  had 
slipped  in  stealthily  from  an  adjoining  county,  and  committed  the  acts  of 
violence  almost  before  the  local  peace  officers  learned  that  there  was  any 
trouble.  But  in  these  cases,  as  well  as  in  every  other  case  where  there  had 
been  any  violation  of  law,  the  offenders  were  promptly  arrested  and  lodged 
in  jail.  No  difficulty  was  experienced  anywhere  in  maintaining  the  supremacy 
of  the  law.  Considering  the  desperate  condition  in  which  most  of  the  miners 
found  themselves  and  their  families,  they  displayed  a  remarkable  love  of  order 
and  respect  for  the  law  by  everywhere  discountenancing  these  acts  of  violence. 
During  this  strike  arms  were  sent  to  every  civil  officer  in  the  State  who  asked 
for  them,  and  troops  were  sent  promptly  to  every  point  where  it  appeared 
that  there  was  any  reason  for  sending  them.  We  endeavored  in  all  of  these 
cases  to  send  a  personal  representative  onto  the  ground  in  order  to  be  cor- 
rectly advised  of  the  situation.  While  troops  were  refused  many  places,  it 
was  because  it  was  known  that  there  was  absolutely  no  danger  there,  and 
events  showed  that  in  all  of  these  cases  we  were  correctly  advised. 

RAILROAD  STRIKE. 

Toward  the  end  of  June,  when  the  country  was  beginning  to  rally  from  the 
effects  of  the  coal  strike,  one  of  the  most  extensive  railroad  strikes  ever  wit- 
nessed in  this  country  was  begun.  The  operatives  on  almost  every  railroad  in 
the  Mississippi  Valley  simultaneously  stopped  work,  thus  completely  paralyzing 
nearly  all  of  the  great  railroads  upon  whose  daily  operation  the  welfare  of  our 
people  depended.  Illinois  being  the  greatest  railroad  State  and  Chicago  the 
greatest  railroad  center  in  the  Union,  the  effects  of  the  strike  were  felt  more 
severely  here  than  anywhere  else.  The  railroad  managers  soon  endeavored  to 
replace  their  old  men  with  new  ones.  The  old  employes,  partly  out  of  respect 
for  the  law  and  partly  because  they  believed  that  violence  must  defeat  their 
ends,  not  only  abstained  from  violence,  but  everywhere  counseled  against  it. 
The  National  Commission,  which  has  investigated  this  strike,  found  that  only 
a  very  small  per  cent,  of  railroad  men  were  guilty  of  violating  the  law,  but  the 
conditions  were  such  as  to  attract  crowds  of  idle  people,  and  soon  the  lawless 
clement,  always  found  in  great  centers  of  population,  resorted  to  rioting  and 


'APPENDIX.  923 

destruction  of  property.  Again,  arms  were  sent  at  once  to  all  civil  officers 
who  asked  for  them,  and,  on  the  application  of  the  respective  sheriffs  and  civil 
officers,  troops  were  sent  to  almost  every  railroad  center,  outside  of  Chicago, 
in  the  State,  and  order  was  everywhere  maintained,  and  the  railroads  were 
operated  wherever  they  could  get  men  to  man  their  trains.  The  majesty  of  the 
law  was  everywhere  promptly  and  thoroughly  maintained. 

A  large  number  of  telegrams  coming  from  all  parts  of  the  State  were  re- 
ceived and  answered  every  day.  The  following  few  dispatches  are  fair  speci- 
mens and  show  the  attitude  of  the  State  government  at  that  time. 

On  the  evening  of  July  ist,  a  telegram,  signed  on  behalf  of  five  hundred 
passengers,  was  sent  from  Decatur;  it  stated  that  five  hundred  American 
citizens  were  at  Decatur  on  tied-up  Wabash  trains,  no  effort  being  made  by 
company  to  move  them,  and  demanded  immediate  assistance.  The  following 
telegram  was  promptly  forwarded  to  the  sheriff: 

Springfield,  July  I,  1894. 
Peter  Perl,  Sheriff,  Decatur,  111.: 

I  have  dispatch  purporting  to  come  from  five  hundred  passengers  now 
detained  at  the  depot  in  Decatur  because  trains  are  obstructed  by  strikers, 
and  they  ask  for  assistance.  Wire  me  the  situation  fully.  Are  railroad  officials 
making  proper  efforts  to  move  trains,  and  are  you  able  to  furnish  the  traveling 
public  the  necessary  protection  and  to  enforce  the  law? 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 

Governor. 

To  which  the  sheriff  replied  that  he  had  been  able  to  preserve  order  so 
far,  but  could  do  so  no  longer,  and  asked  for  troops,  and  the  following  reply 
was  sent: 

Springfield,  July  I,   1894. 
Peter  Perl,  Sheriff,  Decatur,  III: 

Have  ordered  troops  to  your  assistance.  They  should  reach  you  before 
sunrise.  See  that  all  trains  unlawfully  held  are  released  at  once. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

The  Chicago  &  Eastern  Illinois  Railway  Company,  on  July  ist,  sent  the 
following  telegram: 

Chicago,  July  I,  1894. 
Governor  Altgeld: 

For  more  than  forty-eight  hours  past  all  mail  trains  on  Eastern  Illinois 
road  have  been  tied  up  at  Danville,  forcibly  prevented  from  moving  by -crowd 
of  strikers  and  sympathizers.  Sheriff  seems  utterly  paralyzed  and  will  do 
nothing,  although  repeatedly  called  on.  We  have  full  crews  of  competent 
men  on  mail  trains  and  are  trying  to  move  trains  now,  but  crowd  of  two 
thousand  persons  surround  train  and  prevent  its  moving.  Will  you  not  help 
us? 

W.  H.   LYFORD. 
General  Counsel  Chicago  &  Eastern  Illinois  Railroad  Company. 

To  which  the  following  reply  was  sent: 

Springfield,   111..  July  I,  1894. 
W.  H.  Lyford,  General  Counsel  of  the  Chicago  &. Eastern  Illinois  Ry.  Co.: 

We  can  furnish  assistance  promptly  if  the  civil  authorities  show  that 
they  need  it.  Thus  far  there  has  been  no  call  for  assistance  from  any  of  the 


924  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

officials  of  Vermilion  county,  either  sheriff,  coroner,  mayor  of  town,  or  the 
county  judge. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 

Governor. 

At  the  same  time,  the  following  was  sent  to  the  sheriff  of  Vermilion  county, 
at  Danville: 

Springfield,  July  I,  1894. 
Sheriff  of  Vermilion  County,  Danville,  111.: 

Officials  of  the  E.   I.  R.  R.  complain  that  their  trains  have  been  tied  up 
at  Danville  for  forty-eight  hours  by  strikers,  and  that  they  cannot  get  sufficient 
protection  to  move  them.     Please  wire  me  the  situation  fully.     Can  you  enforce 
.  the  law  and  protect  the  traveling  public  with  such  forces  as  you  can  com- 
mand? 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 

Governor. 

A  similar  telegram  was  sent  to  county  judge  and  other  local  officers. 
The  following  reply  was  received  from  the  sheriff: 

Danville,  July  I,   1894. 
Governor  J.   P.  Altgeld: 

Your  message  received.  Send  me  one  hundred  rifles  and  ammunition 
by  first  train  and  I  will  try  to  protect  the  C.  &  E.  I.  R.  R.  Co.'s  men  and 
property.  As  to  the  situation,  there  are  from  three  hundred  to  seven  hundred 
strikers  on  the  ground  and  oppose  the  movement  of  any  and  all  trains  or  cars 
excepting  mail  cars.  They  are  usually  quiet  and  duly  sober,  but  very  deter- 
mined. I  will  advise  you  if  I  am  not  able  to  afford  protection. 

J.  W.  NEWLON, 

Sheriff. 
On  receipt  of  the  above,  the  following  telegram  was  sent: 

Springfield,  111.,  July  I,  1894. 
J.  W.  Newlon,  Sheriff,  Danville,  111.: 

We  have  not  got  100  stands  of  arms  left  here.  From  information  we  get, 
we  consider  the  situation  serious  at  Danville  and,  therefore,  send  you  troops. 
They  will  be  there  early  in  the  morning.  All  those  trains  unlawfully  held 
should  be  moved  before  noon. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

Where  a  railroad  could  not  get  men  to  man  its  trains,  the  State  could 
give  it  no  help,  and  in  several  instances  where  a  road  had  asked  military 
protection  for  its  men,  and  troops  were  promptly  furnished,  it  was  found 
that  the  road  had  no  men  willing  to  work,  and  we  had  to  find  soldiers 
who  could  act  as  engineers  and  brakemen  in  order  to  transport  the  troops. 

In  Chicago  nearly  all  of  the  large  railroad  yards  are  out  on  the  prairies 
adjoining  the  city,  some  of  the  most  extensive  of  them  being  some  miles 
away  from  the  city  limits.  The  sheriff  of  the  county  applied  for  arms, 
and  arms  were  promptly  sent  him.  He  swore  in  a  large  number  of  deputies 
and  the  mayor  of  the  city  greatly  increased  the  police  force,  but  the  sheriff 
never  asked  for  any  other  assistance  and  the  mayor  did  not  apply  for  assist- 
ance until  the  6th  of  July.  The  strike  did  not  seem  to  be  any  more  serious 
than  numerous  others  had  been  in  prior  years,  when  the  local  officers  found 
themselves  amply  able  to  control  the  situation.  This  fact,  together  with  the 


APPENDIX.  925 

unexpected  appearance  of  the  federal  troops,  as  hereafter  explained,  is  no  doubt 
the  reason  why  the  Democratic  mayor  did  not  sooner  apply  for  aid  from  the 
State,  and  why  the  Republican  sheriff  never  applied  for  it.  Finally  the  mob 
resorted  to  rioting  and  the  destruction  of  property,  and  as  the  railroad  yards 
were  scattered  and  covered  so  many  square  miles  that  it  would  be  difficult 
for  a  very  large  army  to  protect  them  in  such  a  manner  as  to  prevent  men 
from  stealthily  committing  incendiarism,  it  followed  that  numerous  cars  were 
burned.  While  the  rioting  was  no  more  serious  than  was  witnessed  at 
Buffalo,  New  York,  several  years  ago,  and  at  different  points  in  Ohio  during 
last  year,  and  was  not  half  as  bloody  as  numerous  disturbances  that  have  oc- 
curred in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  still  there  was  a  systematic  effort  made  by 
a  portion  of  the  press,  for  partisan  and  sensational  purposes,  to  exaggerate 
everything,  and  make  it  appear  that  the  city  itself  was  in  danger  and  that  there 
was  scarcely  a  limit  to  the  destruction  of  property.  The  United  States  Labor 
Commission,  which  investigated  this  strike,  heard  the  evidence  of  railroad 
men  and  of  all  others  who  knew  any  of  the  facts  on  the  subject,  and  reported 
as  follows:  "According  to  the  testimony,  the  railroads  lost  in  property  de- 
stroyed, in  the  hire  of  the  United  States  deputy  marshals  and  other  incidental 
expenses,  at  least  $685,783."  It  will  be  observed  that  this  sum  includes  the 
hire  of  deputy  marshals  and  other  incidental  expenses.  Consequently,  the 
actual  destruction  of  property  was  very  much  below  this  sum.  The  Chicago 
fire  department,  which  officially  investigated  every  case  where  there  was  a 
car  or  any  other  property  burned,  reports  as  follows:  "During  the  first  three 
days  of  the  month  of  July,  no  efforts  were  made  to  damage  the  property  of 
corporations.  After  that  the  destruction  of  property  was  as  follows: 

July  4 $    2,150 

J«ly5 3,435 

July  6 338,972 

July  7 3.700 

July  8 575 

July  9 1.500 

July  10 850 

July  II • 2,100 

July    12 565 

July  13 115 

July    14 2,300 


Total $35S.6i2 

Subsequent  examinations  have  shown  that  even  this  sum  is  exaggerated. 
It  will  be  seen  by  the  table  that  nearly  all  of  this  occurred  on  the  6th  of  July, 
and  was  due  to  the  fact  that  a  fire  had  broken  out  in  a  very  large  railroad 
yard  south  of  the  city,  where  there  was  no  water  and  where  the  fire  depart- 
ment was  consequently  powerless.  It  seems  that  most  of  the  burning  occurred 
in  the  evening  after  the  rioting  of  that  day  in  that  locality  had  been  suppressed 
and  after  both  the  police  and  the  State  troops  had  arrived  on  the  ground, 
but  owing  to  the  absence  of  water  but  little  could  be  done  to  arrest  the  flames. 
One  fire  engine  put  out  over  half  a  mile  of  hose,  but  was  unable  to  reach  the 
cars.  A  mere  glance  at  the  facts  shows  that  the  reports  that  were  sent  out 
as  to  the  actual  condition  in  Chicago  during  the  strike  were  malicious  libels 
upon  the  city.  They  have  created  an  unfavorable  impression  in  the  East 


y->6  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

and  abroad,  and  have  done  our  people  a  great  wrong.  In  some  cases  this 
was  due  to  partisan  malignity.  In  other  cases  men  who  knew  little  or  nothing 
of  the  facts  and  who  had  very  little,  if  any,  practical  knowledge  of  our  insti- 
tutions, slandered  the  city  and  our  institutions  for  no  other  apparent  reason 
than  that  it  seemed  to  be  popular  for  a  while  to  do  so,  and  that  by  doing  so  the 
smiles  of  a  class  could  be  won. 

In  order  to  understand  the  significance  of  some  things  that  happened  at 
Chicago,  the  dates  of  the  various  events  are  of  vital  importance.  It  will  be 
noticed  that  according  to  the  report  of  the  fire  department  it  was  not  until 
the  6th  of  July  that  the  rioting  became  extensive.  As  it  has  been  claimed 
that  the  intervention  of  the  federal  government  by  the  appointment  of  a  special 
counsel  to  represent  the  government  at  Chicago  in  this  strike,  and  the  subse- 
quent sending  of  troops  was  largely  for  the  purpose  of  moving  and  protecting 
the  mails,  I  call  attention  to  the  following:  On  June  3Oth  the  superintendent 
of  the  railway  mail  service  at  Chicago,  sent  the  following  dispatch  to  Wash- 
ington: 

"No  mails  have  accumulated  at  Chicago  so  far.  All  regular  mail  trains  are 
moving  nearly  on  time,  with  a  few  slight  exceptions." 

Yet,  notwithstanding  this  dispatch,  on  the  very  next  morning,  before  any- 
thing more  had  happened,  Mr.  Walker,  a  distinguished  corporation  lawyer, 
was  appointed  special  counsel  to  represent  the  United  States  government  by 
Mr.  Olney,  the  Attorney  General  of  the  United  States.  After  this,  when  the 
trouble  became  more  serious,  there  was  some  delay  in  getting  the  mails  in  and 
out  of  Chicago,  but  the  officials  in  charge  displayed  such  ability  and  vigilance 
that  the  delay  at  no  time  was  great.  The  superintendent  of  the  railway  mail 
service,  upon  whom  the  duty  of  getting  the  mails  in  and  out  of  Chicago 
rested,  when  lately  interrogated  upon  this  point,  writes,  that  while  there  were 
interferences  and  delays  during  a  number  of  days  yet,  that 

"With  the  exception  of  some  trains  that  were  held  at  Hammond,  Ind., 
Washington  Heights,  Danville  and  Cairo,  111.,  the  greatest  delay  to  any  of 
the  outgoing  and  incoming  mails  probably  did  not  exceed  from  eight  to  nine 
hours  at  any  time. 

"LOUIS  L.  TROY,   Superintendent." 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  delays  and  interferences  at  other  points,  it 
is  apparent  that  there  was  nothing  in  Chicago  in  connection  with  the  mail 
service  that  called  for  federal  intervention.  In  fact,  the  strikers  made  it  a 
point  not  to  interfere  with  mail  trains,  but  only  to  cut  off  Pullman  sleepers, 
and  in  a  number  of  cases,  outside  of  Chicago,  where  a  mail  train  was  de- 
layed it  was  because  the  strikers  had  cut  off  a  Pullman  sleeper  and  the  railway 
officials  then  flatly  refused  to  move  the  train  until  they  could  carry  the  Pull- 
man sleeper.  On  July  2d,  the  day  after  the  appointment  of  a  special  counsel 
and  when  there  had  been  little,  if  any,  destruction  of  property,  the  United 
States  troops  at  Fort  Sheridan  were  already  under  orders  to  be  ready  to 
march  to  Chicago  at  a  moment's  notice.  Some  days  prior  to  this,  the  man- 
agers of  all  the  railway  lines  centering  in  Chicago  formed  an  organization 
to  fight  the  strike,  and  they  were  in  daily  conference.  At  6  o'clock  p.  m.  of 
July  2d,  after  the  troops  at  Fort  Sheridan  had  been  ordered  to  be  in  readiness, 
the  managers  of  the  various  roads  gave  out  a  detailed  report  showing  the  con- 
ditions on  their  lines: 


'APPENDIX.  92? 

Wisconsin  Central — All  passenger  and  freight  trains  moving  and  business 
resumed  its  normal  condition. 

Chicago  and  Northern  Pacific^Suburban  trains  all  running  about  on  time; 
freight  moving  without  interruption;  night  suburban  trains  discontinued  for 
fear  of  being  stoned  by  loafers. 

Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy — Thirty-seven  carloads  of  dressed  beef 
loaded  in  Kansas  City  yesterday  morning  have  passed  over  this  road  safely 
and  delivered  to  Eastern  lines  this  afternoon,  and  are  now  moving  all  right. 

Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul — All  passenger  trains  have  arrived  and 
departed  on  time;  no  freight  moving  here,  but  it  is  moving  on  other  parts  of 
the  line. 

Chicago  and  Northwestern — All  through  passenger  traffic  has  been  con- 
tinued without  interruption;  suburban  service  practically  suspended  for  the 
night;  not  trying  to  handle  freight. 

Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern — No  interruption  to  business;  both 
passenger  and  freight  trains  have  come  and  departed  as  usual. 

Baltimore  and  Ohio — All  passenger  trains  with  full  equipment  met  with 
no  delay  and  all  very  nearly  on  time. 

Chicago  and  Great  Western — Passenger  trains  moving  as  usual  with  the 
regular  Pullman  equipment;  freight  service  partially  resumed  on  the  Chicago 
division. 

Chicago  and  Erie — All  passenger  trains  are  running  out  on  time;  not  at- 
timpting  to  do  freight  business;  have  had  trouble  at  Marion,  O. 

At  10  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  July  3d,  a  consultation  was  held  between 
the  special  counsel  for  the  United  States,  the  United  States  district  attorney 
and  several  others,  in  which  it  was  decided  to  urge  the  sending  of  federal 
troops,  and  a  dispatch  was  dictated  by  the  special  counsel  for  the  government 
for  this  purpose  and  was  sent  to  the  Attorney  General  at  Washington,  and 
in  the  afternoon  of  that  day  the  United  States  troops  at  Fort  Sheridan  were 
ordered  to  Chicago  and  they  arrived  in  that  city  that  evening,  and  ostensibly 
went  on  active  duty.  Up  to  this  time,  no  application  had  been  made  to  the 
State  authorities  by  anybody  for  assistance  in  maintaining  order  in  Chicago. 
Both  the  local  authorities  as  well  as  the  State  government  were  entirely 
ignored  and  neither  was  asked  whether  it  could  enforce  the  law  or  not. 

Several  weeks  prior  to  this  date,  during  the  coal  strike,  the  United  States 
Court  for  the  Southern  District  of  Illinois  issued  an  injunction  against  some 
of  the  coal  strikers  and  then  issued  process  for  their  arrest.  The  United  States 
marshal  met  with  resistance  in  attempting  to  serve  these  warrants.  The  United  • 
States'  Judge  wrote  to  the  Attorney  General  in  reference  to  having  United 
States  troops  assist  the  marshal,  and  the  Attorney  General  telegraphed  an 
answer,  reading  as  follows: 

''Washington,  June  16,  1894. 
"Allen,  U.   S.  Judge,   Springfield,   111.: 

"Understand  State  of  Illinois  is  willing  to  protect  property  against  lawless 
violence  with  military  force  if  necessary.  Please  advise  receivers  to  take  proper 
steps  to  procure  protection  by  civil  authorities  of  the  State.  If  such  pro- 
tection proves  inadequate,  the  governor  should  be  applied  to  for  military 
assistance. 

"OLNEY.  Attorney  General." 


928  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

This  laid  down  the  correct  doctrine.  Immediately  after  the  date  of  this 
telegram,  and  again  on  several  occasions  thereafter,  during  the  coal  strike  as 
well  as  during  the  railroad  strike,  the  United  States  marshal  for  the  Southern 
District  of  Illinois,  finding  that  the  local  civil  authorities  could  not  furnish  the 
needed  assistance,  applied  to  the  governor  for  military  aid  to  enable  him  and  his 
deputies  to  execute  these  processes  of  the  United  States  Court,  and,  in  each 
instance,  troops  were  promptly  sent  to  his  assistance,  and  inside  of  a  few  hours 
after  being  furnished  the  marshal  discharged  his  duties  promptly  and  thor- 
oughly and  without  the  loss  of  a  single  life,  and  in  no  case  was  there  any  delay 
in  enforcing  the  law,  and  the  State  administration  stood  equally  ready  to  fur- 
nish the  United  States  marshal  for  the  Northern  District  of  Illinois  any 
assistance  he  might  require.  As  the  Attorney  General  had  stated  he  understood 
the  State  of  Illinois  would  furnish  military  assistance  where  necessary,  and  that 
civil  authorities  of  the  State  must  first  be  applied  to  for  protection,  and  if  they 
could  not  furnish  it,  then  the  governor  should  be  asked  for  military  assistance, 
and,  further,  as  a  number  of  such  applications  had  just  been  made  to  the  gov- 
ernor and  had  in  each  case  been  promptly  granted,  and  all  the  assistance 
necessary  had  been  furnished  without  a  moment's  delay,  and  the  federal  officials 
had  in  every  case  been  enabled  to  discharge  their  duty  thoroughly,  it  is  ap- 
parent that  the  Attorney  General  would  naturally  refer  the  federal  officials  of 
Chicago  to  the  State  authorities  if  they  needed  assistance.  And  it  is  reasonable 
to  assume  that  if  the  protection  of  property  and  the  enforcement  of  the  law 
was  all  that  was  aimed  at,  this  would  have  been  done.  And  the  fact  that  it 
was  not  done,  and,  on  the  contrary,  all  State  authorities  were  ignored  and  an 
entirely  new  and  revolutionary  policy  was  pursued,  warrants  the  conclusion 
that  some  other  and  ulterior  object  was  aimed  at.  The  special  counsel  for  the 
government  apparently  directed  matters  for  the  railroads,  and  assistance  from 
the  State  was  not  wanted,  but  every  energy  was  bent  and  every  possible  step 
taken,  to  establish  a  new  precedent  that  might  be  useful  in  the  future,  that  is, 
to  have  the  federal  government  step  in  and  take  the  corporations  of  the  country 
directly  under  its  immediate  protection,  so  that  no  matter  whether  the  local 
authorities  were  in  any  case  amply  able  to  enforce  the  law  or  not,  the  corpor- 
ations could  in  the  future  ignore  them  and  deal  directly  with  the  federal  gov- 
ernment and  have  federal  troops  at  pleasure. 

At  about  6  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  July  3,  after  the  United  States  troops 
had  been  ordered  to  Chicago,  the  managers  of  the  different  railroads  reported 
the  conditions  on  their  railroads  briefly  as  follows: 
•         Sante  Fe — Six  regular  passenger  trains  on  time:  moving  freight. 

Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul — All  passengers  on  time  and  without 
interference;  moving  freight. 

Chicago  and  Alton — Trains  stop  for  want  of  firemen. 

Baltimore  and  Ohio — Trains  moving;  one  engine  detached  by  withdrawal 
of  coupling  pin;  police  detailed  and  protected  train  at  once. 

Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy — Passenger  trains  running  as  usual;  no 
freight  handled,  because  firemen  and  engineers  refused  to  work  with  new  men. 

Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern — Trains  moving  as  usual;  freight 
trains  delayed  at  Englewood,  but  prompt  action  by  the  police  department  raised 
the  blockade. 

Chicago  and  Eastern  Illinois — Situation  is  better  than  yesterday. 

Illinois  Central — Ties  found  on  track  nearing  crossing,  but  did  not  delay 


'APPENDIX.  929 

trains;   matters  getting  along  as  nicely  as  could  be  expected  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. 

Chicago  and  Great  Western — Passenger  trains  all  moving;  freight  train 
started;  went  through  without  trouble. 

Chicago  and  Grand  Trunk — Completely  blockaded  at  Battle  Creek,  in 
Michigan;  will  send  out  no  trains  from  Chicago  until  that  is  raised. 

Monon  Route — Men  cannot  be  had  to  take  strikers'  places. 

Chicago  and  Erie — Passenger  trains  moving  all  right  on  time. 

Wabash — Account  of  trouble  at  other  places,  but  none  at  Chicago. 

Panhandle — Trains  moving  all  right;  none  more  than  twenty  minutes  late. 

Chicago  and  Northern  Pacific — All  day  suburban  trains  on  time;  business 
being  handled  without  interruption. 

Rock  Island —  Trouble  at  Des  Moines,  Iowa;  at  Blue  Island  and  at  other 
places,  but  none  at  Chicago. 

On  the  4th  day  of  July  there  was  some  disturbance,  and  on  the  evening 
of  that  day  the  managers  of  the  railroads  again  reported  the  conditions  on 
their  roads  briefly  as  follows: 

Chicago  and  Alton — Local  trains  between  Chicago,  Joliet  and  Dwight  are 
running;  through  trains  are  held  at  Bloomington  by  strikers. 

Santa  Fe — Everything  in  pretty  good  shape;  passenger  trains  on  time;  ran 
five  freight  trains  in  Missouri  and  eleven  in  Illinois  in  past  twenty-four  hours, 
and  have  resumed  local  freight  service  between  Chicago  and  Streator. 

Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul — Trouble  with  firemen  running  on  Coun- 
cil Bluffs  line;  with  exception  of  a  local  train,  all  passenger  trains  departed 
and  arrived  on  time;  no  trouble  on  the  line  between  Chicago  and  St.  Paul. 

Baltimore  and  Ohio — Passenger  trains  on  fairly  good  time;  no  delays  due 
to  strikers. 

Nickel  Plate — Regular  passenger  trains  left  and  arrived  on  time;  freight 
switching  business  is  at  a  standstill. 

Chicago  and  Northwestern— All  through  trains  on  the  Galena  division 
gotten  out  last  night,  but  suburban  traffic  on  that  division  was  hampered  by 
the  inability  to  find  engineers;  are  operating  all  passengers  in  and  out  of  Chi- 
cago on  Wisconsin  division  and  are  rapidly  getting  suburban  traffic  on  Galena 
division  running;  handled  no  freight  yesterday,  but  resumed  to-day;  brought 
in  a  train  of  fruit  from  the  West  and  have  several  trains  of  beer  coming  in 
from  Milwaukee;  no  acts  of  violence  on  our  lines  in  city. 

Wisconsin  Central  Lines — Passenger  and  freight  trains  moving  and  about 
on  time. 

Chicago  and  Northern  Pacific — All  suburban  trains  running  regular  except 
night  trains;  freight  business  is  being  handled  promptly. 

Michigan  Central — Handled  all  freight  that  is  tendered;  moving  all  trains 
and  doing  regular  work;  a  train  of  beef,  consisting  of  forty  cars,  which  was 
held  at  Halsted  street,  has  been  pulled  through  the  jam  and  is  moving  east- 
ward. 

Illinois  Central — The  conditions  on  this  line  are  more  favorable  than  since 
the  beginning  of  the  strike;  there  is  no  suburban  service  to-day,  but  this  service 
will  be  resumed  to-morrow  morning;  handled  100  cars  of  merchandise  and 
coal  yesterday,  placed  on  tracks  for  unloading. 

Chicago  and  Eastern  Illinois — Moving  some  passenger  trains  and  resuming 
business   gradually. 
59 


930  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

Chicago  and  Grand  Trunk— Started  out  mail  train  for  the  East  this  morn- 
ing; have  no  equipment  at  Chicago  with  which  to  make  up  through  trains,  as 
this  is  tied  up  by  the  strikers  at  Battle  Creek,  Mich. 

Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy — Had  trouble  in  attempting  to  move  a 
freight  train;  last  night  Pullman  cars  were  cut  from  a  passenger  train,  but 
with  assistance  of  police  were  promptly  recoupled  and  train  moved  forward; 
all  other  trains  of  last  night  and  to-day  are  running  without  interference  of 
any  kind.  The  entire  force  of  switchmen  in  St.  Louis  left  the  service  of  the 
road  yesterday  evening.  We  are  not  trying  to  handle  freight  to-day;  every- 
thing is  quiet. 

On  the  5th  of  July  the  conditions  appeared  to  have  been  very  much  the 
same  as  on  the  4th,  but  there  were  rumors  of  an  extension  of  the  strike.  On 
the  morning  of  the  6th  of  July,  I  sent  word  to  the  mayor  of  Chicago  that  if  he 
could  not  easily  control  the  situation  the  State  would  furnish  him  any  assist- 
ance that  might  be  needed.  About  the  same  time  I  telegraphed  the  officials 
of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company,  who  complained  that  their  property 
was  being  destroyed  by  a  mob,  to  apply  to  the  local  authorities,  and  that  if 
neither  the  mayor  nor  the  sheriff  could  maintain  order,  and  if  both  of  these 
officials  should  refuse  to  apply  to  the  State  for  aid,  they  should  advise  me  of 
this  fact  and  the  State  would  then  promptly  do  what  was  necessary  to  restore 
order  and  assist  the  local  officers  in  executing  the  law.  Toward  noon  of  the 
6th,  the  rioting  having  become  more  serious  than  on  any  previous  day,  the 
mayor  applied  for  assistance.  At  this  time,  the  federal  troops  had  been  on 
the  ground  three  days.  The  effect  of  their  presence,  instead  of  overawing 
the  mob  and  preventing  trouble,  had  served  as  an  irritant.  On  receiving  the 
mayor's  dispatch,  five  regiments  of  infantry,  two  troops  of  cavalry  and  two 
batteries  were  at  once  ordered  to  the  scene,  and  before  midnight  they  were 
nearly  all  on  duty,  although  some  of  them  had  to  go  150  miles,  and  in  thirty 
hours  after  the  arrival  of  the  State  troops  all  serious  rioting  had  been  sup- 
pressed and  the  destruction  of  property  practically  ended,  except  where  it 
was  committed  stealthily.  It  is  a  matter  of  gratification  to  every  patriotic 
citizen  of  Illinois  who  is  proud  of  his  State  that  it  was  our  own  troops  who 
assisted  the  civil  authorities  and  restored  law  and  order  in  Chicago.  While 
they  were  not  petted  by  fashionable  society,  they  did  deal  directly  with  the 
mob.  During  the  trouble,  thousands  of  men  all  over  the  State  tendered  their 
services  to  the  executive,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  an  army  of  200,000  men  could 
have  been  mustered  in  a  few  days  if  they  had  been  called  for.  This  spirit  of 
patriotism  was  especially  manifested  by  the  old  soldiers  of  the  State.  Inas- 
much as  there  was  at  no  time,  according  to  the  statement  of  the  railroad 
managers  above  quoted,  even  on  the  worst  days  of  the  strike,  any  serious  delay 
in  the  coming  in  or  going  out  of  the  mails,  and  inasmuch  as  the  special  counsel 
for  the  government  had  been  appointed  the  next  morning  after  the  superintend- 
ent of  the  railway  mail  service  had  telegraphed  that  there  had  been  practically 
no  delay  in  receiving  or  sending  out  trains,  and  as  the  United  States  troops 
were  brought  on  the  ground  three  days  in  advance  of  any  serious  rioting,  and 
at  a  time  when  the  local  officers  believed  themselves  absolutely  able  to  control 
the  situation,  it  is  evident  that  there  had  to  be  some  other  pretext  on  the  part 
of  the  federal  government  for  its  action  than  the  mere  protection  of  the  mails 
or  the  supression  of  riots.  That  pretext  was  the  enforcement  of  the  processes 
of  the  federal  courts.  Although  the  United  States  marshal  at  Chicago  had 


'APPENDIX.  931 

sworn  in  4,402  deputy  marshals,  mostly  on  the  recommendation  of  the  rail- 
roads, still  this  did  not  answer  the  purpose  that  was  apparently  aimed  at,  that 
is,  to  establish  a  precedent  for  using  the  federal  army.  They  must  have  federal 
troops,  and  these  had  already  been  applied  for  and  were  specially  asked  by  the 
counsel  for  the  government,  who  represented  both  railroads  and  government, 
on  the  morning  of  July  3d,  and  the  processes  of  the  courts  which  these  troops 
were  to  enforce  were  not  the  legitimate  processes  of  the  United  States  Court, 
for  it  does  not  appear  that  any  special  trouble  was  experienced  in  serving 
any  process  of  the  courts  issued  in  accordance  with  the  Constitution  and  laws 
of  the  country,  but  these  processes  were  warrants  for  arrest  issued  by  federal 
judges  charging  men,  not  with  the  commission  of  a  crime  and  not  with  the 
violation  of  a  law,  but  with  being  guilty  of  a  contempt  of  court. 

Government  by  Injunction:  During  the  last  two  or  three  years  the  usur- 
pation of  power  on  the  part  of  the  federal  judiciary,  which  had  been  steadily 
going  on  for  a  long  time,  has  assumed  a  form  where  is  it  destroying  the  very 
foundations  of  republican  government.  The  Constitution  divides  the  powers 
of  government  into  the  legislative,  judiciary  and  executive,  and  contemplates 
that  no  two  of  these  shall  be  lodged  in  the  same  person,  but  during  the  last 
two  years  the  people  of  this  country  have  repeatedly  witnessed  the  operation  of 
an  entirely  new  form  of  government,  which  was  never  before  heard  of  among 
men  in  either  monarchy  or  republic,  that  is,  government  by  injunction,  whereby 
a  federal  judge,  not  content  with  deciding  controversies  brought  into  his  court, 
not  content  with  exercising  the  judicial  functions  of  government,  proceeds  to 
legislate  and  then  administrate.  He  issues  a  ukase  which  he  calls  an  injunction, 
forbidding  whatever  he  pleases  and  what  the  law  does  not  forbid,  and  thus 
legislates  for  himself  without  limitation  and  makes  things  penal  which  the  law 
does  not  make  penal,  makes  other  things  punishable  by  imprisonment  which 
at  law  are  only  punishable  by  fine,  and  he  deprives  men  of  the  right  of  trial 
by  jury  when  the  law  guarantees  this  right,  and  he  then  enforces  this  ukase 
in  a  summary  and  arbitrary  manner  by  imprisonment,  throwing  men  into 
prison,  not  for  violating  a  law,  but  for  being  guilty  of  a  contempt  of  court  in 
disregarding  one  of  these  injunctions.  During  the  last  two  years,  some  of  these 
judges  actually  enjoined  men  from  quitting  the  employment  of  a  railroad. 
These  injunctions  are  a  very  great  convenience  to  corporations  when  they 
can  be  had  for  the  asking  by  a  corporation  lawyer,  and  these  were  the  processes 
of  the  court,  to  enforce  which  the  President  sent  the  federal  troops  to  Chicago. 

During  the  coal  and  railroad  strikes  last  summer,  the  United  States 
marshal  for  the  Southern  District  of  Illinois  swore  in  altogether  over  300 
deputies,  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  injunctions  of  this  character 
issued  by  the  United  States  Court  and  directed  to  the  marshal  to  enforce,  and 
about  191  men  were  arrested  at  Cairo  and  other  points  in  the  State  and  brought 
to  Springfield  in  charge  of  officers,  a  distance  of  from  100  to  200  miles,  and 
lodged  in  jail.  Nearly  all  were  charged  with  contempt  of  court  and  were 
tried  not  by  a  jury,  but  by  the  court  whose  dignity  they  were  said  to  have 
offended;  121  were  convicted  and  most  of  them  sent  to  jail  for  from  thirty  to 
ninety  days.  Many  had  to  be  set  free  when  it  came  to  a  hearing  because 
it  did  not  appear  that  they  had  even  violated  an  injunction,  let  alone  committed 
a  crime,  and  nearly  all  when  set  free  found  themselves  on  the  streets  from 
loo  to  200  miles  from  their  homes  without  money  and  without  friends.  In  very 
many  cases  the  United  States  marshal,  prompted  by  the  instincts  of  humanity, 


932  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

gave  them  something  to  eat  and  secured  transportation  for  their  return,  while 
some  of  the  corporation  agents  who  were  responsible  for  it  all  appeared  to 
regard  the  proceedings  as  a  good  lesson  for  the  men.  During  the  railroad 
strike  the  marshal  for  the  Northern  District  of  Illinois,  who  had  already  the 
necessary  deputies  to  serve  the  regular  and  legitimate  processes  of  the  courts, 
swore  in  4,402  deputy  marshals  almost  for  the  sole  purpose  of  enforcing  some 
of  these  injunctions.  Some  of  these  injunctions  were  obtained  as  early  as  June 
291)1  and  3Oth.  They  were  issued  without  notice,  they  ran  against  all  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  three  States  comprising  that  judiciary  circuit,  and  were  not 
served  personally,  but  in  some  cases  were  simply  posted  on  some  wall,  and  in 
others  attempts  were  made  to  read  them  to  a  vast  mob  under  circumstances 
that  made  the  whole  proceeding  look  farcical  and  indicated  that  the  mob  was 
not  expected  to  obey  them,  but  that  these  proceedings  were  had  simply  to 
lay  the  foundation  for  another  step.  After  these  injunctions  had  been  issued 
the  United  States  marshals,  according  to  their  own  statements,  arrested  about 
450  men,  nearly  all  on  the  mere  charge  of  being  guilty  of  contempt  of  court, 
and  so  far  as  can  be  learned  not  twenty  men  have  been  convicted  on  any 
charge.  These  injunctions  served  as  a  sort  of  side-door  convenience,  and  were 
used  in  some  instances  to  terrorize  the  men.  At  different  times  men  who 
could  have  been  found  at  any  hour  of  the  day  were  arrested  toward  evening, 
in  some  cases  on  a  Saturday  evening,  when  the  officers  who  could  admit  to 
bail  had  gone  home,  so  as  to  compel  the  men  to  spend  a  night  or  a  Sunday  in 
jail.  George  Lovejoy,  a  trainmaster  at  La  Salle,  was  a  member  of  the  A.  R.  U., 
and  when  the  strike  began  he  simply  quit  work,  but  did  nothing  more.  A 
warrant  was  sworn  out  for  his  arrest.  He  was  taken  100  miles  to  Chicago 
in  charge  of  officers  and  remained  in  their  custody  two  days  and  was  then 
bailed  out,  and  when  the  case  was  about  to  be  heard  it  was  dismissed  with  the 
simple  statement  that  they  did  not  care  to  prosecute.  Had  the  machinery  of 
justice  been  left  in  impartial  hands,  and  had  there  been  no  other  object  in 
view  than  merely  the  enforcement  of  the  law  and  the  protection  of  property, 
it  is  manifest  that  these  abuses  would  not  have  happened.  The  federal  gov- 
ernment had  already  the  complete  machinery  of  justice  in  Chicago  which  had 
been  found  to  be  sufficient  for  every  and  all  purposes.  It  had  never  interfered 
on  similar  occasions  in  the  past.  Consequently,  the  fact  that  it  should  inter- 
fere at  all  here  was  remarkable,  and  that  it  should  step  in  at  such  an  early 
date  was  still  more  remarkable,  but  more  significant  than  all  these  things 
was  the  selection  which  it  made  of  a  representative.  There  were  in  Chicago 
at  that  time  thousands  of  able  lawyers  who  had  no  personal  interest  to  serve, 
but  they  were  not  wanted.  The  administration  claimed  to  be  Democratic  and 
there  were  hundreds  of  Democrats  capable  of  filling  any  office  in  the  govern- 
ment, but  they  could  not  be  trusted.  A  man  was  selected  who  was  not  only  of 
opposite  politics,  but  who  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  corporation  lawyers 
in  the  country,  who  was  at  that  time  the  hired  attorney  of  one  of  the  railroads 
involved  in  the  strike,  and  who  was  at  that  time  personally  engaged  in  fight- 
ing strikers,  and  therefore  had  an  interest  in  the  outcome,  yet  this  man  was 
clothed  with  all  the  powers  of  the  government  and  he  brought  to  the  use  of 
himself  and  his  clients,  without  expense  to  them,  the  services  of  over  4,000 
United  States  marshals,  of  a  specially  picked  United  States  grand  jury,  of 
several  United  States  Judges,  and  of  the  United  States  army.  Never  before 
were  the  United  States  government  and  the  corporations  of  the  country  so 


APPENDIX.  933 

completely  blended,  all  the  powers  of  the  one  being  at  the  service  of  the  other, 
and  never  before  was  the  goddess  of  justice  made  a  mere  handmaid  for  one  of 
the  combatants.  Surely,  if  there  had  not  been  a  special  object  to  attain,  if 
there  had  been  nothing  wanted  except  to  preserve  order  and  enforce  the 
law,  then  common  decency  would  have  suggested  that  the  machinery  of  justice 
remain  in  impartial  hands.  It  is  evident  that  if  the  Attorney  General  of  the 
United  States  did  not  outline  and  advise  the  policy  that  was  pursued,  it  re- 
ceived his  approval  and  was  carried  out  through  his  assistance. 

Referring  again  to  Government  by  Injunction:  Some  of  the  federal  judges 
based  these  remarkable  orders  on  the  Inter-State  Commerce  Law.  This  was 
an  act  passed  by  Congress  some  years  ago  for  the  express  purpose  of  protecting 
the  public  against  unjust  charges  on  the  part  of  the  railroads,  and  particularly 
of  protecting  the  farmers  and  the  shippers  of  the  .country  against  ruinous 
discriminations.  The  railroads  refused  to  obey  this  law  and  carried  it  into  the 
federal  courts,  and  these  same  federal  judges  proceeded  to  hold  section  after 
section  of  the  law  to  be  unconstitutional,  until  they  had  absolutely  destroyed  it 
for  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  enacted  and  had  made  it  as  harmless  as  a 
dead  rabbit.  Then,  after  having  thus  nullified  an  act  of  Congress  intended  for 
the  protection  of  the  people,  they  turned  around  and  made  of  it  a  club  with 
which  to  break  the  backs  of  the  men  who  toil  with  their  hands — men  whom 
Congress  did  not  think  of  legislating,  against.  Others  of  these  judges  have 
recently  held  that  they  have  the  power  to  make  these  orders  independently  of 
the  Inter-State  Commerce  Law. 

Another  innovation  is  the  operation  of  railroads  by  courts  of  chancery, 
whereby  a  court  carries  on  a  vast  business  enterprise,  not  simply  for  a  short 
time,  but  frequently  for  years,  and  by  an  astounding  fiction  in  the  line  of  usur- 
pation of  power,  the  dignity  and  the  sacred  presence  of  the  court  is  supposed 
to  extend  over  the  whole  line  of  the  road,  and  the  road  is  said  to  be  not  in 
the  hands  of  the  receivers,  as  other  property  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
owner,  but  in  the  actual  possession  of  the  court,  and  anything  done  to  the 
railroad  is  treated  as  a  contempt  of  court.  If  you  commit  an  offense  against 
a  railroad  that  is  in  the  hands  of  its  owners,  you  will  be  prosecuted  in  the 
county  where  the  offense  is  committed,  tried  by  a  jury,  and,  if  proven  to  be 
guilty,  may  be  sent  to  the  penitentiary.  But  if  you  tread  on  the  grass  or  throw 
a  stone  onto  a  railroad  that  has  been  robbed  by  speculators  and  then  put  into 
the  hands  of  a  receiver  to  freeze  out  some  stockholders,  you  will  be  guilty 
of  a  contempt  of  some  court  sitting  several  hundred  miles  away,  and  you  will 
be  liable  to  be  arrested  and  carried  to  where  it  is,  there  to  be  tried,  not  by  a 
jury  or  a  disinterested  tribunal,  but  by  that  court  whose  awful  dignity  you  have 
offended.  If  the  courts  must  go  into  the  business  of  operating  railroads,  then 
these  absurd  fictions  should  be  abandoned  and  the  roads  held  to  be  in  the 
hands  of  the  receivers  just  as  other  roads  are  held  to  be  in  the  hands  of  their 
owners.  It  is  in  connection  with  bankrupt  roads  in  the  hands  of  a  court  that 
most  of  the  outrageous  orders  or  injunctions  were  issued  during  the  last  two 
years.  These  injunctions  are  outside  of  the  regular  machinery  of  government. 
So  far  as  they  are  outside  the  law  they  are  usurpations,  and  where  not  usurpa- 
tions they  are  wrong,  for  the  Constitution  has  created  other  machinery  to  en- 
force the  criminal  law.  Courts  of  Chancery  were  not  created  for  this  purpose. 
Further,  they  do  no  good.  In  Chicago  they  were  issued  long  in  advance  of 
any  serious  rioting  or  disturbances;  yet  they  did  not  prevent  the  burning  of  a 


934  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

single  freight  car,  nor  the  ditching  of  a  single  train.  Our  country  has  existed 
for  more  than  a  hundred  years.  During  this  time  all  our  greatness  and  our 
glory  has  been  achieved.  Property  has  been  protected,  and  law  and  order  has 
been  maintained  by  the  machinery  established  by  the  Constitution;  this  ma- 
chinery has  at  all  times  been  found  to  be  more  than  sufficient  for  every  emer- 
gency. If  both  the  Constitution  and  our  past  experience  are  now  to  be 
disregarded,  and  the  federal  courts  are  to  be  permitted  to  set  up  this  new 
form  of  government,  then  it  will  be  equally  proper  for  the  State  courts  to  do 
so,  and  we  shall  soon  have  government  by  injunction  from  head  to  toe.  All 
of  the  affairs  of  life  will  be  regulated,  not  by  law,  but  by  the  personal  pleasure, 
prejudice  or  caprice  of  a  multitude  of  judges. 

Formerly,  when  a  man  charged  with  contempt  of  court  filed  an  affidavit 
purging  himself  of  the  contempt — that  is  denying  it— the  matter  ended,  except 
that  he  could  be  indicted  for  perjury  if  he  swore  to  a  lie.  But  after  thus  purging 
himself,  he  could  not  be  tried  for  Contempt  by  the  very  judge  whose  dignity 
he  was  charged  with  having  offended.  In  other  words,  when  a  man  denied  his 
guilt  he  could  not  be  sentenced  to  prison  without  a  trial  by  jury.  But  this 
protection  of  the  citizen  is  now  brushed  away. 

Federal  Troops:  The  placing  of  United  States  troops  on  active  duty  in 
Chicago  under  the  conditions  that  existed  there  last  summer  presents  a  question 
of  the  most  far-reaching  importance,  and  should  receive  the  most  serious 
consideration  of  every  patriot  and  of  every  man  who  believes  in  free  institu- 
tions. As  already  shown,  they  were  put  there  without  calling  on  the  local 
authorities  to  enforce  the  law  or  making  any  inquiry  as  to  whether  any  assist- 
ance was  needed,  and  at  a  time  when  the  local  authorities  felt  they  could  easily 
control  the  situation.  While  the  dates  and  the  facts  show  that  it  was  done  in 
this  case  for  the  purpose  of  setting  a  precedent  for  having  the  federal  govern- 
ment take  the  corporations  under  its  immediate  protection,  the  principle  in- 
volved is  much  broader  than  even  this  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and 
contemplates  the  exercise  of  a  power  that  cannot  exist  in  harmony  with  re- 
publican institutions.  This  act  was  an  entirely  new  departure  in  the  history  of 
our  government,  and  a  great  Constitutional  writer  of  the  country 
in  complimenting  the  President  upon  having  taken  this  step,  speaks 
of  it  as  a  great  step  taken  in  Constitutional  construction  and  is 
thankful  that  it  cost  so  little  bloodshed,  thus  practically  stating  that 
this  new  departure  was  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  as  it  had  been 
understood  for  a  century.  The  old  doctrine  of  State  rights  is  in  no  way 
involved.  Nobody  for  a  moment  questions  the  supremacy  of  the  Union.  But 
it  does  involve  the  question  whether,  in  connection  with  federal  supremacy, 
there  does  not  go  hand  in  hand  the  principle  of  local  self-government.  These 
two  principles,  i.  e.,  federal  union  and  local  self-government,  have  for  a  century 
been  regarded  as  the  foundation  upon  which  the  glory  of  our  whole  govern- 
mental fabric  rests.  One  is  just  as  sacred,  just  as  inviolable,  just  as  important 
as  the  other.  Without  federal  union  there  must  follow  anarchy,  and  without 
local  self-government  there  must  follow  despotism.  Both  are  destructive,  not 
only  of  the  liberties,  but  of  the  higher  aspirations  and  possibilities  of  a  people. 
The  great  civil  war  settled  that  we  should  not  have  anarchy.  It  remains  to  be 
settled  whether  we  shall  be  destroyed  by  despotism.  If  the  President  can,  at 
his  pleasure,  in  the  first  instance,  send  troops  into  any  city,  town  or  hamlet 
in  the  country,  or  into  any  number  of  cities,  towns  or  hamlets,  whenever  and 


APPENDIX.  935 

wherever  he  pleases,  under  pretense  of  enforcing  some  law,  his  judgment,  which 
means  his  pleasure,  being  the  sole  criterion,  then  there  can  be  no  difference 
whatever  in  this  respect  between  the  powers  of  the  President  and  those  of 
Emperor  William  or  of  the  Czar  of  Russia.  Neither  of  these  potentates  ever 
claimed  anything  more.  It  is  not  a  question  as  to  whether  the  President  must 
first  get  the  permission  of  local  authorities  before  he  can  interfere,  but  the 
question  is  whether  the  local  and  State  authorities  should  first  be  called  to 
enforce  the  law  and  maintain  order,  using  for  that  purpose  such  local  agencies 
and  forces  as  the  law  has  created,  or  whether  he  can  ignore  all  these  and  bring 
a  foreign  force  and  station  it  in  any  community  at  pleasure.  In  this  respect 
federal  civil  officers  and  the  federal  army  do  not  stand  on  the  same  footing. 
The  federal  civil  officers  always  have  acted  directly  in  the  matter  within  their 
jurisdiction,  but  the  American  people,  as  well  as  all  other  free  and  intelligent 
people,  are  jealous  of  a  central  military  power,  hence  great  precautions  have 
been  taken  to  limit  the  use  of  such  power,  and  these  limitations  have  always 
been  recognized  in  this  country,  and  were  recognized  by  the  Attorney  General 
so  late  as  June  16,  1894.  Again,  the  Constitution  provides  that  the  military 
shall  be  subordinate  to  the  civil  authorities,  and  in  all  cases  where  State  troops 
are  ordered  out  they  are  subject  to  the  control  of  the  local  civil  authorities  and 
act  under  their  direction,  but  the  federal  troops  ordered  to  Chicago  last  sum- 
mer did  not  act  under  any  civil  officer,  whether  federal  or  State.  They  did  not 
act  under  the  United  States  marshal,  but  directly  under  orders  from  military 
headquarters  at  Washington  and  were  subject  only  to  those  orders.  So  far  as 
they  acted  at  all,  it  was  military  government.  Local  self-government  is  the 
very  foundation  of  freedom  and  of  republican  institutions,  and  no  people  possess 
this  who  are  subject  to  have  the  army  patrol  their  streets  and  interfere  in  the 
affairs  of  government,  acting  not  under  but  independently  of  the  local  author- 
ities, and  do  this  at  the  mere  discretion  of  one  man,  or  of  a  central  power 
that  is  far  away.  Such  local  self-government  as  would  be  possible  under  these 
conditions  may  be  found  all  over  Russia.  We  grew  great  and  powerful  and 
won  the  admiration  of  the  world  while  proceeding  under  a  different  form  of 
government,  and  if  we  are  to  go  on  in  the  same  line,  then  the  American  people 
must  arrest  and  rebuke  this  federal  usurpation.  In  all  history  no  power  pos- 
sessed by  government  was  ever  allowed  to  lie  dormant  long.  Either  the  man 
or  the  class  soon  appeared  who,  for  selfish  purposes,  proceeded  to  exercise  it. 
If  the  acts  of  the  President  are  to  stand  unchallenged  and  thus  form  a  pre- 
cedent, then  we  have  undergone  a  complete  change  in  our  form  of  government, 
and  whatever  semblance  we  may  keep  up  in  the  future,  our  career  as  a  re- 
public is  over.  We  will  have  a  rapidly  increasing  central  power  controlled 
and  dominated  by  class  and  by  corporate  interests.  Holding  these  views  and 
knowing  that  the  law  had  been  enforced,  property  protected  and  order  main- 
tained for  a  whole  century  by  constitutional  agencies,  and  feeling  that  the 
mighty  State  of  Illinois  needed  neither  assistance  nor  interference  from  any 
outside  source,  I  considered  it  my  duty,  as  the  executive  of  the  State,  to  protest 
against  the  presence  of  federal  troops  under  the  existing  circumstances,  and 
requested  their  withdrawal,  and  I  herewith  submit  the  correspondence  upon  that 
subject. 

It  is  a  matter  of  special  regret  to  many  of  our  patriotic  citizens  that  this 
blow  at  free  institutions  should  have  been  struck  by  a  President  who  was  placed 
in  power  by  a  party  that  had  made  local  self-government  a  cardinal  principle 


936  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

for  more  than  a  century.    It  was  a  stabbing  of  republican  institutions  and  a 
betrayal  of  democratic  principles. 

ANARCHY  AND  THE  PRESERVATION  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

The  marked  feature  of  this  age  has  been  consolidation.     The  large  concerns 
swallowing  the  small   ones  or  destroying  them.     This   done,  the  large  ones 
formed  trusts,  thus  destroying  all  competition  as  to  the  public  and  as  to  labor. 
They  arbitrarily  fix  the  prices  of  goods  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  rate  of  wages 
on  the  other,  and  neither  the  public  nor  the  laborer  have  any  remedy.     The  one 
is  compelled  to  pay  what  is  asked,  for  necessity  is  at  its  throat;  the  other  is 
compelled  to  accept  what  is  offered,  for  hunger  is  in  his  home.     The  Scotch 
brigands  never  had  more  effective  weapons.     The  amassing  of  millions  under 
these  conditions   is  an  easy  matter,   and  as  they   grow   more   powerful   these 
trusts  get  beyond  the  control  of  the  government.     Prompted  by  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation,  the  laborers  of  the  country  are  endeavoring  to  form  com- 
binations.    They    see   that   standing   alone  as   individuals   in  the   presence   of 
the  mighty  combinations  of  capital,  they  will  be  ground  to  atoms.     That  unless 
they  can   meet  combination  with   combination,  they  and  their  children  must 
soon  be  reduced  to  abject  poverty  and  hopeless  slavery,  differing  from  African 
slavery  in  this,  that  while  the  African  had  a  master  who  had  to  feed  and,  in  the 
end,  to  bury  him,  the  white  slave  will  have  only  a  master  to  take  his  earnings. 
Now,  the  men  who  formed  the  great  combinations  of  capital  are  opposed  to 
combinations  among  laborers,  and  the  federal  courts  that  have  been  the  special 
guardians  of  corporations  and  combinations  seem  to  be  determined  to  crush 
labor  organizations.     Some  of  these  judges,  not  being  content  with  their  de- 
cisions, drag  their  ermines  over  the  land  to  preach  against  united  action  by 
the  toilers.     In  recent  years  the  Constitution  seems  to  have  become  an  insur- 
mountable barrier  to  every  measure  intended  for  the  protection  of  the  public, 
while  its  most  plainly  expressed  provisions  for  the  protection  of  the  liberty  and 
the  personal  rights  of  the  citizen  are  blown  away  with  a  mere  breath.     This 
subserviency  on  the  part  of  the  federal  judiciary  when  dealing  with  powerful 
corporations,  followed  by  usurpation  of  power,  and  the  assumption  of  an  awful 
dignity  when  dealing  with  the  men  who  have  to  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat 
of  their  brows,   is   not  calculated  to  create   respect  for  either  the  law   or  its 
machinery,  and  does  tend  to  create  unrest  among  our  people,  for  it  is  the  height 
of  folly  to  imagine  that  the  people  do  not  understand  the  character  of  these 
acts.     At  present  the  status  seems  to  be  this:     Combinations  by  capital  against 
the  public  and  against  labor  have  succeeded,   no  matter  by  what  means,  and 
the   men  who  accomplished  it   are  now   patriots;   while  combinations  among 
laborers  for  self  protection  have  failed,  and  the  men  who  advocate  it  are  ene- 
mies of  society.     If  these  conditions  are  to  continue,  then  the  fate  of  the  Amer- 
ican laborer  is  sealed.     He  must  be  reduced  to  the  lowest  conditions  of  exist- 
ence, and  this  must  destroy  that  very  capital  which  is  now  pushing  him  down; 
for  with   the  destruction   of   the  purchasing   power  of  the  American   laborer 
will  disappear  our  great  American  market,  and  whenever  this  happens — when- 
ever the  American  laborer,  like  his  brother  in  the  poorer  countries  of  the  Old 
World,  can  only  buy  a  little  coarse  clothing  and  some  poor  food  and  cannot 
afford  to  travel,  then  many  of  our  great  manufacturing  and  railroad  properties 
will  not  be  worth  50  cents  on  the  dollar.     Further,  this  process  must  produce 
discontent,  disturbance  and  hatred  and  will  increase  the  expense  of  watching 


APPENDIX.  937 

property,  and  greatly  increase  the  expense  of  government,  and  consequently 
the  taxes.  Russianizing  a  government  is  an  expensive  business  and  has  never 
yet  succeeded — not  even  in  Russia.  It  has  always  resulted  in  choking  enter- 
prise, and  in  the  end  destroying  capital.  Capital  to-day  does  not  seek  invest- 
ment in  any  country  where  the  laborers  are  slaves,  and  where  there  is  an  ever 
present  system  of  police  and  espionage,  for  the  taxes  are  destructive  and  there 
is  no  market.  Capital  seeks  those  countries  where  liberty  stimulates  activity 
and  enterprise.  Again,  the  government  is  interested  in  preserving  the  highest 
order  of  citizenship.  This  is  impossible  where  the  laborer  is  too  poor  to 
educate  his  children  and  is  kept  in  the  condition  of  a  beast  of  burden.  The 
spirit  of  self-preservation  alone  requires  the  government  to  take  notice  of  these 
conditions.  If  the  government  is  impotent  in  .  dealing  with  combina- 
tions of  capital,  then  it  should  at  least  give  the  laboring  men  of  -the 
country  a  fair  chance  to  protect  themselves  by  peaceable  means.  It  will  be 
a  sorry  day  for  our  country  when  we  shall  have  only  the  very  rich  on  the  one 
hand,  and  a  crushed  and  spiritless  poor  on  the  other.  These  conditions,  if  not 
arrested,  will  change  the  character  of  our  government,  and  give  us  in  time  a 
corrupt  oligarchy,  the  worst  form  of  government  known  to  man.  For  several 
years  there  has  come  from  certain  classes  a  loud  cry  of  anarchy  intended  to 
cover  every  man  who  protested  against  the  destruction  of  American  liberty 
with  obloquy.  It  was  a  cry  of  "Stop  thief"  by  a  class  that  apparently  wished  to 
direct  attention  from  what  it  was  doing.  Even  if  we  had  anarchists  in  our  coun- 
try, they  could  accomplish  nothing,  for  men  in  rags  never  yet  destroyed  a  gov- 
ernment. They  can  sometimes  destroy  some  property,  but  never  a  government. 
We  have  our  fair  share  of  criminals  of  every  grade  and  kind,  and  the  law  is 
amply  able  to  deal  with  these.  Our  government  never  has  been  and  is  not 
to-day  in  the  slightest  danger  from  the  anarchy  of  a  mob.  Our  people  are 
loyal,  and  no  government  can  be  found  on  earth  that  is  stronger  than  ours  in 
this  regard,  for  it  is  as  yet  entrenched  in  the  hearts  of  our  citizens.  Half  a 
million  men  would  rush  to  the  defense  of  the  government  in  our  State  alone  in 
a  day  if  it  were  in  the  slightest  danger  from  any  violence.  Our  danger  lies 
in  another  direction.  It  comes  from  that  corruption,  usurpation,  insolence 
and  oppression  that  go  hand  in  hand  with  vast  concentration  of  wealth,  wielded 
by  unscrupulous  men,  and  it  behooves  every  friend  of  republican  institutions 
to  give  these  things  most  serious  consideration.  Being  required  by  the  Con- 
stitution to  report  the  condition  of  the  State,  and  seeing  that  the  ground  is 
being  dug  from  some  of  its  foundation,  I  have  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  call 
attention  to  it,  earnestly  hoping  that  a  remedy  will  be  found  for  all  of  the 
evils  that  threaten  us.  Let  us  bear  in  mind  in  all  we  do  that  we  are  legislating 
for  one  of  the  greatest  States  on  earth,  a  State  that  is  yet  in  its  infancy,  and  has 
already  won  the  admiration  of  mankind;  a  State  which  if  guided  by  those  prin- 
ciples of  liberty  and  true  republican  government  ordained  by  the  fathers, 
must  have  a  career  of  unparalleled  grandeur  and  glory.  Therefore  let  us  build 
for  the  centuries. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


938  LIFE  QUESTION*. 


SPECIAL   MESSAGE   ON   THE   LEASING   OUT  OF  SCHOOL  PROPERTY  IN 

CHICAGO. 

State  of  Illinois,  Executive  Office, 

Springfield,  March  6th,  1895. 
To  the  Gentlemen  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives: 

I  desire  to  direct  your  attention  to  the  importance  of  more  thoroughly 
protecting  the  productive  properties  belonging  to  the  school  fund  of  the 
State,  and  also  of  striking  from  the  statutes  all  provisions  under  which  vast 
amounts  of  property  escape  taxation. 

ist.  In  some  portions  of  the  State,  particularly  in  Chicago,  there  are  very 
valuable  lands  which  belong  to  the  school  fund,  and  the  rent  of  which  was 
intended  to  maintain  the  public  schools.  Some  of  the  most  valuable  land 
in  the  heart  of  that  city  is  of  this  character.  Besides  numerous  other  pieces 
there  is  the  entire  block  bounded  by  Dearborn,  Madison,  State  and  Monroe 
streets.  Years  ago  all  school  lands  were  leased  by  the  Board  of  Education 
to  various  parties  for  a  long  term,  but  with  the  provision  that  there  should  be 
a  revaluation  every  five  years,  and  that  the  rent  should  be  six  per  cent,  per 
annum  on  this  valuation.  The  purpose  of  this  was  to  enable  the  school  fund 
to  get  the  benefit  of  the  advance  in  the  value  of  the  land  as  the  city  grew  larger. 
Under  this  arrangement  the  lessees  all  erected  buildings  which  were  similar 
to  other  buildings  in  the  vicinity  that  were  not  on  leased  ground.  Revaluations 
have  been  had  from  time  to  time,  each  much  higher  than  the  former,  but  the 
lessees,  many  of  whom  are  prominent  citizens,  have  been  able  to  exert  such  an 
influence  that  the  rent  produced  by  this  ground  has  always  been  far  below  that 
paid  for  ground  belonging  to  private  individuals,  in  the  same  locality  and  no 
more  desirable,  so  that  these  school  leases  have  become  very  valuable  over 
and  above  the  value  of  the  buildings.  Some  of  them  have  been  sold  for  large 
sums  and  others  are  held  at  over  half  a  million  dollars,  whereas,  if  a  fair  rental 
were  paid,  this  would  not  be  the  case. 

It  is  found  that  the  owners  of  four  great  daily  newspapers  hold 
leases  of  school  lands.  Three  of  these  papers  are  actually  published 
on  school  lands,  and  it  has  happened  in  the  past  that  when  certain 
men  made  a  strong  effort  to  compel  the  payment  of  a  fair  rent  on  this  land 
they  were  made  targets  of  abuse  by  at  least  one  of  these  newspapers.  The 
original  lease  provided  that  the  Board  of  Education  should  alone  select  the 
three  appraisers.  The  theory  on  which  the  contract  was  made  was  that  the 
lessee  should  pay  all  the  ground  was  worth  from  time  to  time  and  that,  as  the 
members  of  the  board  were  not  personally  interested,  they  would  not  ask 
more.  This  was  the  contract.  But  eight  years  ago,  after  an  appraisement 
had  been  made  and  there  was  some  litigation,  this  Board  of  Education  took  the 
remarkable  step  of  waiving  this  right  and  entered  into  a  contract  whereby 
it  was  in  the  future  to  select  only  one  appraiser,  and  the  other  two  were  to  be 
selected  by  two  different  judges  of  Chicago.  Now,  while  these  judges  will 
always  be  honest  and  able,  yet  experience  has  shown  that  as  a  rule  judges  are 
as  sensitive  to  newspaper  influence  as  other  men.  When,  therefore,  the 
board  gave  up  the  right  to  name  the  appraisers  it  lost  what  was  of  great  value 
to  the  public.  The  time  has  now  arrived  for  making  a  new  appraisement,  and 
it  is  proposed  by  some  of  the  parties  in  interest,  who  pose  as  patriotic  citizens, 
that  the  board  shall  waive  the  right  to  have  revaluations  from  time  to  time 


APPENDIX.  939 

altogether.  This  would  prevent  the  school  fund  getting  the  benefit  of  the 
appreciation  in  the  value  of  land  in  the  future  and  would  be  practically  robbing 
the  school  fund  in  advance.  Further,  as  we  are  just  emerging  from  a  panic, 
this  is  not  a  good  time  to  fix  values  for  the  future.  Not  only  should  this  be 
prohibited  by  emergency  legislation,  but,  if  possible,  measures  should  be 
adopted  that  will  compel  the  payment  of  such  rental  in  the  future  as  the 
ground  is  worth.  At  present  the  entire  block  above  described  pays  only 
$166,521  per  year,  while  the  corresponding  piece  of  ground  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  street  is  worth  more  than  twice  this  sum  in  addition  to  the  taxes. 
These  school  grounds  are  exempt  from  taxes.  The  law  contemplated  that  the 
rent  should  be  that  much  higher.  Instead  of  this,  it  has  been  kept  lower. 
For  example:  The  southwest  corner  of  State  and  Madison  streets  is  the  most 
valuable  corner  in  the  city.  The  lot  is  48x80,  and  leased  to  Mr.  Otis,  who  pays 
$15,120  a  year  rental  on  the  ground,  and  no  taxes.  The  building  is  old  and  of 
little  value,  yet  he  sublets  it  at  a  rental  which,  after  paying  the  ground  rent 
and  all  expenses,  nets  him  'over  forty  thousand  dollars  ($40,000)  per  year. 
As  this  is  due  to  the  value  of  the  ground,  most  of  this  sum  should  go  to  the 
school  fund.  The  southeast  corner  of  Dearborn  and  Madison  streets  is  leased 
to  the  Chicago  Tribune  Company.  The  ground  is  72x120  feet  and  at  present 
pays  a  rental  of  only  $12,000  a  year,  while  on  the  opposite  corner,  diagonally 
across  Dearborn  street,  a  piece  of  ground  20x40  feet,  having  only  800  square 
feet,  is  rented  at  an  annual  sum  of  $10,000  in  addition  to  the  taxes,  which  at 
present  amount  to  $2,240,  bringing  the  annual  cost  of  the  ground  to  over 
$12,000.  Again,  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Dearborn  and  Madison  streets 
a  piece  of  ground  50x92^,  being  but  little  more  than  half  as  large  as  the 
Tribune  lot,  and  just  across  the  street  from  it,  is  rented  at  an  annual  rental 
of  $26,900  in  addition  to  the  taxes,  which  now  amount  to  over  $3,000,  making 
the  annual  cost  of  the  ground  alone  $30,000.  In  comparison  with  what  other 
property  in  the  same  locality  is  paying,  it  is  clear  that  the  Tribune  lot  is  worth 
nearly  three  times  the  rent  it  now  pays,  and  that  the  owners  of  the  Tribune 
have  for  a  number  of  years  been  pocketing  in  the  neighborhood  of  $25,000  a 
year  that  should  have  gone  to  the  school  fund. 

Second.  For  the  purposes  of  general  taxation  other  property  is  assessed  at 
from  one-fourth  to  one-fifth  of  its  market  value.  This  newspaper,  aside  from 
the  real  estate,  has  a  cash  market  value  of  over  three  millions  of  dollars  and 
for  many  years  has  been  paying  dividends  on  this  sum.  If  it  were  assessed 
on  the  same  basis  as  other  property,  its  assessment  would  be  at  least  $600,000, 
and  it  would  have  to  pay  upwards  of  $40,000  a  year  taxes,  yet  it  manages  to 
escape  with  an  assessment  of  only  $18,000,  and  pays  only  about  $1,500  taxes,  so 
that  the  owners  of  this  paper  have  for  many  years  been  able  to  pocket  in  the 
neighborhood  of  $40,000  a  year  that  should  have  gone  to  the  public  treasury 
for  taxes.  This  added  to  what  should  have  gone  to  the  school  fund  makes 
over  $60,000  a  year  that  has  been  diverted  from  the  public  into  the  hands  of 
private  individuals  in  this  one  instance. 

As  these  newspapers  have  much  to  say  about  patriotism  and  a  higher 
citizenship,  they  should  set  a  better  example.  Waving  the  flag  with  one  hand 
and  plundering  the  public  with  the  other  is  a  form  of  patriotism  that  is  getting 
to  be  entirely  too  common  and  is  doing  infinite  harm  to  our  country. 

Under  the  Constitution  new  legislation  does  not  take  effect  until  July 
i.  unless  it  contains  an  emergency  clause,  and,  as  the  next  assessment  of 


940  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

property  for  purposes  of  taxation  will  be  made  before  that  time,  I  respectfully 
urge  immediate  emergency  legislation  which  will  wipe  out  all  laws  under 
which  glaring  injustice  and  wrong  can  be  perpetrated. 


VETO  OF  THE  MONOPOLY  BILLS. 

To  the  Gentlemen  of  the  Senate: 

I  herewith  return  without  my  approval  Senate  bill  No.  138,  entitled  An 
act  concerning  street  railroads  and  to  refpeal  a  certain  act  therein  named. 

Also  Senate  bill  No.  137,  entitled  An  act  concerning  elevated  railroads  and 
to  regulate  the  same. 

I  have  also  returned  to  the  House  without  my  approval  House  bill  No.  618, 
entitled  An  act  to  regulate  the  granting  of  franchises  and  special  privileges  by 
cities,  villages  and  incorporated  towns. 

While  these  three  bills  relate  to  different  subjects  they  all  involve  the  same 
principle  and  are  subject  to  the  same  fundamental  objections  in  this,  that  they 
legalize  monopoly.  In  giving  my  reasons  at  length  for  withholding  my  ap- 
proval, I  deem  it  best  to  point  out  the  objections  to  the  three  bills  in  order 
to  more  clearly  show  the  principle  involved,  so  that  in  case  your  honorable 
tody  should  decide  to  amend  the  measures  you  can  the  more  readily  meet  the 
difficulties  presented. 

The  law  now  provides  that  corporations  may  be  formed  for  ninety-nine 
years,'  but  a  city  council  can  only  grant  an  ordinance  to  operate  a  street  rail- 
way in  a  street  for  twenty  years.  The  purpose  of  this  limitation  is  to  enable  cities 
at  certain  intervals  to  impose  such  conditions  in  respect  to  revenue,  or  ac- 
commodations, or  rates  of  fare  as  may  be  deemed  necessary  to  protect  the 
public  interests.  Now,  each  of  the  first  two  bills  gives  a  city  council  power 
to  grant  an  ordinance  for  the  full  life  of  the  corporation,  that  is,  ninety-nine 
years,  so  that  it  would  be  in  the  power  of  a  city  council  to  give  away  to  a 
street  railway  not  only  the  rights  of  this  generation,  but  the  rights  of  future 
generations,  and  these  bills  make  no  provision  for  securing  to  the  public  any 
compensation  or  protection  in  return. 

Second.  The  law  now  provides  that  an  ordinance  to  build  a  street  rail- 
way in  a  street  can  only  be  granted  on  condition  that  the  company  will  pay 
all  damages  which  owner  of  abutting  property  on  the  street  or  public  ground 
may  sustain  by  reason  of  the  building  of  such  road,  such  damage  to  be  as- 
certained by  court  proceedings  under  the  laws  relating  to  eminent  domain. 
Bill  No.  138  repeals  this  provision. 

Third.  There  can  be  no  competing  street  railway  unless  it  can  get  into 
the  heart  of  a  town.  In  large  cities,  especially  in  Chicago,  all  of  the  down- 
town streets  are  already  occupied.  As  a  street  railroad  gets  no  title  or  ex- 
clusive right  to  a  street,  it  has  happened  in  the  past  that  a  new  company  was 
given  a  license  by  the  city  to  put  down  a  second  track  for  a  few  blocks  on 
a  street  already  occupied.  In  such  a  case  each  of  the  rails  of  the  second  road 
is  laid  a  few  inches  from  the  rails  of  the  old  road,  so  that  the  cars  have 
practically  to  move  over  the  same  ground.  But  Section  5  of  Bill  138  con- 
tains a  proviso  which  would  enable  an  old  company  to  prevent  such  a  privilege 
being  granted  to  a  second  corporation  if  it  in  the  slightest  degree  delayed  or 
interfered  with  the  old  company's  operations. 

Fourth.      Both    of   these    bills.    137   and    138.    expressly   provide    that   any 


'APPENDIX.  941 

property  holder  can  enjoin  any  new  company  from  beginning  work,  by 
alleging  that  it  did  not  have  a  petition  signed  by  the  owners  of  a  majority  of 
the  frontage  before  the  city  council  granted  an  ordinance.  None  of  the  old 
companies  were  subject  to  this  provision,  as  it  was  generally  held  that  the 
attorney  representing  the  State  could  alone  maintain  such  a  suit.  But  under 
this  new  provision  an  old  company  could  get  some  resident  property  holders 
to  commence  a  large  number  of  suits  in  the  different  State  courts,  and  some 
non-resident  property  owners  to  commence  suits  in  the  United  States  court, 
and  thus  not  only  tie  up  any  new  company  in  the  courts  for  years,  but  wear  it 
out  before  it  could  lay  down  a  rail.  Legislation  to  protect  a  property  holder 
is  very  much  to  be  desired,  but  legislation  which  is  manifestly  intended  to 
enable  corporations  to  use  a  property  holder  as  a  convenience  in  order  to 
establish  or  perpetuate  a  monopoly  can  never  benefit  the  public. 

Fifth.  These  bills  provide  that  no  company  shall  have  the  right  to  even 
go  into  the  court  and  condemn  any  part  of  or  anything  pertaining  to  any  of 
the  existing  roads,  or  of  any  road  which  may  be  built  under  privilege  already 
obtained,  so  that,  when  applied  to  Chicago,  no  matter  how  much  the  city 
may  grow  in  the  future,  no  new  or  competing  road  can  be  built,  because  the 
existing  roads  have  been  so  located  that  it  will  be  impossible  for  a  new  line  to 
'get  into  the  heart  of  the  city  without  at  some  point  having  to  strike  and,  to  a 
limited  extent  at  least,  interfere  with  an  existing  road.  Should  a  loop  be  built 
in  Chicago  for  the  elevated  roads  on  streets  now  contemplated  it  would  then 
be  impossible  for  any  new  road  to  get  into  the  heart  of  the  town.  This  clause 
of  the  bills  was  evidently  intended  to  prevent  any  further  effort  at  competition 
and  thus  to  practically  give  a  monopoly  for  a  century,  and  that  without  giving 
the  public  anything  in  return. 

Sixth.  Again,  each  of  these  bills  contains  a  provision  which  expressly 
authorizes  consolidation  on  the  part  of  any  number  of  roads,  so  that  they  can 
in  the  end  all  come  under  one  management.  That  is,  this  provision  expressly 
legalizes  monopoly.  It  is  true  there  is  a  clause  in  Bill  No.  137  which  says 
that  competing  lines  shall  not  consolidate,  but  practically,  there  are  no  com- 
peting lines  in  Chicago  now,  and,  as  the  other  provisions  of  the  bills  will 
prevent  any  competing  road  from  being  built,  it  is  evident  that  this  clause 
does  not  signify  anything.  Taking  all  of  the  provisions  of  the  two  bills,  it  is 
evident  that  they  were  intended  to  create,  and  if  they  become  laws  will  create, 
a  monopoly  in  Chicago  of  both  the  street  railway  and  the  elevated  railway 
business  for  nearly  a  hundred  years  to  come. 

House  Bill  No.  618  provides  that  before  a  city  council  can  grant  a  privilege 
to  lay  gas  pipes  or  to  string  wires  for  conducting  electricity  a  petition  must 
be  presented,  signed  by  the  owners  of  a  majority  of  the  land  frontage  of  each 
block  or  any  street  or  alley  in  which  it  is  proposed  to  lay  such  pipes  or  string 
such  wires. 

All  of  the  old  gas  companies  have  their  pipes  in  the  streets  of  Chicago  and 
several  new  companies  recently  formed  have  their  permits  to  put  in  pipes 
and  string  electric  wires  where  they  choose,  and  consequently  would  not  be 
affected  by  this  bill.  A  brief  examination  of  this  measure  shows  that  if  it  were 
to  become  a  law  it  would  be  in  the  power  of  the  existing  companies  to  prevent 
for  all  time  any  new  or  competing  company  from  putting  down  pipe  or  string- 
ing any  wires,  for  they  would  only  need  to  prevent  the  new  company  from 
getting  the  signatures  of  the  owners  of  a  majority  of  the  frontage  of  one 


942  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

block  on  any  street  proposed  to  be  occupied  by  the  new  company.  Had  the 
bill  provided  in  express  terms  that  the  existing  companies  should  for  all  time 
have  a  monopoly  of  furnishing  gas,  electric  light,  etc.,  in  the  city  of  Chicago 
it  could  scarcely  have  been  more  effective.  So  that  this  bill,  like  the  other 
two,  aims  to  legalize  monopoly. 

In  considering  these  three  bills  the  fundamental  question  arises  at  the 
threshold,  whether  we  have  reached  a  point  in  our  career  where  we  are  willing 
to  legalize  what  during  our  whole  history  and  by  all  civilized  nations  has  been 
condemned.  Are  we  prepared  to  reverse  the  entire  policy  of  all  government  on 
this  question,  and  that  too  without  securing  any  compensation.  It  is  true  that 
in  some  instances  other  governments  have  sold  special  privileges  or  granted 
monopolies  and  the  State  derived  a  consideration  for  them,  but  this  was  at  the 
beginning  of  an  enterprise  and  not  after  it  was  established.  On  the  contrary, 
making  a  monopoly  has  for  years  been  a  crime  punishable  by  both  fine  and 
imprisonment  in  England  and  in  this  country.  It  is  the  business  of  government 
to  protect  all  interests  alike,  and  if  any  interest  is  to  receive  special  attention  it 
should  be  the  weaker  and  not  the  more  powerful. 

Again,  these  bills  would  instantly  increase  the  value  of  the  properties  of 
the  various  corporations  interested  many  millions  of  dollars,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  future,  and  all  this  without  any  effort  on  their  part.  It  is  a  flagrant' 
attempt  to  increase  the  riches  of  some  men  at  the  expense  of  others  by  means 
of  legislation. 

It  may  be  true  that  there  is  now  in  Chicago  practically  a  monopoly 
in  all  of  the  lines  of  business  covered  by  these  bills  and  it  may  also  be  true  that 
this  condition  will  continue  whether  these  bills  become  a  law  or  not,  but 
there  is  a  great  difference  between  enduring  an  evil  which  can  not  be  avoided 
and  deliberately  taking  it  into  your  arms. 

Some  of  the  largest,  most  conservative  and  best  governed  cities  of  Europe 
and  America  now  furnish  their  inhabitants  gas,  electric  light  and  even  street 
car  service,  and  do  this  at  greatly  reduced  rates  and  yet  derive  a  large  revenue 
from  this  source,  just  as  Chicago  now  does  in  furnishing  water.  If  we  had  a 
law  permitting  cities  to  do  the  same  in  this  State,  then,  if  these  bills  were 
adopted,  the  people  could  at  any  time  free  themselves  from  the  monopoly  by 
building  or  acquiring  plants  and  furnishing  the  service  themselves,  or,  if  the 
corporations  could  be  compelled  to  pay  a  part  of  their  gross  earnings  into  the 
treasury,  then  the  public  would  get  some  compensation.  Or  if  any  citizen  who 
surfers  from  the  exactions  of  monopoly  could  on  certain  conditions  go  into 
a  court  of  record  and  get  protection  against  excessive  charges  the  case  would 
be  different.  It  is  asserted  that  combinations  do  not  injure  the  public,  but  I 
remember  that  about  eight  years  ago  gas  sold  at  one  dollar  per  thousand  feet 
in  Chicago.  Then  the  trust  was  formed  and  the  price  was  at  once  advanced  to 
a  dollar  and  a  quarter.  It  has  also  been  argued  that  the  entire  trend  of  mod- 
ern civilization  is  toward  concentration  and  consolidation  and  that  no  power 
can  arrest  this  force;  that  all  the  anti-trust  laws  are  a  dead  letter  and  have 
accomplished  nothing;  that  while  the  law  may  now  forbid  one  corporation 
from  combining  or  consolidating  with  other  corporations,  yet  men  who  own 
stock  in  one  corporation  cannot  be  prevented  from  owning  stock  in  other  cor- 
porations and  consequently  a  number  of  corporations  cannot  be  prevented  from 
acting  in  harmony  or  working  together;  that  great  concentrations  of  capital 
can  and  will  control  any  situation  and  that  consequently  it  is  idle  to  talk  about 


APPENDIX.  943 

competition  in  large  cities  in  any  business  in  which  monopoly  is  possible;  that 
in  Chicago  we  have  had  monopolies  for  many  years  in  the  lines  of  business 
covered  by  these  bills  and  that  this  condition  will  continue  whether  these  bills 
become  a  law  or  not.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  in  answer  to  this  argument  that,  if 
it  is  true,  then  it  simply  shows  the  necessity  for  finding  some  other  way  of 
protecting  the  public,  and  it  furnishes  no  excuse  for  an  unconditional  sur- 
render by  the  government  to  the  corporations.  If  it  is  true  that  the  days  of 
competition  are  over,  then  some  other  method  of  protecting  the  public  should 
be  placed  on  the  statute  books  before  the  State  legalizes  that  which  it  has 
condemned  for  centuries.  If  the  corporations  involved  require  legislation  to 
properly  protect  them  then  it  should  be  promptly  passed  with  just  limitations. 

But  to  pass  these  bills  under 'existing  conditions  and  without  any  limita- 
tions would  be  to  fasten  a  collar  on  the  future  and  to  levy  tribute  on  genera- 
tions yet  to  come,  and  all  this  simply  to  further  enrich  a  few  private  individuals. 
It  is  idle  to  say  that  the  bills  can  be  repealed  in  the  future,  for,  if  the  existing 
corporations  are  now  able  to  get  affirmative  legislation  of  this  character,  they 
can  easily  prevent  its  repeal.  Besides,  a  repeal  could  not  affect  any  privileges 
which  any  corporation  might  in  the  meantime  have  acquired  under  them.  I 
'  am  therefore  obliged  to  withhold  my  approval  from  each  of  these  bills,  be- 
cause they  attempt  to  reverse  tht  theory  and  traditions  of  government  by 
legalizing  monopoly  and  make  no  provisions  for  protecting  the  public. 

Second.  Because  their  effect  would  be  to  increase  the  riches  of  some  men 
at  the  expense  of  others  by  legislation. 

Third.  Because  they  would  shackle  a  great  city.  I  love  Chicago  and  am 
not  willing  to  help  forge  a  chain  which  would  bind  her  people  hand  and 
foot  for  all  time  to  the  wheels  of  monopoly  and  leave  them  no  chance  to 
escape. 

VETO  OF  BILL  DECLARING  POLICY  OF  THE  STATE   AS   TO 
WATERWAYS. 

To  the  Honorable  the  Senate: 

I  herewith  return  without  my  approval  Senate  bill  No.  457,  entitled  An 
act  to  promote  the  construction  of  waterways. 

The  main  provision  of  the  bill  is  as  follows: 

"It  is  hereby  declared  the  policy  of  the  State  of  Illinois  to  procure  as 
soon  as  practicable,  the  construction  of  a  trunk  waterway  through  the  State 
from  Lake  Michigan,  via  the  Des  Plaines  and  Illinois  rivers,  to  the  Mississippi 
river,  of  such  dimensions  and  capacity  as  to  form  a  homogeneous  part  of  a 
through  route  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  via  the  great  lakes,  to  the  Gulf  o£ 
Mexico,  and  it  is  hereby  declared  to  be  the  further  policy  of  said  State  to 
determine  such  a  system  of  lateral  and  subsidiary  waterways  as  shall  be  per- 
mitted by  topographical  and  hydrographical  conditions  in  order  that  the 
State  may,  by  appropriate  legislation,  fully  conserve  the  public  interest  in  said 
system,  to  the  end  that  the  same  be  developed  with  the  growth  in  resources 
and  population  and  as  public  necessities  shall  demand.  And  in  furtherance  of 
the  policy  herein  set  forth  the  Governor  is  authorized  to  appoint,  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  a  commissioner  of  waterways,  who  shall 
be  a  civil  engineer  of  recognized  standing  and  ability  on  waterway  questions, 
said  commissioner  to  report  to  the  next  general  Assembly  of  Illinois  such 

i  l 


944  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

data  and  conclusions  with  estimates,  diagrams  and  maps  in  illustration  thereof 
as  may  be  germane  to  the  subject,  and  said  report  shall  be  accompanied  by 
recommendations  in  regard  to.  the  means  to  be  employed  in  carrying  out  any 
project  that  may  be  matured  and  the  draft  of  any  legislation  that  may  be 
desirable." 

The  bill  further  states  that  "in  projecting  said  trunk  waterway  the  com- 
missioner shall  consider  the  sanitary  and  ship  canal  of  Chicago  and  the  con- 
nection of  the  same  with  Lake  Michigan  in  relation  to  its  use  as  a  harbor  for 
lake  shipping;  also  for  ocean  vessels  in  accordance  with  such  plans  for  con- 
necting the  lakes  with  the  Atlantic  as  may  be  projected  by  the  commissioners 
of  the  United  States,  and  said  commissioner  is  authorized  to  co-operate  with 
the  United  States  commission  and  obtain  any  necessary  data  bearing  upon  said 
projects  for  ocean  navigation." 

The  commissioner  of  waterways  to  be  appointed  by  the  Governor  and 
the  Senate  shall  be  paid  $500  a  month  for  twenty-two  months,  and  he  may 
appoint  such  assistants  as  he  deems  proper,  and  the  bill  then  appropriates 
$25,000  to  pay  these  salaries  and  expenses  for  the  next  twenty-two  months. 
Had  this  bill  simply  appropriated  $25,000  to  make  a  survey  of  the  Illinois  and 
Des  Plaines  rivers  to  secure  such  information  in  regard  to  levels,  etc.,  as  a 
proper  survey  would  furnish,  there  would  have  been  no  constitutional  objection 
to  it,  but  it  will  be  seen  that  this  is  not  the  object  or  purpose  of  the  bill.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  an  open  and  direct  declaration  of  a  policy  to  be  pursued 
by  the  State.  It  explicitly  commits  the  State  to  the  policy  of  undertaking 
an  enterprise;  that  is,  the  dredging  of  a  canal  that  would  cost  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars.  The  Constitution  expressly  forbids  any  appropriations 
being  made  in  aid  of  railroads  or  canals.  This  bill  explicitly  states  that  its 
object  is  to  procure  the  making  of  a  waterway;  that  is  a  canal,  and  the  appro- 
priation is  therefore  unconstitutional.  If  such  an  enterprise  is  ever  under- 
taken it  will  have  to  be  done  by  the  Federal  Government. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  canal  or  waterway  is  to  provide  for  vessels 
drawing  not  less  than  fourteen  feet  of  water,  and  is  to  be  of  sufficient  width 
to  admit  of  the  passage  of  several  large  steamers  having  in  tow  other  boats. 
It  would  be  similar  to  the  drainage  canal  now  being  dug  from  the  western 
part  of  Chicago  to  Lockport,  a  distance  of  only  about  thirty-four  miles  and 
which  will  cost  the  people  of  Chicago  considerably  over  $30,000,000.  The 
canal  proposed  by  this  bill  would  commence  at  Lockport,  where  the  drainage 
canal  now  ends,  and  would  run  to  LaSalle,  where  it  would  strike  the  Illinois 
river,  that  is,  a  distance  of  about  seventy  miles.  No  man  could  tell  exactly 
what  this  would  cost.  But  taking  other  works  of  a  similar  character  as  a 
criterion  it  would  cost  from  $40,000,000  to  $50,000.000.  From  LaSalle  by  way 
of  the  Illinois  river  to  the  Mississippi  river  it  is  in  the  neighborhood  of  230 
miles  and  the  average  depth  of  water  in  the  Illinois  river  is  usually  given  at 
three  and  a  half  feet.  At  present  it  is  much  lower  than  that.  I  will  not 
undertake  to  make  an  estimate  of  the  millions  of  dollars  that  would  be  re- 
quired to  deepen  this  so  that  it  would  admit  the  passage  of  vessels  drawing 
fourteen  feet  o}  water,  nor  of  the  millions  of  annual  expenses  that  would  be 
involved  in  afterward  keeping  open  the  channel. 

From  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  river  to  Cairo  by  way  of  the  Mississippi 
river  is  in  the  neighborhood  of  200  miles,  and  the  average  depth  of  water  is 
usually  given  at  from  four  to  four  and  one-half  feet,  but  in  recent  years  it 


APPENDIX.  945 

has  fallen  below  that  during  the  summer  season,  which  is  the  season  of  navi- ' 
gation,  and  at  present  the  water  in  the  Mississippi  river  is  so  low  that  the  usual 
steamers  plying  between  St.  Louis  and  Cairo  find  difficulty  in  getting  through 
and  some  smaller  boats  drawing  but  little  water  have  been  substituted.  It 
would  be  impossible  to  estimate  the  millions  of  dollars  that  would  be  required 
to  deepen  the  Mississippi  so  as  to  admit  the  passage  of  vessels  drawing  fourteen 
feet  of  water  from  Cairo  up  to  the  Illinois  river,  and  inasmuch  as  the  Missis- 
sippi is  constantly  shifting  its  channel  it  would  become  necessary  to  redig 
the  channel  every  few  years. 

From  Cairo  southward  for  hundreds  of  miles  the  average  depth  of  water 
during  the  seasons  of  navigation  is  usually  given  at  from  seven  to  eight  feet, 
so  it  will  be  seen  that  the  project  of  this  bill  practically  contemplates  the  dig- 
ging of  a  ship  canal  between  400  and  500  miles  in  length,  besides  deepening 
the  depth  of  the  Mississippi  river  for  an  equal  distance.  It  would  require 
hundreds  of  millions  to  carry  out  this  project  and  the  annual  expense  alone  to 
keep  such  a  deep  channel  from  filling  up  would  amount  to  more  than  any 
possible  benefit  which  could  be  derived  from  such  a  waterway  under  exist- 
ing conditions. 

The  idea  of  having  a  great  national  waterway  from  the  lakes  to  the  gulf 
is  exceedingly  enchanting  and  would  arouse  the  enthusiasm  of  our  people  were 
it  not  for  the  cold  fact  that,  in  the  first  place,  it  is  not  practicable,  and  in  the 
second  place  it  would  burden  our  people  for  generations  with  enormous  taxes 
and  be  of  comparatively  little  benefit  if  we  had  it. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 


VETO  OF  BILL  AUTHORIZING  CONSOLIDATION  OF  CERTAIN 
CORPORATIONS. 

State  of  Illinois,  Executive  Office. 

June    10,   1895. 
To  the  Honorable,  the  Senate: 

I  herewith  return  without  my  approval  Senate  bill  No.  362,  being 
an  act  to  amend  Section  I  of  an  act  in  relation  to  the  consolidation  of  in- 
corporated companies  approved  March  9,  1867. 

This  bill  provides  for  the  consolidation  of  any  number  of  corporations 
organized  for  the  same  or  similar  general  purposes.  Under  it  all  corporations 
engaged  in  the  same  general  line  of  business  can  consolidate  and  thus  legally 
form  a  monopoly.  If  this  bill  or  any  existing  law  made  provision  for  adequately 
protecting  the  public  in  all  such  cases  then  I  would  not  hesitate  to  sign  it,  for 
it  has  been  my  desire  to  co-operate  with  the  General  Assembly  as  far  as  pos- 
sible; but  for  the  State  to  deliberately  legalize  monopoly  and  make  abso- 
lutely no  provision  for  protecting  the  people  of  Illinois  from  extortions  and 

oppression  would  be  a  crime. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 

Governor. 


60 


946  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 


VETO  OF  BILL  TO  STOP  THE  MAKING  OF  CIGARS  IN  PENITENTIARY. 

State  of  Illinois,  Executive  Office. 

June   IT,    1895. 
To  the  Honorable,  the  Gentlemen  of  the  Senate: 

I  herewith  return  without  my  approval  Senate  bill  No.  106,  entitled  An 
act  in  regard  to  the  employment  of  convicts. 

This  bill  smacks  a  little  of  politics.  It  seeks  to  relieve  one  industry  from 
the  competition  of  prison  labor,  but  it  increases  the  burden  of  other  in- 
dustries just  that  much.  It  provides  that  no  cigars  shall  be  made  in  our  prisons. 
Had  it  gone  farther  and  provided  that  the  men  now  making  cigars  should 
not  be  put  to  work  at  any  other  industry  in  the  prison  then  it  would  at 
least  have  been  free  from  this  element  of  injustice.  But  under  the  law  as  this 
bill  would  leave  it  the  prison  officials  would  be  obliged  to  take  the  men  who 
are  now  making  cigars  and  put  them  to  work  at  other  industries,  and  as  all 
other  industries  in  the  prison  are  already  overcrowded,  this  would  increase  the 
burdens  of  the  outside  free  laborers  in  those  lines,  for  it  would  increase  the 
output;  merely  shifting  the  burden  from  one  industry  to  another  does  not 
help  matters  and  is  unjust.  This  question  of  prison  labor  must  be  treated 
on  a  higher  plane  and  must  be  solved  in  such  a  way  as  to  relieve  all  free 
labor  of  competition  with  prison  labor.  The  Constitution  having  been  so 
amended  as  to  prohibit  contract  labor  in  our  prisons  and  as  the  law  requires  the 
prisoners  to  be  kept  at  work  this  administration  has  adopted  the  policy  of  work- 
ing the  prisoners  on  State  account,  and  in  order  to  reduce  the  competition 
with  free  labor  to  a  minimum  the  prison  officials  have  endeavored  to  increase 
the  number  of  industries,  so  that  no  more  than  one  hundred  men  would  need 
to  work  at  any  one  line.  A  large  number  of  new  industries  have  been  intro- 
duced, but  as  we  have  about  1,700  convicts  at  Joliet  and  it  is  difficult  to  find  new 
industries  suitable  for  a  prison,  it  has  not  as  yet  been,  possible  in  all  cases  to 
keep  the  number  quite  down  to  this  point.  But  only  fifty-eight  are  working 
in  the  cigar  shop,  so  that  the  cigar  industry  is  as  yet  hurt  less  than  any  other 
industry.  The  cigar  makers  of  this  State  are  industrious  and  loyal  citizens 
and  like  all  men  whose  bread  depends  on  daily  toil  they  are  suffering  severely 
from  the  depression  of  the  times.  I  would  gladly  assist  them  in  every  way  in  my 
power,  but  cannot  do  so  at  the  expense  of  others,  whose  condition  is  just 
as  bad.  In  my  message  to  the  General  Assembly  in  January  I  stated:  "It  is  to 
be  deprecated  that  convict  labor  should  in  any  way,  even  in  the  slightest 
degree,  be  brought  in  competition  with  free  labor.  If  the  Legislature  can 
suggest  a  plan  better  than  the  one  now  in  force  and  which  will  make  less  the 
competition  with  free  labor  we  will  be  most  happy  to  co-operate  in  its  enforce- 
ment." 

I  sincerely  hoped  that  the  Legislature  might  furnish  a  solution  of  this 
question  and  I  very  much  regret  that  it  has  not  been  able  to  do  so.  But  as 
long  as  the  law  compels  the  prison  officials  to  keep  the  prisoners  at  work  this 
bill  would  simply  aggravate  the  situation.  There  is  something  said  in  the  bill 
about  manufacturing  chewing  gum  and  similar  articles,  which  nobody  has 
thought  of  and  which  were  evidently  intended  to  conceal  the  principal 
purpose  of  the  bill,  viz.:  to  prevent  cigar  making.  The  argument  about  un- 
cleanliness  is  without  foundation,  as  there  is  not  a  shop  in  the  country  in  which 


'APPENDIX.  947 

both  the  surroundings  and  the  men  present  a  more  tidy  and  cleanly  appear- 
ance than  at  Joliet. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 
Governor. 


PROCLAMATION. 

State  of  Illinois,  Executive  Department,  Springfield. 

To  the  Members  of  the  Senate  and  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  consti- 
tuting the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  to  all  other  per- 
sons whom  it  may  concern: 

Gentlemen:  Aside  from  the  two  million  dollars  which  the  law  requires  to 
be  levied  and  collected  for  school  purposes  the  General  Assembly  has  made 
appropriations  for  various  purposes  to  be  expended  during  the  next  two 
fiscal  years,  amounting  to  about  $7,600,000.  The  income  from  the  Illinois  Central 
Railway,  and  from  the  various  State  offices  and  other  sources  during  these 
two  years  will  be  about  $1,600,000,  thus  leaving  about  $6,000,000  to  be  raised 
by  taxation.  Yet  in  spite  of  this  fact  the  General  Assembly  has  authorized  a 
tax  levy  of  only  $2,500,000  a  year,  or  $5,000,000  for  the  two  years,  thus  forcing  a 
shortage  of  $1,000,000  on  to  the  State  treasury,  and  doing  so  by  legislation. 
I  cannot  understand  this  method  of  financiering,  and  I  submit  that  the  good 
name  and  credit  of  this  great  and  wealthy  State  should  not  be  thus  trifled  with, 
neither  for  partisan  nor  for  any  other  purpose. 

If  any  of  these  appropriations  are  for  improper  purposes,  then  they  should 
not  have  been  made;  but  having  been  made,  both  the  honor  of  the  State  and 
good  business  methods  require  that  the  money  be  raised  to  pay  them.  So  far 
as  I  am  advised  the  appropriations  as  a  whole  are  all  right  and  are  necessary 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  State;  and  considering  the  fact  that  half  a  million 
had  to  be  appropriated  to  pay  the  expense  of  suppressing  the  riots  of  1894,  and 
of  rebuilding  the  Anna  Asylum,  they  are  not  extravagant  but  compare  very 
favorably  with  those  of  prior  sessions.  In  fact  those  made  for  State  government 
purposes  are  lower  in  proportion  to  the  work  to  be  done  than  they  ever 
have  been  in  the  history  of  the  State.  At  present  the  affairs  of  the  State 
are,  as  a  rule,  in  splendid  order,  and  notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said  to 
the  contrary,  for  partisan  purposes,  the  State  treasury  is  in  excellent  condi- 
tion, and  can  be  kept  so  if  the  General  Assembly  will  permit  a  tax  levy  for 
a  sufficient  sum  to  meet  the  appropriations  which  the  General  Assembly  has 
itself  made. 

Again,  when  the  last  General  Assembly  began  early  in  January,  there  were 
a  number  of  questions  vitally  affecting  the  welfare  of  our  people,  which  de- 
manded legislation.  After  being  in  session  upwards  of  five  months,  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  has  adjourned  without  taking  action  on  these  important 
measures. 

Second.  The  State  has  demanded  a  revision  of  the  revenue  law,  because 
at  present  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  wealth  of  the  State  escapes  all 
taxation  and  the  burdens  of  government  fall  heavily  on  the  people  of  moderate 
means. 

Third.  The  people  demanded  a  State  Board  of  Equalization  that  would 
not  shield  certain  great  corporations  from  taxation. 


948  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

Fourth.  A  class  of  abuses  has  grown  up  in  the  justice  and  police  courts 
of  larger  cities  which  have  for  years  been  called  infamous. 

Fifth.  Chicago  has  over  one  and  a  half  million  of  inhabitants,  is  one 
of  the  great  commercial  centers  of  the  world  and  has  one  of  the  most  ex- 
pensive judicial  systems  to  be  found,  and  yet  its  citizens  have  practically  to 
submit  to  a  denial  of  justice  because  it  takes  almost  half  a  generation  to  get 
through  with  a  law  suit,  because  of  a  bad  system. 

Sixth.  Since  the  recent  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  relating  to  the 
factory  inspection  law,  thousands  of  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age 
are  being  crowded  into  factories  and  stores,  often  doing  the  work  of  adults 
for  a  pittance,  stunting  their  lives  and  growing  up  to  be  inferior  men  and 
women,  and  yet  nothing  has  been  done  to  prevent  this  degeneration. 

Seventh.  A  year  ago  one  of  the  large  employers  of  the  State  went  to  the 
sea  shore  and  the  Thousand  Islands,  while  his  men  were  on  strike,  and  it  cost 
the  city  of  Chicago  and  the  State  a  very  large  sum  of  money  to  protect  his 
property,  and  the  State  could  not  even  inquire  into  the  cause  of  the  trouble. 
As  we  have  one  of  the  greatest  industrial  States  in  the  world  and  similar  con- 
ditions constantly  arise,  the  public  demanded  some  measure  of  conciliation  and 
inquiry  in  regard  to  the  cause  of  the  trouble  in  such  cases.  A  mild  measure 
was  proposed,  but  the  corporation  lobbyists  objected,  and  the  public,  which 
pays  the  bills,  is  left  helpless. 

Eighth.  Sleeping  cars  are  as  much  of  a  necessity  to  the  business  traveling 
public  as  are  railroads.  While  railroad  charges  have  fallen  more  than  a  third 
with  a  reduction  of  business  and  while  the  prices  of  other  things  have  fallen, 
sleeping  car  charges  are  practically  as  high  as  they  ever  were,  although  the 
business  has  increased  more  than  fivefold.  Justice  calls  for  relief  from  this 
extortion  and  for  a  reasonable  regulation,  such  as  exists  in  regard  to  railroads, 
but  the  monopoly  objected,  and  no  relief  has  been  given. 

Ninth.  At  present  a  few  individuals  can  select  and  thus  practically  pack  a 
grand  jury  in  Chicago,  so  that  a  few  men  have  it  in  their  power  to  shield 
some  offenders,  and  also  to  use  a  grand  jury  to  carry  out  partisan  schemes. 
Consequently  the  grand  juries  of  Cook  County  have  been  use.d  repeatedly  in 
recent  years  to  influence  public  sentiment  with  reference  to  a  prospective 
election  by  indicting  upwards  of  one  hundred  men  on  sensational  charges,  and 
when  the  elections  were  over  and  the  public  had  lost  interest  in  the  matter  the 
cases  were  all  thrown  out  of  court  because  nothing  could  be  proven.  This 
method  of  prostituting  the  machinery  of  the  court  should  be  stopped,  and  the 
law  should  be  so  changed  that  it  will  not  be  in  the  power  of  a  few  men  to 
name  or  control  a  grand  jury. 

Tenth.  Although  the  General  Assembly  was  in  session  over  five  months 
it  did  nothing  towards  further  solving  the  prison  labor  problem,  but  on  the 
last  day  of  the  session  it  approved  a  report  of  a  committee  recommending  the 
adoption  of  a  system  said  to  prevail  in  New  York,  thus  apparently  taking  a 
position  on  the  subject  without  assuming  any  responsibility.  Now  if  the 
New  York  system  or  any  other  is  really  better  than  ours,  then  steps  should  have 
been  taken  to  adopt  it. 

Now  the  time  has  come  when  those  millionaires  and  great  corporations 
of  the  State  which  pay  little  or  no  tax  must  be  made  to  bear  their  share  of 
the  burdens  of  government. 


'APPENDIX.  949 

The  time  has  come  when  the  State  has  a  right  to  insist  on  such  reasonable 
legislation  as  is  necessary  for  the  highest  welfare  of  our  people. 

The  time  has  come  when  the  State  has  a  right  to  say  to  all  of  us  that  if 
we  are  not  willing  to  do  her  work  honestly  and  faithfully  then  we  should 
make  way  for  men  who  will  do  it. 

Therefore,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  by  the  Constitution,  I  do 
hereby   convene  the    General   Assembly   of  the   State   of   Illinois,    to   meet   in 
extraordinary  session,  in  the  Capitol,  at  Springfield,  at  2  o'clock,  on  Tuesday, 
June  25,  1895,  for  the  purpose  of  considering"  the  following  named  subjects  and 
enacting  such  legislation  in  regard  thereto  as  may  be  deemed  proper,  to-wit: 
First.    For  raising  revenue  equal  to  the  appropriations. 
Second.     The  creation  of  such  a  revenue  law  as  will  compel  all  persons 
and  corporations  to  pay  their  fair  share  of  taxes  on  the  property  owned  or 
held  by  them,  and  to  compel  foreign  corporations  to  pay  a  reasonable  license 
fee  or  tax  for  the  privilege  of  doing  business  in  our  State. 
Third.    The  abolition  of  the  State  Board  of  Equalization. 
Fourth.     The  enactment  of  such  legislation  as  may  be  deemed  necessary 
to  correct  and  put  an  end  to  the  abuses  and  scandalous  conditions  prevailing 
in  and  about  many  of  the  police  and  justice  courts  of  the  State,  particularly  in 
large    cities. 

Fifth.  The  enactment  of  such  legislation  as  may  be  deemed  necessary  to 
establish  such  a  system  of  practice  and  procedure  in  our  courts  of  record  as 
will  prevent  the  unnecessary  accumulation  of  business  and  as  will  insure  a 
speedy  and  final  determination  of  all  proceedings  at  law  or  in  equity,  and  pro- 
ceedings based  on  statute  as  well  as  criminal  or  quasi-criminal  proceedings. 

Sixth.  The  enactment  of  such  legislation  as  may  be  deemed  necessary  to 
prevent  the  employment  of  children  in  such  a  manner  as  to  stunt  their  devel- 
opment physically,  intellectually  or  morally,  and  thus  prevent  the  enforced 
growth  of  a  low  order  of  citizenship. 

Seventh.  The  enactment  of  such  legislation  as  may  be  deemed  necessary 
to  create  the  proper  machinery,  agencies  or  boards  of  conciliation,  inquiry  and 
of  arbitration  in  all  cases  where  there  is  a  dispute  or  disagreement  between 
employer  and  employes,  making  special  provisions  in  such  legislation  for 
thorough  examination  and  investigation  by  such  board  as  to  the  causes  giving 
rise  to  such  disagreement  or  trouble,  the  actual  facts  and  conditions  con- 
nected therewith,  and  for  reporting  the  same. 

Instead  of  a  standing  salaried  board  I  would  recommend  such  legislation 
as  will  enable  the  parties  to  the  dispute,  alone  or  with  the  aid  of  a  county 
judge,  to  select  their  own  board  in  each  case  so  that  there  may  be  no  question 
about  its  impartiality,  on  the  one  hand,  and  no  unnecessary  salary  paid,  on  the 
other. 

Eighth.  The  enactment  of  such  legislation  as  may  be  necessary  to  fix  a 
reasonable  maximum  limit  to  charges  for  sleeping  cat  service  in  this  State,  or 
to  make  some  reasonable  provision  for  regulating  the  same  in  some  other 
manner. 

Ninth.  The  enactment  of  such  legislation  as  will  insure  fair  and  unbiased 
grand  juries. 

Tenth.  The  enactment  of  such  legislation  relating  to  the  employment  of 
the  convicts  of  this  State  as  will  be  an  improvement  on  the  system  now  in  vogue 


950  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

and  will  relieve  outside  free  labor  of  competition  with  prison  labor  without 
doing  violence  to  the  taxpayers,  if  such  a  system  can  be  devised. 

Eleventh.     The  revision  and  amendment  of  the  law  relating  to  slander 
and  libel. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  to  be  affixed 
the  great  Seal  of  State,  this  I7th  day  of  June,  A.  D.  1895. 
By  the  Governor:  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD. 

W.  H.  Hinrichsen,  Secretary  of  State. 
[Seal.] 


BIENNIAL  MESSAGE  TO  LEGISLATURE. 

Executive  Department,  Springfield,  III,  Jan.  6,  1896. 
Gentlemen  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives: 

I  submit  the  following  information  and  recommendations  in  regard  to 
the  condition  of  the  State,  and  as  this  message  is  practically  the  closing  act 
of  the  present  administration,  it  may  be  proper  to  glance  at  the  policy  that 
has  been  pursued  and  the  results  that  have  been  achieved  during  the  last  four 
years. 

In  order  to  avoid  inordinate  length,  I  refer,  for  a  full  discussion  of  many 
of  the  subjects  herein  mentioned,  to  the  biennial  message  submitted  to  the 
General  Assembly  January  9,  1895. 

POLICY    AS    TO    APPOINTMENTS. 

The  policy  adopted  at  the  beginning  of  the  administration,  in  the  matter 
of  making  appointments,  when  other  things  were  equal,  was  to  give  prefer- 
ence to  men  who  were  politically  in  sympathy  with  this  administration,  but  in 
all  cases,  where,  by  reason  of  some  special  fitness  or  some  peculiar  condition, 
it  was  believed  that  the  State  could  be  best  served  by  the  appointment  of  a 
Republican,  such  appointment  was  promptly  made.  This  applied  to  superin- 
tendents of  institutions  as  well  as  to  boards  upon  which  it  was  thought  best  to 
have  both  parties  represented. 

The  superintendent  of  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Asylum  at  Jacksonville,  and 
the  superintendent  of  the  Reformatory  at  Pontiac,  are  Republicans.  In  a 
number  of  cases  women  were  appointed  to  important  offices  because  they  were 
believed  to  be  peculiarly  fitted  for  the  duties  to  be  performed,  and  some  Re- 
publicans were  appointed  on  most  of  the  important  boards  of  the  State,  such 
as  the  West  Park  Board,  the  Lincoln  Park  Board,  the  State  Board  of  Health, 
the  State  Board  of  Charities,  the  State  Board  of  Education,  the  various  boards 
to  locate  institutions,  etc. 

In  regard  to  attendants  in  State  institutions,  the  rule  enforced  was  to  keep 
every  competent  man  and  woman  so  long  as  they  did  their  duty. 

INSTRUCTIONS   TO    APPOINTEES. 

The  following  instructions  were  given  to  all  appointees  for  their  guidance: 
First.    Do  not  put  a  man  upon  the  payroll  who  is  not  absolutely  needed. 
Second.     Do  not  pay  higher  salaries  in  an  institution  than  the  service  or 
ability  which  you  get  would  command. 

Third.     Do  not  keep  a  man  an  hour  after  it  is  discovered  that  he  is  not 


APPENDIX.  951 

just  the  man  for  the  place,  no  matter  who  recommended  him,  or  what  political 
influence  he  may  possess. 

Fourth.     Require  vigilance  and  careful  attention   of  every   employe,  and 

promptly   discharge  any   attendant  who  is  guilty   of  brutality   to  patients,  or 

•  who  is  guilty  of  any  serious  neglect  of  duty,  and  remember  all  the  time  that 

the  institutions  were  founded  and  are  maintained  for  the  care  and  comfort  of 

the  unfortunate,  and  not  for  the  comfort  of  the  management. 

These  instructions  have  been  rigorously  insisted  upon,  and  I  believe  have, 
in  general,  been  observed. 

BUSINESS  METHODS. 

The  new  system  of  purchasing  supplies,  which  was  fully  described  in  my 
last  message,  has  been  continued  with  the  same  gratifying  results.  Under  it  a 
list  is  made  of  the  articles  that  may  be  needed  for  a  given  time.  Nearly  a 
dozen  copies  are  made  of  this  list  and  sent  to  as  many  different  establishments 
as  deal  in  the  line  of  goods  required,  requesting  them  to  send  bids  and  samples 
of  goods.  The  bids  are  then  opened  and  the  samples  inspected  in  the  office 
of  the  institution  and  the  purchase  made  there,  the  right  being  reserved  to 
reject  any  goods  that  are  not  satisfactory  when  they  are  delivered.  Under 
this  system  it  has  been  found  that  the  institutions  can  buy  their  supplies  at 
from  10  to  20  per  cent  below  the  current  market  rates,  and  get  a  better  grade 
of  goods  than  they  otherwise  could  get,  and  each  institution  saves,  in  addition, 
the  salary  of  an  officer  who  was  formerly  employed  and  who  was  known  as 
the  purchasing  agent.  The  salaries  of  these  officers  alone  amounted  to  upwards 
of  $25,000.00  a  year. 

In  addition  to  the  financial  aspects  of  the  case,  there  are  moral  considera- 
tions, still  more  important,  for,  under  the  new  system,  the  favoritism,  cor- 
ruption and  scandal  that  are  the  natural  outgrowth  of  the  old  system,  can  be 
entirely  avoided. 

The  net  saving  in  the  charitable  institutions  alone  resulting  from  improved 
business  methods  averages  $153,473.94  per  year,  or  $613,895.76  for  the  four  years. 

While  there  has  scarcely  been  any  increase  in  the  appropriations  for  main- 
taining these  charitable  institutions  the  number  of  their  inmates  has  increased 
more  than  fifteen  hundred.  Not  only  has  this  increased  number  been  cared 
for  without  producing  a  deficit,  but  two  years  ago  there  was  $233,482.00  turned 
back  into  the  State  Treasury,  and  $126,000.00  has  just  been  covered  back  into 
the  treasury  by  the  following  institutions:  Central  Insane  Asylum,  $45,000.00; 
Institution  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  $9,000.00;  Institution  for  the  Blind  at 
Jacksonville,  $12,000.00;  Southern  Insane  Asylum,  $25,000.00,  and  Soldiers' 
and  Sailors'  Home,  $35,000.00.  The  buildings  have  been  overhauled  so  far 
as  possible  and  are  in  good  condition. 

SCIENTIFIC   METHODS. 

Soon  after  taking  charge  of  the  institutions  the  superintendent  of  each 
was  instructed  to  make  an  investigation  of  the  methods,  the  theories  in  vogue 
and  the  results  of  the  experiments  in  similar  institutions  to  his  own,  both  in 
this  country  and  in  Europe,  and  see  wherein  such  institutions  differed  from 
ours,  and  if  anything  was  found  anywhere  that  was  thought  to  be  an  improve- 
ment upon  the  methods  pursued  here,  to  at  once  adopt  it  if  possible,  and  also 
to  submit  a  full  report  of  such  investigation  to  the  governor.  These  reports 


952  LIVE   QUESTIONS. 

have  heretofore  been  submitted.  Some  of  them  are  very  able.  While  there 
are  institutions  elsewhere  that  maintain  a  more  showy  executive  department 
for  the  officers,  I  am  satisfied  that  so  far  as  relates  to  care  and  comfort  of  the 
patients  and  general  methods  of  treatment,  the  institutions  of  this  State,  taken 
as  a  whole,  are  unsurpassed  anywhere  in  the  world.  The  total  number  of  in- 
mates in  all  of  our  institutions  is  8,948. 

PENITENTIARIES. 

Owing  to  the  severe  business  depression  great  difficulty  has  been  expe- 
rienced in  all  of  the  States  in  managing  the  prisons  because  of  the  difficulty 
of  finding  a  market  for  the  product  of  prison  labor.  In  those  States  in  which 
the  contract  system  still  prevails  prisoners  were  offered  at  prices  that  were 
far  below  the  cost  of  keeping  them,  but  found  no  takers.  The  system  of 
contracting  out  the  labor  of  convicts  having  been  abolished  by  our  Constitution, 
the  State  was  practically  forced  to  work  the  prisoners  on  its  account  as  soon 
as  the  contracts  which  had  been  formerly  made  expired.  A  large  number  of 
these  contracts  expired  just  before  the  beginning  of  the  present  administra- 
tion, but  some  did  not  expire  until  October,  1894.  Formerly  as  high  as  from 
two  hundred  and  fifty  to  four  hundred  prisoners  worked  at  one  trade,  and 
that  with  machinery,  so  that  the  output  was  enormously  large  and  seriously 
affected  the  market  in  those  lines.  In  order  to  reduce  the  competition  to  the 
minimum,  the  policy  adopted  by  this  administration  was  to  introduce  more 
trades,  so  as  to  reduce  the  number  of  convicts  working  in  each  to  about  one 
hundred  if  possible,  and  also  whenever  practicable  to  do  so  to  dispense  with 
machinery,  and  work  by  hand,  the  health  of  the  prisoners  making  it  neces- 
sary that  they  should  work,  and  the  law  requiring  them  to  earn  something 
toward  their  support. 

Under  this  system  the  industries  have  been  greatly  diversified  and  the 
total  output  for  the  prison  is  much  reduced  from  what  it  formerly  was.  When 
the  contract  system  was  most  prosperous  and  prisoners  were  let  at  high 
prices  the  prison  at  Joliet  was  self-sustaining,  but  before  the  beginning  of  this 
administration  this  ceased  to  be  the  case  and  the  reports  of  the  then  outgoing 
commissioners,  spread  upon  the  records  of  the  institution,  showed  that  during 
the  four  months  immediately  preceding  the  date  when  the  present  board  of 
commissioners  took  charge,  that  institution  was  running  behind  at  the  rate 
of  $7,542.00  per  month,  or  about  $90,000.00  per  year,  due  largely,  it  was 
claimed,  "to  the  expiration  of  high  priced  contracts  for  convicts."  The  State 
account  system  has  now  been  established  there  and,  notwithstanding  the  hard 
times  and  the  fact  that  all  industrial  establishments  are  having  trouble,  the 
prison  at  Joliet  has  been  brought  to  a  point  where  it  is  absolutely  self- 
sustaining  under  the  new  system.  The  report  of  the  commissioners  herewith 
submitted  shows  that  the  deficit  for  the  last  two  years  was  only  $6,387,  and  they 
are  convinced  that  even  if  times  should  remain  as  they  are  there  will  be  no 
deficit  whatever  for  the  future,  and  that  the  penitentiary  requires  no  ap- 
propriations of  any  kind  or  character,  and  asks  no  money  whatever  at  your 
hands.  Not  only  this,  but  there  is  a  balance  of  $50.000  on  the  old  appropriation 
that  lias  not  been  drawn  and  that  can  lapse  into  the  treasury.  The  success 
of  the  State  account  system  has  been  established,  and  it  may  be  remarked 
generally  on  this  subject  that  contractors  never  go  into  a  penitentiarv  for  the 
purpose  of  losing  money.  Whenever  times  are  good  so  that  they  make  money. 


'APPENDIX.  953 

then  the  State  would  make  money  if  it  were  running  the  institution  on  State 
account,  and  whenever  times  get  so  that  the  contractors  would  lose  money 
in  the  institution  they  would  manage  in  one  way  or  another  to  get  out  and 
throw  the  loss  upon  the  State  anyhow. 

PHYSICAL  CONDITION  OF  JOLIET  PRISON. 

The  prison  at  Joliet  was  for  many  years  occupied  by  contractors.  Naturally 
they  made  no  improvements  that  they  were  not  obliged  to  make,  and  when 
they  moved  out  there  was  not  a  shop  or  a  building  used  by  them  that  was 
fit  for  further  occupancy,  and  most  of  them  had  to  be  practically  rebuilt. 
The  State  at  that  time  had  scarcely  any  means  for  lighting  and  heating,  and 
absolutely  no  power  plant  of  any  kind,  although  the  commissioners  had 
nearly  fourteen  hundred  men  on  hand  whom  they  were  obliged  to  work.  At 
that  time  the  hospital  was  in  the  end  of  an  old  shop,  utterly  unsuited  for  the 
purpose,  and  patients  suffering  from  all  kinds  of  diseases  were  crowded  to- 
gether; and  there  was  no  female  prison,  the  female  prisoners  being  kept  on 
the  upper  story  of  the  main  building,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  other  buildings 
were  crowded,  so  that  it  became  almost  impossible  to  let  them  out  where 
they  could  get  fresh  air.  All  of  these  things  together  made  large  appropria- 
tions necessary.  The  commissioners  built  some  new  shops,  they  built  a  large 
heating,  lighting  and  power  house,  and  have  one  of  the  best  plants  of  that 
character  now  that  there  is  in  the  country.  They  built  a  large  hospital,  thor- 
oughly modern,  and  they  have  just  finished  a  prison  for  females  which  is 
believed  to  be  the  most  modern  and  best  arranged  and  best  equipped  prison 
for  females  in  the  world,  and  the  whole  institution  taken  together  is  superior 
to  any  penitentiary  upon  this  continent. 

CHESTER  PENITENTIARY. 

This  prison  has  never  been  self-sustaining.  Under  the  contract  system 
the  annual  deficit  had,  for  many  years,  been  $100,000.  The  same  difficulties 
were  encountered  there  in  introducing  the  State  account  system  that  were 
met  with  at  Joliet,  except  that  the  number  of  prisoners  was  not  so  large. 
Two  years  ago  the  commissioners  believed  that  owing  to  improved  business 
methods  and  economies  which  they  had  introduced,  they  could  reduce  the 
annual  deficit  to  $50,000,  and  accordingly  the  last  legislature  appropriated  only 
that  sum  to  meet  the  deficit,  but  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  disposing  of  their 
goods,  the  low  prices  prevailing,  and  an  increase  of  several  hundred  prisoners 
above  the  number  contemplated  by  the  appropriations,  the  commissioners  find 
that  the  actual  deficit  for  the  year  will  be  about  $75,000  instead  of  $50.000, 
as  they  had  hoped.  Consequently  an  immediate  appropriation  will  be  neces- 
sary. The  physical  condition  of  the  prison  is  excellent. 

STRIPES. 

The  law  never  provided  that  prisoners  should  wear  stripes:  the  punish- 
ment which  the  law  provided  for  its  infraction  being  imprisonment  and  hard 
labor.  Putting  stripes  upon  prisoners  originated  in  those  conditions  and  in 
those  times  when  convicts  were  turned  over  to  the  care  of  men  who  for  all 
practical  purposes  were  brutes,  and  who  soon  succeeded  in  reducing  every- 
thing to  the  level  of  the  brute. 


954  LIFE  QUESTIONS. 

The  effect  of  putting  stripes  on  convicts  has  been  found  to  be  this:  That 
it  does  not  affect  those  already  hardened  except  to  make  them  a  little  more 
desperate,  nor  does  it  affect  those  who  are  by  nature  dull  and  brutish  except  to 
lower  them  a  little,  but  it  tends  to  crush  whatever  spark  of  self-respect  and 
manhood  there  may  be  left  in  a  higher  grade  of  prisoners,  and  in  that  way 
tends  to  still  further  unfit  them  for  an  honorable  struggle  in  life,  and  an 
irreparable  injury  is  thus  done  to  society  as  well  as  to  the  convict,  which  was 
not  contemplated  by  law. 

Acting  upon  these  principles,  the  commissioners  of  the  prison  at  Joliet. 
on  the  first  of  July  last,  clothed  the  prisoners  in  plain  gray  suits,  and  since 
that  time  have  been  using  the  striped  suits  only  as  a  means  of  punishment 
for  an  infraction  of  the  prison  discipline.  The  effect  of  this  change  upon  the 
spirit,  the  moral  tone  and  character  of  the  convicts  has  been  so  gratifying 
that  I  have  recommended  its  adoption  in  the  prison  at  Chester  also. 

PRISON  LABOR. 

In  a  general  way  the  history  of  prison  labor,  or  rather  of  the  effort  to 
work  convicts  in  this  country,  may  be  stated  as  follows: 

First.  The  leasing  out  system,  whereby  the  State  turned  the  prisoner 
over  to  the  lessee  and  parted  with  all  control  over  him,  a  system  which  still 
prevails  in  a  few  Southern  States,  and  is  productive  of  conditions  that  are 
a  disgrace  to  civilization. 

Second.  The  contract  system,  by  which  the  State  contracts  the  labor  of 
the  prisoner  at  some  price  per  day,  but  keeps  control  of  the  prisoner,  a  system 
which,  while  a  great  improvement  on  the  leasing  system,  has  yet  been  found 
to  be  destructive  of  the  prisoners  and  'of  the  best  interests  of  the  State,  but 
which  in  good  times  enabled  many  men  to  make  fortunes  out  of  the  prisons. 

Third.  The  piece-price  system,  so  closely  akin  to  the  contract  system 
that  in  most  cases  it  has  been  difficult  to  distinguish  it.  Under  this  the 
contractor  furnishes  the  material  and  superintendents  and  the  State  does  the 
work,  but  it  has  to  be  done  under  almost  the  same  conditions  that  prevail 
in  the  contract  system,  and  therefore  it  is  open  to  most  of  the  objections  that 
apply  to  that  system. 

Fourth.  The  State  account  system,  under  which  the  State  alone  comes 
into  contact  with  the  prisoner,  and  no  outside  money-making  agency  brings  its 
blighting  shadow  into  the  prison.  As  already  stated,  this  system  has  been 
established  and  is  self-sustaining  at  Joliet,  even  in  these  hard  times.  From 
a  business  standpoint  it  involves  some  risk  to  the  State,  for  it  is  evident  that 
where  so  many  large  industries  are  carried  on,  there  must  be  ability  and  thor- 
ough integrity,  or  the  chances  of  incurring  heavy  losses  will  be  great. 

But  I  believe  that  the  time  has  come  when  this  State,  which  is  now  in 
many  ways  the  leading  State  of  the  Union,  must  take  another  step  forward 
in  the  matter  of  prison  labor.  There  is  a  principle  involved  here  which  rises 
above  all  considerations  of  small  economies,  and  that  principle  is  that  the  State 
ought  not  in  any  manner  to  enter  into  competition  with  those  who  have  to 
make  their  living  by  the  sweat  of  their  brows,  and  therefore  the  prisoners 
should  be  taken  out  of  all  employment  in  which  they  directly  affect  the 
wages  of  free  laborers,  and  I  recommend  legislation  that  will  bring  about 
this  result.  Under  this  system  the  prisons  would  not  be  self-sustaining,  but 
it  is  not  clear  that  in  the  long  run,  it  would  cost  the  State  much  more  money 


APPENDIX.  955 

than  it  does  now.  Just  what  the  prisoners  should  work  at  under  such  a 
system  will  perhaps  be  impossible  to  prescribe  by  law,  and  will  have  to  be 
left  largely  to  the  judgment  of  the  warden  and  commissioners  from  time  to 
time. 

PARDONS  AND  COMMUTATIONS. 

So  malicious  and  persistent  an  effort  has  been  made  to  misrepresent  the 
facts  and  make  a  false  impression  upon  the  public  mind  in  regard  to  granting 
of  pardons  and  commutations  by  this  administration  that  justice  requires  a 
statement  of  the  figures  as  shown  by  the  records.  During  the  four  years 
just  closing,  the  average  number  of  pardons  and  commutations  per  year  has 
been  79;  the  average  number,  per  annum,  of  convicts  in  the  two  penitentiaries 
during  that  time  has  been  2,201 ;  consequently,  the  pardons  and  commuta- 
tions amounted  to  3  3-5  per  cent,  of  the  convicts  in  prison;  and  for  the  twenty 
years  preceding  the  beginning  of  this  administration  the  average  number  of 
pardons  and  commutations  per  annum  was  83  2-3,  and  the  average  number  of 
convicts  in  the  penitentiaries  per  annum  during  that  time  was  1,868,  so  that 
there  were  4^  per  cent,  of  the  prisoners  pardoned  or  commuted,  on  the  average, 
each  year.  In  other  words,  considering  the  number  of  convicts  in  prison, 
the  number  of  pardons  and  commutations  granted  each  year  on  the  average 
for  twenty  years  prior  to  the  beginning  of  this  administration  was  25  per 
cent,  greater  than  has  been  the  number  of  pardons  and  commutations  granted 
by  this  administration.  While  this  administration  has  been  much  more  con- 
servative in  this  regard  than  former  administrations,  it  is  not  a  matter  for 
which  it  should  receive  either  credit  or  blame,  for  the  granting  of  pardons 
and  commutations  is  somewhat  judicial  in  character  and  requires  the  execu- 
tive to  act  conscientiously  on  the  merits  of  each  case. 

PAROLE. 

The  system  of  paroling  prisoners  which  was  provided  for  by  the  last 
legislature,  and  which  has  just  been  established  in  our  penitentiaries,  will,  I 
believe,  for  the  future,  relieve  the  executive  of  the  great  labor  and  responsi- 
bility of  considering  the  almost  innumerable  applications  for  pardon.  If  this 
system  is  conscientiously  carried  out  it  will  release  and  find  homes  and  em- 
ployment for  the  young,  after  they  have  undergone  the  minimum  punishment 
required  by  law,  and  will,  on  the  other  hand,  retain  in  the  prison  the  hardened 
offenders  and  those  who  have  shown  themselves  to  be  vicious  and  dangerous. 

REFORMATORY. 

The  Illinois  Reformatory  at  Pontiac  now  has  1,170  inmates.  The  aim  of 
the  institution  is  to  teach  young  men  steady  habits;  to  teach  them  industry; 
to  teach  them  to  use  their  hands  as  well  as  their  brains,  in  order  to  make  a 
living;  to  give  them  in  a  limited  way  an  English  education,  and  a  certain 
degree  of  moral  instruction;  and  there  are  now  in  operation  there  IO  English 
schools  and  12  workshops  or  labor  schools  for  that  many  different  industries, 
and  every  young  man  there  has  to  spend  a  certain  number  of  hours  each  day  in 
the  workshop,  and  a  certain  number  of  hours  in  the  school,  besides  having 
performed  other  tasks.  There  are  only  a  few  large  reformatories  conducted 
on  this  principle  in  the  world,  and  we  believe  the  one  at  Pontiac  stands  at 
the  head. 


956  'LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

NEW  INSTITUTIONS  AND  NEW  BUILDINGS. 

During  the  last  four  years  there  have  been  founded  by  the  State  two 
new  Normal  Universities,  one  at  Charleston,  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State, 
and  one  at  De  Kalb,  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the  State;  also  two  new 
insane  asylums,  one  at  Peoria  and  the  other  at  Rock  Island;  also  a  girl's 
reformatory  at  Geneva,  near  Chicago,  and  a  home  for  soldiers'  jvidows  at 
\Yilmington,  and  in  addition  to  these  there  have  been  erected  the.  following 
buildings: 

At  the  University  of  Illinois  at  Champaign:  A  large  civil  and  electrical 
engineering  building,  an  astronomical  observatory,  a  large  library  building, 
now  nearing  completion,  a  large  mechanical  workshop  for  the  students,  a 
President's  house,  the  necessary  buildings  for  the  establishment  of  a  vaccine 
farm,  and  the  necessary  buildings  for  a  complete  dairy  establishment  for 
purposes  of  instruction.  In  addition  the  chemical  laboratory  building,  which 
was  partially  destroyed  by  fire,  has  been  rebuilt. 

At  the  Normal  University  near  Bloomington:  A  library  and  gymnasium 
building. 

At  the  Normal  University  at  Carbondale:  A  library  and  gymnasium 
building. 

The  main  Insane  Asylum  at  Anna,  which  was  destroyed  by  fire,  has  been 
rebuilt. 

The  Eye  and   Ear   Infirmary   at   Chicago  has  been  greatly   enlarged. 

At  the  Joliet  Penitentiary:  Some  shops,  power  house,  a  new  hospital  and 
a  large  new  prison  for  females. 

At  the  Soldiers'  Orphans'  Home  near  Bloomington:  A  new  building  for 
manual  training. 

At  the  Elgin  Insane  Asylum:  A  new  hospital  for  the  physically  ill,  and 
extensive  general  repairs. 

At  the  Reformatory  at  Pontiac:  A  large  cell  house,  a  number  of  shops, 
power  house  and  a  large  executive  building. 

At  the  Lincoln  Monument,  Springfield:     New  home  for  the  custodian. 

At  the  State  Fair  Grounds,  Springfield:  Three  very  large  and  a  number 
of  small  buildings. 

"At  the  Institution  for  the  Blind  at  Jacksonville:     A  workshop  and  also  a 
gymnasium. 

At  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Institution  at  Jacksonville:  A  boys'  cottage  and 
general  repairs. 

At  the  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Home  at  Quincy:     A  new  hospital. 

The  Asylum  for  Insane  Criminals  at  Chester  has  been  greatly  enlarged. 

At  the  Penitentiary  at  Chester:     A  number  of  small  buildings. 

All  of  these  buildings  are  under  roof  and  nearly  all  of  them  are  completed 
and  occupied,  and  those  which  have  been  built  during  the  last  two  years 
have,  with  the  exception  of  a  cbuple  of  small  buildings,  been  built  absolutely 
fireproof  and  nearly  all  of  them  have  been  built  of  stone.  In  order  to  give  a 
better  idea  of  the  general  character  of  the  buildings  that  have  been  erected 
within  the  last  four  years,  I  submit  herewith  photographic  views  of  some  of 
them. 


APPENDIX.  957 

MONUMENTS. 

There  has  also  been  erected  during  the  last  four  years  a  monument  to 
Governor  Ford,  at  Peoria,  upwards  of  sixty  granite  monuments  on  the  battle- 
field at  Chickamauga  in  Tennessee,  to  mark  the  positions  of  the  Illinois  troops 
in  that  great  battle,  and  a  splendid  granite  monument  to  the  memory  of  Elijah 
P.  Lovejoy  at  Alton. 

STYLE  OF  ARCHITECTURE. 

Owing  to  the  rapid  growth  of  our  population  and  the  great  demand  for 
room  in  public  institutions,  but  little  consideration  was  given  to  the  subject 
of  architectural  design  in  public  buildings,  in  the  past,  the  principle  effort 
being  in  each  case  to  get  as  much  floor  space  as  possible.  Consequently,  while 
the  State  has  a  large  number  of  buildings,  there  are  but  few  whose  exterior 
architecture  is  commanding  or  impressive.  The  appropriations  made  during 
the  present  administration  were  so  small  as  not  to  admit  of  ornamentation; 
but  it  was  felt  that  the  time  had  come  when  we  should  not  only  build  fire- 
proof buildings,  but  give  a  little  more  attention  to  their  external  appearance. 
After  an  examination  of  the  subject  I  became  satisfied  that  the  most  inex- 
pensive, as  well  as  the  most  impressive  architectural  style  for  buildings  that 
are  to  stand  alone  in  a  grove,  or  in  a  field,  is  what  has  been  calle'd  the  Tudor- 
Gothic  style,  as  the  effect  is  produced  by  simply  carrying  the  mason  work, 
that  is  the  wall,  above  the  cornice  line,  and  there  breaking  the  lines  in  such  a 
way  as  to  produce  small  towers,  battlements,  etc.  This  style  has  consequently 
been  adopted  in  most  of  the  buildings  that  have  been  erected  during  the  last 
two  years,  and  is  found  to  be  very  effective.  Had  we  possessed  large  ap- 
propriations so  that  Grecian  columns,  Roman  arches,  and  other  forms  of 
ornamentation  could  have  been  indulged  in,  it  is  probable  that  some  other 
style  of  architecture  would  have  been  selected;  but  for  the  money  which  the 
State  has  expended  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  get  the  same  desirable 
effects  in  any  other  style. 

LEGISLATION. 

In  addition  to  the  usual  legislation  and  to  numerous  amendments  to  the 
laws  intended  to  correct  abuses,  there  have  been  a  number  of  measures  placed 
upon  the  statute  books,  some  of  which  were  entirely  new  in  this  State. 
Among  the  latter  may  be  mentioned  the  following: 

An  act  providing  that  no  man  shall  be  imprisoned  for  non-payment  of  a 
judgment  or  fine  unless  he  has  been  granted  the  opportunity  of  being  tried 
by  a  jury., 

Second.  An  act  which  requires  State,  county,  city  and  school  treasurers, 
and  all  other  custodians  of  public  funds,  to  account  for  interest  on  such  funds 
whenever  they  are  kept  in  a  bank. 

Third.  An  act  intended  to  arrest  the  sweat  shop  and  child  labor  evil 
which  provides  for  inspection  of  factories,  workshops,  etc.,  and  aims  to  prevent 
the  employment  of  young  children  in  factories,  etc. 

Fourth.     A  civil  service  law  for  cities. 

Fifth.  An  act  to  reform  the  method  of  land  conveyancing  in  this  State, 
introducing  an  entirely  new  system  known  as  the  Australian  system  and  in- 


958  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

tended  to  do  away  with  the  vast  expense  that  now  accompanies  the  transfer 
of  land  titles  in  large  cities. 

Sixth.  An  act  to  provide  for  paroling  prisoners  from  the  penitentiaries, 
intended  to  do  away  with  the  gross  inequality  of  sentences  which  have  here- 
tofore prevailed  for  the  same  offenses,  and  to  make  it  practicable  to  keep 
professional  and  hardened  criminals  in  the  penitentiary  for  long  terms  and  to 
release  the  young  and  those  who  are  comparatively  innocent,  after  serving 
a  minimum  term  in  prison. 

Seventh.  An  act  which  provided  that  a  graduated  tax  shall  be  paid  on 
all  legacies  and  inheritances. 

Eighth.  An  act  to  provide  for  founding  a  pension  fund  for  school  teachers 
in  certain  cases  by  a  small  deduction  from  their  salaries. 

Ninth.  An  act  creating  a  board  of  arbitration  for  the  purpose  of  adjust- 
ing disputes  between  employers  and  employes  in  certain  cases. 

Tenth.  An  act  for  making  the  kindergarten  system  a  part  of  our  public 
schools  under  certain  conditions. 

INSURANCE  DEPARTMENT. 

The  insurance  department  of  this  State  now  stands  at  the  head  of  all 
similar  departments  in  this  country,  and  it  is  believed  that  our  people  are 
better  protected  against  the  operations  of  dishonest  and  worthless  insurance 
companies  than  those  of  any  other  State.  Formerly  this  department  con- 
tributed scarcely  anything  to  the  State  treasury  from  the  large  amount  of 
fees  which  it  collected.  During  this  administration  the  sum  annually  turned 
into  the  treasury  by  the  insurance  department  is  very  large,  and  for  the 
year  1896  will  amount  to  over  $170,000,  which  is  the  result  of  a  strict  enforce- 
ment of  the  law. 

EDUCATION. 

It  is  gratifying  to  report  that  during  the  last  four  years  the  cause  of 
education  has  made  tremendous  strides  in  our  State,  both  in  public  and  in 
private  institutions.  Our  public  schools  are  being  steadily  brought  up  to  a 
higher  plane  than  they  ever  occupied  before.  Appreciating  the  fact  that  it 
is  the  teacher  who  makes  the  school,  and  that  it  is  consequently  the  duty,  as 
well  as  to  the  interest  of  the  State,  to  look  after  the  education  of  teachers, 
the  facilities  in  the  existing  Normal  Universities  have  been  enlarged  and 
improved,  and  two  new  ones  have  been  founded.  The  University  of  Illinois, 
located  at  Champaign,  has  moved  forward  and  taken  a  position  as  one  of  the 
best  institutions  of  the  country.  In  the  matter  of  civil  and  electrical  engineer- 
ing it  is  unsurpassed  anywhere.  Its  work  in  other  departments  is  of  a  high 
order  and  it  now  offers  many  advantages  to  both  young  men  and  young 
women  that  are  not  to  be  found  anywhere  else.  The  institution  needs  a 
large  gymnasium.  Inasmuch  as  Illinois  now  leads  nearly  all  the  States  of  the 
Union  in  the  matter  of  enterprise  and  material  prosperity,  her  educational 
institutions  should  be  so  perfected  as  to  be  models  for  the  world. 

AUXILIARY  BOARDS  OF  CHARITY. 

During  the  last  twenty-five  years  humane  and  thoughtful  men  and  women 
have  given  their  best  efforts  to  the  subject  of  caring  for  the  dependents  and 
unfortunates,  and  as  a  result  splendid  theories  have  been  worked  out  and 


APPENDIX.  959 

have  been  in  part  put  in  practice;  but  experience  has  shown  that  it  is  one 
thing  to  work  out  a  theory  and  to  apply  it  on  a  limited  scale,  but  a  more  diffi- 
cult thing  to  see  that  it  is  generally  applied,  and  while  we  have  provided 
complete  machinery  for  looking  after  matters  in  the  aggregate,  we  did  not 
get  down  near  enough  to  the  source  of  the  trouble.  In  other  words,  our  jails 
and  poorhouses  and  our  street  children  were  neglected.  It  was  necessary  to 
have  a  better  oversight  of  these  matters,  to  get  more  sunlight  in  on  them. 
Accordingly,  the  General  Assembly  authorized  the  appointment  in  each  county 
of  three  persons  who  were  to  be  known  as  auxiliary  boards  of  charity,  and 
they  were  to  work  in  conjunction  with  the  State  Board  of  Charities.  They 
were  to  serve  without  pay,  but  were  given  full  powers  to  visit  and  examine 
jails,  poorhouses,  etc.,  at  pleasure.  These  auxiliary  boards  have  done  ex- 
cellent service.  Their  chief  efforts  are  devoted  to  getting  children  out  of 
the  poorhouses  and  out  of  the  jails,  and  in  a  general  way  to  have  the  conditions 
for  other  unfortunates  made  as  comfortable  as  possible. 

NATIONAL  GUARD. 

During  the  last  two  years  our  National  Guard  has  performed  exercises 
and  maneuvers  never  before  witnessed  in  this  State,  and  I  deem  it  sufficient 
to  say  that  while  there  are  larger  military  establishments,  there  is  not  a  better 
one  on  this  continent  than  is  possessed  by  Illinois. 

FREIGHT  RATES. 

The  freight  classification  had  scarcely  been  changed  for  twenty  years  by  the 
Railroad  and  Warehouse  Commission  of  this  State  and  had  become  compli- 
cated, and  in  many  respects  worked  an  injustice,  and  the  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers of  Chicago  found  that  it  was  almost  impossible  for  them  to  do  business 
in  central  and  western  Illinois  because  of  the  fact  that  the  railroads  entering 
the  State  from  the  East  had  adopted  a  classification  which  made  freight  rates 
from  Cleveland  and  Cincinnati  to  that  section  of  the  State  much  lower  than 
they  were  from  Chicago.  To  overcome  this  difficulty  the  Railroad  and  Ware- 
house Commission  performed  the  almost  herculean  task  of  making  an  entirely 
new  freight  classification,  bringing  our  State  more  nearly  in  harmony  with 
the  States  east  of  us,  and  they  have  thus  made  it  possible  for  the  merchants 
and  manufacturers  of  Chicago  to  again  compete  in  territory  from  which  they 
were  formerly  almost  excluded. 

ILLINOIS  AND  MICHIGAN  CANAL. 

Prior  to  the  beginning  of  this  administration  this  canal  did  not  turn  any- 
thing into  the  State  treasury.  The  principle  business  on  the  canal  was  carry- 
ing stone  to  Chicago  from  the  quarries  at  Joliet  and  Lemont,  and  owing  to  the 
hard  times  and  the  falling  off  in  building  operations  the  business  of  the  canal 
was  necessarily  greatly  reduced,  yet  it  has  turned  into  the  State  treasury 
$50,000  and  besides  has  built  over  half  a  mile  of  new  docks,  and  made  other 
extensive  improvements. 

WESTERN  PARK  SYSTEM  AT  CHICAGO. 

Although  the  matter  of  connecting  the  West  Park  system  with  the  Lincoln 
Park  system  and  the  South  Park  system  had  been  discussed  for  more  than 


960  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

twenty  years,  practically  nothing  was  done  toward  bringing  this  about.  The 
present  West  Park  Board  undertook  the  task  of  making  the  connection, 
and  although  it  involved  the  laying  out  of  new  streets  and  the  building  of  a 
bridge  over  the  river  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the  city,  in  order  to  connect 
with  Lincoln  Park,  that  connection  has  been  made.  To  the  southwest  it 
is  necessary  to  build  several  bridges  and  cross  a  number  of  railroads,  and 
also  to  build  several  miles  of  boulevard  to  connect  with  the  South  Park 
system,  and  that  work  is  now  being  done,  and  it  is  believed  that  by  the  begin- 
ning of  summer  the  connection  will  be  complete,  so  that  the  three  great  park 
systems  of  Chicago  will  have  a  direct  boulevard  connection  around  the  outer 
edge  of  the  city. 

In  addition  to  this  the  West  Park  Board  has  endeavored  to  make  the  park 
of  the  greatest  possible  use  to  all  classes  of  citizens.  It  has  built  many  miles 
of  boulevard  for  the  accommodation  of  those  who  drive,  has  built  a  large 
natatorium  and  gymnasium  in  Douglas  Park  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
public,  and  a  bicycle  race  track  in  Garfield  Park.  This,  in  connection  with  the 
other  attractions  to  be  found  there,  make  the  West  Park  a  perfect  system 
for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  pleasure  and  amusements  to  all  classes  of  people. 

LINCOLN  PARK. 

Owing  to  its  advantageous  location  and  high  state  of  improvement  this 
park  is  considered  the  finest  on  the  continent.  The  present  commissioners 
have  put  in  an  entirely  new  system  of  lighting,  and  have  greatly  improved  the 
park  in  other  respects.  It  was  felt  that  this  park  should  be  extended  to 
Evanston,  and  could  be  so  extended  without  great  expense  to  the  public  by 
taking  the  proper  steps  in  time.  The  waters  in  Lake  Michigan  are  shallow 
for  about  twelve  hundred  feet  out  from  the  shore,  and  by  building  a  break- 
water and  a  driveway  out  that  far  from  the  shore  and  parallel  with  it,  from 
Chicago  to  Evanston,  it  would  enclose  the  shallow  waters  lying  between  that 
and  the  shore,  which  could  be  filled  by  degrees,  leaving  an  open  channel, 
so  that  there  would  then  be  a  driveway  out  in  the  water,  an  open  channel 
west  of  it,  and  a  strip  of  park  the  entire  way;  and  almost  the  only  expense  in- 
volved in  this  would  be  the  building  of  a  breakwater  and  driveway,  for  in 
this  way  the  land  would  cost  nothing  and  the  riparian  rights  of  the  shore- 
owners  would  cost  very  little,  as  many  of  them  have  offered  to  deed  their 
riparian  rights  if  the  improvement  was  made.  Legislation  authorizing  this 
move  was  secured  in  the  spring  of  1893,  but  was  afterwards  found  to  contain 
some  defects,  and  at  the  last  session  of  the  General  Assembly  another  act  was 
passed  to  authorize  this  improvement,  and  great  efforts  have  been  made  by 
the  park  board,  as  well  as  by  the  executive,  to  carry  it  out.  A  plat  has  been 
filed  in  pursuance  of  the  act  which  will  vest  the  title  to  the  submerged  land 
in  the  public  for  the  use  of  a  park,  but  so  much  captious  opposition  was  en- 
countered from  people  who  had  little  selfish  ends  to  serve  that  the  work 
could  not  be  started,  but  it  is  believed  that  this  opposition  can  all  be  over- 
come and  that  the  next  administration  will  be  able  to  secure  to  the  people 
of  Chicago  this  addition  to  its  park  and  boulevard  system. 

ARBITRATION  OF  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  conviction  has  been  deepening  in  the  minds 
of  patriotic  and  intelligent  men,  that  some  more  enlightened  and  just  method 


APPENDIX.  961 

of  settling  labor  disputes  should  be  found  than  a  mere  resort  to  brute  force, 
which  in  the  form  of  strikes  and  lock-outs  frequently  disturb  the  peace  of 
society,  destroy  property  and  do  great  injury  to  non-combatants  who  are 
dependent  upon  the  regular  operation  of  the  industries  involved.  The  con- 
viction has  grown  that  these  disputes,  like  all  other  disputes  between  citizens 
of  a  civilized  community,  should  in  some  way  be  decided  by  an  impartial 
tribunal,  representing  at  least  in  some  degree  the  State.  Apparently  insur- 
mountable difficulties  are  in  the  way  of  universal  compulsory  arbitration  of 
these  troubles,  but  experience  in  other  States  has  demonstrated  that  a  board 
of  arbitration,  with  somewhat  limited  powers,  could  adjust  many  difficulties, 
and  has  been  of  great  service  to  the  public.  During  the  closing  hours  of  the 
special  session  of  the  legislature  in  the  summer  of  1895,  an  act  was  passed 
to  create  a  board  of  arbitration  for  this  State,  but  the  measure  was  opposed 
by  some  strong  interests,  and  the  board  was  so  limited  in  its  powers  as  to 
almost  entirely  destroy  it.  Yet  during  the  seventeen  months  that  have  elapsed 
since  the  board  has  been  created,  it  has  acted  as  a  mediator  in  41  cases, 
each  of  which  involved  more  or  less  serious  differences  between  employer 
and  employe.  In  38  out  of  these  41  cases  a  satisfactory  adjustment  was 
effected  and  farther  trouble  avoided.  In  the  other  three  cases  the  employers 
haughtily  refused  to  take  any  notice  of  the  board  or  its  friendly  efforts.  In 
addition  to  these  41  cases,  the  board  arbitrated  two  cases  which  were  sub- 
mitted under  the  law,  and  its  decision  was  accepted  by  both  parties  and 
ended  the  trouble,  and  I  recommend  such  farther  reasonable  legislation  upon 
this  question  as  will  enable  this  board  to  properly  perform  the  functions 
for  which  it  was  created,  and  increase  its  usefulness.  The  results  of  its  labors 
as  above  given  are  most  gratifying,  and  show  the  wisdom  of  its  creation.  In. 
the  40  controversies  successfully  adjusted  by  the  board,  there  were  involved 
as  employes  5,780  persons,  whose  daily  wages  amounted  to  $9,537. 

LANDLORDISM. 

The  principle  of  self-protection  and  self-preservation  requires  this  State 
to  adopt  some  reasonable  legislation  for  the  purpose  of  guarding  against  the 
evils  of  landlordism.  In  the  past,  land  was  plentiful  and  no  notice  was  taken 
of  this  system,  but  now  its  evils  are  daily  becoming  more  apparent.  There 
are  sections  of  the  State  where  whole  townships,  and  in  some  cases  nearly 
half  a  county,  are  owned  by  one  individual  and  are  occupied  by  tenants  who 
feel  no  interest  in  the  soil  and  have  no  inducement  to  make  improvements. 
The  landlord,  on  his  side,  has  no  interest  in  our  institutions  or  State  except, 
to  get  money  out  of  it,  and  as  improvements  would  increase  the  taxes  to  be 
paid,  neither  landlord  nor  tenant  will  make  them,  and  the  result  is  that  some 
of  the  best  sections  of  the  State  are  arrested  in  their  development  and  must 
fall  behind  in  civilization.  The  American  republic  has  depended  largely  upon 
the  intelligent  and  patriotic  yeomanry  of  the  land,  who,  as  a  rule,  owned  the 
soil  they  cultivated.  There  seems  to  be  a  tendency  now  to  wipe  this  out, 
to  allow  the  land  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  men  who  live  in  cities  and  feel  no 
interest  in  it  except  to  get  money  out  of  it,  and  as  population  and  the  con- 
sequent demand  for  land  increase,  the  condition  of  the  tenant  will  be  constantly 
lowered  and  in  time  this  must  produce  a  lower  class  of  citizenship  that  will  in 
no  way  be  equal  to  the  independent  farmers  that  have  been  the  boast  of  our 
country.  It  is  far  better  for  the  State  that  the  farmer  should  own  his  own  land 
61 


962  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

even  though  he  be  in  debt  for  it,  than  that  he  should  feel  no  interest  in  the 
soil  and  see  all  of  his  earnings  go  to  the  landlord. 

REMEDY. 

I  do  not  venture  to  make  any  suggestions  as  to  the  best  method  of  dealing 
with  the  subject,  farther  than  to  say  that  nothing  should  be  done  that  would 
impair  the  value  of  the  lands  in  the  hands  of  the  present  owners,  but  some 
reasonable  time  in  the  future  should  be  named  after  which  every  individual 
will  be  limited  in  the  quantity  of  land  which  he  may  own  in  this  State. 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  JUSTICE  IN  LARGE  CITIES. 

I  repeat  with  emphasis  what  I  said  in  a  former  message  on  this  subject: 
"The  condition  of  business  in  the  courts  of  Chicago  almost  amounts  to  a 
denial  of  justice.  It  takes  years  to  get  a  case  finally  settled  by  the  courts, 
while  the  expense,  annoyance  and  loss  of  time  involved  in  watching  it  are 
so  great  that  the  poor  cannot  stand  it  and  the  business  men  cannot  afford  it. 
Litigants  are  worn  out  and  the  subject  matter  of  dispute  often  becomes  useless 
before  the  courts  get  done  with  it.  This  is  not  the  fault  of  the  judges,  but 
of  the  system,  which,  in  its  practical  workings,  often  discourages  the  honest 
man  and  encourages  the  dishonest  one,  for  it  enables  him  to  wear  out  the 
former. 

"Urged  by  the  bar,  the  number  of  judges  was  greatly  increased  by  the 
last  General  Assembly,  but  the  conditions  are  almost  the  same.  We  now 
have  twenty-eight  judges  in  Cook  county  alone,  while  there  are  only  thirty-four 
in  England,  Ireland  and  Wales.  In  England,  most  cases  are  disposed  of  at 
once.  The  dishonest  man  does  not  find  it  to  his  interest  to  go  into  the 
courts  there,  while  we,  with  our  system  of  distinctions  and  delays,  almost 
offer  him  a  premium  to  do  so. 

"We  borrowed  our  system  of  jurisprudence  from  England  more  than  a 
century  ago,  when  it  was  loaded  down  with  absurd  distinctions  and  formal- 
ities. We  have  clung  tenaciously  to  its  faults,  while  England  long  ago 
brushed  them  aside.  Three-quarters  of  a  century  ago  that  country  began  to 
reform  its  judicial  procedure  by  wiping  out  all  useless  distinctions  and  formal- 
ities and  making  all  procedure  simple,  and  disposing  of  each  case  promptly 
on  its  merits,  and  their  appellate  courts  now  revise  cases  only  when  it  is  shown 
that  an  actual  injustice  has  been  done,  and  not  simply  because  some  rule 
or  useless  formality  has  been  disregarded.  As  regards  the  administration  of 
justice,  we  are  to-day  three-quarters  of  a  century  behind  that  country  from 
which  we  borrowed  our  system.  We  may  be  great  in  politics  but  do  not  yet 
lead  the  way  in  statesmanship.  The  whole  system  should  be  revised  and  sim- 
plified so  that  it  will  give  our  people  more  prompt  and  speedy  justice  and  less 
fine  spun  law. 

"JUSTICE   COURTS. 

"I  must  again  call  attention  to  the  conditions  surrounding  the  police  and 
justice  courts  of  Chicago.  They  are  a  disgrace,  and  we  will  not  rise  to  the 
demands  of  the  occasion  if  we  do  not  devise  some  remedy  for  these  evils. 
I  also  again  call  attention  to  the  subject  of  permitting  any  officer  connected 
with  the  administration  of  justice  to  keep  fees.  This  is  the  very  foundation 
upon  which  the  whole  structure  of  fraud,  extortions  and  oppression  rests. 


APPENDIX.  963 

No  man's  bread  should  depend  upon  the  amount  of  business  he  can  'drum  up' 
around  a  so-called  court  of  justice." 

At  present  the  practice  prevails  in  Chicago  of  making  raids  in  the  evening 
and  running  in  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  women  and  a  few  men  at  a  time  on 
no  particular  charge.  Then  the  justice  gets  a  dollar  from  each  for  taking 
a  bond,  thus  making  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  dollars  a  night,  and  a  lot  of 
cormorants  known  as  special  bailors  and  other  hangers-on  make  four  or  five 
hundred  dollars  if  it  can  be  wrung  from  the  miserable  creatures.  In  many 
instances  certain  police  officers  are  believed  to  share  in  the  plunder.  In  this 
way  the  machinery  of  the  law  is  used  to  gather  a  harvest  off  of  vice,  and  the 
people  arrested  are  simply  forced  into  deeper  degradation;  whatever  self- 
respect  they  have  left  is  broken.  Not  only  should  the  whole  fee  system  be 
abolished,  but  the  law  should  not  require  any  person  to  give  bond  before  con- 
viction except  in  cases  where  the  charge  is  a  serious  one. 

MONEY  IN  STATE  TREASURY  AND  TAX  LEVY. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  it  required  nearly  $600,000  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the 
National  Guard  during  the  riots  of  1894  and  to  rebuild  the  Anna  Insane 
Asylum,  which  burned  down,  both  being  matters  which  were  unforeseen  and 
for  which,  therefore,  no  taxes  had  previously  been  levied,  the  funds  in  the 
treasury  ran  short  last  winter,  and  some  of  the  institutions  had  to  make 
temporary  arrangements  for  money,  but  all  bills  have  been  paid  and  several 
hundred  thousand  dollars  which  had  been  appropriated  for  the  purpose  of 
erecting  buildings  and  which  were  to  come  out  of  the  taxes  to  be  collected 
next  year,  have  been  advanced  because  the  State  was  needing  the  buildings,  and, 
owing  to  the  low  price  of  material  and  labor  it  was  better  for  the  State  to 
build  at  once  than  to  wait, .and  there  are  now  over  $300,000  in  the  treasury, 
and  as  soon  as  the  taxes  are  collected  there  will  again  be  a  surplus. 

The  tax  levy  had  to  be  increased  for  two  reasons.  One  was  the  extra 
expenditure  already  named,  and  the  other  was  the  remarkable  fact  that  the 
assessments  of  property  in  this  State  are  constantly  growing  smaller.  For 
example,  the  total  assessed  value  of  property  in  this  State  for  the  year  1896 
is  $16,508,847  less  than  it  was  for  the  year  1895,  and  is  less  than  it  has  been 

since  1890. 

REVENUE  SYSTEM. 

Every  governor  for  more  than  twelve  years  has  urged  a  revision  of  our 
revenue  laws  and  pronounced  the  existing  system  a  gigantic  fraud.  The  facts 
have  been  so  frequently  stated  that  it  seems  almost  a  mockery  to  repeat  them, 
and  yet  nothing  has  been  done.  Great  concentrations  of  wealth  and  un- 
scrupulous individuals  possessed  of  large  fortunes  in  many  cases  contribute 
nothing  to  the  support  of  the  government,  while  men  of  moderate  means  and 
those  men  of  large  means  who  refuse  to  resort  to  corrupt  methods,  are  obliged 
to  bear  burdens  that  belong  to  others.  It  is  no  longer  a  secret  that  the 
machinery  of  the  whole  system,  especially  as  it  applies  to  large  cities,  and  to 
the  assessment  of  some  corporations  is  thoroughly  corrupt  and  should  be 
wiped  out.  Corporations  in  this  respect  fare  like  individuals;  those  corpora- 
tions whose  officers  refuse  to  resort  to  dishonest  methods  and  who  endeavor 
to  meet  all  questions  openly  and  fairly,  are  loaded  with  unjust  burdens,  while 
other  corporations  contribute  little  or  nothing,  and  frequently  it  is  found  that 
the  men  who  resort  to  dishonorable  means  in  these  matters  are  the  ones  who 


964  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

have  the  most  to  say  about  patriotism.  There  has  been  so  much  agitation 
recently  upon  this  question  that  it  is  probable  that  those  interests  which  have 
heretofore  labored  to  prevent  any  revision  of  the  revenue  law  will  now  change 
their  tactics,  and  will  attempt  themselves  to  shape  the  revision,  so  that  while 
the  public  demand  for  a  new  revenue  law  will  be  for  the  time  met,  still  it 
will  be  found  that  in  the  end  matters  have  not  been  much  improved.  Real 
estate  is  usually  found  by  the  assessor  and  where  no  corrupt  methods  are 
resorted  to  there  will,  as  a  rule,  be  no  inequality  in  assessments.  So  far  as 
real  estate  is  concerned,  especially  in  large  cities,  the  chief  difficulty  to  be 
overcome  is  to  stop  the  operation  of  the  corrupt  "go-betweens,"  who  go  to 
rich  men  and  their  agents  and  offer  to  save  from  five  to  twenty  thousand 
dollars  in  the  taxes  of  one  year  in  consideration  of  cash  payment,  and  who,  on 
the  promise  of  such  cash  payment  manage  to  get  the  assessments  reduced. 
But  in  regard  to  personal  property  an  entirely  new  system  from  that  now 
existing  must  be  adopted.  Each  individual  must  be  compelled  to  furnish 
a  statement  of  what  he  has  subject  to  taxation.  The  present  system  of  allow- 
ing the  assessor  to  guess  at  what  the  individual  has  when  no  report  is  made 
results  in  no  assessment  at  all.  Under  it  the  very  rich  make  no  returns  and 
consequently  escape  with  little  or  no  taxation.  If  every  man  were  required 
to  himself  sign  a  written  statement  and  return  it  to  the  assessor  showing 
what  he  had,  and  in  the  event  of  his  failure  to  do  s,o  he  were  cited  to  go 
before  some  court  to  make  such  schedule,  and  the  court  were  required  to 
double  the  assessment  as  a  penalty,  it  would  add  millions  to  the  taxable  prop- 
erty of  the  State,  and  thus  reduce  the  burdens  of  those  men  and  corporations 
that  now  are  trying  to  honestly  pay  their  taxes. 

Corporations  are  assessed  chiefly  by  the  State  Board  of  Equalization, 
and  here  the  greatest  inequality  has  arisen.  Most  of  the  corporations  of  the 
State,  doing  a  legitimate  business,  pay  their  full  share  of  taxes,  and  in  some 
cases  perhaps  more,  while  other  very  large  concerns  pay  almost  nothing. 
A  sleeping  car  company,  whose  office  and  headquarters  are  at  Chicago,  and 
which  has  over  $60,000,000  worth  of  property — whose  stock  sells  in  the  market 
at  figures  which  aggregate  that  sum — which  annually  earns  dividends  that 
amount  to  a  high  rate  of  interest  on  that  sum,  and  which,  by  reason  of  the 
fact  that  it  is  located  in  Chicago  should,  under  the  law,  pay  taxes  there  on 
all  its  personal  property,  especially  on  such  as  is  not  assessed  elsewhere — is  as- 
sessed in  our  State  at  only  $1,561,955.  Correspondence  with  the  officials  of  all 
the  other  States  in  this  country,  and  of  Canada,  shows  that  all  the  taxes  that 
it  pays  on  this  continent,  Illinois  included,  do  not  amount  to  a  fair  rate  of 
laxation  on  $20,000,000  and  that  consequently  it  has  over  $40,000,000  that  should 
be  taxed  in  Chicago,  upon  which  it  does  not  pay  a  cent.  As  a  rule,  other 
property  is  assessed  at  from  one-fourth  to  one-fifth  of  its  market  value.  If 
this  corporation  were  assessed  in  proportion,  its  additional  assessment  would 
amount  to  in  the  neighborhood  of  $8,000,000,  and  its  annual  taxes  on  this  sum 
in  Chicago  would  be  considerably  over  a  half  a  million  of  dollars.  This  money, 
although  in  a  sense  belonging  to  the  public,  is  pocketed  by  the  owners  of  that 
corporation.  Two  years  ago  it  cost  the  State  a  large  sum  of  money  to  guard 
the  property  of  this  corporation,  yet,  when  it  comes  to  bearing  the  burdens 
of  the  government,  it  manages  to  shift  them  on  the  shoulders  of  others. 


APPENDIX.  965 

EFFECT  OF  DIVIDING  RESPONSIBILITY. 

Experience  has  shown  that  division  of  responsibility  in  public  bodies 
is  productive  of  corruption  and  unjust  measures;  that  when  the  public  can 
put  its  finger  upon  the  individual  and  hold  him  responsible,  he  will  be  more 
careful  and  circumspect  in  his  actions  and  will  make  more  effort  to  keep  up, 
at  least,  a  semblance  of  fairness,  than  he  will  if  there  are  a  large  number  of 
others  to  share  the  responsibility  with  him.  It  rarely  happens  that  the  mayor 
of  a  city  is  charged  .with  corruption,  while  the  charge  against  city  councils  is 
very  common.  These  considerations,  taken  in  connection  with  the  experience 
of  this  State,  as  well  as  other  States,  show  that  a  board  of  equalization,  com- 
posed of  twenty-two  members,  as  ours  is  now,  for  the  purpose  of  assessing 
corporations,  will  never  be  useful  or  satisfactory,  and  is  almost  certain  to 
continue  to  be  the  constant  subject  of  scandal  and  its  work  to  be  tainted 
with  the  greatest  injustice. 

REFORM  IN  LAND  CONVEYANCING. 

The  great  bulk  of  the  real  estate  of  Illinois,  when  measured  by  value,  is 
in  Cook  county,  and  owing  to  the  numerous  transfers  that  have  taken  place 
there  and  the  complications  in  the  title  to  many  large  tracts  of  land  which 
have  since  been  subdivided  into  lots,  conditions  have  arisen  which  make  the 
transfer  of  even  the  smallest  piece  of  real  estate  a  very  expensive  proceeding. 
In  the  first  place  an  abstract  must  be  furnished,  showing  the  chain  of  title 
down  from  the  government.  This  in  some  instances  costs  hundreds  and 
even  thousands  of  dollars,  and  in  those  cases  where  it  is  possible  to  get 
copies  of  old  abstracts  it  is  still  necessary  to  have  a  continuation  made  every 
time  there  is  a  transfer,  and  no  matter  how  frequently  a  title  may  have  been 
examined  and  pronounced  good,  it  is  at  present  necessary  to  have  it  re- 
examined  every  time  there  is  a  transfer.  The  result  of  this  is  the  imposition  of 
burdens  which  bear  very  hard  upon  the  owners  of  small  properties,  and  these 
burdens  are  daily  becoming  more  onerous.  They  have  to  be  met  not  only  at 
every  sale,  but  every  time  it  is  sought  to  get  even  a  small  loan  on  a  house 
and  lot.  The  last  General  Assembly  endeavored  to  remedy  this  evil  by  pro- 
viding for  a  new  system  of  land  transfer  in  which  it  would  be  unnecessary 
to  trace  the  title  back  to  the  government  every  time  that  it  was  sought  to 
make  a  loan  or  a  sale  of  a  small  piece  of  land.  The  system  adopted  was  one 
which  has  for  years  been  in  use  in  many  countries  of  the  world  and  has  worked 
admirably.  The  Supreme  Court  recently  nullified  this  law  by  holding  that  it 
was  unconstitutional.  The  subject  therefore  calls  for  further  attention  at  your 
hands.  The  burdens  complained  of  attach  not  only  to  most  of  the  real  estate 
in  Illinois,  but  they  affect  more  than  half  the  people  of  the  State,  and  as  • 
they  arise  out  of  a  primitive  and  antiquated  system  which  is  thoroughly  in- 
adequate to  modern  needs,  it  is  the  business  of  the  government  to  provide  a 
new  method  that  shall  relieve  the  people  from  this  heavy  expenditure  of  money 
for  which  they  get  absolutely  nothing  in  return. 

MINERS  AND  FACTORY  EMPLOYES. 

Illinois  is  now  one  of  the  largest  mining  States  in  the  world,  owing  to 
its  limitless  deposits  of  coal.  It  is  also  one  of  the  greatest  manufacturing 
States  in  the  world.  Therefore  we  are  vitally  interested  in  the  conditions 


966  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

affecting  these  two  industries,  especially  in  so  far  as  they  affect  not  only  the 
prosperity  of  our  people,  but  affect  the  physical  and  mental  development,  and 
consequently  the  standard  of  citizenship,  among  those  engaged  in  them. 

Mining  is  a  peculiar  industry,  and  is  attended  with  a  greater  degree  of 
danger  than  exists  in  most  other  industries,  and  as  the  miners  are  to  a  great 
degree  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  community  and  as  a  rule  are  not  so  able 
to  represent  their  interests  as  other  elements  of  society  are,  there  is  a  constant 
tendency  toward  conditions  which  bear  hard  on  the  miner  and  prevent  him 
from  keeping  his  family  on  the  same  plane  of  advantage  with  other  members 
of  the  community,  and  which  ultimately  affect  the  intelligence  and  the  stand- 
ard of  citizenship  of  the  mining  population.     Consequently  it  has  been  found 
necessary  in  all  countries  for  the  government  to  throw  its  protection  around 
the  miner,  both  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  his  being  unjustly  dealt  with 
and  also  for  the  purpose  of  elevating  his  standard  of  citizenship.     Nearly  a 
century  ago  England  found  that  the  conditions  in  her  mines  were  so  lowering 
the  moral,  physical  and  intellectual  condition  of  her  people  as  to  make  them 
unfit   for   military  and  naval   service,   and  make  them   unfit  to   maintain   the 
dignity  and  the  greatness  of  the  British  Empire,  and  she  began  a  system  of 
mining  legislation  which  has  been  extended  and  improved  from  time  to  time 
and  has  been  adopted  by  nearly  all  of  the  civilized  countries,  and  similar  legis- 
lation has  been  enacted  in  all  of  the  older  States  of  the  Union.     This  legis- 
lation is  based  on  the  ground,  not  simply  of  humanity  and  justice,  but  that  it 
is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  take  every  necessary  step  for  its  own  preservation. 
This  legislation,  of  necessity,  affects  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  the  relations 
between  the   miner  and  the  employer  and  is   intended  to  prevent   his  being 
cheated  in  weighing  and  being  cheated  in  the  screening  of  the  coal,  from  his 
being  forced  to  buy  the  necessaries  of  life  at  what  are  called  truck  or  "pluck 
me"  stores,  maintained  by  the  employers,  etc. 

Following  the  line  of  legislation  which  had  been  adopted  by  and  was  in 
force  in  the  older  States  of  the  Union,  this  State  has,  during  the  last  fifteen 
years,  passed  a  number  of  laws  for  the  protection  of  the  miner.  Several  acts 
have  been  passed  to  regulate  the  weighing  of  coal  at  the  mines.  In  May, 
1891,  an  act  was  passed  to  put  an  end  to  the  truck  store  system,  so  that  miners 
should  no  longer  be  obliged  to  accept  their  wages  in  the  goods  of  the  so-called 
"pluck  me"  stores  of  their  employers.  About  the  same  time  a  law  was  passed 
requiring  miners  to  be  paid  their  wages  weekly;  but  all  of  these  laws  were 
nullified  by  the  Supreme  Court,  on  the  ground  that  they  conflicted  with  some 
provision  of  the  Constitution. 

FACTORIES. 

With  the  invention  of  machinery  came  great  factories  and  great  concentra- 
tions of  population,  and  as  in  many  cases  physical  strength  was  not  necessary 
to  attend  a  machine,  factories  were  soon  filled  with  women  and  with  children, 
because  they  would  work  for  less  wages  than  had  to  be  paid  to  men.  These 
women  and  children  stood  on  their  feet  and  worked  long  hours,  and  the  result 
was  that  in  time  the  factory  population  was  found  to  be  stunted  and  weak, 
physically  and  intellectually,  so  that  a  parliamentary  investigation,  more  than 
fifty  years  ago,  discovered  the  fact  that  as  a  rule  the  young  men  in  factory 
communities  were  utterly  unfit  for  military  service,  most  of  the  children  born 
of  women  who  worked  in  the  factories  were  weak  and  rarely  developed  into 


APPENDIX.  967 

healthy  manhood  and  womanhood,  and  that  the  boys  and  girls  employed 
in  the  factories  soon  grew  old,  became  physically  and  intellectually  stunted 
and  morally  weak.  It  was  also  found  that  by  reason  of  machinery  not  being 
properly  guarded,  and  matters  of  ventilation  and  sanitation  not  being  carefully 
looked  after,  operatives  in  factories  were  being  constantly  maimed  for  life, 
and  becoming  charges  upon  the  community,  and  their  health  was  being  under- 
mined because  of  bad  sanitary  conditions.  The  committee  reported  to  Parlia- 
ment that  unless  these  conditions  could  in  some  way  be  arrested,  the  tendency 
would  be  to  endanger  if  not  destroy  the  perpetuity  of  the  empire,  because 
there  would  be  produced  an  inferior  race  of  people  who  could  not  maintain 
themselves  either  intellectually,  commercially  or  martially  in  the  fierce  com- 
petition with  the  rest  of  the  world.  Out  of  this  parliamentary  investigation 
there  grew  in  the  end  a  system  of  factory  legislation  which  has  been  greatly 
improved  and  expanded,  and  adopted  by  all  the  civilized  countries  of  the 
old  world,  and  by  nearly  all  of  the  older  States  of  this  country.  It  may  be  of 
interest  to  note  that  both  the  mining  and  the  factory  legislation  was  opposed  by 
the  wealthy  classes  of  England,  and  for  a  third  of  a  century  met  with  the 
opposition  of  the  influential  classes  who  were  deriving  a  benefit  from  the 
evils  aimed  at.  But  the  statesmen  of  England  persisted  and  ultimately  tri- 
umphed, and  some  of  the  great  men  of  England  to-day  regard  her  achievements 
in  mining  and  factory  legislation  as  among  the  most  important  things  she  has 
done,  not  only  for  her  own  prosperity  and  perpetuity,  but  for  the  world. 

Several  years  ago  it  was  found  that  the  conditions  which  once  existed 
in  England  were  rapidly  growing  up  in  our  State.  Shops  and  factories  were 
full  of  children  and  women  who  slaved  long  hours  and  received  but  a  pittance. 
In  many  cases  dangerous  machinery  was  not  properly  guarded,  and  the  sani- 
tary conditions  were  indescribably  bad. 

To  remedy  these  evils,  an  act  was  passed  in  1893,  which  was  far  less 
stringent  and  less  comprehensive  than  laws  which  were  already  in  force  in 
some  of  the  older  States,  and  which  had  been  held  constitutional  there.  The 
act  was  limited  to  factories  and  shops. 

Under  this  law  the  abuses  of  child  labor  in  the  factories  of  our  State 
were  greatly  reduced  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  enforce  the  provisions  of  the 
law  which  forbade  the  employment  of  women  for  more  than  eight  hours  a 
day  in  shops  and  factories.  But  the  interests  which  were  coining  the  lives 
of  women  and  children  into  dollars  and  which  wanted  to  escape  the  paying 
of  the  wages  of  men  were  powerful.  They  combined  to  resist  its  enforce- 
ment, and  the  Supreme  Court  has  held  a  portion  of  the  law  to  be  unconstitu- 
tional, and  the  decision  leaves  the  whole  of  the  act  in  such  a  condition  as 
makes  it  difficult  to  enforce  any  of  its  provisions,  and  including  those  not 
employed  in  factories,  there  are  in  Chicago  alone  over  fifteen  thousand  chil- 
dren working  long  hours  daily,  many  of  them  becoming  stunted  physically 
and  intellectually  and  weakened  morally,  and  what  is  known  as  the  "sweat 
shop"  evil  is  spreading  at  an  alarming  rate.  Other  countries  have  found  it 
necessary  to  protect  themselves  against  conditions  which  tend  to  lower  the 
vitality  and  the  physical  and  intellectual  development  of  their  citizens,  and  our 
Slate  must  do  the  same.  The  Constitution  was  not  intended  to  be  an  insur- 
mountable barrier  to  all  corrective  legislation.  Whether  a  law  is  or  is  not 
constitutional  is  nearly  always  a  matter  of  construction  and  depends  upon  the 


968  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

point   of  view   from   which   the    subject   is   considered,   sometimes   depending 
largely  on  the  bias  or  learning  of  the  judge. 

While  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  are  conclusive  and  final  in 
the  cases  in  which  they  were  rendered,  they  do  not  become  a  rule  of  political 
action.  They  do  not  deprive  the  people  of  the  power  to  regulate  their  affairs, 
nor  can  they  in  any  way  prevent  farther  efforts  to  cure  the  evils  that  were 
aimed  at.  In  his  first  inaugural  message  President  Lincoln,  in  speaking  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  said:  "The  candid  citizen  must  confess 
that  if  the  policy  of  the  government  upon  vital  questions  affecting  the  whole 
people  is  to  be  irrevocably  fixed  by  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  the 
instant  they  are  made,  as  in  ordinary  decisions  between  parties  in  personal 
actions,  the  people  will  have  ceased  to  be  their  own  rulers,  having  to  that 
extent  practically  released  their  government  into  the  hands  of  that  eminent 
tribunal."  On  various  other  occasions  Mr.  Lincoln  declared  in  public  that 
the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  on  constitutional  questions,  while  entitled  to 
respect  and  while  conclusive  upon  the  individuals  involved  in  the  litigation 
before  them,  did  not  constitute  a  rule  of  action  politically  and  did  not  deprive 
the  people  in  any  way  of  their  power  of  self-government,  and  did  not  prevent 
the  people  from  proceeding  in  an  orderly  manner  to  bring  about  in  the  end 
the  establishment  of  a  principle  different  from  what  the  Supreme  Court  had 
enunciated.  Neither  the  executive,  the  legislative  nor  the  judicial  branches 
of  the  government,  nor  in  fact  all  combined,  have  the  power  to  foreclose  the 
people  on  a  question  of  government,  nor  to  prevent  the  people  from  in  the 
end  enforcing  such  policy  as  they  deem  proper. 

CRITICISM  OF  DIFFERENT  BRANCHES  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

I  am  aware  that  there  are  people  who  will  urge  that  this  is  a  criticism  of 
the  courts,  but  nothing  of  the  kind  is  intended.  I  have  simply  stated  historical 
facts,  and  have  endeavored  to  make  clear  the  fundamental  principle  which 
the  Legislature  must  always  keep  in  view  when  dealing  with  great  problems. 
So  far  as  the  question  of  criticising  is  concerned,  the  Constitution  has  di- 
vided the  government  into  three  departments,  and  each  of  these  departments 
is  alike  subject  to  criticism.  It  may  be  said  that  the  life  of  a  republic  depends 
upon  the  intelligent  scrutiny  and  criticism  which  the  people  give  to  all 
branches  of  the  government.  It  has  been  urged  by  some  of  the  greatesc  men 
of  our  country  that  inasmuch  as  judges  are  human  and  possess  the  same 
prejudices,  passions  and  weaknesses  that  other  men  do,  and  inasmuch  as  the 
public  can  impose  its  will  more  easily  upon  the  executive  and  legislative  offices 
because  their  terms  are  shorter,  that  therefore  there  was  all  the  greater  need 
of  thorough  examination  and  free  criticism  on  the  part  of  the  public  of  the  acts 
of  the  judiciary.  While  the  public  has  this  right  to  the  fullest  extent,  there 
is  a  question  of  propriety  involved  in  one  department  of  government  indulging 
in  mere  criticism  of  the  other,  but  there  is  no  rule  of  propriety  which  pre- 
vents either  branch  of  the  government  from  stating  historical  facts  or  point- 
ing out  difficulties  which  must  be  met  by  all;  in  fact  the  judicial  branch  has 
at  various  times  criticised  the  acts  of  the  legislative  branch  of  government 
with  the  greatest  freedom. 

While  I  have  thus  stated  the  general  principle,  I  believe  that  no  serious 
difficulty  will  be  encountered  in  enacting  all  necessary  legislation  without  com- 


APPENDIX.  969 

ing  into  conflict  with  cither  the  Constitution  or  the  decisions  of  the  Supieme 
Court. 

NEWSPAPER    LICENSES. 

The  Legislature  owes  it  to  the  people  of  this  State  to  devise  some  reason- 
able protection  against  the  outrageous  newspaper  license  on  the  part  of  great 
journals,  of  which  the  people  are  now  victims.  Newspaper  abuse  terrorizes 
the  people  and  deters  many  of  our  best  citizens  from  taking  part  in  public 
affairs.  Men  have  a  right  to  look  to  government  for  protection,  for  a  govern- 
ment is  unworthy  of  respect  that  simply  imposes  burdens  on  its  people  and 
then  leaves  their  lives  or  their  reputations  at  the  mercy  of  those  who  shoot 
from  ambush.  No  measure  can  be  considered  which  will  in  any  way  interfere 
with  the  fullest  publication  of  the  news,  or  with  full  comment  on  current  events, 
and  there  must  be  reasonable  allowance  for  mistakes  honestly  "made.  What 
should  be  aimed  at  is  to  do  away  with  the  anonymous  and  dark  alley  features 
of  modern  newspaperism.  This  is  where  cowards  roost  and  where  sneaks  take 
refuge.  As  yet  there  are  but  few  great  journals  in  the  United  States  that  meet 
the  definition  of  a  newspaper.  Many  of  them  are  personal  and  partisan  organs 
often  used  maliciously,  and  instead  of  publishing  the  news  fairly  they  make  it 
their  daily  business  to  garble  and  misstate  it.  This  in  itself  is  perhaps  not  a 
proper  subject  for  legislators,  but  when  men,  who  are  ashamed  to  give  their 
names,  hide  behind  a  newspaper  hedge  and  throw  mud  at  people  who  are 
walking  on  the  highway,  then  the  public  has  a  right  to  complain,  and  has  a 
right  to  insist  that  this  be  stopped,  or,  if  it  is  impossible  to  stop  it,  that  then 
it  should  be  known  to  the  world  who  are  the  offenders. 

It  has  been  urged  that  this  species  ot  journalism  brings  its  own  punish- 
ment; that  anonymous  abuse  reacts  on  the  author  and  weakens  his  char- 
acter and  destroys  his  manhood;  that  early  in  our  history  when  every  news- 
paper writer  had  to  face  his  fellow  men  and  be  personally  responsible  for  his 
utterances,  the  profession  produced  some  of  the  greatest  men  in  the  land  who 
exerted  a  powerful  personal  influence  on  the  nation,  while  since  anonymous 
writing  has  become  the  rule  on  great  journals  the  profession  seems  to  be 
blighted;  that  all  are  reduced  to  the  same  level  and  are  swallowed. 

Even  if  this  were  so,  it  does  not  justify  continued  license.  It  has  also 
been  urged  that  public  good  is  promoted  by  anonymity.  It  may  be  a  strange 
coincidence,  but  the  marauding  white-caps  in  neighboring  States  have  like- 
wise defended  their  cowardly  operations  on  the  ground  of  public  good. 

There  is  a  principle  involved  here,  and  that  is,  that  no  man  can  be  per- 
mitted to  set  himself  up  as  a  public  censor  and  proceed  to  wrong  those  whom, 
for  many  reasons,  he  does  not  like.  The  mere  fact  that  a  man  is  able  to 
buy  presses  and  hire  a  lot  of  men  who  must  do  his  will,  does  not  give  him 
any  more  rights  than  are  possessed  by  other  people.  The  existing  statute  is 
comprehensive  in  defining  libel,  but  it  can  only  be  enforced  through  a  prosecu- 
tion or  a  law  suit  which  will  last  years,  and  not  only  subject  the  individual  to 
additional  notoriety,  but  will  wear  him  out;  so  that  for  the  average  citizen 
there  is  no  protection  whatever  against  newspaper  abuse. 

Two  years  ago  an  act  was  passed  which  provided  that  when,  in  cases  of 
libel,  it  is  sought  to  punish  an  editor,  in  addition  to  making  him  pay  damage, 
that  then  he  should  be  permitted  to  show  the  facts  in  the  case.  This  principle 
is  correct,  for  when  a  man  is  to  be  punished  he  should  be  permitted  to  show 


970  LIVE  QUESTIONS. 

all  the  facts  connected  with  the  act  for  which  he  is  to  be  punished;  but  the 
trouble  with  all  existing  legislation  is  that  an  individual  is  worn  out  with  delay 
and  expense  before  a  case  reaches  the  point  where  sentence  is  to  be  imposed. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  the  possibility  of  collecting  damages  furnishes  any 
practical  protection  to  the  public.  In  my  judgment  the  public  would  be  much 
better  off  if  there  were  no  provisions  for  ultimately  getting  damages,  except 
in  rare  cases,  provided  the  authorship  of  every  abusive  article  were  at  once 
known,  for  in  that  case  the  article  would  receive  such  credence  from  the  public 
as  the  character  and  standing  of  the  author  would  secure  for  it,  and  no  more. 
This  would  tend  to  secure  accuracy  of  statement.  It  is  the  anonymous  article 
which  is  careless  and  reckless — which  is  full  of  insinuation  and  invention.  At 
present  there  is  but  little  complaint  about  the  country  weeklies  and  small  papers 
because  generally  the  authorship  of  every  article  is  known.  Even  when  such 
a  paper  resorts  to  vilification,  it  makes  no  impression  except  what  is  secured 
for  it  by  the  character  of  the  writer.  It  is  clear  that  the  public  does  not  want 
damages  so  much  as  it  wants  a  preventive.  It  wants  less  firing  from  ambush. 
Any  measure  that  will  stop  this  will  be  -beneficial,  and  if  no  other  remedy  is 
practicable  I  believe  that  a  measure  which  would  grant  reasonable  immunity 
to  the  writer  in  all  cases  in  which  an  article  was  signed,  while  it  provided  for 
summary  penalties  where  the  authorship  was  not  disclosed,  would  at  least 
tend  to  limit  existing  abuses. 

THE   REAL   ENEMIES   OF   THE   STATE. 

In  a  monarchy,  government  can  be  maintained  for  a  time  by  brute  force, 
but  in  a  republic,  government  can  be  maintained  only  by  justice.  Those  men 
and  those  policies  which  beget  injustice  are  mortal  enemies  of  republican  in- 
stitutions. No  government  was  ever  overthrown  by  the  poor,  and  we  have 
nothing  to  fear  from  that  source.  It  is  the  greedy  and  the  powerful  who  pull 
down  the  pillars  of  state.  Greed,  corruption  and  pharisaism  are  to-day  sapping 
the  foundations  of  government.  It  is  the  criminal  rich  and  their  hangers-on 
who  are  the  real  anarchists  of  our  time.  They  rely  on  fraud  and  brute  force. 
They  use  government  as  a  convenience  and  make  justice  the  handmaid  of 
wrong.  We  are  developing  a  kind  of  carbonated  patriotism  which  seems  to 
derive  its  most  sparkling  qualities  from  respectable  boodleism.  Our  country 
has  great  vitality,  but  these  conditions  must  be  arrested  or  else  we  are  lost. 
Only  those  nations  grow  great  which  correct  abuses,  make  reforms  and  listen 
to  the  voice  of  the  struggling  masses. 

DESTrNY    OF    ILLINOIS. 

Illinois  is  yet  in  the  morning  of  her  career.  Seated  at  the  heart  of  the 
continent  the  centuries  are  before  her.  Excelling  in  resources,  in  enterprise, 
in  achievement  and  in  the  spirit  of  her  people  she  must  lead  the  way.  Destined 
to  be  the  center  of  intellectual  activity  her  genius  must  guide  the  republic. 
Directed  along  the  paths  of  justice  and  humanity  not  even  the  stars  can  measure 
her  glory. 

This  is  the  State  which  I  commit  to  your  care.  Again:  "Let  us  build  for 
the  centuries." 

JOHN   P.   ALTGELD. 


INDEX. 


PREPARED  BY  HON.  GEO.  H.  SHIBLEY. 


Academy  of  Science — Address  at 

laying  of  cornerstone 

Acceptance  of  gubernatorial  nom- 
ination   

Accidents,  see  Coal  Mines. 

Adams,  President  John 

A  Federalist  

Administration  of  

Aesthetics   

Aggression    

Agitators    

Agriculture,  State  Board  of 

State  Fair    •..•••• 

Agricultural  school  and  experi- 
ment station,  see  University  of 
Illinois. 

Aldermen,  see  City  Government. 
Aldrich     report     on     wages     and 

prices    

See    also    Wages    and  Wage 

Earners. 
Alger,    Hon.  Russell  A.,    History 

of 

Alien  and  Sedition  Laws 

Alliance   with   Foreign   States 

See  also  England. 

Allison    Law    

Almshouse. 

Conditions   of    

Care    for    insane 

Local   visitors    

Support   of   old    soldiers 

126,    127, 

Altgeld,  John  P. 

Acceptance  of  nomination  for 

Governor   

Inaugural  address,   1893 

Reception     speech,     January, 

1897   


Altgeld,  John  P.— Continued. 

402  Record  as  Governor 604 

Veto  of  gas  and  street  railway 

226  bills   836 

Protest  against  federal  inter- 

694  ference   668 

787  President  Cleveland's  reply  to  670 

737  Gov.    Altgeld's    second    tele- 

47°  gram 671 

331  Letter  to  William  S.  Forman.  604 

406  Retiring  speech  from  govern- 

914  orship   697 

913            Minority    candidate   for   Sen- 
ate     701,   824 

Presidential  Bee   525 

111   health   of,   1896 692 

On  the  election  of  1896 '691 

Altruism,  Growth  of 609 

621     Ambition   332 

American   Bar  Association 418 

American   Bankers'     Association.  861 

See  also  Bankers. 
842     American     commerce,     effect     of 

787  monopolistic  rule   227 

808  See   also    International    Com- 

merce. 

543     America,  see  United  States. 
"ANARCHISTS," 

902  Reasons   for   pardoning 365 

896  See  also  Pardons. 

901  Meeting  of   1886 202 

Labor  Day  address   348 

129  "Men   in   rags   never  yet   de- 

stroyed a  government." ....  937 
See  also  Pardons. 
226  Criminal    rich    are    the    real 

308  ones    970 

Anarchy     in     Illinois,     Inter- 

701  view   on    4°S 

971 


972 


INDEX. 


"  Anarchists''- — Continued. 

Is    un-American    367 

Cry   of   "Stop   thief" 937 

Anglo-Saxon    Alliance,    see   Eng- 
land. 

Anglo-Saxon   Republic    818 

Anonymous  journalism  and  its  ef- 
fects       151 

A.  P.  A.  Movement 407 

Appreciation  of  money,  see  Fall- 
ing Prices,  Gold  Standard. 
Appropriations,  sums  unexpended  416 

Arbitration,  in  civil  cases 138 

ARBITRATION  OF  STRIKES 
Changed  methods  of  produc- 
tion and  transportation....   108 
Duty  of  State... 107,  no,  217,  249 

It  is  practicable ill,    113 

Is  recommended  315 

Board  for  adjustment  of  dis- 
putes— reform  effected  un- 
der Gov.  Altgeld 114,  958 

Satisfactory  workings   961 

Attitude     of     Republican 

party 948,   949 

Value  of  special  boards 919 

Appeals  US 

Costs   of  Arbitration 115 

See   also   Labor  Troubles. 
Architecture,       Recommendations 

by  Gov.  Altgeld 957 

Photographs  of  State  Build- 
ings   885,  893 

ARISTOCRACY,   Opposition  to 

factory  and  mining  laws 967 

Establishment— prevention  of.  875 
Monied,  now  established  ....  871 
British  aristocracy — motives. .  232 

Jefferson's  attitude 785 

Army,  see  standing  army. 

Arnold,  Benedict 749 

ARRESTS. 

Number  of,  Chicago,  1882, 
p.  7;  1884,  P.  941  1888,  p. 

101;  1891,  p 311 

Estimated  number  for  U.  S. . .       8 

Evil  effects  of 21,    101 

Effect  on  relatives  and  friends  9 
Effect  of  unreasonable  arrests.  94 
Unnecessarily  encouraged  ...  22 


Arrests — Continued. 

Evils    of   fee    system,    36,  44, 

96,  312,  410 411 

Evils    of    fee  system — recom- 
mendations of  Gov.  Altgeld.  962 
Imprisonment  before  trial....     96 
Treatment     of     misdemeanor 

cases  95 

Probation    officers — good    re- 
sults        49 

See  also  Fines,  Sentences. 
Assessments,  see  Taxation. 

Assessors,  bribing  of 520 

Asylums,  veto  of  bill  to  enlarge. .  896 
Atlanta  Exposition,  speech  at....  511 

Auditorium  speech,   1898 825 

Augustine  Age 611 

Australian  Ballot,  see  Elections. 
Australia,     shorter    hours    move- 
ment       171 

Austria  and   Gold  Standard.  .214,    543 
AVERAGE  PRICE  OF  PROD- 
UCTS. 

Should  be  stable 636 

Bimetallism — steadiness  642 

Quantity  Theory,  i.  e.,  effect 
of  quantity  of  money,  credit 
and  the  things  against  which 
they  are  exchanged. 534,  541, 
550,  595,  623,  626,  649,  857 
Supply  and  demand,  effect  on 

prices 560,  572,  623 

Volume  of  money,  effect 213 

See  also  Volume  of  Money. 
Government     demand      com- 
pared with  production  from 

mines 551,  552 

Effect  of  legislation 642,   649 

Power  of  governments  631 

Increasing  demand  for  gold..  631 
Government  controls  average 

prices — Prof.    Laughlin 858 

Control  of  by  speculators....  876 
Effect  of  credit  instruments 

628,    858 

Increase  of    banking  facilities 

55i,  552,   554 

Bank  clearings  compared....  840 
Increase  of  production.  .  .552,  628 
Effect  of  Sherman  Law 213 


INDEX. 


973 


Average  Price  of  Products — Cont'd. 
International    trade — level    of 

prices  615 

See  also  Purchasing  Power  of 
Money;  Bimetallism;  Gold 
Standard;  Silver  Standard. 

Babcock,  J.  W.,  letter  to 457 

BANK  MONEY. 

Creature  of  government 862 

Volume  of,  see  Paper  Money; 

Money. 
BANKS  AND  BANKERS. 

Bankers'  control  of  legislation 

— Object  lessons   858 

Attitude  of 852 

Why  for  gold  standard 598 

Legislation  on  money — "Time 

to  tear  off  disguise" 861 

Foreign  bankers'  operation  in 

United  States   870 

Attempt  to  control  both  par- 
ties    861 

Campaign  funds  538 

Bank  Trust — American  Bank- 
ers' Association  861 

Restoration  of  silver — effect. .  569 
See  also  Money  Question. 
Branch  banks — banking  trust.  863 
Speculative       banks — political 

banks   862 

Bartlett,  Hon.  David,  letter  to 139 

Bastable,   C.    F 550 

Baths,  Public  754,    755 

Battle    Fields,    see   War;    Monu- 
ments. 

Beauty   470 

Belgian  monetary  commission.  .. .  550 

Belligerent  rights   530 

Berenger,  Report  of   544 

BIMETALLISM. 

Two  metals  combined  in  one 

standard 533,  549,  587,    641 

Essential  elements — De  Lave- 

laye  550 

Statement  of  Baron  Roths- 
child    549 

Practically     constant     market 

ratio 533,    620 

Cause  of  constancy  in  ratio..  561 
Effect  of  mint  demand 546 


Bimetallism— Continued. 

Mint  ratio  in  U.  S 546 

Mint  ratio  in  Europe 546 

Steadiness   of  standard 642 

Par   of    exchange    in   foreign 

trade   563 

Statement  of  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton    546 

Attitude     of     Jefferson     and 

Hamilton 786 

In  England  and  Germany,  '98.   845 

Re-establishment  of  876 

Restoration,    effect    on    cred- 
itors        569 

Independent  action. 

Argument  for 646 

Effect  on  creditors 636 

"Repudiation" 636 

Independent  action,  effect 

of 568,  619,  632,  643,    747 

Would    restore    old    ratio 

and  par  of  exchange  568,  571 
Will,  cheapening  of  gold. .  633 

Effect  in  detail 569,   571 

"Fifty  cent  dollar".  .600,  633,    649 
Effect  of  remonetization — 

Chicago  Tribune  553 

16  to  i,  need  for 566,  581,    877 

Rich  miners   632 

See    also     Money    Question; 
Demonetization;     Rising 
Prices;   Falling  Prices;  Av- 
erage  Prices;    International 
Agreement;  Sherman  Law. 
Birmingham — Municipal      owner- 
ship      755 

Blackmail,  by  State  Legislators.  .  822 
Prevention  of — city  councils..  510 

Of  fellow  ex-convicts 71 

Elaine,  James  G.,  On  Demonetiza- 
tion       547 

On  Walker  Tariff 281 

Bland-Allison  Law  543 

Blind,   Industrial  Home  for 900 

Board    of    Education,  Leases     of 

school  lands   938 

BOLTING. 

Bolt  dishonest  candidates....  823 

Scratch    the    boodlers 835 

Of  Gold  Democrats 540 


974 


INDEX. 


Bon.b  throwing,  see  "Anarchists." 
BONDS, 

Payable  in  coin 636 

Change   of  contract   by   Con- 
gress   , 639 

'Credit  strengthening  act"...  637 

Effect  of  gold  standard 640 

Sale   of    870 

Issues  of,  under  Cleveland....  795 
Issued   during  Spanish   war. .  841 

Gold  bonds  796 

Payment  of   240 

Bonfield,  Capt.  John  365 

Boodleism  821,    823 

"Brains"   332 

Bribery  520 

Australian  ballot  an  improve- 
ment       142 

See  also  Elections;  Corruption. 
See  also  Corruption. 

Bridewell,  bad  conditions  in 410 

Classification  of  offences 102 

See  also  Jails;   Prisons. 

Brooklyn,  speech  at 733 

Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle,  letter  to. ..  781 

Brotherhood  of  masses 609 

See  also  Humanity;  Labor  Or- 
ganizations. 

BRYAN,      HON.      WILLIAM 
JENNINGS. 
Another  Andrew  Jackson....  883 

How  defeated  814 

Election  frauds  against 721 

Vote  for,  compared 721 

Who  supported  him 708 

Nomination  in  1900 845 

See  also  603,  619,  633,  696,  702,  881 

Build  for  the  centuries 970 

Building  and  Loan  Associations, 

Report  on  917 

Building     Contracts,     Suggestion 

for 470 

Burke,  Hon.  Richard,  Letter  to...   141 
BUSINESS  DEPRESSION. 

Effect  of  falling  prices 341,   541 

Effect  of  341,   537 

Effect  on  penitentiaries.  .904,    952 

Situation  Oct.  30,  1894 428 

See      also      Falling      Prices; 
Panics. 


Business  Interests,  lack  of  patriot- 
ism     521 

Cabinet  positions 526 

Calamities,  rarely  come  singly. . . .  650 
Campaign  of  1896,  Silver  Repub- 
licans    526 

See     also     Money     Question; 
Bryan;  McKinley;  Republi- 
can      Party;       Democratic 
Party,  etc. 
Campaign  funds. 

By  bankers   538 

See  also  Monopoly;  Corrup- 
tion. 

Canada,  admission  to  U.  S 806 

Canal,   of   State 911 

Earnings     of — reform     under 

Gov.  Altgeld 959 

See  also  Waterways. 

Capital,  is  indispensable 342 

Capitalism,  is  in  control 460 

Captains  of  industry. 

Their  struggle  for  justice 179 

Carlisle,  Hon.  John  G. 

Comments  on  531 

Attitude    on    money    question 

1878  532 

Carnegie  692 

Against  organized  labor 220 

Carpet  Baggers  512 

Carter,  Hon.  Orrin  N 706 

Cemeteries,  Public 755 

Chamberlain,  Hon.  Joseph   755 

Chapman,  reasons  for  pardoning. .  516 

Character  352 

Charitable  institutions  of  Illinois, 

address  before 354 

Charitable  institutions  of  Illinois, 

compared   610 

Charities,  State  Board  of 901 

Auxiliary  boards,  i.  e..  Local 
Visitors — adoption  of  re- 
form under  Gov.  Altgeld..  958 

Charity,  evil  effects  of 315 

See  also  Philanthropy. 
Checks    on     Banks,    see   Average 

Prices. 

Chickatnauga,     speech    on   battle- 
field of 490 


INDEX. 


975 


CHICAGO. 

Greatness  of  4<>7 

Duty  of  403 

Compared   323 

Record  of 943 

Need  for  Exposition  Bldg.  . . .  914 
Population    and    voters,   1892, 

1896 7H,7i8,   719 

Street  railways,  see  that  title. 

Corruption  in  520 

Mayor — Job   hunters 725 

See  Arrests;    Bridewell;  Jus- 
tice, Administration  of,  etc. 
CHICAGO  CONVENTION. 

Principles  involved   589,  7°2 

Prediction  as  to  outcome 576 

Speech  before  5^5 

Demands  of  gold  men 588 

Johnny  Bull  described , .  589 

New     Declaration    of     Inde- 
pendence      689 

Attitude  of  monopolists 814 

Effect  of  843 

Remedies  proposed  compared  612 

No  time  for  compromise 59° 

History  repeats  itself 59° 

The  situation  Jan.  '99 871 

Chicago  Courts,  see  Courts. 
CHICAGO  STRIKE. 

Causes  of  793 

Importance  of,   compared....  656 
Call  for  federal  troops  unwar- 
ranted    660 

See      Federal      Interference; 

Pullman  Strike. 

Chicago  Tribune,  on  Money  Ques- 
tion        552 

Lease  of  school  lands 939 

Chicago   University   874 

CHILD  LABOR. 

Reforms  recommended  3'6 

Doings  of    Supreme   Court — 
recommendations     of     Gov. 

Altgeld  967 

Reforms   effected  under   Gov. 

Altgeld    957 

Legislation — record  of  Repub- 
lican party  496 

Children,  dependent  and  neglected 
— care  in  private  families 3'6 


Children's  Aid  Society,  letter  to..  501 

China,  trade  with 802 

.  Conditions  in  574,    644 

Christ,  inspiration  of  disciples 799 

Christian  Endeavorites,  letter  to. .  522 

Cicero    498 

Citizenship,  duty  of  government..  937 

Cities,  need  for  progressive 488 

Municipal  ownership  in  Great 

Britain 752 

Monopoly  bills,  veto  of 9.4/> 

CITY  GOVERNMENT. 

City  Councils  187 

Need  for  general  laws 188 

Division    of    responsibility    is 

bad  187 

Reform  of   185 

Blackmail   by   aldermen 189 

See  also  Monopoly;  Street 
Railways;  Gas;  Electric 
Lights;  Police;  Courts; 
Jails;  etc. 

City   Sewerage— fertilizers 754 

Civic  Federation  of  Chicago.. 516,   520 
CIVIL  SERVICE. 

Evolution  of 293,    722 

Evils  of  Spoils  System 355 

Machines— use  of  spoils 723 

Office  hunting,  evil  effects.. ...  824 
National  civil    service    law — 

provisions    723 

Basis  of  appointment 45.8 

Life  tenure — not  the  best 

724,  736,   9ii 

Evils  of  high  salaries. 313,  339,  780 
Thirty-six  years  of  Republican 

rule — change  of  personnel..  897 
Need  for  change  in  manage- 
ment    457 

Business  principles  should  pre- 
vail    23° 

Competition    in    purchase    of 

supplies 4'3 

Rules  adopted  by  Altgeld 

355,  4M,  458,  95<> 

Pay  rolls  published  under  Alt- 
geld   415 

Division  of  esponsibility  — 
evil  effects  9i6 


INDEX. 


Civil  Service — Continued. 

Divided  responsibility  —  rec- 
ommendation of  Gov.  Alt- 
geld 965 

Value  of  special  boards 919 

Appointees  vs.  elective  offi- 
cers    186 

Commissions  should  be  small.  895 
Reforms  recommended   ..313,911 
Useless    offices — recommenda- 
tions   • 893 

Reform    in    law,    under   Gov. 

Altgeld 898,  957 

Attitude  of  President  Cleve- 
land    792 

Opposition  from  Republic- 
ans   263,  729 

In  Chicago,  1897  724 

Attitude     of     Republican 

machine 726,  729 

Cost  of  Boards 727 

Non-salaried  Boards   .725,  728 

Cost,  $12.75  per  head 729 

Recommendations  of  Gov. 

Altgeld 725 

Office  holders — moral  cow- 
ards   338 

Office  holder — greatness  of...  330 

Public  office  an  honor 354 

Proper  spirit  of  officials 418 

Stuffed  pay  rolls 723 

Recommended  for  state  insti- 
tutions   314 

Public  ownership  of  railroads.  766 

Labor  defined 728 

Women 904 

Deaf  Soldiers  129 

Civilization,   interdependence   ....  919 

See  also  Evolution. 
CIVIL  WAR. 

Won  by  common  people 739 

Benefit  of  492 

Character  of  Confederates....  491 

Speech  at  Atlanta 512 

Class  Struggles,  see  Money  Ques- 
tion. 

Clay  County  712 

Clearing  house  certificates  557 

CLEVELAND. 

For  dear  money 630 


Cleveland— Continued. 

Wall  street  tool 455,  469,  472 

Against  the  income  tax 465 

Precipitation  of  panic  of  1893.  860 
Precipitation  of  panic  Febru- 
ary, 1895  860 

Stock  speculator 796 

The  bond  deal   535,  634,  795 

Coin  bonds  636 

Altgeld's  protest  against    fed- 
eral interference 668 

President's  reply   670 

Gov.    Altgeld's    second    tele- 
gram    671 

Treason  to  Democracy 

577,  691,  936 

Politically  dead   882 

Un-Democratic  conduct   .440,  455 
Nomination — forces    that    se- 
cured   695,  781,  790 

Bryan's  vote  compared 721 

Chicago  platform,  effect  of...  843 
Letter     on     silver,     Altgeld's 

comments  467,  471 

Jefferson  contrasted   697,  783 

Jackson  contrasted 697 

Attitude  toward  Cuba 794 

Clevelandism 467,  527,  530 

Cleveland  Recorder,  letter  to 774 

Club  Houses,  uses  of 353 

Clubs,  failure  of 353 

Coaling  Stations   804 

COAL  MINES. 

Submerged  classes   761 

Public  ownership  762,  763 

Inspectors,  instructions  to....  505 

False  weights   506 

See  also  Competition. 
COAL  STRIKE,  1894. 

Causes  761 

Condition  in  Ohio  compared. 

651,  652 

Cochran,  Hon.  Bourke,  answer  to.  612 

Coinage,  uniformity  545 

Decimal  system,  how  to    se- 
cure     785 

Coin   Obligations    635 

Colleges,   private  colleges   in   Illi- 
nois  910 

See  also  Universities. 


INDEX. 


977 


College   of   Physicians    and    Sur- 
geons   463 

Columbus,  greatness  of »32O,  322 

Columbus  Club  House,  address  at 

opening 351 

Commerce,  international  struggle.  802 

See  also  American  Commerce. 
Commissions,    see    Civil    Service; 
Monetary  Commissions. 

COMMON  PEOPLE  480 

Relation  to  free  government. .  693 

As  reformers  238 

Not  destroyers  of  wealth 521 

Honor  of,  compared 493 

Victories  of  738 

Relation  to  university 485 

'Common  Schools,  see  Schools. 
COMPETITION. 

Law  of 488,  523 

As  a  regulator 506 

Difference  in  breadth  of  field.  218 

Competition   in    Life 330 

The  struggle  for  existence 502 

Between  various  interests....  453 
Class     struggles,    see    Money 
Question. 

Rise  of  standards 182 

Suspension  by  law 941 

In  business.  Its  days  are  over. 

758,  943 

Helplessness  of  employers. . . .  762 
As  regulator  of  wages  is  past.  772 
Submerged  classes — coal  min- 
ing   761,  920,  921 

Submerged    classes  —  govern- 
ment ownership   763 

What   shall   we  substitute? — a 

speech  5°6 

Banks  consolidating 862 

In  coal  industry 920,  921 

Modern  methods  of  warfare..  480 
Purchase  of  public  supplies . . . 

412,  898 

From  prison  labor 904 

History  of  shorter  hours 171 

See  also   Evolution;    Monop- 
oly. 

Comptroller  of  the  Currency,  see 
Treasury  Department. 


COMPULSORY   EDUCATION  149 
Universal  education  a  necessi- 
ty    228 

In  Europe  757 

System  exists  in  Philippines..  805 

Illinois — Edwards  law 228,  272 

Prosecution    under    Edwards 

law   273 

Repeal  of  Edwards  law 310 

Attitude   of    Lutherans 224 

Attitude  of  Democracy 

222,  272,  274 

Attitude  of  Republican  party.  274 
See  also  Education;    Schools. 
'  'Concentration,  see  Evolution. 

Congress  of  Religions 409 

Conkling,  Roscoe 155,  487 

Conspiracy  law,  repeal  by  Democ- 
racy    270 

Constables,  number  of,  cost,  re- 
sults    10 

Office  should  be  abolished 139 

Constitution,  U.  S. — revision  of. . .  319 
Constitutional    Construction,    see 

U.   S.   Supreme  Court. 
Contract,  changes  by  Congress...  639 
Contraction  of  the    currency,  see 
Volume     of     Money;      Falling 
Prices. 

Conventions,  see  Chicago  Conven- 
tion; Table  of  Contents  for  State 
Conventions. 

Conversion  of  Carlisle  &  Co 533 

Cooley,  Hon.  T.  M 298,  418,  674 

Cooperage. 

Effect  of  prison  labor 294 

CO-OPERATION. 

Benefits  of  association 488 

Political  power  345,  346 

Need  for  in  politics 480,  481 

"Divide  and  Conquer" 440 

See  also  Organization;  Labor 
Organization;  Political  Par- 
ties; Government. 

Cooper  Union,  speech  at 647 

Corporation     Lawyers,     tendency 

of  451,  659 

CORPORATIONS. 

Evil  powers  of 481 


978 


INDEX. 


Corporations — Continued. 

Complaint  is  against  monop- 
oly    743 

Powers  of — judiciary 452 

Federal  judiciary  687 

Legislatures 860 

Use  of  federal  troops 441,  665 

Blackmail  of  583 

Escape  of  taxation 452 

Assessment    —    recommenda- 
tions    915 

Taxation  —  recommendations 

of  Gov.  Altgeld 963 

Exemption  from  war  taxes...  841 

Bill  for  consolidation — veto. .  945 

Fee  for  incorporating 319 

See  also  Monopoly;    Corrup- 
tion. 

CORRUPTION   461 

Is  born  of  private  monopoly. 

494,  520,  704,  822,  836 

1865-1896 750 

Growing  power  of 528 

An  invisible  enemy 494 

Small  legislative   bodies — ease 

of  corruption   781 

Control  of  both  parties 540 

Purchase  of  committee  men..  538 

In  elections   227 

Sapping  foundations  of  .gov- 
ernment   226,  970 

Money  power — how  operates. 

576,  876 

To  maintain  gold  standard. 538,  646 

St.  Louis  Convention 701,  706 

Under  Republican  rule... 263,  265 

Henry  George's  alarm 779 

Chicago  platform 688 

Abolishment    —    government 
ownership  of  monopolies... 

293,  509 

Evil  effects  of  concentration..  742 

Boodleism   821 

In  Illinois — selling  of  legisla- 
tion   748,  826 

Conditions,    1897   748 

In  Chicago   520 

State  Board  of  Equalization..  916 
Division  of  responsibility,  evil 

effects   916 


Corruption — Continued. 

Conviction — difficulties  of  ....  833 
Enlargement  of  foreign  policy.  808 

Polluting  the  flag 780 

Record      of      Chauncey      M. 

Depew 483 

Hamiltonism  694,  871 

See  also  Hamiltonism;    Han- 
naism;  Lobbyists;  Civil  Ser- 
vice;  Monopoly. 
Corruptionists,      enumeration      of 

some 692 

Attitude  in  1896 607 

County  Jails,  see  Jails. 
COURTS. 

In  Chicago.   Judges,    number 

compared  912 

Recommendations   . .  .894,  912 
Of    county,     should     displace 

Justice  Courts  139,  913 

Recommendations      of      Gov. 

Altgeld 962 

See  also  Judges;  Procedure; 
U.  S.  Supreme  Court. 

Crawford  law   539 

Crawford,  William  H 547 

Credit   Instruments,  see   Purchas- 
ing Power  of  Money. 
Creditors,   effect  of  restoration  of 

silver   569 

See  also  Money  Question,  Fall- 
ing Prices,  Debts. 
CRIME. 

Causes  of  14 

Effect  of  heredity 16 

Effect  of  unfavorable  environ- 
ments   16 

Benefits  of  schools  15 

Effect  of  home  influence 15 

Analysis  of  Chicago  arrests..   101 
Punishment  —  essential     ele- 
ments       32 

Human  justice  a  clumsy  ma- 
chine    19 

Punishment.  Distinction  be- 
tween wealthy  and  poor  of- 
fenders    34 

Average  age  of  criminals 15 

Capital  punishment — abolish- 
ment of  9°8 


INDEX. 


979 


Crime — Continued. 

Legislation  recommended   . . .  318 

Police  raids 312 

World  is  growing  better 143 

Procedure  is  unscientific 39 

Reform   of — recommenda- 
tions    894 

See  also  Criminals;  Prisoners. 
Criminals. 

What  shall  we  do  with  them. .    99 

Crocodile  Tears 867 

Dana,   Charles   156 

Darwin  and  Henry  George  com- 
pared    777 

Davis,  Director  General 319 

Speech  at  banquet  to 400 

Dead  languages  333 

Deaf  and  Dumb 609 

Recommendations 901 

Deaf  soldiers. 

Justice  to  129 

Dear  dollar. 

See  Falling  Prices;    McKinley. 
Death. 

Henry  George  memorial 781 

DEBTS. 

Standard  of  deferred  payments 
—  stability     in     purchasing 

power  of  money 636 

Effect  of  falling  prices 569 

See  also  Falling  Prices. 
Fixed     charges     and     falling 

prices   534.  53^ 

See  also  Falling  Prices. 
Increase  of  weight  under  gold 

standard 562,  565,  640 

U.  S.  a  great  debtor  nation. . . 

575,  586,  641 

Effect  of  demonetization 575 

See  also  Demonetization. 
Effect  of    independent  action, 
i.   e.,   rising  prices,   see   Bi- 
metallism. 

Falling  prices,  effect,  1897 741 

Debs'  case  459 

DECLARATION     O  F    INDE- 
PENDENCE   784 

Attitude  of  influential  classes.  735 

New  one  wanted 747 

Speech  at  Brooklyn 733 


Degeneration — American  645 

De  Lavelaye,  Prof 550 

Demagogue  736 

DEMOCRATIC  PARTY. 

History  of  809 

Called  Republicans  at  first 735 

Fundamental  principles. .  .261,  442 
See  also  Jefferson;  Jackson. 

Principles  of  787 

Its  spirit  is  immortal 578 

Not  a  one  man  party 701 

Implies    independence    o  f 

thought  229 

Bolt  dishonest  candidates....  823 
Independence— co-operation  .  746 
Attitude  toward  education. .. .  222 

1865,  1896— History 695,  750 

Captured  by  monopolists 

529,691,  812 

1884 695 

1888 695 

1892 248,  695 

Democratic     conventions, 

how  manipulated  781 

President  Cleveland's   ac- 
tions characterized  ....  440 

Illfortune  of 528 

Defeat  in  1894 — cause  of. .  453 
1896,  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence    581,  689,  696 

The  issue  648 

Causes  of  defeat 700,  706 

Defeat,  closeness  of 702 

Regenerated  Democracy  .  691 
Fusion  on  money  question 

'95  486 

Attitude  toward  monopoly  879 
Alienation     of    east  ern 

states 570 

Gold  Democracy,  tactics  of. . .  526 

Wall  street  influences 528 

Democrats,  division  of,  1897. .  746 

Advice  to,   1898 850 

Status  of  party  '99 881,  882 

Nomination  of  upright  men..  821 
Federal    interference,  attitude 

toward  674 

Civil  service  725,  727 

See  also  Civil  Service. 

Position  of  Corruptionists. . .  .  834 


980 


INDEX. 


Democratic  Party — Continued. 

Cuban  War  and  Expansion. . .  799 

Effect  of  Spanish  war 844 

Naval  policy   808 

Foreign  commerce  policy....  838 

Equal  rights   299 

Favors  the  working  man 434 

For  Humanity  585 

Illinois  politics — civil  service.  897 
Democratic  legislation   . .  270 
Pledges    to     Illinois    ful- 
filled    583 

The  Allen  Bill 834 

Democratic  State   convention, 

1896 577 

See  also  Chicago  platform. 
DEMONETIZATION  OF 
GOLD. 

Attempt 545 

DEMONETIZAT  ION  OF 
SILVER. 

Was  by  stealth 575 

Chicago  Tribune 553 

An  act  of  government 534 

Commerce     obeys      statutory 

law  546 

Origin  of  movement 543,  545 

Effect  of 575,  631 

Effect  of — Chicago  Tribune. .  553 

Effect  on  prices 614 

See  also  Falling  Prices. 
Effect  of  on   Germany,    Den- 
mark, France,  U.  S.,  etc...  213 
Motive  for  demonetization. . . .   596 
Broken     par     of     exchange — 

world  divided  commercially.  563 
Evil  effects  prophesied  by 

Senator  Hunter,    1852 547 

James  G.  Elaine,  1878 547 

Roger  Q.  Mills 547 

John  G.  Carlisle,  1878.... 

530,  532,  548 

Secy.  John  Sherman 548 

Leon  Fanchet,   1873 549 

M.  Wolowski,  1869 549 

Baron  Rothschild   549 

Prof.  De  Lavelaye,  1873..  550 
Westminster  Review,  1876  550 
Goschen,  1878 551 


Demonetization  of  Silver — Continued. 
Leech  (Director  of  Mint), 

1892 558 

Evil  effects  prophesied 554 

Denmark  and  Silver 543 

Dependent  children,  care  of 501 

Systems  should  be  changed. . .  501 
Should    be   placed    in    private 

families   502 

See  also  Alms-house;  Chil- 
dren. 

Dependents.    See  also  Prison  La- 
bor. 

Depew,  Chauncey  M 692,  874 

Interview  on  481. 

Depression.  See  Business  Depres- 
sion. 
Deputy  Sheriffs.   See  Sheriffs. 

Despine,  Dr 61 

Despotism   675 

Detectives,  number,  cost,  results..     10 

Diegan,  Mathias 365 

Dingley  Bill,  see  Protective  Tariff. 

Direct  legislation   745 

Director    of    Mint,    see    Treasury 

Department. 
Diseases  among  animals,  see  Live 

Stock  Commissioners. 
Disease,  see   Health,   State  Board 

of. 

Dishonesty.    Bolt  disnonest  candi- 
dates    823 

Distribution  of  wealth.     Unearned 

increment  260 

See  also  Industrial  Evolution; 
Wage  -  earners;  Money 
Question ;  Monopoly; 
Wealth;  Poor,  etc. 

Divide  and  conquer 440,  527 

Dixon,  Hon.  Sherwood,  letter  to.   131 

Docks,   Public   754 

Dodge,  Gen.  George  M.,  letter  to.  466 
Drafts.     See  Purchasing  power  of 

money. 
Draper,  Dr. 

Installation  of    484 

Dred  Scott  Decision 673 

Lincoln's  criticism   685 

Drunkenness — effect  of  overwork. 

173,  178 


INDEX. 


981 


Drunkenness — Continued. 

Effect  of  shorter  hours 176 

Dudes 336 

Dunlap,  Senator 827 

Duty  337 

Ebersold,  Chief  of  Police 392 

EDUCATION. 

True  meaning  of 333 

In  America  323 

Fundamental  principles  of  in- 
stitutions    500 

Higher  education — state  insti- 
tutions   910 

Higher  education — recommen- 
dations    909 

Attitude  of  Democrats 222 

Ignorant  vote  in  elections....  703 
See    also    Schools;    Universi- 
ties. 

Edwards,  Gen.  Oliver 125 

Egypt — Concentration  of  wealth — 

downfall    249 

EIGHT  HOUR  MOVEMENT.  218 

An  address 170 

Effect  of  shorter  hours 174 

Effect  of   overwork   on    next 

generation   173 

Haymarket  Riot 365 

Ela,  letter  to 467 

ELECTIONS. 

Enlargement  of  elective  fran- 
chise    319 

Australian  plan  favored 141 

Crawford  law — advocates  of. .  539 

Redistricting    318 

Machine  politics   709 

Frauds,  endless  chain  method.  715 
Difficulty  of  conviction. ..  715 

Punishment  of 851 

Frauds  of  1896 703,  706,  708 

Keeping  voters  from  polls.  . . .  714 

1896,  Colonization  715 

1896,   Ignorant  vote 703 

Laws — recommendations  912 

Power  of  wealth 479 

Reasons   for    pardoning    Mc- 

Nulta  and  Chapman 516 

Electrical  engineering — University 
of  Illinois  910 


ELECTRIC  LIGHTING. 

Municipal   ownership  in  Ger- 
many    756 

Great  Britain   756 

Glasgow   754 

Municipal    ownership    recom- 
mended,  1895   942 

Monopoly  bill — veto 941 

Elevated  railroads — Bills — veto  of.  940 

Elevator  Trust  828 

Eliot,  Dr 19 

Elmira  Reformatory 56,  60,  909 

Employers — See  also   Captains  of 

Industry;    Arbitration. 
Engineering. 

At  University  of  Illinois 910 

ENGLAND. 

Adoption  of  gold  standard. . . .  544 
Great  creditor  nation  ....403,  575 

Shorter  hours  movement 171 

Effect  of  luxury 336 

Alliance  with 800,  807,  875 

Engle,  George   365 

Enlightenment,  see  Crime. 
ENVIRONMENT. 

Effect  on  morals,  see  Morals. 

Rich  men's  sons 332 

Effect   of   governmental   poli- 
cies    778 

See  also  Crime;    Evolution. 

Epochs   880 

Equality  of  man 489,  500 

Equalization,  State  Board  of 916 

Equal  rights — Democratic  policy.  299 
Europe — Prices  of  American  pro- 
ducts    614 

EVOLUTION. 

Principles  of  361,  733 

Integration  and  disintegration 

733,  494 

Centripetal     and     Centrifugal 

forces  699 

Environment,  see  that  title. 
Heredity,  see  that  title. 
Constant  development    essen- 
tial    523 

Is  eternal  877 

No  repose  in  the  universe. . . .  609 
Through     spread     of     intelli- 
gence     185 


982 


INDEX. 


Evolution — Continued. 

A  groping  toward  ideals 335 

Belief  in — effect  of 777 

Intelligence  overcomes    brute 

force 480 

Development  of  altruism 609 

Forces  go  in  groups 488 

Powerful    forces — how    over- 
come    880 

Survival  of  the  fittest 451 

Stronger  destroys  the  weaker.  479 
Industrial  development  and 

tariff  219 

See  also  Industrial  Evolution. 

Concentration 345,  453, 

478,  507,  522,  528,  742,  871,  877 

Is  increasing  205,  420 

Effect  on  taxes 914 

Consolidation  of  banks. . .  862 
Effect  on  competition....  478 

Benefits  of  508 

Of  wealth,  see  Wealth. 
Monuments  are  milestones...  490 

Marked  by  epochs 473,  880 

Reforms    emanate    from     the 

bottom  523,  694 

A  new  epoch  at  hand 825 

Mankind  is  advancing 290 

Progress — how  recorded 608 

Development  of  U.  S 645,  818 

New  civilization    609 

Politics,  Law  of  natural  selec- 
tion    608 

Of  freedom   809 

Applied  to  labor  problem 179 

Of   government    478,  697 

Development  of  institutions. .  476 

Of  civil  service 722 

Of  educational  institutions... 

463,  484 

Of  the  status  of  women 475 

Of  war 490 

Of  heroes 361 

Outgrown  constitution  provis- 
ions    807 

Foreign  policy  of  U.  S 800 

Calamities  rarely  come  singly.  650 
Gold  standard  vs.  Bimetallism  559 
See  also  Demonetization. 


Expansion,   article   on  attitude  of 

Jefferson .- 788 

Exposition,  see  World's  Fair;   At- 
lanta Exposition. 

Eye  and  ear  infirmary 610 

Factory    Inspection,    see    Factory 

Legislation. 
FACTORY  LEGISLATION. 

Is  desirable  146 

Development,  inspection 902 

Law  for  inspection 902 

Opposition  of  wealthy  classes. 

148,  523 

Reforms  effected  under  Gov. 

Altgeld 957,  966 

See   also   Coal   Mines;     Eight 

Hour  Movement. 
Attitude  of  Republican  party. 

948,  949 

FALLING  PRICES. 

Dear  dollar 644,  867 

Fixed  charges    

.•••5.34'  536'  542'  s87'  632 

Disorganize  industry  

532,  541,  562,  564, 

574,  587,  59S,  623,  632,  649,  867 

Business  depression,  caused 
by,  see  Business  Depression. 

Effect  on  wages 564,  622 

Under-consumption  not  over- 
production   560,  564 

Effect  of  demonetization 

429,  432,  575 

See  also  Demonetization. 

Effect  of  legislation 429 

Government  controls   average 

prices 858 

1865-1873  562,  596 

Effect  on  debts 534,  569 

See  also  Debts. 

Who  benefited 472,  598 

Effect  on  local  creditors 644 

1896,   Political  issue 689 

Restoration  of   876 

Volume  of  money,  see  Aver- 
age Prices. 

Effect  of.  Senator  Hunter 547 

Secretary  Crawford 547 

Alexander  Hamilton   ....  546 
Carlisle's  attitude— 1878. ..  531 


INDEX. 


983 


Falling  Prices — Continued. 

Sherman  on  contraction 542 

McKinley  on  Dear  Money 630 

McKinley  Tariff 612 

Plethora     of    money — savings 

banks   618,  633 

Falling  and  rising  prices  com- 
pared   645 

Restoration     of     bimetallism, 

see  Bimetallism. 
See  also  Average  Prices;  Pur- 
chasing Power    of    Money; 
Rising  Prices. 

FARMERS. 

Falling  prices — effect  of 867 

Hard  times — crocodile  tears  of 

money  power   867 

Effect  of  gold  standard 555 

And  legislation 454 

In  politics   481 

Organizations 454 

Outlook   in   1896 591 

Silver  mine  owners  compared.  632 

Unduly  taxed  583 

Effect  of  McKinley  tariff 221 

Elevator  trust 828 

Landlordism  in   Illinois 961 

Farmers'  Institutes. 

Democratic  legislation 270. 

Fashionable  Set  523 

Fauchet.  Leon   549 

Fawcett,   Prof.   Henry 179 

FEDERAL  JUDICIARY. 

Importance  of 768 

Corporation  lawyers  as  judges.  439 
Power  of  corporations  and 

trusts 436,  687 

Corporations  in  control 

460,  465,  481 

Non-protection  of  public 936 

Judges — attitude  of 736 

Debs'  case — government  by 

injunction 459 

Jefferson's  attitude  785 

Hamiltonism  873 

Contempt — change  of  rule....  934 

The  Income  Tax 464 

Federal  interference  

438,  455,  648,  650,  688 


Federal  Judiciary — Continued. 

Excuses  for 513 

Attitude      o  f      President 

Grant 676 

Attitude     of     Republican 

party 672 

Attitude  of  Jefferson 673 

Attitude     of     Democratic 

party   674 

In  Chicago 419,  930,  934 

Railroad  receiverships 933 

Use  of  gowns 466 

See  also  Injunctions,  Govern- 
ment by;  United  States  Su- 
preme Court. 

Federal  Troops 455 

In  Chicago  strike 665 

FEDERALISTS. 

History  of 735 

Policies  of  787 

See  also  Hamilton. 

Feeble  Minded,  care  of 502 

Asylum  for 610 

Recommendations 901 

Fees,  see  Fines. 

Fielden,  Samuel '. .  365 

Fifer,  Governor,  Retiring  speech. .  69^ 
Fifty-cent    Dollars,   see    Bimetal- 
lism. 
FILIPINOS. 

Republican     rule — possibilities 

of 874 

See  also  Compulsory    Educa- 
tion. 
FINES. 

Evils  of    37 

Who  pays  them 38 

Fine  system  is  mediaeval 101 

Salaries  should  be  provided. . .   140 
See  also  Arrests. 

Fischer,  Adolph  365 

Fish  Commission — Useless  offices.  893 

Fithian,  Hon.  George 441 

Fixed  charges,  see  Falling  Prices. 

Ford,  Governor  957 

Foreign  Corporations,  taxation  of.  916 

Forman,  William  S.,  letter  to 604 

Foster,  Capt.  Wallace,  letter  to.  . .   129 

Fourth  of  July  Address 230,  733 

Florida,  Annexation  of 807 


9§4 


INDEX. 


France  and  Silver 543 

FRANCE. 

See  also  Bimetallism. 

Frederick  the  Great 493 

FREEDOM. 

Relation  to  social  progress...  300 

In  America  323 

Right  of  jury  trial 312 

Effect  on  negro 327 

Of  speech  200,  202 

In  colleges 775 

Alien  and  Sedition  laws..  787 
See  also  Strikes. 
FREE  TRADE. 

Effect  on  England 259,  300 

Effect  of  in  U.  S 259 

Frenneau,   Phillip   152 

FUSION  527 

Future  Life 326 

Galesburg,  speech  at 476 

GAS. 

Municipal  ownership  in  Great 

Britain 75° 

Glasgow  7jj6 

Manchester    755 

,    Germany 756 

Municipal    ownership    recom- 
mended, 1895 942 

Formation    of    trust — advance 

of  prices  942 

Development  of  monopoly. . . .  5°7 

Monopoly  bill — veto 941 

Chicago  Gas  Trust... 508,  511,  830 
G.  A.  R.,  value  of  organization. .  241 
General    Assembly,    see    Legisla- 
ture. 

GENERAL  PRICES,  see  Aver- 
age  Prices. 

Genius   341,  78i 

Geological  specimens,  recommen- 
dations    894 

Geological     Department,     recom- 
mendations    894 

GEORGE,  HENRY. 

Alarm   over  threatening   dan- 
gers     779 

Memorial  address  on 776 

GERMANY. 

People — characteristics  of 731 

Economic  conditions,   1898. . .  845 


Germany — Continued. 

Demonetization  of  gold 545 

Demonetization  of  silver 543 

Effect  of  gold  standard 559 

See  also  Bimetallism. 

Giffen,  Robert '.  552 

Giles,  William  A.,  letter  to 515 

Girls,  Reformatory  for 901 

Girard,  Speech  at 591 

Glasgow — Municipal  Ownership   .  752 
GOLD  DEMOCRATS. 

Endorsement  of,  spurned 536 

And  Chicago  primary  election  537 
Gold  Democracy. 

See  also  Democratic  Party. 
GOLD   STANDARD    OF 
PRICES. 

Attempt  to  demonetize  gold..  545 
Demonetization  of  silver,   see 

Demonetization. 
Appreciated   100  per    cent — A 

200  cent  dollar. 562,  621,  640,  649 
Restoration    of     silver    would 

cheapen  gold 568,  572,  633 

Supply  and  demand — effect  on 

gold   572 

Evils  of  Gold  Standard.  ..342,  645 
See   also  Falling  Prices;   De- 
monetization. 
Effect   of   continued    falls    in 

average  prices 646 

Who  defends  it 645 

Classes  against  masses 645 

Disastrous  to  the  people 648 

Defended    through    deception 

and  sophistry   645 

Vilification  and  abuse....  650 

Sophistry  of  advocates 867 

1898,  the  so-called  prosperity. 

817,  839 

Grave  of  692 

Gold— Volume  of 558,  868 

Volume  of  in  U.  S 

535,   617,  619 

Monopoly  of 559 

Effect  of  law   546 

See  also  Purchasing  Power  of 

Money. 

U  n  i  v  e  r  s  al  gold  standard — 
prophecies  as  to   effect. 550,  551 


INDEX. 


985 


Gold  Standard  of  Prices — Continued. 

Progress  of  in  Europe 543 

Gold  standard  in  England. . . .  544 
Republican   party,   change    of 

front 838 

Attitude  of  boodlers 823 

Wages — figures  juggled 564 

Carlisle's  advocacy   533 

Contest  in   Illinois 469 

In  the  Civil  war 739 

Clevelandism 792 

Bond  sales  634 

Cost  of  gold  standard 562 

Stability  compared,  see  Bimet- 
allism. 

See  also  Falling  Prices;  Vol- 
ume of  Money;  Money 
Question;  Republican  Par- 
ty; Purchasing  Power  of 
Money;  United  States. 
GOLD  RESERVE. 

Preservation  of — endless  chain  869 
Good  Roads,  see  Roads. 

Goschen,   ex-Chancellor    213,  551 

GOVERNMENT. 

History  of  334 

Duties  of   366 

Evils  of  Centralized 435 

Evils  of  concentration 674 

Beginnings  of  self-government  325 

Founding  of  American 435 

Principles  of  self-government.  235 
Universal  intelligence  a  neces- 
sity    237 

Separation  of  powers 435,  459 

Judicial  interpretation,  impor- 
tance of   450,  481,  7.68 

See  also  Federal  Judiciary. 

Military  power  675 

Protection  of  life  and  proper- 
ty    651 

Enforcement  of  law 230 

Policies  of  Federalists 787 

Evolution  of  government. 478,  697 

Size  of  unit  growing 507 

Changes  required   . ...  919 

New  conditions  must  be  met.   700 
Changing    conditions,    adjust- 
ment to  722 

Functions  of   435,  508 


Government — Continued. 

Question  of  business 752 

Attitude  of  monopolists. . 

759,  764 

Wrongs  of 335 

Conflicting  interests 451 

Who  controls  345 

Motive  of  legislators. 334 

Legislation  controlled  by 

bankers,  see  Bankers. 
Legislation  can  affect  prices..  642 

Distribution  of  products 774 

Henry  George's  theories 778 

Legislation  for  shorter  hours.   171 

Attitude  of  the  wealthy 648 

Destruction  by  the  rich. . .  .521,  687 
Representative  government — 

successful  for  a  time 745 

Duty  as  to  monopolies 509 

See  also  Monopolies. 

Popular  government  at  stake.  226 

Dependence  on  wage  earners.  478 

People  to  be  trusted 679 

Effect  of  Democratic  spirit. . .  489 
Extension  of  federal  authority.  935 
See  also  Federal  interference, 

Home  rule. 
Military    government    un- 

-  American 235,  675 

Government     b  y     Injunction, 

see  Injunction. 

Free  education  463 

Ignorant  vote  in  elections 703 

Freedom 300 

Equality  before  the  law.  ..694,  734 

Duty  to  unemployed 343 

Value  of  private  individuals. .  338 
Growth  of  humanitarianism. . .  609 
Consent  of  the  governed 

233,  291,  694,  734 

Value   of    Republican   institu- 
tions    514 

"Build  for  the  centuries" 937 

Not  a  philanthropic  affair 479 

Duty  of  officers 698 

Duty  as  to  pensions 119 

Paternal  government  in 

Oligarchy   937 

See  also  Popular  Government; 

Political  Parties;  Evolution. 


986 


INDEX. 


GOVERNMENT  OF  CITIES. 

An  address   185 

Government  Ownership,  see  Mo- 
nopolies. 

Governor,  acceptance  of    nomina- 
tion    226 

Graduates,  address  to 328 

GRAND  JURY. 

Use  to   influence   public   opin- 
ion   948,  949 

Retention,  attitude  of  Repub- 
lican party    948,  949 

See  also  Juries. 

Grant,  Gen.,  letter  on 466 

Grant,    President — Federal    inter- 
ference    676 

Gray,  William 177 

Great  Fortunes,  how  made 476 

Great  Men  5?5 

Greatness,  what  judged  by 330 

Greece 402,  498 

Greed   699 

Greeley,  Horace,  as  an  editor 152 

GREENBACKS. 

Jefferson's  attitude   696 

Redemption  in  coin 637,  857 

Redemption  in  gold 639 

Legislation — Power  of    bank- 
ers    860 

Retirement  of— McCleary  Bill.  851 
See  also  Paper  Money;  Treas- 
ury Notes,  etc. 

Gresham,  Hon.  Walter  Q 298 

Grinnell,  State's  Attorney 397 

Grosscup,  Judge  Peter  S 681,  874 

Grosvenor,  Gen 721,  729 

Hurd,  Hon.  Harvey  B.,  letter  to. .  501 
HAMILTON. 

Principles  of   237,  694 

Wanted    aristocratic    govern- 
ment    735 

Compared  with  Jefferson 786 

Establishment    of     n  a  t  i  onal 

bank 872 

On  Bimetallism   546 

Hamiltonism  302,  746,  791 

How  overthrown  .......  880 

The  situation  Jan.  '99....  871 

HANNA,  MARK  A. 

Nomination  of  McKinley 781 


Hanna,  Mark  A. — Continued. 

"Mark  Hanna's  Trust" 582 

Co-operation  with  Alger 842 

Army  scandals  849 

Election  to  U.  S.  Senate 817 

Indictment  for  bribery...  874 

Attitude  toward  manhood....  882 

Hannaism 646,  647, 

688,  692,  702,  703,  718,  721,  749 

Harbors 804 

Harlan,  Mr.  Justice 686 

Harrison,  Benjamin  : 227 

Causes  of  defeat,  '92 528 

Harrison,  Hon.  Carter  H.,  Sr 397 

Harvey,  W.  H.,  letter  to 525 

Hay  market  Riot,  description  of...  365 

Hayti  803 

Health,  State  Board  of 902 

Henry,   Patrick   734 

Herbert,  Secretary  523 

HEREDITY. 

Rich  men's  sons 332 

Value  of  pedigree 335 

See  also  Crime. 

Heroes  361,  524 

Henry  George 779 

Heroism — Characteristics  779 

Hertz  834 

HIGHER  IDEALS  324 

HIGHER  THOUGHT 290,  497 

Henry  George   776 

Letter  to  Christian  Endeavor- 

ites  525 

Highways,  see  Roads. 

Hill,  Sir  Frederick 61 

"Hired  men" 862 

Historical   Library   Board 903 

Hogg,  Hon.  James  S.,  letter  to. .  .  525 
Holland,  demonetization  of  gold..   545 

Demonetization  of  silver 543 

Home  Influence,  value  of 502 

HOME  RULE. 

Need  for    514 

Local  self-government  defined  678 
Attitude  of  Republican  party.  672 
Attitude  of  Democratic  party.  674 

Jefferson's  attitude   674 

Reconstruction  period  513 

HOMESTEAD  STRIKE. 

See  McKinley  Tariff;   Strikes. 


INDEX. 


987 


"HONEST  MONEY"   472,  538 

See     also     Gold     Standard; 
Banks. 

"Honest  Primaries"  538 

Honor,  National  Honor 635 

Hopkins,  Congressman,  reply  to..  219 

Hopkins,  Mayor   676 

Horticultural    Specimens,    recom- 
mendations    894 

House  of  Correction,  method    of 

conducting 47 

Housing  of  the  Poor,  see  Wage 
Earners. 

Hoyt,  Governor 54,    87 

Hubbard,  Police  Inspector 197 

Hull,  Perry  729 

HUMANITY 498,  603,  698 

Voice  of  749 

Sympathy  toward  778 

Of  Democracy  809 

Battle  for  489,  585,  878 

Criterion  of  greatness 321 

Appeal  to  young  men 825 

Struggle  of  Cubans 531 

Hume   548 

Hunter,  Senator  R.  M.  T 547 

Hypocrisy 816 

IDEALS  335,  4O3 

Higher  Ideals 324 

Need  for  universal  industry. .  513 

Ignorant  vote  7°3 

ILLINOIS. 

Brief  history  of 308 

Growth  of 35i 

Resources  of 477 

Its  greatness 245,  406 

A  guiding  star 699 

Grandeur  of 485 

Glories  of  '93 408 

Destiny  of 97° 

Status  of 910 

The  debut  of,  an  address 349 

Address  at  opening  of  Illinois 

building 321 

Past  and  future 698 

Compared 323 

Protection   of   life   and   prop- 
erty    437 

Rapid  advancement  of 499 


Illinois — Continued. 

Intellectual  and  literary  activ- 
ity    499 

Statue  of,  address  on 473 

Educational  advantages 500 

Mining  and  manufacturing  in- 
terests    965 

Water  ways — policies — veto...  943 

Its  coal  fields 651 

Charitable     institutions     com- 
pared    610 

Historical   Library  Board....  903 
1894  Republican  machine  ....  709 

Corruption  in  politics 712 

Selling  of  legislation 828 

1896         elections  —  fraudulent 

votes 704 

Population  and  vote  '92  and 

'96 711 

Political  corruption,  1897 748 

State  treasury  deficit 826 

State  issues,  1898 819 

January,   '97 — The   outlook...  705 

The  new  civilization 609 

Railway  strike,  1894 664 

Militia  at  Pullman  strike 482 

ILLINOIS  NATIONAL 

GUARD  651,  914 

Description  of 920 

Riots  of   1894 963 

Commendation  of 959 

IMMIGRANTS. 

Party  affiliation  161,  164 

Participation  in  Civil  War....   163 

Contract  labor 170 

1896,  election — vote  analyzed.  702 

Election  frauds 720 

Value   of  364 

IMMIGRATION. 

Character  of  immigrants 236 

Competition  of  immigrants...   169 
See  also  Pauper  Labor. 

Coal   industry   920 

Restriction  of  160 

Effect  of 246,  276 

See  also  Protective  Tariff. 

Immortality 326,  609 

IMPRISONMENT. 

Evil  effects  of 21 


988 


INDEX. 


Imprisonment — Continued. 

Effect    of,    on    relatives    and 

friends 9 

Unnecessary  imprisonment.Sg,    98 

System  is  mediaeval 89 

By  magistrates 311 

Reforms  effected  under   Gov. 

Altgeld 957 

IMPROVED     METHODS    OF 
PRODUCTION. 

Effect  on  prices 560 

Distribution   of  benefits 774 

See  also   Eight   Hour   Move- 
ment. 

Inaugural  Address,  1893 308 

INCOME  TAX. 

A  Democratic  measure  440 

And  the  Supreme  Court 464 

Federal      judiciary  —  Chicago 

platform  683 

Increase    of  population,   see    Pur- 
chasing Power  of  Money. 
INDEPENDENT  ACTION   IN 
BIMETALLISM,  see  Bimetal- 
lism. 
Independence,  declaration  of,   see 

Declaration  of  Independence. 
INDETERMINATE          S  E  N  - 

TENCES  93 

Recommended  318 

Trial  of — results 908 

Paroling   of   prisoners   reform 

effected  under  Gov.  Altgeld  958 
See  also  Parole. 

Independence  of  England  646 

INDIA. 

Closure  of  mints,   evil   effects 

of S73 

Conditions  in 644 

Protest  against  gold  standard.  844 
See  also  Silver  Standard. 
INDIANAPOLIS  MONETARY 

COMMISSION 851 

INDIVIDUAL  ACHIEVE- 
MENT   321,  330,  824 

Henry  George  780 

INDUSTRY,   EVOLUTION 

OF 204,  345 

Concentration  is  taking  place  247 
Statistics  249 


Industry,  Evolution  of — Continued. 
Concentration  of  wealth— his- 
tory of  early  peoples 249 

Causes  of  concentration 260 

Concentration — bad   laws.  .249,  250 

Capitalism   in   control 460 

See   also   Capitalism. 
Remedy  for  unequal  distribu- 
tion    248 

See  also  Distribution. 

Need  for  universal  industry. .  513 

Evolution  of  labor 343 

Outlook  239 

Industrial    liberty    to    be    at- 
tained    879 

INHERITANCE  TAX. 

Graduated — recommended.3i8,  917 

INITIATIVE,  see  Referendum. 

INJUNCTION,   GOVERN- 
MENT BY, 
A    usurpation,    pp.    436,    459, 

648,  660,  681,  688,  692,  744. .  768 
Usurpation  by  U.  S.  Supreme 

Court  679,  686 

Not  allowed  in  England 772 

In  Chicago  strike,  data 931 

Against  wage-earners 453 

Dangers     from    federal    judi- 
ciary    684 

INJUSTICE. 

Evils  of 489 

A  boomerang  318 

Corrupt  fortunes,  effect  of....  822 

INSANE. 

Evolution  of  care  of 608 

Treatment  for  recovery 896 

Care   of — recommendations. . . 
316,  896 

INSANE  ASYLUMS. 

System  unsatisfactory 502 

At    Rock    Island — address    at 
laying  of  corner  stone 608 

INSPECTION. 

Of  live  stock 903 

How  to  inspect  coal  mines...   505 
How  to  inspect  public  institu- 
tions    

Inspectors,    see    Inspection;    Coal 
Mines. 


INDEX. 


989 


INSURANCE   DEPARTMENT.  902 

Effectiveness  958 

INTELLIGENCE  346,  497 

Greatness   of  332 

Overcomes  brute  force 480 

In  directing  labor  341 

Effect  of  exhausting  labor 173 

Interest  on  bonds,  who  pays 635 

Internal  Improvements,  in  Illinois  309 
INTERNATIONAL        BIMET- 
ALLISM    572 

Independent  action  will  bring 

it  567,  571 

Attitude  of  bankers 861 

Duplicity  of  McKinley  admin- 
istration    841 

See  also  Bimetallism. 
INTERNATIONAL         COM- 
MERCE   802,  838 

"Open  door"  policy 802 

Interstate  Commerce  Commission  879 
INTERSTATE       COMMERCE 
LAW. 

Object  452,  768,  933 

Nullified  by  judiciary 

439,  453,  660,  933 

International     law,     humanitarian 

principles 53J 

Invention,  in  America 323 

Distribution  of  benefits  774 

Iroquois  Club,  tenets  of 467 

Israel,  Children  of 344 

Jackson,  Andrew   696,  873 

Principles  of 696 

Why  great 883 

Against  the  money  power. . . . 

599,  693,  696,  737,  810 

Bankers,  power  of  859 

Clash    with    U.    S.    Supreme 

Court 683 

Jackson  Day  speech 696 

JAILS. 

Are  nurseries  of  vice 20 

Number   of    prisoners   during 

1880 9 

County  jails,  bad  condition  of    19 

Local  visitors  9°J 

Evil  effect  of  fee  system 20 

The  remedy  20 

See  also  Prisons. 


Jamison,  Hon.  Egbert,  letter  to..  503 

Jamison,  Hon.  Thomas  N 833 

JEFFERSON. 

Principles  of 674,  694 

Contributions  to  free  govern- 
ment    693 

On  the  federal  judiciary 679 

Federal  interference 673 

On  Bimetallism   547 

Reforms  advocated  by 694 

Wanted  popular  government.  735 
Denounced  as  a  demagogue. .  736 

Left  office  a  poor  man 788 

Cleveland  contrasted — Central 

Music  Hall  speech 783 

Clevelandism  contrasted  467 

Hamilton  contrasted 786 

Louisiana  purchase  807 

Jenkins,   Judge   681,770 

JOLIET  PENITENTIARY. 

Under  Republican  rule 263 

See  also  Penitentiaries;  Prison 
Labor. 

Journalism,  see  Newspapers. 

Judas  608 

JUDGES. 

Should  be  elected 340 

Salaries  of  339 

Use  of  passes 194 

Should  not  wear  gowns 194 

Number  employed  in  criminal 

cases — costs  10 

See    also    Courts;    Judiciary; 
Federal  Judiciary. 

JUDICIARY. 

Why  controlled  by  wealth....  480 
Need  for  intelligent  criticism.  968 

Doings  of  corporations 452 

Tendency  of  corporation  law- 
yers    451 

Judgments  —  Arrests,  imprison- 
ment— reforms  effected  by 
Gov.  Altgeld 957 

JURIES. 

Grand  juries  should  be  abol- 
ished   48,    62 

Number    of — cost — results....     10 
Reforms  effected   under   Gov. 

Altgeld 957 

Government  by  injunction —  770 


990 


INDEX. 


JURY  TRIAL. 

In  police  courts 409 

See  also  Injunction,   govern- 
ment by. 
JUSTICE. 

Will  be  attained 880 

Goddess  of  liberty 513 

Reforms — Record   of    Repub- 
lican party 496 

Relation   to   popular   govern- 
ment    97° 

Effect  of  powerful  navy 802 

JUSTICE,     ADMINISTRA- 
TION OF. 

Delay  is  unreasonable 132 

Losing  party  to  pay  costs. .. . 

132,   134,  !37 

Public  burden  is  too  great... 

134,  138 

Oral  charges  to  the  jury 136 

Evils  of  unanimous  verdict  in 

civil  cases 131,  137 

Frivolous  technicalities  ...131,  138 

Reform  procedure  138,  312 

Recommen  dations   of 

Gov.  Altgeld 912,  962 

Attitude     of     Republican 

party 949 

In  Chicago  131 

Responsibility    of   Repub- 
lican party 948,  949 

See  also  Courts. 
JUSTICE  COURTS. 

Procedure   is   infamous 410 

Recommendations      of      Gov. 

Altgeld   962 

Responsibility    of    Republican 

party 948 

See  also  Courts;  Procedure. 
Kindergarten,   see   Schools. 

Know-nothing  party 228 

Kraus,  Adolph,  letter  to 4°9 

Kunz.  William  81 

LABOR. 

Usefulness  of 331 

Importance  of 363 

Nobility  of 34O 

Its  dues — the  history  of 343 

Relation  of  capital  to 342 


Labor — Continued. 

Early  condition  of  white  la- 
borers   •.  .180,  181 

Freeing  of  Russian  serfs 180 

Is  not  treasonable 345 

Is  not  rebellious  345 

Value  of  organization 345,  346 

Right  of  assemblage  and  free 

speech  196,  205 

Attitude  of  Henry  George —  779 

Reforms  recommended 314 

Address  to 340 

Labor   legislation   by   Demo- 
crats   442,  448 

Prison  labor,  history  of 265 

Effect  of  pauper  labor 252 

See      also      Labor      Unions; 
Strikes;  Prison  Labor. 

LABOR  DAY. 

Address  in  Chicago,  '93 340 

Address  at  Philadelphia 750 

LABOR  ORGANIZATIONS. 

Necessity  of  214,  420 

Value  of  intelligence 346 

Co-operation  the  watchword..  216 
On  the  side  of  law  and  order.  184 

Are  educational 185 

Position  on  labor  question...  184 
Opposition  of  federal  courts..  936 
Banishment  of,  by  Carnegie..  220 
State  buildings — union  labor..  471 

Labor  Question  169,  179 

LABOR  TROUBLES. 

Temporary  boards 949 

Attitude  of  Republican  party. 

948,  949 

Compulsory  investigation  rec- 
ommended    9r9 

See  also  Arbitration;  Strikes. 

LABOR  UNIONS. 

Growth  of  monopolies 478 

Speech  to   American  Railway 

trainmen  476 

Effect  on  wages 286 

Union    labor    compared    with 

non-union    471 

Scab  labor  defined 471 

Lake  county,  population  and  vote, 

1892  and  1896 717 

Lake  Front,  how  to  utilize 205 


INDEX. 


991 


LAND. 

Monopoly   of  land 777 

Land   transfers — Torrens   sys- 
tem,  reform  effected  under 

Gov.  Altgeld 957 

Torrens  law  unconstitu- 
tional; new  law  advo- 
cated    065 

Landlordism  in  Illinois 961 

Lanehart,  John  W 605 

Languages,   see  also   Dead   Lan- 
guages. 

Latin  Union  and  Silver 543 

See  also  Bimetallism. 

Laughlin,  Prof.  J.  Laurence 851 

Law  schools  464 

Lawyers,    number    employed    in 

criminal  cases — costs 10 

See  also  Corporations. 

Lee,  Capt.  J.  M.,  record  of 666 

Leech,  Edward  0 558 

LEGISLATION. 

Who   shapes  it 339 

Selling  legislation  828 

Repeal — hard  to  secure 943 

See  also  Government. 
Legislature,  evils  of  adjournment.  319 

LIBEL. 

Anonymous  journalism  156 

Element    of    law — recommen- 
dations of  Gov.  Altgeld 969 

Revision    of   law — recommen- 
dation    950 

LIBERTY. 

Civil  liberty  231,  809 

Religious  liberty  231 

Province  of  government 237 

Best  form  of  government 674 

Defended  by  the  citizens 493 

Infringement      by       Supreme 

Court 968 

Magna   Charta — Not   for  em- 
ployer or  workman 180 

An     infringement     of— 1796 — 

1800 737,  872 

Industrial    liberty,    to    be    at- 
tained    879 

-896,  new  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence   689 


Liberty — Continued. 

In  1776  and  1896 602 

Attitude    of    Democrats    and 

Republicans 225,  227 

Jeffersonian  principles  694 

Relation  of  poverty  to 650 

Goddess  of 513 

United  action  for  short  hours.  176 
See  also   Injunction,  Govern- 
ment      by;       Government; 
Freedom;  Standing  Army. 
LINCOLN,  ABRAHAM. 

Contributions  of 237 

Party   of   849 

Compared  with  McKinley....  875 
Denounced  as  a  demagogue..  739 

How  ministers  voted 739 

Criticised      U.      S.     Supreme 

Court '. 685.  687 

Lincoln  Park  Extension,  letter  on  503 
Development  under  Gov.  Alt- 
geld   912,  960 

Ling,  Louis 365 

Literature,  value  of 333 

Littler,  Senator  David  T 827 

Liverpool,  Lord,  and  finance 544 

Live  Stock  Commissioners 903 

Lobbyists,  power  of 451,  496 

Lobbying,     record    of     Chauncey 

Depew 483 

Lockouts,  see  Strikes. 
Lockups,    see   Prisons. 

Lodging  houses,  Public 754 

Lorimer,  Hon.  William  R 833 

Louisiana  purchase 807 

Lovejoy,   Elijah   P 957 

Lowell,  James  Russell 880 

Lutherans  and  education 224 

LUXURY  336 

Effect  of  524 

Machinery,  labor  saving,  effect  of.  172 
Improvements,  distribution  of  774 

Macloon,  C.  R.,  letter  to 476 

MacVeagh,  Wayne  297 

Magistrates,    see    Justices    of    the 

Peace. 
Magna  Charta,  see  Liberty. 

Mahoney,  Senator 697 

Majority  rule,  in  civil  cases  before 

juries  137 


992 


INDEX. 


Majority  Rule — Continued. 

See  also   Government;   Polit- 
ical Parties. 
Mammon,  American  degeneration 

645,  647 

Manchester  —  Municipal      owner- 
ship     755 

MANHOOD  476,  522 

Attitude  of  Mark  Hanna 882 

Fear,  effect  of 747 

Manning,   Daniel  529 

Mansfield,   Lord 734 

MANUFACTURERS. 

Falling  prices — effect  of 867 

Dominated  by  money  power. .  575 

Effect  of  gold  standard 555 

Restoration  of  silver,  effect...  569 

Markets,  Public 754 

Marriage 328 

Martyrs,  Henry  George  compared  777 

Mattoon,  Speech  at 428 

Maxwell,  Hon.  Hugh 24 

Medical  practice  act  of  Illinois. . .  462 

Medical  schools  464 

MERCHANTS. 

Dominated  by  money  power..   575 

Outlook  in  1896 591 

See  also  Falling  Prices,   Ris- 
ing Prices. 

Mershon,  letter  to 522 

Mexico,   Effect  of  silver  standard.  573 
McClaughry,  Major  R.  W.,  letter 

to 196 

McCleary,  Congressman  853 

M'KINLEY,      MAJOR      WIL- 
LIAM. 

Cause  of  hard  times 631 

On  dear  money 630 

Effect  of  demonetization 631 

"Open  the  mills" 643 

Nominated  by  monopolists.  ..  782 
Relation  toward  the  trusts  . . .  704 

How  elected  881 

Elected    by    purchasable    and 

ignorant  vote  814 

Analysis  of  vote 702 

Popular  government 875 

Favoritism    in    war    appoint- 
ments   846,  849 

Favoritism  toward  Sampson..  846 


McKinley — Continued. 

Altgeld  on 692 

McKinleyism    688 

M'KINLEY  TARIFF 430 

Forty  per  cent  increase 280 

Framed  by  beneficiaries 593 

Effect 579,  613 

Effect  on  clothing 286 

Effect  on  wages 286 

Repeal  of  433 

See   also    Sweat   Shops;   Pro- 
tective Tariff. 

McNulta,  reasons  for  pardoning. .  516 
Miles,     General,     railway     strike, 

1894 666 

Military  power 675 

See  also  Standing  Army. 

Militia,  value,  compared 920 

See     also     Illinois     National 

Guard. 
Militarism,  Attitude  of  Governor 

Tanner 705 

Military  science,  in  University  of 

Illinois 910 

Million,  how  to  make 476 

Mills,  Senator  Roger  Q 547 

Milwaukee,  speech  at 488 

MINES  AND  MINING. 

Democratic   Legislation  270 

Truck  stores,  abolishment  of..  966 
Inspection,  necessity  for — rec- 
ommendations of  Gov.  Alt- 
geld  966 

Mine   operators   and   workers 

— Outlook  in  1896 591 

Ministers  of  the  Gospel 334 

Attitude  toward  Lincoln 739 

Minority  party,  see  Political  Par- 
ties. 

Modesty,   indispensable   to    great- 
ness    779 

MONEY. 

A  good  servant  and  bad  mas- 
ter   479,  882 

Has    neither    soul   nor    senti- 
ment    479 

Volume  of  in  United  States.. 

207.  535 

Appreciation    of,    see    Falling 
Prices. 


INDEX. 


993 


MONEY  QUESTION. 

The  issue  in  1896 647,  688 

Battle  of  civilization 469,  705 

Not  a  partisan  question 600 

Non-partisan  speech  on 541 

Silver   has    not   appreciated — 

gold  has  561 

Motive  of  creditor  class 545 

See  also  Bankers. 

Class  against  class 641 

Price  of  American  exports —  614 

Effect  of  law 545 

Effect  of  Demonetization,  see 

Demonetization. 

Bryan,  how  defeated .  707,  716,  814 
See  also  Elections — Frauds. 
Campaign  of  '96 — Size  of  cor- 
ruption fund  718 

Freedom  of  speech  in  colleges  775 

Republican  misrule 811 

Comments        on        Carlisle's 

speech 531 

Quantity  theory,  see  Average 

Prices. 

Independent    Action,   see    Bi- 
metallism. 

Ratio,  see  Bimetallism. 
International  Level  of  Prices, 
see  Average  Prices. 

Outlook,    1897 7°5>  749 

1899,.  political  issues 876 

Uniform  coinage   545 

Bland- Allison  law  543 

Sherman  law 544 

Indian  mints — closure 544 

Silver  Convention  of  June,  '95  468 
See      also      Gold      Standard; 
Democratic    Party;    Repub- 
lican  Party. 
MONEY  POWER. 

Dominant  power 575,  589,  881 

In   Civil  War 739 

Hypocrisy  of 852,  867 

Historical  instances 859 

Campaign  of  1896 707 

Attitude     of     Jefferson     and 

Jackson    693,  696 

Under  Republican  rule 692 

Its  destruction  is  near 881 


MONETARY  CONFERENCE. 
International,  for  gold  stand- 
ard    545 

Monetary     Commission,     see    In- 
dianapolis; Belgian,  550. 
MONOPOLY. 

Benefit  of 508 

Private     Monopoly  —  Growth 

°f 478 

Issuing  paper  money — ef- 
fect    876 

Of  gold  559 

Stealth  of  943 

Special  privilege,  evil  ef- 
fects of 777 

Cost  to  consumers 942 

Corruption  —  Destruction 

of  government 

••743,  751,  758,  767,774,  943 

Corruption  fund  .'. 764 

Campaign  of  1896 607 

Situation,  1899 877 

Veto  of  bills 940,  945 

Relation  to  federal  courts 

687,  873 

Freedom  of  speech  in  col- 
leges    775 

Capture  of  Democracy...  812 
Republican  party,  attitude 

of 227 

Grover  Cleveland 790 

Trusts  are  illegal  507 

Control    of,    by    commis- 
sions    510 

Futility  of  regulation.su,  942 
Americans  must  meet  it..  511 
Remedy  —  Government 

Ownership    743 

Development    of    government 

ownership 752 

Government  ownership   a   ne- 
cessity   750,  758,  768 

Reason  for 509,  877 

Industrial   Liberty  879 

"Equal  rights"  767 

Benefits  enumerated 766 

Lowering  of  charges.. 760,  764 

Public  service 767 

Patronage 879 

Criterion  of  752 


994 


INDEX. 


Government  Ownership — Continued. 
Attitude  of  monopolists..  764 

Reform— conditions   1898 810 

New  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence   747 

Nicaragua  canal 802 

See  also  Railroads,  Telegraph, 
Telephones,  Street  Rail- 
roads, Gas,  Water,  Electric 
Lighting,  Land,  Protective 
Tariff. 

MONROE   DOCTRINE 788,796 

MONUMENTS. 

Meaning  of 325,  490 

"  'Tis  deeds  that  live" 492 

Erected  by  state 957 

See    also    Chickamauga,    Illi- 
nois, Shields. 
MORALS. 

Effect  of  shorter  hours 176 

Effect  of  overwork 173 

Effect  of  governmental  poli- 
cies    778 

Environment,  effect  of  change  753 

Fear,  effect  of 747 

Corrupt  fortunes — effect  of ...  822 
Surroundings  of  wage-earners 

966,  967 

Social  evolution 290 

"Moral  leprosy" 692 

Anonymous  journalism  153 

World  is  growing  better 143 

See  also  Higher  Ideals;  High- 
er Thought;   Schools;  Uni- 
versities; Evolution. 
MORTGAGES. 

Effect  of  Republican  policies.  227 
See  also  Debts. 

Mugwump    presidential     adminis- 
tration   791 

Municipal   Governments,  see  City 

Government. 
MUNICIPAL   OWNERSHIP...  509 

Need  for 878 

Recommended.  '95  942 

Satisfactory  where  tried 756 

Savings  to   consumers 756 

Benefits  enumerated 766 

Patronage  879 


Municipal  Ownership — Continued. 
Private  ownership — poor  serv- 
ice    755 

See  also  Monopoly. 
Municipal    ownership    recom- 
mended, 1893 316 

Municipal  ownership  in  Great 

Britain 752 

NATIONAL  BANKS,  see  Bank 

Money. 

NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS. 
Number     of     delegates — pro- 
posed changes 781 

See  also  Chicago  Convention. 
National   Honor,  see  Honor;   Pa- 
t  r  i  o  t  i  s  m ;       Bimetallism ; 
Bonds. 
NAVY. 

Need  for 802 

Under  Democratic  rule 808 

Prize  money — antiquated  laws  845 

Neebe,  Oscar 365. 

Neglected    Children,  see  Depend- 
ent Children. 

NEGROES 702 

Effect  of  freedom 327 

In  coal  industry 920 

New  England 403 

NEW  PARTY 526 

"Divide  and   Conquer" 440 

NEW  SOUTH,  Achievements  of 

— speech 511  . 

NEWSPAPERS. 

Definition  of 969 

Weeklies     and    small     papers 

distinguished 970 

Domination  of  by  slave  power  881 
Dominated  by  monopoly,  in- 
cluding money  power 

479,  523,  574 

Evil  doings  of 969 

American — unscrupulousness..    731 

Press  must  remain  free 156 

Power  of  the  press 156 

Anonymous     journalism     and 

its  effects  151 

Abolishment  of  anonymous 
journalism  —  recommenda- 
tions of  Gov.  Altgeld g6p 

Hired  men 565 


INDEX. 


995 


Newspapers — Continued. 

Escape  of  taxation  917 

Leases  of  school  lands 938 

In  Philippines 805 

New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce 

Banquet 875 

New    York,     Speech    at     Cooper 

Union 647 

Nicaraguan  Canal 802,  818 

Government  ownership  806 

Nomination   by   petition   to   head 

off  corrupt  nominees 823 

"Nonpartisan" 851 

Normal  universities,  History  of...  501 

Norway  and  Silver 543 

Oblivion,  deodorizing  lime  of. ...  882 
Ohio,  Fraudulent  vote  in  '96.. 703,  720 

Old  Soldiers,  Speech  to 242 

Olney  on  Federal  interference 

654,   655,  677 

For  president — comments 527 

Omaha  Monetary  Debate 853 

Omaha  speech,  "The  Situation"...  870 
Oppenheimer,  Moses,  letter  to...  749 

Oglesby,   Governor 266 

ORGANIZATION. 

Of  wage-earners  361 

Moral  effects 262 

To  meet  centralized  wealth. . .  454 
See     also     Political     Parties; 

Labor  Organizations. 
Ornamentation — Suggestions      for 

state  buildings  47° 

See  Illustrations,  885,  893. 
Ornithological  Specimens,  recom- 
mendations      894 

Ossilation  in  politics,  see  Political 

party. 
OUR    PENAL    MACHINERY, 

see  Penal  Machinery. 
OVERPRODUCTION,      theory 

of 560 

See  also  Falling  Prices. 

PANICS,  Cause  of 342,  54' .  634 

Bankers'       power  —  historical 

instances  859 

Bankers     control  —  McCleary 

bill  857 

Panic  of  1873 623 

Of  1893— cause  of-342,  542,  634 


Panics — Continued. 

Diamond  Match  stock  specu- 
lation    618 

Plethora  of  money  after 557 

Statement  of  Robert  Giffen. . .  552 
Restoration  of  silver  will  not 

cause  panic  for  money 572 

PAPER  MONEY. 

Government  controls  average 
prices — Admission  by   Prof. 

Laughlin 858 

Government  should  issue   di- 
rect    863 

Banks  in  the  governing  busi- 
ness    863 

Bankers'       power  —  historical 

instances 859 

McCleary  Bank  Bill 851 

Indianapolis    Monetary    Com- 
mission    851 

Bank  money — attitude  of  Jef- 
ferson    786 

Monopoly  of  issuing,  effect  of  876 

During  Civil  War 542 

Volume  of  Money,  see  Money. 
Paper  certificates  preferred. . .  568 
PARDONS. 

Small  number  of,  by  Altgeld. 

516,  907 

Misrepresentation      of      Gov. 

Altgeld— facts 516,  955 

Of  McNulta  and  Chapman...  516 

Parker,  Prof.  A.  K 874 

Parker,   George   N 51 

PARK  SYSTEM. 

Development   of,   under   Gov. 

Altgeld  958 

In  dense  districts 754 

PAROCHIAL  SCHOOLS 271 

See  also  Schools. 
PAROLE  SYSTEM. 

Benefits  of  92 

Recommended    by    Gov.    Alt- 
geld    908 

Reform    effected    under    Gov. 

Altgeld  957 

Good  results  955 

See   also   Indeterminate    Sen- 
tences; Probation. 
Parsons,  Albert   R 365 


996 


INDEX. 


Partisanship,  rich  men  compared.   168 

Party    Machinery,    control    of    by 

Gold-Democracy   487 

See  also  Political  Parties; 
Civil  Service. 

Passes,  judges  should  not  accept. .   194 

Paternalism,  see  Government. 

Patriotic  Sons  of  America 276 

PATRIOTISM. 

Where  flourishes  494 

Does  not  depend  on  birth. .. .  363 
Lack  of,  in  business  interests.  521 

East  of  the  Alleghanies 647 

Wealth,  attitude  of 480 

Attitude  of  established  society  733 

Tories,  attitude  of 523 

Talks  on — Diversion  of  atten- 
tion    851 

Last  resource  of  scoundrels...  730 
Record  of  Chauncey  Depew. .  483 
"Carbonated  patriotism"  ....  970 

Of  Chicago  newspapers  939 

Dangers  from  greed 699 

Cuban  inhumanities   846 

See  also  pp.  328,  337,  353,  416, 
476,  522,  800;  also  Pharisee- 
ism. 

Patterson,  W.  D 52 

PAUPER  LABOR. 

Of  Europe  220 

Under  McKinley  Tariff 430 

See    also    169,   250,  305;    also 
C  o  m  p  etition ;    Submerged 
Classes;    Sweat  Shops. 
Government  ownership 763 

Payne,  Henry  C 680 

Pedigree,  see  Heredity. 

Penal  Legislation,  see  Crimes. 

PENAL    MACHINERY    AND 
ITS  VICTIMS  (a  treatise) ....      7 

PENAL  MACHINERY. 

Its  cost   ii,    99 

Is  not  a  success — effects 12 

Expiatory  system  is  wrong...   100 

Remedies  44 

See  also  Arrests;  Peniten- 
tiaries; Procedure,  etc. 

PENITENTIARY. 

At  Joliet 17 

Southern  Illinois,  at  Chester.     14 


Penitentiary — Continued. 

Number   in   confinement  dur- 
ing 1880   9 

Cost  of,  compared 952 

Improvement  of  physical  con- 
ditions   953 

Physical  condition  under  con- 
tract  system    953 

Stripes — Abolition  of 953 

Policy  of  Gov.  Altgeld 952 

Report  —  recommendations.. 

317,  904 

Reforms   under  Gov.   Altgeld 

— results   905 

Party  policies  compared 820 

Condition  of,   in   1896 584 

Republican  misrule  294,  308 

Prison  labor,   cigar  making — 

veto   945,  946 

Paroling    Prisoners,   see    Pa- 
role. 

PENSIONS  OF  SOLDIERS...   116 

Service  pensions   123 

Indigent  soldiers'  pensions...    125 

Private  pensions   125 

Objections  of  Wall  street 124 

Pension  frauds  125 

PEOPLE. 

Successful  efforts  of 704 

Masses  of  the  people 504 

See  also  Common  People. 

Peoria — Democratic     State     Con- 
vention    577 

"Perseverance  wins  the  day" 331 

Persia,   concentration  of  wealth — 
downfall   249 

Pessimism    337 

Petit  Juries,  see  Juries. 

Pettifogger  in  politics  615 

PHARISEEISM. 

Tendency   towards    704 

Republican   attitude,    1896....  707 
See  also  495,  687.  695,  730. 

Phidias   498 

Philadelphia,  speech  at  750 

Philanthropy- — How    to     spend    a 
million  dollars  404 

PHILIPPINES. 

Area  and  population   804 

Spanish    misrule    805 


INDEX. 


997 


Philippines — Continued. 

Right  to  establish  republic.  .. .  806 

Proper  policy  toward 804 

Will    acquire   their   independ- 
ence    844 

Phillip  of  Macedon 418 

Phillips,    Wendell — was  ostracized 
167,  738 

Photographs   of  state  buildings. . 
885,  893 

Physicians,    study    of    medicine — 
standard   902 

Physicians   462 

Physicians  and  Surgeons,  College 
of 463 

PINKERTONISM   22^314 

See  also  Protective  Tariff. 

Platitudes  79O 

Plato   498 

PLUTOCRACY— Outlook  in  '92.  239 
See  also  Wealth. 

Poland    5M 

POLICE  COURTS. 

Procedure  in  41° 

Amount  of  fees  41 1 

Jury  trial   4°9 

Responsibility   of    Republican 
party  948,  949 

Police  Districts,  should  be  small. .     46 

Police    Department    of    Chicago, 
yearly  cost  1 1 

POLICE  FORCE. 

Number  of,  cost,  results 10 

Chicago   strike,    1894 666 

Police  raids  312 

Brutality — protest  against    ...   196 
Reforms  recommended   ..312,  962 

Police   Power  of  State,  see  Arbi- 
tration of  Strikes;    Coal  Mines. 

Police  Prisons,  see  Prisons. 

POLITICAL  PARTY. 

What  it  is  248 

Political     organization  —  need 

for    480 

Ideas,  the  distinguishing  fea- 
ture    701 

Motive  of 693 

Policies,  how  determined 744 

Should  stand  for  principles...  749 
See  also  Bolters. 


Political  Party — Continued. 

Political    independence    com- 
mendable     732 

Minority  party,  advantages  of  699 
Majority  party,  disadvantages 

of   699 

Ossilation  —  D  i  s  satisfaction 

with  opposite  party 695 

Value  of  new  party 440 

Control    of    both    by    special 

privilege  695 

Punch  and  Judy  shows 851 

Money — value  of  882 

Money  in  campaigns — fraud..  707 

Machine  politics  709,  712 

Office  hunting  an  abomination  578 

Flag,  use  in  campaign 730 

Nonpartisan,  an  abused  term.  851 
Minority  party,  mission  of.  . . 

578,  693,  799 

Law  of  natural  selection 608 

Deception  of  people 472 

Principles  and  nominees  con- 
trasted    290 

"Time  serving1  politicians'" ....  487 

"Dilettante"  487 

"The  man   milliners  and    the 

carpet  knights  of  politics". .  487 
Political     economists  —  Henry 

George    777 

Pontiac  Reform  School,  under  Re- 
publican rule 263 

POOR. 

Never  overthrew  government 

687,  970 

Injustice  suffered 311 

Discrimination  against   409 

Absence     of     postal     savings 

banks 758 

Imprisonment  for  nonpayment 

of  fines 103 

Infractions  of  their  liberties.  .     95 

Hamilton's   principles   694 

Position  of  Cleveland 630 

Republican  tendencies  529 

Outlook   in   1892 240 

City  corruption    520 

See    also     Common     People; 

Rich. 
Poorhouse,  see  Almshouse. 


998 


INDEX. 


POPULAR  GOVERNMENT. 

When  safe   703 

Maintained  only  by  justice...  970 
Need  for  intelligent  criticism.  968 

Republics   are   grateful 698 

Attitude  of  aristocracy   875 

Government  by  injunction...  772 

Drift  of  recent  years 229 

Tendency  to  oligarchy 648 

Effect  of  falling  prices 646 

See  also  Government;  Polit- 
ical Parties. 

POPULIST  PARTY 526 

The  money  question   647 

"Divide  and  Conquer" 440 

See  also  Political  Parties. 

POSTAL  SAVINGS    BANKS— 

Attitude  of  bankers 759 

In  Europe.  Absence  of,  in 
U.  S 758,  878 

Postal    Service    System,    Govern- 
ment Telegraph  759 

Poverty,  no  bar  to  success 364 

Powderly,  T.  V 220 

Preachers — Dominations  of    slave 

power 881 

See  also  Lincoln. 

Presidential  timber,  where  grown.  528 

Presidential  Bee   525 

Press,  see  Newspapers. 

Price,  J.  R.,  M.  D.,  letter  to 462 

PRICES. 

See  Average  Prices;  Falling 
Prices;  Rising  Prices;  Mo- 
nopoly. 

Primaries,   Crawford  law 539 

Primogeniture 694,  784 

PRINCIPLES— evils     of     excep- 
tions    412 

Birth  of  new  ones 473 

See  also  Political  Parties. 

Printing,  see  State  Printing. 

Prison,  see    Penitentiaries;    State 
Prison  Aid  Association. 

PRISONERS. 

From  whence  they  come 12 

Should  be  diminished  one- 
half 76 

Number  of  for  1880 9 

Repeaters,  number  of 17 


Prisoners — Continued. 

Age ' 13 

Parentage 13 

Average  cost  of 1 1 

Discharged     prisoners,     e  m- 

ployment  for 907 

See  also  Sentences;  Parole. 
PRISON  LABOR. 

History  of   954 

Make  time  of    discharge  de- 
pendent in  part  on  surplus 

earnings   84 

Existing   system   makes   pris- 
oner independent   69 

Object — benefit     to     prisoner 

and  society   86 

Four  systems   64 

Evils  of  "public  account"  sys- 
tem      74 

Evils  of  "contract  system"...     75 
Should    be     diminished    one- 
half  76 

Loss  of  support  to  family. ...     66 
Give   prisoners  part   of   earn- 
ings   76,    93 

Reward    to    industry — benefi- 
cial results 79,    83 

Effect  of  unwilling  labor 68 

Aids  in  preserving  discipline.  .  84 
Need  for  humane  treatment..  .  86 
Right  of  prisoner  to  labor. ...  73 

Loss  to  society   65 

Stripes,  use  of  953 

Earnings  and  cost  of  prison- 
ers   65,    77 

Should  be  divided  up  among 

industries   74 

Effect  on  cooperage 294 

Kinds  of  work  done 64 

Competition 954 

Reforms  recommended   .  .3.17,  584 
Diversification    of    industries, 
policy  under  Gov.  Altgeld.  952 

Under  Republican  rule  266 

Attitude  of  Republican  party. 

948,  949 

Party   policies   compared 820 

The  situation,  Jan.  '95 904 

Cleanliness  947 


INDEX. 


999 


Prison  Labor— Continued. 

Should  be   largely   outside   of 

prison  walls  76,     85 

Piece  price  system  the  best. . .     78 
See    also    Prisons;     Peniten- 
tiary;   Prisoners. 
Discipline    should    develop 

character 28 

PRISONS. 

Character  of  police  prisons  or 

lockups   18 

Leasing  convicts,  evil  effects.     29 
Discipline — effect  of  kindness 

and   cruelty    25,    30 

Imprisonment  of  women 35 

Prison  hospitals  3° 

National  Prison  Reform  Con- 
vention,   1870    28 

National   Prison   Reform  As- 
sociation, address  before...     89 
See  also  Prison  Labor;    Peni- 
tentiaries and  Criminals. 

Private  individuals  338 

PROBATION. 

Probation    Districts  —  Statis- 
tics     104 

Probation     Officers,    see    Ar- 
rests. 

See   also   Indeterminate    Sen- 
tence. 

Problems,  that  confront  us 774 

PROCEDURE.     Reform  of,  rec- 
ommendations    894 

Civil  and  criminal  distinguish- 
ed     41° 

See  also  Courts. 
Profession,   see  Vocation. 

Progress,  how  recorded 608 

"Progress   and   Poverty" 778 

Prohibitionist. 

Money   question    647 

Prophecies. 

Election   in   1900 881 

See     also     Demonetization; 

Gold  Standard. 
PROTECTIVE  TARIFF. 

History  in  U.  S 301 

Attitude  of  people,  1898 801 

Effect  on  people  297 

Does  not  cheapen  production.  283 


Protective  Tariff — Continued. 

Diversification  of  home  indus- 
try   284 

Home  market   284,  302 

Fundamental  princiole  —  does 
not  protect  wage  earner  or 
farmer. 219,  258,  280,285,  304,  305 
Free      competition    among 

wage  earners  254 

Pauper  labor  250 

Effect  on  consumers 

254,  256,  258,  303 

Who  benefited  306 

Effect  on  prices 303 

A  false  remedy  592,  613 

Cleveland's  un-D  e  m  o  c  r  atic 

policy 455 

Effect  on  trusts  and  combina- 
tions   255,  256,  305 

Protection  and  Pinkertonism.  221 
Superior  knowledge  a  protec- 
tion    757 

In  Europe,  effect  of.  .259,  300,  431 

Degradation  of  labor 579 

Effect  of  free  trade  in  England  259 

Effect  of  free  sugar 258,  304 

Republic  system  described...  251 

Infant  industries   302 

Walker  Tariff 281 

McKinley  Tariff,  effect  of 220 

Effect  on  wages 256,  257 

Repeal  of  433 

See  also  McKinley  Tariff. 

Dingley  Bill 802,  836 

Reply  to  Congressman  Hop- 
kins    219 

Conditions  in  1896  579 

PUBLIC    ADMINISTRATION. 
See     State     Institutions;      Civil 
Service;    Government. 
Public  Buildings,  suggestion  for. .  470 

Architecture 61 1 

Photographs    885,  893 

Public  Discussion,  value  of 408 

PUBLIC  FUNDS,  who  shall  re- 
ceive the  interest  310 

Democratic  legislation    442 

Interest  payment  to  state — re- 
forms effected  by  Gov.  Alt- 
geld  957 


IOOO 


INDEX. 


PUBLIC  MEN. 

Examples  of  "trimmers" 574 

See  also  Statesmen. 
PUBLIC  OPINION. 

How  shaped  479 

Need  for  agitation 487 

Formation  of  by  money  power  574 
Anonymous  journalism  and  its 

effects 151 

Who  moulds  it   339 

Force  of  503 

See  also  Universities;    News- 
papers;   Schools. 
Public  Service,  see  Civil  Service. 
Public  Warehouses,  see  Elevators. 

Puerto  Rico   803 

PULLMAN  STRIKE  651 

Letters  to   George   M.     Pull- 
man   421,  422,  424 

Federal  interference  455 

Effect  of  using  federal  troops.  482 

Effect  of  Illinois  militia 482 

Answer  to   Depew 482 

Effectiveness  of    state  legisla- 
tion   437 

See  also  Chicago  Strike. 
Pullman — escape  from  taxation...  916 
Pulpit,  see  Ministers. 
Punishment,  see  Crime. 
Purchase  of  Supplies,  see  State  In- 
stitutions. 

PURCHASING     POWER    O  F 
MONEY. 

Should  be  stable 636 

History  of,  see  Gold  Standard; 

Falling  Prices. 

Supply      and      Demand,      see 
Quantity  Theory,  next  line. 
Quantity  theory,  i.  e.,  effect  of 
quantity  of  money  and  cred- 
it   626,  649 

See  also  Average  Prices. 
Increase  of  population,  effect.  628 
How  money  gets  into  circula- 
tion    626 

Cost  of  production  theory. .  . .  626 
Fifty-cent  dollars,  see  Bimet- 
allism. 

Quay,  Senator   874 

Railroad  Receiverships  933 


RAILROADS. 

Private    Ownership — Rates 

compared 765 

Discrimination  in  Illinois.  918 
Freight   rates — adjustment 
reform  under  Gov.  Alt- 
geld  959 

Discrimination  in  rates..  .  766 
Discrimination  in  trusts. .  766 
Railroad  wrecking — stock 

jobbing  766 

Undue  profits   764,  766 

Corruption  fund 764 

Regulation     by     commis- 
sion     879 

Government      ownership  —  in 

foreign  countries 764 

Needed  in  the  U.  S... .... 

745,  764,  878 

Savings 764 

Patronage 879 

No  political  danger  766 

For  protection  of  life 765 

Railroad    and    Warehouse 

Commission 918 

Sleeping  car  charges — recom- 
mendations   918 

Pacific  railroads 803 

Northern  Pacific  fraud 453 

Effect    of    rising    and    stable 

prices  563 

Effect  of  falling  prices 563 

Restoration  of  silver,  effect...  569 
See   also   Railroad    Strike    of 
1894;  Arbitration  of  Strikes; 
Federal  Interference;  Passes. 
RAILWAY  STRIKE  OF  1894. 

History  of  652 

Protest  of  Gov.  Altgeld 668 

President  Cleveland's  reply  to.  670 
Gov.     Altgeld's     second    tele- 
gram    671 

Application  for  federal  troops 

before  rioting  began 656 

State  troops  promptly  furnish- 
ed    ....  ..  653 

Federal  troops  useless 665 

Railway  Men. 

Importance  of    477 

See  also  Labor  Unions. 


INDEX. 


IOOI 


Railroad   Wrecking   260 

Railway  Commission  of  Illinois. .  509 

Ramsey,    Rufus    606 

Real  property,  Landlordism  in  Illi- 
nois    961 

Rebellion,  see  Civil  War;    Shay's 

Rebellion;    Whiskey  Rebellion. 
"Reciprocity,"  a  farce  comedy...  227 

Redemption,  in  Coin 857 

See  also  Bonds;    Greenbacks. 

Redistricting 318 

Reed,  William  F 51 

REFERENDUM  AND  INITIA- 
TIVE. 

Weapon  for  this  age.  .745,  768,  882 
REFORMS. 

Evolution  of  694 

Come  from  the  bottom 

335,  336,  523 

Let  in  the  light 408  , 

Who  oppose  them 524 

Established  society  against...  733 

Attitude   of   "scholars" 777 

Overthrow  of  slavery 738 

Along  the  line  of  evolution. . .  745 
Mission  of  minority  party. 693,  700 

"Reform"  papers  789 

Existing  conditions,  1898 810 

Enlargement  of  foreign  policy  808 
See  also  Political  Parties;  Ev- 
olution. 

Reformatory,  aim  of 955 

At   Pontiac    908 

Compared 955 

RELIGION. 

Freedom  of   694,  809 

Jefferson's   Contributions.  784 
Separation     of     Church     and 

State 292 

Evolution — effect  of  belief 777 

See  also  Higher  Thought. 
REMONETIZATION.     England 

a  creditor  nation  551 

See  also  Bimetallism. 

Renegade   607 

Repeaters,  see  Prisoners. 
REPUBLICAN  PARTY. 

Abolishment  of  slavery — atti- 
tude of  monopoly  and  mon- 
ied  classes  8n 


Republican  Party — Continued. 

Principles  at  founding  of.  .496,  732 

Principles  have  changed 

227,  465,  496,  695 

Of  1892  248 

Captured  by  money  power  581 
Owned  by  money  power. . 

434,  692 

For  private  monopoly....  878 
Became  a  rich  man's  par- 
ty    530 

Has    legislated   for   Eng- 
land   430 

Position    of     Corruption- 

ists   834 

Republican  misrule 811 

For  gold  standard 701,  706 

St.    Louis  Convention. ..  .701,  706 

Who    in    control 706 

St.  Louis  platform — who  ben- 
efited     576 

In  favor  of  England 582 

Comment  of  London  pa- 
pers    588 

Principles  of  (1896) 702 

1896,  the  issue 647,  648 

1896,    Corrupt   in  all    the 

states   584 

Leaders,  status  of,  1899 874 

Drift  of,  an  interview 496 

McKinley's    election — analysis 

of  vote 702 

1896  elections — frauds   703 

Hamiltonian  policy  described.  250 

And  Federal  interference 672 

Democracy  compared  949 

Attitude  toward  greenbacks. .  852 
Attitude  toward  free  silver. . . .  487 

Independent  voters  850 

Presidential    nominees  — terri- 
torial distribution    528 

Blackmail  of  corporations....   583 

Enforcement  of  the  law 819 

Illinois    legislation  — responsi- 
bility  for    947 

Republican  machine 709 

Gas  legislation  830 

Allen  Bill  830 

Machine  men  suddenly  be- 
come rich 833 


IOO2 


INDEX. 


Republican  Party — Continued. 

1898,  Corruption  in  ......  819 

Treasury  deficit  827 

United  Order  of  Deputies 276 

Patriotic  Sons  of  America....  276 
See  also  Civil  Service. 
Republics,    see    Popular    Govern- 
ment. 

Repudiation,  see  Independent  Ac- 
tion. 

Revenues,  see  Taxation 319 

Reward   337 

Rogers,  Thorold   181 

RICHES. 

How  to  make 476 

Enervating  effects 335 

Rich  men's  sons 332 

Rich  are  not  reformers 238 

On  side  of  power 233 

Ries,  Florian  J 31 

Right,    Is  eternal ._. 880 

Will  in  the  end  prevail 700 

RISING  PRICES. 

Volume  of  money,  effect  of. .  534 

See  also  Average  Prices. 

Effect  of  California  gold.  .547,  548 

1880-1882,   Cause  of 543 

Brings  good  times 564 

Effect  of  rising  prices. ..  .534,  541 

Hume   548 

Bastable 550 

Restoration  of  silver 568 

Effect  on  labor 534 

Condition  of  Mexico 562 

Rivers,  as  dividing  lines 515 

Roads,  good  roads  recommended.  317 

Good  Roads,  an  address 191 

Material  changes  192 

Division  of  expense 192 

Proper  location  193 

Robbery   636 

Robinson,  Hon.  N.  W.,  letter  to. .  463 
Rock  Island,  Hospital  for  Insane.  608 
Roman  Empire,  effect  of  luxury. .  336 

Rome  402 

Concentration     o  f     wealth  — 

downfall   249 

Romero,  Senor 563,  573 

Ross,  Judge 681 

Rothschild,  Baron 549 


Rothschilds. 

Power  of  576 

Rulers,     greatness     of    compared 

with  individual  achievement 321 

Russia  and  Gold  Standard 214 

And  silver  543 

Sailors'  Home  609 

Salisbury,  Lord  751 

Sampson,  Rear  Admiral 845 

San  Domingo 803 

Savings  Banks,  see  Postal  Savings 
Banks;    Falling  Prices. 

Scab  labor  defined 471 

Scholars,   traits   of 776 

Not  the  most  intelligent 167 

School  property,  leasing  of 938 

SCHOOLS. 

Common  schools  are  benefi- 
cial    185 

Evolution  of  291 

Free  common  schools — Jeffer- 
son's contributions  7^4 

Moral  training  desirable 144 

Universal  intelligence  a  neces- 
sity   , 237 

Dominant  power — false  teach- 
ings   881 

Scholars     dependent     on 

wealthy  776 

Freedom  of  speech  in  col- 
leges   775 

Professional  —  should   tuition 

be  free 463 

Illinois  school  system 271 

Development  of  system  under 

Gov.  Altgeld  958 

Kindergarten  in  Public 
schools,  reform  effected  un- 
der Gov.  Altgeld 958 

School  teachers'  pension — re- 
form effected  under  Gov. 

Altgeld   958 

In  the  New  South 514 

Technical  schools  in  Europe. 

755,  757 

Trade  schools  in  Europe 757 

Foreign  languages   224 

Parochial  schools   222 

See  also  Education;  Univer- 
sities. 


INDEX. 


1003 


Schley,  Commodore  > 846 

Schurz,  Hon.  Carl,  answer  to.. 612,  634 
Science. 

See  Academy  of   400 

Searles,  W 66 

Secession. 

Effect  of  Lee's  surrender 237 

See  also  War;    New  South. 

Secret  prescriptive  societies 407 

Selfishness 261,  699 

See  also  Greed. 

SENTENCES    IN    CRIMINAL 
CASES. 

What  should  it  be? 49 

Iniquities   39 

Inequality    of  —  recommenda- 
tions    907 

Indeterminate  sentences — good 

results 52,  1 06 

Probation — good  results 50 

See  also  Probation. 

Seyd,  Ernest 548,  575 

Seymour,  Horatio  W.,  letter  to. ..  521 

Shay's  Rebellion 345 

Sheriffs,  Deputy    Sheriffs.     Num- 
ber of,  cost,  results 10 

SHERMAN  LAW. 

Effect  of   213,  544 

Effect  of  repeal 792,  793 

See    also    Bimetallism. 
Sherman,  Senator  John. 

Evil  effects  of  demonetization  548 

Evil  effect  of  contraction 542 

Shibley.  Geo.  H.,  letter  to 775 

Shields,    speech    at    unveiling    of 

statue  of  360 

SILVER. 

Overproduction  of  considered  561 
Answer  to  Carl  Schurz.  . .  620 

Redemption  in  gold 869 

Amount   in    United   States  in 

1895  617 

India — Cessation  of  free  coin- 
age    214 

Jefferson — suspension  of  coin- 
age    615 

Cleveland's     letter,     Altgeld's 
comments 47 ' 


Silver — Continued. 

See   also    Bimetallism,    Silver 
Standard,   Money  Question, 
Falling  Prices,  etc. 
SILVER       STANDARD       OF 
PRICES. 
Silver  has  not  appreciated. . . . 

562,  572,  621 

Bounty  from  gold  price  coun- 
tries   563 

Silver    standard    a   benefit   to 

United  States 563 

Argument  for  in  1802 544 

Condition  of  Mexico, 562 

International  level  of  prices...  615 
Silver     Republicans,     Presidential 

nominee 526 

Single  tax 261 

See  also  George. 

Slander — Revision  of  law — recom- 
mendation    950 

Slave  girls  of  Chicago 146 

SLAVERY. 

Abolishment  of 234.  291 

Slavery  agitation  523 

'  Attitude  of  Jefferson 785 

Attitude  of  Democracy Sn 

Growth  of  abolition  sentiment  604 

Slave  power 738,  881 

Fugitive  slave  law 678 

See  also  Labor,  Evolution  of. 

Sleeping  cars — Reduction  of  rates 

— attitude      of      Republican 

party 948,  949 

See  also  Railroads. 

Smith,  Secretary  Hoke 533 

Socialism 751,  757,  877 

"Society  men"  336 

Soldiers'  and  sailors'  home.. ..609,  900 
SOLDIERS. 

Reunion,  speech  at 238 

Deaf  soldiers  and  civil  service  129 

Should  be  compensated 241 

Wages 120 

Pensions 116 

Soldiers'    monument,     Speech    at 

unveiling  ol  324 

Soldiers'  Orphans,  Asylum  for —  609 

Solidarity  342,  344 

Sophistry,  Abuse  of  opposition.  ...  852 


IOO4 


INDEX. 


"SOUND  MONEY." 867 

See    also    "Honest    Money;" 
Gold        Standard;        Paper 
Money;  Republican  Party. 
South — reconstruction  period  ....  513 
See  also  New  South. 

SPANISH  WAR 799,  817 

Barbarities  in  Cuba 530 

See  also  Government,  Mc- 
Kinley,  War  Department, 
Alger. 

Specie  Basis  ._. 543 

Specie  Payments,  resumption  of.. 

562,  557,  623 

Speech,  Freedom  of 809 

Spies,  August 365 

Springfield,  Election  frauds  of  '96.  714 
STANDARD  OIL  TRUST.. 508,  864 

See  also  Monopoly. 
STANDING  ARMY. 

Size  of 233,  692,  802 

Menace  of 419 

To  be  enthroned 871 

See  also  Federal  Courts;  Fed- 
eral Interference. 
Stars — Letter    to     Christian     En- 

deavorites    525 

State  Fair,  see  Agriculture. 

State,  Duty  in  case  of  strikes no 

See  also  Government. 
STATE  INSTITUTIONS. 

Problem  of 897 

Comparison   412 

Duty  of  trustees  416 

Superintendents 809 

Private  business  distinguished  458 
Purchase    of    supp'lies — Com- 
petition   358,  412,  898,  951 

Saving QSi 

Useless  offices — recommenda- 
tions    893 

Economy  in 897 

Pay  rolls,  publishing  of 911 

Scientific    methods — report   of 

superintendents. . .  .417,   610,  900 
Convention  of  superintendents  OOI 
Change    of   management — let- 
ter on  457 

Civil  service  rules  under  Gov. 
Altgeld 414,  453,  951 


State  Institutions — Continued. 

Under   Republican  rule,   Civil 

service  rules 263,  264,  296 

Needed  overhauling,  1892 230 

Cost  under  Republican  rule...  307 
Savings  under  Gov.  Altgeld...  899 

Reforms  recommended 313 

Power  of  executive ;....  501 

How  to  inspect 356 

Standard  of  living 899 

Bill  of  fare .357,  413 

Condition,  July,  1898 819 

Employment  of  pathologist...  900 

Care  for  patients 898 

Buildings,  suggestions  for  ....  470 
Building     contracts,     sugges- 
tions    471 

New  institutions  and  new 
buildings  under  Gov.  Alt- 
geld   956 

Photographs  of 611,  885-893 

Style  of  architecture 957 

State  charities 354 

State  Regulation  of  Schools 223 

State  Printing 902 

State  Rights  438 

See  also  Federal  Interference. 

Statesmen — Definition   574 

See  also  Public  Men. 
State's   Prison  Aid   Association — 

should  be  organized 73 

State  Treasurer,  see  Public  Funds. 
STATISTICS. 

Of  Treasury  Department  jug- 
gled   555,  616 

Erroneous  government 556 

Juggled  by  Mr.  Schurz 

615,  618,  620 

Aldrich  report  on  wages  and 

prices 621 

Wages — juggled  with  564 

STATE    UNIVERSITY  — Great 

need  of 463 

See  also  University. 
Stephenson  County,  Development 

of 242 

Stetson,  George  R.,  letter  to 143 

Stone,  Gov.,  letter  to. . . ._. 486 

Stock — "Watering"  of  stock 260 

Stock  Speculation 797 


INDEX. 


1005 


STREET  RAILWAYS. 

Development  of  monopoly...  5°7 
See  also  Monopoly. 
Municipal  ownership  in  Glas- 
gow   753 

Municipal  ownership  in   Ger- 
many    756 

Ninety-nine-year      franchise — 

veto  of 940 

Municipal    ownership    recom- 
mended, 1895 942 

Damages   to  abutting  owners 

— repeal — veto  940 

Competition  —  Abolishment  — 

veto 940 

Eminent  domain  suspended — 

veto 941 

Length  of  franchise 831 

Proper  rate  of  fare 831 

Allen  Bill  830 

STRIKES  AND  LOCKOUTS. 

Arbitration  recommended  ....  315 

Duty  of  non-union  men 216 

"Individual  freedom" 216 

Law  in  England 772 

Picketing   772 

False  pretenses  of  employers.  217 

Coal  strike  of  '94 921 

Railroad  strikes  '94,  Data.... 

922,  930 

1894,  cause  of 455 

Pana  strike  840 

Of  April,  1890 215 

Oshkosh  strike 840 

Homestead  strike 221 

See  also  Coal  Strike;  Chicago 
Strike;      Federal     Interfer- 
ence; Labor  Organizations. 
Succession    Tax,    see    Inheritance 
Tax. 

SUGAR  TRUST  508 

Campaign  funds  of  1896 837 

Effect  of  Dingley  law 837 

Sugar  trust  law 793 

See    also     Protective     Tariff; 
Monopoly. 

Sumner,  Senator 685 

Sumner,  Professor  859 

Sun.  see  Truth. 

Sunset  Club,  Address  before 99 


Supply  and  Demand,  see  Average 

Prices. 

Supplies,  see  State  Institutions. 
Sunreme  Court,  see  U.  S.  Supreme 

Court. 

Survival  of  the  fittest,  see  Evolu- 
tion. 

Schwab,    Michael   365 

SWEAT  SHOPS,  Defined.... 252,  866 

Conditions  in 253 

Spreading  at  an  alarminy  iatfe  y67 
Effect  of  tariff  on  goods.  .....  253 

Effect  of  immigration 150 

Reforms  recommended 316 

Democratic  legislation 442 

Reforms   effected   undei    Gov. 

Altgeld 957 

Sweden  and  Silver 543 

Swift,  Mayor — Civil  service  law. . .  726 
Switzerland — Telegraph  sys.em.... 

Sympathy   778 

Taney,    Chief   Justice,    see   U.    S. 

Supreme  Court. 
TANNER,  GOV.  JOHN  R. 

Inauguration — Military   pomp.  705 
Discourtesies  to  Gov.  Altgeld.  697 

Conduct  in  1895 6°4 

Approved  Allen  Bill  and  gas 

bill 836 

Treasury  Deficit,  1895 827 

Illinois  National  Guards 705 

Tariff  for  revenue 580 

See  also  Protective  Tariff. 
TAXATION. 

Bad  laws 307 

Corrupt  methods  of  assessors.  964 
Escape     of,      by     centralized 

wealth  452,  841 

Of  corporations  915 

Foreign  corporations 916 

Newspapers 917 

Pullman  assessment 425 

Revenue  system — need  for  re- 
form    583 

State  board  of  equalization — 

unjust  assessments  by 964 

Abolition  of 947,  949 

Illinois,   assessments   growing 
small 963 


ioo6 


INDEX. 


Taxation — Continued. 

Revenue  system — recommen- 
dations   318,  914 

Recommendations  of  Gov. 
Altgeld 963 

Reform — attitude  of  Republic- 
an party 227,  948,  949 

Record  of  Republican  party..  496 

State  Treasury  deficit 827 

Insufficient  revenues — special 
session 947 

Graduated  inheritance  tax,  re- 
form effected  under  Gov. 
Altgeld 958 

Unearned  increment 260 

See  also  Single  Tax. 

War  taxes 121 

TEACHERS. 

Ministers  of  the  Gospel 334 

Curse  of  existing  conditions..  334 
TELEGRAPH. 

Public  ownership  abroad — 
Conditions  in  the  United 

States 759,  760 

Per  capita — comparison 760 

Government  ownership 878 

TELEPHONE. 

Private      monopoly  —  unduly 

large  profits  760 

Temperance  advocates 523 

Texas,  Annexation  of 807 

Thompson,  Fred  L 14 

Tuley,  Judge 519,  829 

TORIES. 

In  1776 238 

In  1860 238 

Were  fashionable  people 523 

Torrens  Law,  see  Land  Transfers. 

Trades  Unions,  see  Labor  Unions. 

Tramps — Attitude    of    Republican 

party 227 

See  also  Business  Depression. 

Treasury   Department — Coin  obli- 
gations   635,  636 

Comptroller  of  the  Currency..  865 

TREASURY  NOTES. 

Redemption  in  coin 637 

Redemption  in  gold .f. . .  639 

Retirement  of 851 


Treasury  Notes—  Continued. 

See    also    Greenbacks;    Paper 
Money. 

Tribune,  see  Chicago  Tribune. 

TRUSTS. 

Origin  of,  an  interview 203 

Development  of 507 

Effect  of 871 

Savings  effected  by 204 

Power  of,  when  unrestrained.  936 
Have  destroyed  business  com- 
petition    758 

Effect  on  prices  and  wages. . .  203 

Who  against  trusts 704 

Democratic  legislation 270 

Attitude  of  Republican  party..  227 
Bank  Trust — American  Bank- 
ers' Association 861,  864 

Gas  Trust 204 

Elevator  Trust  828 

See  also  Monopoly. 

TRUTH 403 

Value  of 337 

The  pole  star 489 

Forever  on  the  scaffold 880 

Deprecation  of  discussion....  645 
Freedom  of  speech  in  colleges  775 

Will  in  the  end  prevail 700 

"Wrongs  thrive  in  secrecy".. .  335 
Mission  of  minority  party. 693,  700 

Unearned  increment  260,  777 

Unemployed,  Winter  of  1890 103 

See  also  Business  Depression; 
Falling  Prices. 

Union,  see  United  States. 

United  Labor,  Address  before....   170 

United  Order  of  Deputies 276 

UNITED  STATES. 

Example  in  free  government. . 

698,  870 

The  way  to  greatness 970 

People  govern  themselves....  679 

'  Destiny  of .,809,  818 

Division  of  powers  675 

Local  self-government 935 

Sphere  of  state  government. . .  934 
Character  of  early  colonists...   231 

1796-1800  872 

From  1812  to  1860 234 

Civil  War 234 


INDEX. 


1007 


United  States — Continued. 

Reconstruction 235 

Wonderful  development  of  ...  235 

A  great  debtor  nation 575 

1898— Issues ^809,  836 

The  situation  January,  1899. . .  870 

1899 — political  issues 876 

Election  in  1900 — prophecy...  881 
UNITED  STATES  BANK,  De- 
feat of  by  Jackson 738 

See  also  Bankers. 

United  States  Senate 701,  824 

United  States  Senators 776 

UNITED   STATES  SUPREME 
COURT. 

Encroachments  of 679 

Right  to  criticize 683 

Legislation  by 686 

Usurpation  by 648 

Impeachment  of  Judges 773 

Attitude    toward    wealth    and 

monopoly 768 

Destruction     of     self-govern- 
ment   684,  685 

Jefferson's  opinion 679 

Lincoln's  criticism 685,  968 

Clash  with  President  Jackson.  685 
Income    Tax — Chicago    Plat- 
form    683 

Taney,  Chief  Justice 686 

See  also  Federal  Judiciary. 
UNIVERSITIES. 

Scholars  —  dependence        cm 

wealthy 776 

Professors — freedom  of  speech 

775,  862,  881 

"Scholars"   not   the  most   in- 
telligent     167 

Practical  knowledge,  value  of.  333 
True  meaning  of  education...  333 

Influence  of  university _. .  484 

Value  of  university  training. .  333 
University     of     Illinois — De- 
scription of 910 

What  it  should  be 485 

Recommendations  910 

Agricultural     Experiment 

Station 485 

Electrical  engineering  ...  485 
Engineering  school 485 


Universities — Continued. 

Military  training 485 

Installation    of    President 

Draper  4&4 

Geological  Department  . .  894 

Address  to  graduates 328 

Care  of  specimens 894 

Normal  Universities — Recom- 
mendations    909 

Normal  at  De  Kalb,    address 

at  laying  of  cornerstone 497 

Northwestern  500 

Lake  Forest  500 

Chicago  500 

University  of  Illinois 500 

University  of  Virginia 785 

Vaux,  Richard 80 

Venezuela,  boundary  dispute 796 

Veragua,  Duke  of — Banquet  to...  319 
Villages — Monopoly  bills,  veto  of.  940 

Vocation,  Selection  of 330 

VOLUME  OF  MONEY. 

In  foreign  countries 557 

In  United  States,  1880-1882. . . 

543,  623 

Close  of  Civil  War 542 

Falling  prices,  1866-9 623 

In  United  States,  1895 556,  617 

Per  capita  circulation,  1895.  •• 

615,  618 

Increase  of  population 792 

Effect  of  contraction 595 

Under  McCleary  Bill 857 

Government      demand      com- 
pared    with     product    from 

mines   550,  551 

International    trade — level    of 

prices  615 

Juggled  statistics 616 

Voters'  League  of  Chicago 732 

WAGES    AND    WAGE-EARN- 
ERS. 

Benefits  of  high  wages 262 

History  of  shorter  hours 171 

Effect  of  shorter  hours 175 

Effect  of  falling  prices 622 

See  also  Falling  Prices. 

De'generacy   of — effects.. f 936 

Effect  of  demonetization  621 

Evils  of  gold  standard 537 


ioo8 


INDEX. 


Wage-  Earners — Continued. 

Benefited  by  restoring  silver. .  568 

Effect  of  monopolies 767 

Development  of  trusts 5°7 

Effect  of  trusts ' 936 

Government  ownership  of  mo- 
nopolies— effect  763,  767 

Effect  of  municipal  ownership 

754,  755 

Sophistries  toward 855 

Attitude  of  President  Cleve- 
land    793 

Cochran  on  Wages 643 

Figures  juggled 564 

Hard    times — crocodile    tears 

of  money  power 867 

Campaign  of  '96,    Promises — 

fulfillment  707,  716 

Campaign  of  1896— coercion. .  707 
McKinley — "Open  the  mills".  643 
Political    co-operation    neces- 
sary    774,   775,  936 

Organization  the  remedy 261 

Conspiracy  law,  repeal  of 270 

Right  to  labor 343 

Charity,  effects. of 315 

Competition  and  living  wage. 

76i,  763,  772 

Living  wages — coal  strike 921 

Labor-saving  machinery 172 

Housing  of  the  poor 753,  756 

Anti-truck  store 270 

In  factories — effect  of  immi- 
gration and  protection.  .150,  151 

Effect  of  McKinley  tariff 220 

Effect  of  Dingley  tariff 837 

Pauper  labor  of  Europe 220 

Effect  of  free  trade 301 

Wage-earners  —  Dependence 

Of  Republic 478 

Outlook  in  1896 591 

1898,  conditions  of 839 

The  future 342 

Wages  of  soldiers 120 

See  also  Factories;  Labor 
Organization;  Injunction 
(Government  by). 

Wales,  Prince  of 648 

Walker,  Hon.  Joseph ,„. .  863 

Walker,  U.  S.  Attorney 659 


WALL  STREET. 

Objections  to  pensions  124 

Cleveland  bond  deal 535 

See     also     Monopoly;     Gold 
Standard. 

WAR. 

Evils  of , 325 

Belligerent  rights 530 

Battle  fields — why  consecrate.  490 

Civil  War  described 325 

Civil  War,  Primary  cause....  491 
Civil  War,  character  of  sold- 
iers   238 

Of  1812 — Causes 233 

With   Spain   799 

Honor  of  nobility  compared. .  493 
Warfare — Modern  methods  . .  480 
Industrial  Development 327 

WAR  DEPARTMENT. 

1898,    Neglect    and    incompe- 

tency 847 

Appointments — favoritism      of 
McKinley  846,  849 

Washburn,  Governor 173,  176 

Wash  Houses,  Public 754,  755 

WASHINGTON,  Political  policy  737 

WATER. 

Municipal  ownership. 753,  755,  756 

Waterways   of   Illinois,    Policies — 

veto 943 

WEALTH. 

Benefits  and  evils 494 

Material    achievements    com- 
pared    497 

Concentration  of,  causes  of..  204 

WEALTHY  CLASSES. 

Attitude    toward    Declaration 

of  Independence "735 

The  enemy  of  liberty   •. 871 

Greedy    and    powerful    over- 
throw government '. .  970 

Opposition     to     factory    and 

mining  laws 067 

Control  the  press 523 

Pharisaical  attitude  520 

And  patriotism 480 

Leisure  classes,  evils  of 494 

Fashionable  society 734 

Escape   taxation   583,914 


INDEX. 


1009 


Wealthy  Classes — Continued. 

Taxation   in    Illinois,    attitude 
of  Republican  party  ....948,  949 

Landlordism  in  Illinois 961 

Business  interests — lack  of  pa- 
triotism      521 

City  corruption 520 

See   also-  Monopoly;    Riches; 
Poor. 

Weber,  Albert  G.,  letter  to 468 

Weed,  Thurlow  152 

Western  Union  Telegraph — profits  759 

Wheat,  Price  of  624 

Elevator  trust 828 

Whisky  Rebellion  345 

White,  Mr.  Justice 686 

Whitney,  Hon.  Wm.  C 

529,  78i,  790,  791 

Wines,  Rev.  Frederick  H 

18,  20,  29,    81 

Winston,  F.  S 397 

Wolwoski,  M 549 

Womanhood,  Need  for 522 

WOMEN. 

Evolution  of  status 475 

Appointment  to  office..... .904,  950 

Equal  wages  for  equal  work.. 

ISO,  4?5 

Higher  justice  to 475 

Homage  to  woman  . . . . : 329 

Industrial  independence  328 

Slave  girls  of  Chicago 146 

At  the  Columbian  Exposition.  324 


Women — Continued. 

Statue  of  Illinois  designed  and 

modeled  by 473 

Illinois    Woman's    Exposition 

Board 913 

Value  of  world's  congress....  409 

Imprisonment  of  women 35 

Number  of  arrests 94,  101 

Few  should  be  imprisoned. ...     46 

In  Bridewell 102 

Female  physicians  in  asylums.  357 
Wood,  Judge 681 

WORLD'S  COLUMBIAN  EX- 
POSITION    499 

Described 404,  474 

How  suggested 292 

Part  taken  by  Illinois 710,  913 

The  debut  of  Illinois 349 

Illinois  Board — funds 911 

Address  at  opening  of  Illinois 

building  321 

Banquet  to  Veragua 319. 

WRONGS. 

Supported   by  established  so- 
ciety    733 

Forever  on  the  throne 880 

Winking  at 698 

See  also  Reforms;  Truth. 
YOUNG  MEN. 

Advice  to 476,  495,  522 

Example  of  Henry  George...  780 

Outlook  for 825 


.  m 


. 


